Getting close to the end

With just under a month left to go, my time in Israel seems very precious. I'm not sure when I will be back but I hope it will be soon. What is it about this land, that makes us yearn to be here, fight over this valuable land, die for this land?

Last week I visited the tombs of the patriarchs and matriarchs in Hevron, a mostly-Arab town. It surprised me how easy it was to get there. We went to the regular Jerusalem bus station and took a bus for an hour and arrived right in front of these tombs. The minute we got there, we heard the afternoon Arab call to prayer. It was ironic, or perhaps a little sad, that this holy Jewish site is now surrounding by those that do not value it. When you walk inside, you are immediately struck by the intricate designs of these caves. Beautiful patterns decorate the wall, but if you look closely, you see that the walls are covered in Arabic writing (which I could not read - new goal in life: learn to read Arabic), which shows us the transfer of power throughout history: a once Jewish site was once controlled by Arabs and is now back in the hands of Jews.

It's striking that by traveling only an hour away you enter a completely different world: Arab children playing with goats and chickens, broken down homes with rooster pens, and, sadly, the appearance as if this town is in a third world country. Why can I travel such a short distance and suddenly appear in an opposite world? I wish I could understand the reasons for these differences - is there someone we are to blame? Is it the Israelis? or is it the lack of self-determination and the Arabs refusal to become independent? Is there a way out of this situation? I know attempting to make a town like this more developed by simply providing them with higher technology tools might not solve anything, but is there something we can do?

It seems to be that the Arabs feel, and are, stuck: they have lived in these conditions for so long, it's hard to imagine anything else. But that is precisely the problem. The Jews in the early creation of Israel refused to live in these conditions and so they began to develop the country. Why has this technique failed in Arab villages? Has this technique ever been attempted?

And finally, what does the future predict for these Arab villages? Can we expect any sort of change?

Finding my own place in the conflict

During the past few years, I have learned a lot (or tried to learn) about the Middle East Conflict/Arab-Israeli Conflict/ Israeli-Palestinian Conflict etc etc... I've learned that both sides make big, life changing mistakes. I've also learned that it is impossible to believe everything the media says. In an ideal world, the media would report simply to let us know the truth - but in our world, every media outlet has their own agenda and if spinning a story a certain way will allow them more access to future stories, then they will do it. And sometimes the ability to talk to terrorists is what the media wants - not always to justify their actions but to claim a coveted spot in the hierarchy of media outlets (the more evil the terrorist, the more coveted the interview, the more respected the media).

At the end of the day, I still have hesitations. I read the papers and I find flaws in their understandings and their insinuations. I find flaws in the history of the conflict - who started what? who is to blame? can we even place blame? And it just makes me want to learn more. Maybe I'm only searching for the answers I want to hear, the answers I've been taught from birth - or maybe I'll put aside my feelings and just search for some semblance of truth.

"A state is not a right - it's something you earn"

"I'm scared for the peace process to start again," Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh stated last week at a lecture to a group of interns as he discussed the current situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an Israeli Arab (through his father) and a Palestinian (through his mother) living as a journalist in Jerusalem. After working for the PLO as a journalist, he started reporting for the Jerusalem Post during the 2nd Intifada, when it was too dangerous for Israeli journalists to be reporting on the streets. He willingly shares his unique views on the conflict and often lectures to various university campuses although he prefers to stay in Israel as often as he can - American campuses are so radicalized that "I feel more threatened on American campuses than on campuses in Ramallah," Toameh said.

"When the Oslo Accords were presented, we were hopeful, we thought we'd have what the Jews had." But in reality, the Oslo Accords deferred the peace process even further, causing the radicalization of Hamas. "The idea of Oslo was good - to end the occupation," Toameh said, but the way it was implemented was problematic. The international community believed that if they gave the PLO weapons, the PLO will build proper government institutions and will do Israel's dirty work and fight Hamas. But the money only went to the wrong things - Arafat's shopping sprees and, some argue, to the families of suicide bombers. The international community poured money into the PLO without any conditions. Arafat even used some of the money to develop a media center on which he said "kill the Jews, kill the infidels." Arafat did not care if the international community heard - if he kept the Palestinians hating the Jews and the Americans, they will continue to rely on Arafat to solve their problems and they will stop demanding democratic reforms.

"Arafat deprived the Palestinians of the fruits of peace and so he radicalized them," Toameh said. As the Palestinians realized the peace process had failed to change their poor living conditions, they began to turn to Hamas, who was advocating for change. The radicalization of the Palestinians can be attributed to two main causes:

• a) firstly, Arafat's strategy to ensure his people hate the Jews backfired - rather than this causing the Palestinians to keep Arafat in power, it radicalized them so that they wanted a new representative for the Palestinian people - not a "moderate" one like Arafat.

• b) secondly, Israel did help arm the PLO but now had a new fear to worry about - the threat of their newly armed neighbor. New security measures had to be in place, resulting in less free movement for the Palestinians. The "good, old days before the peace process" when Palestinians could easily pass from the West Bank into Israel "were over," Toameh said.

As the international community promised a resolution to the centuries old conflict, the struggle was only worsening. Hamas was now so strong that they were able to "democratically" come to power in 2006. As the world focused on the war between the Israelis and the Palestinians, a new war was emerging - the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah, the struggle "between bad guys and bad guys, both fighting for money and power," Toameh said." Don't kid yourselves, "there's no such thing as a moderate Hamas," he argued. In the summer of 2007, Hamas kicked the PLO out of Gaza, accusing them of trying to bring down Hamas. Did Israel rejoice that at least one of their enemies had lost power? "Israel was the only country in the world who sent ships and helicopters to save Muslims from being killed by Muslims," said Toameh.

With Hamas ruling Gaza and the PLO maintaining their weak hold on the West Bank, a two-state solution would not even suffice, since the Palestinians now have two separate entities, each vying for their own state. Toameh even said "if it weren’t for Israel sitting in the middle, they'd be shooting at each other." The division amongst the Palestinians poses a problem to the new "peace plan" as outlined by Obama. We cannot move forward with a peace process when there is no partner on the Palestinian side. The only way to move forward is to tell the Palestinians to dismantle the terror groups and establish a government, a legitimate partner we can deal with. Easier said than done.

"When I see Obama telling Bibi to accept the two state solution, I laugh. If I were Bibi, I would stand up today and say yes, I accept, because he has nothing to be afraid of. The Palestinians are too divided to form a state," said Toameh. The pressure from Obama should be on the Palestinians, Toameh said, not on the Israelis. A state is not a right, he said - "a state is something you earn when you show the world you are capable of governing. The Arabs are not prepared for a state."

If the settlements were the real obstacle to peace, then there should have been peace already, he argued. Israel gave land for peace many times but the result has only been more war. "The international community is using 'settlements' as a cover up and the Obama administration is falling for it. If they focus on this, they can forget about Ahmadinijad and Osama bin Laden."

As the area falls into chaos (or perhaps, more chaos), what is the million-dollar solution here? According to Toameh, we have to acknowledge there is no real solution here. Realistically, there is not enough room on this tiny strip of land for another state. But, he said, "there is room for a new party other than Hamas and the PLO and there have been attempts started by academics but they have no credibility. In our society, it's more important to graduate from prison than from Harvard, because it's the people who graduate from prison that run the country."