Israel Trip

On Monday before Thanksgiving I returned with 24 other pastors and rabbis from 8 fabulous days in Israel. We met with a scholars, politicians, clerics, and others to learn as much as we could about the dilemmas that face Israel and the Palestinians. We visited as well a number of holy sites and archeological sites. To get some flavor of the group and our musings, you can check out the trip blog at http://www.icjs.org/mciblog/ .

In short order, three of my primary take-aways are...

* The politics in Israel are so incredibly complex, it is hard to imagine how anything gets done, much less a peace agreement with the Palestinians. And we did not have the opportunity to explore the intricacies on the Palestinian side.
A number of corollaries flow. Any notions of how to resolve the conflict must come from the two parties. That implies, as Rabbi Ron Shulman observed at a public presentation on Dec. 2, we who do not live there should learn to hold our own opinions lightly.

* A key part of the issue is the differing narratives, Palestinian and Israeli, both of which seem to me to trade in being seen as victims. As soon as any hard questions get asked of either side, the reflexive response is too often to retreat to "my narrative." This reality means that jumping to endorse the narrative of one side is going to make it that much more difficult to have meaningful dialogue with the other side. See Rabbi Shulman above. The challenge for both parties is to begin to listen to the other side, to hear their poetry, as one speaker said.

* Dr. Shlomo Avineri and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the last two people we met, were in some ways the least encouraging, but at the same time were the most hopeful. Now that I think about it, Rabbi Michael Melchior, the very first person we met, said some similar things. I heard them saying in effect that no grand deal where everyone sits down and signs off on a deal, and says, "That's that," is likely at this stage.

What is possible are incremental changes, and decisions to change behaviors, and in some cases perhaps even to change particular policies. So, for example, PM Fayyad talked about his efforts to create a government of accountability, transparency, and consistency (so, e.g., foreign aid actually gets to its intended target, banks make loans openly and fairly, courts function according to law), and a credible and trained security force which is clear about its mission--to protect the population.
From Fayyad and from others (maybe it was Col. Marom (ret.), former commander of the Lebanese border region) we heard that cooperation between the Israeli army and Palestinian army/police is better now than it has been in years.
It was perhaps a minor point, but we all laughed about having our bus escorted to the meeting wtih Mr. Fayyad by two Palestinian police in a vehicle with siren blaring and blue lights flashing. First time any of us had ever been on the giving end of blocking traffic. But consider the irony: a group including Jews were protected by Palestinian police. It's hard to imagine that happening during the first or second intifadas.

Well, that's it for now. Read the blog http://www.icjs.org/mciblog/.