Aside from the many interesting facts discussed during the tour, such as the ways in which families and jobs are disrupted, and educational and tax systems fail, the most intriguing element was the surprisingly a-political stance of the guide. At no point did he claim that the wall should be torn down, nor did he parade any propaganda about decreases in terrorism since its construction. Rather, he seemed to be solely concerned with the plight of the residents in the immediate vicinity of the wall and the decrease in their standard of living. The purpose of the tour seemed to be to open our eyes, not to change our minds.
During the tour I thought about something that one of my classmates mentioned on Thursday. He drew the analogy that our perceptions of Israel are similar to a small child's perceptions of his mother. When very young, the boy thinks that his mother is the most beautiful, the smartest, the best cook, and so forth. As he grows up, however, he realizes that his mother is most likely not perfect, and has many human failings and frailties, the same as everyone else. We need to recognize that Israel may not be the perfect Land of Milk and Honey that we would like her to be, but is in fact a nation involved in the global community, and as such has the same challenges and troubles as other countries. Another classmate added that she deals with these issues by compartmentalizing - on the one hand she has the Holy Land, and on the other the State of Israel. However, I'm not certain that this actually deals with the issues; it may just be sweeping them under the rug, and I can imagine this simply causing more problems.
4 comments:
Well... I think the analogy with the mother makes the most sense for a lot of people... Though there are the loads who never figure that out...
In the battle of analogies, another classmate proposed that our understanding of Israel is like the relationship between a boy and girl. At the outset they see only the best in each other and quickly speed toward love, but as their lives together progress they begin to see that there are - surprise! - flaws in their partner. The challenge then is to constantly remember the initial rush of positive emotions and to make them the basis for the relationship, instead of allowing the negative elements to overwhelm and destroy it.
are you guys already disillusioned with each other? chaval.
It's not chaval... Look, you don't get divorced after a few years of marriage just because there are some things you hadn't fantasized about in your youth... But the good gets better every passing year. And you become dependent on the quirks. You fall in love with the quirks. Life becomes normal, with occasional bouts of reliving the magic. How else should it be?
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