Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Israel Part One - Politics

Korrin B.

December 25, 2009 - 8:30 PM

A little after five o'clock this morning, my El Al flight landed back in Newark after an eleven and a half hour long flight from Tel Aviv. My feet touched American soil again after having walked the holy streets of Israel for the past ten days. My trip to Israel was what I expected it to be - extraordinary. However, I am used to traveling places for longer amounts of time and being able to have ample opportunities to explore the culture solo. This trip was a short, tour bus oriented version of Israel with a group of forty other American youth. This made it a tad more challenging for me to find those moments where you feel truly connected with the space you are in, but also opened my eyes to things that I could never have seen any other way. This trip truly came to me with perfect timing. I have decided to share my experience here in my blog through a series, each focusing on a particular topic. This post will focus on politics.

Before I left on my trip, I attended a presentation at the University of Oregon that was put on by MPA graduate student, Ariel Lissman. The presentation was entitled "Through Patient Eyes" and focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The presentation was a great thing to attend before my trip. It helped me to better understand the geography and history of the area I was traveling to, all while taking an initial glance into the difficult moral issues surrounding the conflict. I think that in the United States, we tend to ignore or not be able to understand many world events that go on. Many people don't pay attention to conflicts in other countries, or even overseas problems that involve the U.S., because they don't feel that these issue directly affect them enough to care. To a mild extent, I will admit that even I fall into this category at times. I have heard about the Israel-Palestine conflict for a long time now, but have never paid enough attention or gained enough curiosity to really dig into the issue, research a little, and try to understand what is really going on. Attending Ariel's presentation and then going to Israel opened my eyes up to see what this conflict is really about, what is really happening, and why it is important to know about. Before my trip, terms like "Gaza Strip," "Palestinians," "West Bank," and "Hamas" all existed in my head, but if you were to ask me to describe any of them, my knowledge would have been minimal. I greatly appreciated what this trip did for me in terms of better understanding the politics in that area of the world and for sparking my curiosity in paying more attention to the events of the world.

Throughout the trip, my Birthright group toured the land of Israel by bus. We soon became known to each other as the Amazing Bus as we quickly bonded with one another. Our bus was lead by arguably Israel's absolute best tour guide, Ran (pronounced Ron). I loved several things about Ran, including his kindness, excitement, and enthusiasm, but one thing that was truly extraordinary about him was his immense knowledge. We soon began to joke around that there was no question that Ran could not answer. He was so knowledgeable and at every stop would explain to us in depth the history of the area. When we were in the Golan Heights, he talked about how it related to the relationship that Israel has with Syria and we were able to physically see why many Israelis are hesitant to give the land back to Syria, as it is a very strategic location for securing other parts of Israel. When we drove through the West Bank on our way to Jerusalem, we asked Ran several questions about who controls what parts of the West Bank, what people's main concerns were over the area, and what was being done for the Palestinian refugees that we would see camped in the desert from time to time. When we drove along the wall that has recently been built between Israel and the West Bank, Ran explained its significance, how much it has truly helped keep suicide bombers from entering the state, and the controversy surrounding it as well. I think the more knowledge I gained about the conflicts and the history just educated me on how confusing of a topic it really is. It is easy to say, "Why don't they just do this?" or "Why don't they just do that?" But each "resolution" has many back falls. Ran told us that if you asked 100 Israelis on what should be done about the Israel-Palestine conflict that you would get 100 completely different answers.

Another perspective on the politics of the area came toward the end of our trip, when eight Israeli soldiers joined our group for our final four days. They did not come to protect us, but instead to tour with us and act as an insight into the Israeli culture for us. We were able to ask them all sorts of questions about their service in the army, what is expected of them, what they think of the current conflicts, and much, much more. The most touching moment for me came when we visited a military cemetery in Jerusalem and the soldiers showed us the grave of a man who had been in their unit and had died in Israel's battle with Gaza a year ago. Hearing our soldiers talk about their friend greatly actualized the severity of the conflict and the strong passion that Israelis feel for their homeland.

So, I guess part one of why my trip was incredible was because it opened my eyes up to politics in the Middle East. I am grateful that I live in a space that does not have to worry about being attacked at any hour of the day. I am also grateful that there are people who are active in understanding and sharing what they know about these types of conflicts. I found all of the information I got out of this trip very interesting and now whenever a headline pops up about Israel or Palestine in the news, I feel as though I will be more inclined to read the full story. I also think that I will be able to better pick out the truth within the article, as going to Israel helped open up my eyes to the fact that the U.S. news does not always give you the accurate portrait of the situation. Is there hope for resolution in the Israel-Palestine conflict? I think that things like the One Voice Movement, a group of younger people getting involved in the issue, shows that there is definitely hope.

The photos that accompany this post are as follows: Looking out over Israel from a war bunker on the Syria border that is surrounded with barbed wire, A note written on the wall in the inside of a bomb shelter, and a sign reading "Danger Mines!" in front of a fenced off area in the Golan Heights.