not so far away

I've never understood the conflicts in the Middle East, and my attempts to end my ignorance have been lukewarm, at best. When Bush justified Israel's bombing of Lebanon's airport as a necessary means of security, my narrow-minded liberal side didn't want to hear anymore. My friend snapped me out of my indulgent stupor with the email below.

Greetings from Israel!

It has been nearly two weeks since I arrived in Tel Aviv and I can not begin to tell you what I’ve experienced, felt and struggling with since then. My journey began last April at [school] when a visiting professor asked me whether I was interested in visiting Israel along with other students from various law schools. At the time, it seemed like a wonderful idea. But as you may already know, there is tremendous turmoil in this region.

I am studying at the Bar Ilan University just 20 from the city’s center. There are some 60 students from here from across the nation. It is a somewhat conservative bunch, with what I would consider radical views, but no different than what I am used to (after spending 5 years in Boston I can deal with pretty much anything).

Israel is interesting. It’s a religious state but in my opinion, the primary faiths are politics and security. People eat, sleep and drink politics. I try to stay out of it (surprisingly).

I’ve been traveling as much as possible. I was supposed to go to Haifa today (Friday). I was planning on visiting the border with Lebanon and temple of one of the newer religions (the Baha’i Faith). That was before Lebanon succeeded in hitting Haifa (the third largest city in Israel). The conflict began to escalate a few days after I arrived. On June 25th, an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian militant groups in Kerem Shalom, an area that borders the Gaza Strip (one of the
Palestinian territories Israel once occupied and recently returned to the Palestinian people).

Israel is smack in the middle of the Middle East and borders Egypt (to the south west), Jordan (to the east), Syria (also to the east) and Lebanon (to the North). After the kidnapping, Israel re-deployed troops into the Gaza Strip (taking control of the power station and three bridges and cutting off water in certain areas). Israel demanded the soldier’s release. In return, Palestinian groups demanded the release of all Palestinian woman and all Palestinians under the age of 18 being held in Israeli prisons. On June 30th Israel carried out 20 air strikes and hit the Interior Ministry in Gaza. In response, Palestinian groups changed their demands – demanding the release of 1000 prisoners. Things have just gone down hill from there with Palestinians shooting qassam rockets into Israel.

Two or three days ago, a group from Lebanon entered northern Israel, killed 8 soldiers and kidnapped 2 others. Israel conducted air strikes and destroyed the Lebanese airport in Beirut and shut down the sea ports, fuel storage units (cutting off electricity in parts of the area). The mission: to bring back the kidnapped soldiers, and wipe out terrorism by striking strategic targets in Lebanon (E. Snider – Spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces). Dozens of people have been killed (mostly Palestinians [50 civilians according to CNN], but Israelis as well [ten soldiers]). Lebanon believes the attacks are subjecting the Lebanese people to collective punishment (air strikes) and that Israeli strikes are disproportionate the actions taken by the militant groups. And back and forth they go.

Despite all this, life goes on in Tel Aviv. No one believes the Palestinians or Jordanians have rockets strong enough to hit the city, but everyone said the same thing about Haifa (a northern city in Israel near Nazareth and the Jordanian Border). They were wrong.

Before canceling my trip to Haifa, I sought out the opinion of with several people (professors, journalists, even high ranking military personnel). All said that it was safe to travel there. But I wasn’t convinced. So I decided to cancel my trip. 45 minutes later, Haifa was bombed. According to the tour guide, they are still planning to go, minus one person – ME. More power to them.

So…here I am…in my hotel room, watching Larry King Live. I’m very concerned about this conflict. There is no doubt that it will escalate. All the parties involved have an enormous amount of pride and I sincerely doubt any one will back down. It’s frustrating. I’m taking several courses, one focuses solely on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (Israeli’s fight for self-preservation and the Palestinian’s fight for self-determination). It is truly enlightening and I encourage you all to take the time to research it and try to better understand why these people are at war (I won’t throw myself into the political fray here, but would be happy to share some of what I’ve learned since arriving in Israel).

In the meantime, I will continue to go to school, and take all
necessary precautions until my departure at the end of the month. Thank
you all for your emails and prayers. They are greatly appreciated and
much needed.