Allison W. Good

My family was never wild about the idea of me touring the West Bank, which is under the Palestinian Authority.  But, as luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself.  I have some cousins who are in Israel for the week, and they just happened to be going to Bethlehem on Saturday, which was the only day I could spend time with them while they were here.

Their guide, Hayim (who will appear in a later post), had organized everything, even though he could not enter the West Bank because the Israeli police could arrest him upon his return from territory.  Thus, we picked up a guide on our way, Dawoud, who showed us around Bethlehem.  Not only was Dawoud incredibly knowledgeable, but he was also the first Coptic Christian I had ever met.

Going through the security checkpoint to enter Bethlehem was relatively easy.  All I had to do was show the guard my passport, but I saw all sorts of metal detectors, turnstiles, and lookouts.  Once we showed identification, we walked along a railing outside against the building, whose entire wall was covered with pro- and anti-peace graffiti.  We were not allowed to photograph any part of the compound, but an image that really stuck with me was an upside-down hand that said “five fingers of the same hand” above it, and on each fingertip was drawn the symbol of each of the 5 major world religions.  You could still see the Buddhist symbol as well as the Christian cross, but the Star of David and the crescent were both crossed out with black paint, with lots more graffiti directly below.  I also had an up-close view of the security fence from this vantage point.

As soon as we exited the compound, we were met by a parking lot teeming with Palestinian taxis.  Imagine being escorted to the barrier by Israel Defense Forces and then seconds later being in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority!  The checkpoint at Bethlehem was an experience in and of itself.

Our first stop in Bethlehem was the Church of the Nativity, which is built over the cave that Christian tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus.  It was built by the Roman Catholic Saint Helena in the 4th century, and then rebuilt by Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century after it was burned down during a revolt in 529.  The church itself has 3 congregations: Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian.  We entered first into the Basilica of the Nativity, which is maintained by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.  Mostly-decayed mosaics line the walls, and Corinthian columns form the aisles.  But I don’t need to further describe this treasure because here it is:

One of the remaining parts of the original basilica built by Saint Helena is the mosaic floor:

Then we wandered into this side chapel-type thing to wait to enter the cave to see Jesus’ birthplace and the manger:

We got to go into a special entrance since there were only five of us, but it was confusing because the Palestinian policeman who sat at the top of the stairs would tell us to go down, and then the church official would tell us to go back up, and this happened about three times before we were actually able to go down into the cave.  And this is where Christian tradition says Jesus was born:

All of the tourists were lined up, and everyone would get on their knees, crawl under, and kiss the floor.  Here are some nuns and other church people in the manger:

From there we went to the Church of St. Catherine, the Roman Catholic part of the church.  Again, really high ceilings:

So why does it look so new compared to the Greek Orthodox section?  In 1884 during the late Ottoman period, there was an international agreement in 1884 that no one was allowed to build anything new inside the Church of the Nativity without the agreement of the church officials that had custody over it.  In 1891, the Franciscan order tried to “maintain” the roof of the church, and so it was thrown out for not adhering to the “status quo,” or “the customs, rights and duties of the various church authorities that have custody of the Holy Places.”  And thus, they built their own church.  In my opinion, the Church of St. Catherine wasn’t nearly as special as the basilica.

Another flight of stairs led us down to the Grotto of St. Jerome, who wrote the Vulgate, the first translation of the Bible into Latin.  Supposedly, as Hayim said that there is no direct evidence of any of this, Jesus and his family lived there after his birth.  Church tradition says it was then used as a cemetery for the children killed by Herod the Great who, upon hearing that a king (Jesus) was born, decided to kill all of the children in Judea born at a certain time.  St. Jerome supposedly lived in the grotto during the 3rd century:

Our last stop in the Church of the Nativity was the Crusader courtyard with the statue of St. Jerome:

Next up was Beit Sahour, a Palestinian town east of Bethlehem.  Beit Sahour and Bethlehem combined are 90 percent Christian and 10 percent Muslim.  What was special in Beit Sahour was Shepherd’s Field, where Christian tradition believes that Ruth, the grandmother of King David (and therefore also the ancestor of Jesus) met Boaz.  I didn’t think much of it, but it’s all a part of the history and atmosphere of the area.

