Welcomed home by an old friend

Today was a day to become reacquainted with an old friend.

 The City of Jerusalem has held a special place in my heart since the days that I roamed her streets as a college student.  Much has changed in this ancient city, but much has also remained the same.  There has been a tremendous amount of building and growth.  New housing developments, new roads - it is harder to imagine the ancients walking across the barren hills as they made their pilgrimages to the Holy City.  And the main road from Tel Aviv is now a major highway - no longer a narrow road littered with shelled armored vehicles left in  tribute to the independence fighters on 1948.

But there are still some empty hills, and the City itself - at least the Old City -  retains its mystical hold.  Touching the Western Wall, with its crevices crammed with prayerful notes, is still one of the most powerful moments one can experience.











Much is made of the fence that Israel has built between that land it holds as part of Jerusalem and the West Bank, held by the Palestinian Authority (hard to say governed by the PA, since the Palestinians are so bitterly split between the PA and Hamas.).  Critics decry it as forcing a ghetto, but when you speak to Israelis, they point out that since it was built, there have been virtually no terrorist attacks emanating from that area.  It is a harsh reminder of a conflict that is still oozing with open wounds (on both sides).

On the other hand, there are vantage points around Jerusalem from which the geography presents undeniable facts.  Even from areas not within the so-called occupied territories, there are Hamas settlements that are virtually stones-throws away from populated areas.  What is a country to do with a neighbor that refuses to acknowledge its right to exist and is bent on its destruction (supported by an state that is trying to develop a nuclear bomb that has the same stated goals?) ?  Would peace come if Israel gave back the territories?  Internationalized Jerusalem?  I don’t pretend to know and being here makes it all too clear how unfair it is to presume to judge from outside - detached from the realities of living with enemies (on either side) so close that you can almost feel them breathing.

Maybe the Arava Institute, for which we are riding, really does have the right answer.  Let’s forget about the politics for a while and just work together to see whether we can figure out how to live on this piece of sand that has become our lot in life.  Perhaps if we can figure that out together some of the bigger questions will just follow.

L’hitraot

Lester