Existential Threat

Note: The picture shows how my cooking skills have improving. A stir fry, classical Chinese style-- rice cooked to perfection; garlic/brocoli/chicken with soy sauce/oyster sauce/sugar; and ginger/sprouts/red pepper with sweet chilli sauce and pepper. The best stir fry I have ever made. Full points goes to my roommate and cooking mentor, Alex Goddard!

This past week I’ve been busy with lots of small things. I've settled into College For All and I’m trying to get my volunteer schedule set (with no success yet). I've emailed Amnesty Israel and will call tomorrow to see if there are volunteer opportunities. If I get no response, I will do the ARDC. I have a "test" on Monday to evaluate my level of Hebrew. I expect to be at the bottom which means I'll simply go in the easiest class. I'm fine with that...I can't expect to be fluent in 6 months.

Last weekend I went on a political seminar in Jerusalem. It was a good opportunity to meet people from all political and religious backgrounds. We talked about contentious issues in Israel like the constant tension in Israel between separation of church (err synagogue) and state. Simply listening to the complexities, made it pretty evident that this tension will always exist. People by and large want to see the Jewish fabric of Israel maintained but also (even observant Jews) see the issue of religion having such a profound influence on politics as problematic. There are countless examples in this region. Take for example, the biblical idea of Judea-Samaria. If we were to take this idea literally, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are biblical "Palestine", the land of the Jews and therefore must be maintained within contemporary Israel. However, politically this is huge impediment to any sort of peace and cannot be maintained in order to create a two-state solution. It all depends on what side of the political spectrum you fall on: do you believe in practice of realpolitic-- that peace with the Palestinians is necessary for the stability of the region and the security of Israel or do you believe that the Jewish nation (a term I have a hard time accepting) must maintain its land because after all, land for peace has never worked, Hamas would never accept Israel and more importantly, God promised this land to the Jews.

One of the more interesting speakers of the weekend talked about the difference between symbolic policy and real policy. He argued that the government (and it doesn’t matter if it is a left or right government) always makes the excuse that because Israel’s existence is being threatened by forces outside of its control, security must take precedence over anything else. Therefore, you see the government spending large amounts of capital on new, expensive weaponry for the military, increased defence budgets and new elite units being formed with little new money being put into education, health care or public housing. When compared to the rest of the world, year after year Israel is falling in all major fields including education which he finds to be very troubling. He said that because of the limited budget, Israeli politicians have become experts in symbolic policies, policies such as encouraging gender equality or equal rights between Jews and Arabs, but refuse to put money into the problem. When a change in administration occurs (which is usually every 2 years), these polities lose their status and are rarely resurrected. There is also another, more sinister problem, the military industrial complex of Israel (re: the lobbying firms dedicated to maintaining Israeli military industry and might) have a huge interest in maintaining the status quo. As long as there is an existential threat to Israel (Iran’s nuclear ambition, Hamas’ Charter, Hezbullah’s Katusha rockets, Syria’s tacit support of Hezbullah and Iran) then the increases in budget can always be legitimized.

I also met a Russian woman who works in the Department of Finance through a MASA program called Israel Government Fellows. (For purposes of full disclosure: The program is partly funding by the Menachem Begin Center which is what we classically would call a right wing organization.) It is a 10 month internship where she works directly with the Knesset and Ministries. It costs 11,000 US and includes no housing in Jerusalem but it sounds like an amazing experience.

Finally, yesterday I went to Jerusalem for the 120th Central Conference of American Rabbis. Tikkun Olam (well 3 of us) went to promote the organization and "study Torah". I bumped into one of the Senior Administrators’ at Holy Blossom and we exchanged kind words. Didn't really know me, but recognized by mother's last name. The experience was unique and not something I'd normally feel comfortable doing. We split up into small groups and talked about Jewish text from contemporary angles, most of which was said was beyond my expertise, but I still contributed what I could. I met one woman who lost her husband a few years ago, remarried a rabbi but kept her husband's last name because her husband was the last of his family (Neither they nor his grandparents or parents had any other children). She felt like it was her responsibility to pass on his name.