Then I got to experience something truly unique.  I was on this West Bank adventure with a cousin who happens to be a big cheese in American health care.  He had set up a meeting with a sister at the Daughters of Charity hospital in Bethlehem, which is maintained by the Order of Malta and partly run by the Daughters of Charity (fun fact for New Orleanians: Charity Hospital was run by the same Daughters of Charity in the 19th century).  What my cousin wanted to see in particular was the “orphanage,” a section of the hospital that takes in newborns born out of wedlock and cares for them until they reach 6 years of age.  Palestinian culture, both Christian and Muslim, shuns babies born out of wedlock, and adoption is not exactly popular there, either.  The Palestinian Authority gives no support whatsoever to the hospital, there is no health care infrastructure in the territory, and there are no laws concerning children in these types of situations.  My cousin’s wife held and played with some of the infants, but seeing them all lined up in their cribs and knowing that their society wanted nothing to do with them was heartbreaking.  As our guide Askandar at the hospital told us, “We don’t have policies to deal with this.  This is not the right thing to do for a child.”

That was the end of our Bethlehem excursion.  On the drive back to the security checkpoint compound, I was able to take a few photos of the graffiti:

The process of leaving the West Bank was much more tedious than when we entered.  This time, our bags had to go through a metal detector while an I.D.F. soldier spoke to us over a loudspeaker, and we had to show our passports three different times.

Overall, it was definitely the most intriguing thing I had done so far in Israel.  I had obviously never been to the West Bank, nor had I visited very many sites that were holy to Christianity.  I would never have gotten the chance to see Palestinian society from a health care perspective if it had not been for my relative’s status.

This seems forever ago, but last weekend I went on a retreat with the Jeff Seidel Students Center to the north of Israel, a trip with both Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University students.  I think it’s about time I explained the mysterious Jeff Seidel.  No one knows exactly what he does, but this tiny man with the bald and shiny head a la Ray Nagin is literally everywhere.  I’m in class, I get out for my 15-minute break, and there he is, right outside the door.  I get back to the k’far from the supermarket, carrying 5 or 6 bags, and there he is, ready to assault me with his various flyers for lectures and Shabbat dinners.

Who is Jeff Seidel?  He’s Orthodox, made aliyah from Chicago in the 1980s, and is apparently also an ordained rabbi.  He runs these student centers at most of the major universities in Israel with the hope that he can bribe the students into returning to true Judaism, into becoming ba’alay/ba’alot teshuvot, by taking them on really cheap trips and excursions, providing plenty of alcohol, and letting them do laundry for free at his centers.  The soccer game, the retreat, the political trips, and my upcoming trip to Hebron are all part of his program, but I have done my best to make it more than clear to him that he cannot get to me.  Still, these people want only the best.  I found it very disturbing when Tziporah, the wife of another rabbi who works with Jeff, made her best effort to casually interrogate me about my Jewish heritage: So Allison, are both of your parents Jewish?  Is your whole family Jewish?  When did they come to America?

(Side note: At Shabbat dinner on Friday night we were talking about which hospitals to go to in Israel, and she said that she doesn’t like to go to the main Hadassah hospital next to the Hebrew University campus, the one that’s closest to her home, because there are “too many Arabs.”)

However, on this retreat I did meet one of his “success stories,” a girl named Rachel who was at Rothberg last fall and became a ba’alat teshuva even though she was already Conservative.  Listening to her talk throughout the weekend about her experience with Jeff Seidel was very eye-opening, but also made me very weary of the powerful influence that people like Jeff Seidel exert, especially when it comes to young adults who may feel confused about their Judaism and about their identities in general.  Unfortunately, I have had to made it into his good graces because I plan to use him for his political connections.  Now, back to the trip.

We left Thursday afternoon right after ulpan for the long drive up to the beach/tourist attraction Rosh Ha’Nikra, our first stop.  We arrived at our destination around 8:30 p.m., about an hour and a half behind schedule.  However, the bus ride was made all the more interesting by the Absinthe, vodka, and Jager that Jeff Seidel passed around for l’chaims, which are shots.  It was almost dark at Rosh Ha’Nikra, but we got there just in time to take the gondola up to get a good look at the coastline and tour the natural grottoes:

It was around midnight by the time we finally reached our “hotel,” which was very close to Kiryat Shmoneh, a city located in the Hula Valley that’s very close to the Lebanese border.  The first thing we did the next day was go zip-lining and rafting/kayaking on the Jordan River.  I very much enjoyed the zip-lining and wanted to do it ten more times, but kayaking on the river was a bit lazy because it’s not exactly known for its rapids.  This aside, it was nice to finally do some outdoorsy things in Israel, something I got really used to when I was here during high school.

After lunch, we headed to the Galil Mountain Winery to tour the facilities and wine taste.  Our guide explained the process to us, and I actually learned some valuable information, i.e. that an opened bottle of white wine is only good for 2-3 days.

Then came time for the wine tasting.  Everyone got to sample a red, a white, and a rose.  All were delicious.  One of the more interesting things I learned on this leg of the tour was that swirling the wine before tasting it is important because it opens up its “pores.”  I smelled each glass of wine before I swirled it on the table, but afterward I could definitely tell the difference when I smelled them again.  The coolest part was that we got to keep the wine glasses they gave us for the tasting.  My entire apartment was on the trip, so now we have a nice set of 4 glasses from the winery.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for Shabbat.  Naturally, Jeff Seidel had us all in his tiny hotel room for pre-Shabbat l’chaims, a bizarre experience in and of itself.  First of all, his 14-year-old daughter was bartending, and she knew what she was doing.  Second, she was also drinking.  And third, he tried to get me to keep drinking after I told him I didn’t want anymore, as I generally prefer to welcome shabbat in a sober state of mind.  We had kabbalat shabbat and davened ma’ariv outside, but someone put up a mechitza.  In some later post I will probably expand upon my thoughts on the mechitza, but that’s worthy of its own 1,000-plus words.

It’s also worth noting that I felt uncomfortable at this service, even though I tend to be quite content at modern orthodox synagogues and also at Chabad houses.  I just wasn’t feeling it this time.  The actual shabbat dinner, however, was heavenly: an all-you-can-eat buffet with Israeli salads, hummus, roasted chicken, and plenty of challah.  I sat with Tel Aviv students and also with students on my program I hadn’t met yet.  There was lots of singing and toasting.  An all around good time.

While Friday was jam-packed, Saturday was slow and leisurely.  We couldn’t go anywhere on the bus since it was Shabbat, and so everyone just hung out around the hotel.  I went for a morning run along the highway, and I wish I had brought my camera along because I saw some of the most beautiful farmland.  My afternoon wasn’t anything special, but I did reach a milestone: I watched t.v. for the first time since I had gotten here.

After havdalah we boarded the bus for the trek back, and that was my weekend.  I wouldn’t say that the trip was particularly interesting or spectacular as a whole, but it was a chance to get away from the city and truly relax, which I definitely appreciated in the end.

In the summertime, there is nonstop entertainment in Jerusalem.  There are tons of festivals, concerts, art markets, and parties that are advertised on the very nice Jerusalem municipal website, which thank goodness has an English option.  I check the website at least once a day to see what’s going on in my city, and about a week ago came upon the Jerusalem Beer Festival at Independence Park in the city center.  I’m not much of a beer drinker and so I thought I would pass, but our madrichim (Hebrew University students who are kind of like the Student Fellows at Vassar) emailed us that we should go, and word soon got around that Hadag Nachash, Israel’s premier hip hop group, would be playing a set on one of the two nights of the festival.  I’ve seen Hadag Nachash back in the states, but seeing them live in Jerusalem was something I knew I couldn’t miss out on.

The only problem was that last night was the first night of the festival, the night that also happens to be the biggest studying night of the week since we all have tests each Thursday, and those in charge of the festival would not release the information about which night Hadag Nachash was actually playing.  It’s a blessing that ulpan is coming easily to me and that I felt more than confortable with the material on today’s test, because I went to the festival on a lark and, lo and behold, Hadag Nachash came onto the stage about 15 minutes after I got there.  This video is from 2008, but it gives you a general idea of what I saw and heard:

That would be “Shirat HaSticker,” or “The Sticker Song,” one of their bigger hits.  The lyrics are made up entirely of slogans on bumper stickers seen in Israel, and it’s got a really cool message.  The festival/concert was by far the most fun I’ve had since I got here almost a month ago (wait, it’s already been one month?).  They played for a little over an hour, and I was shouting the words to all of the songs just like all of the other Israelis and American students who were there.  It might have been more ordinary had I not been standing in the front.  For most of the concert there were about two people in between me and the railing that separated the crowd from the security guards.

But towards the end I actually made it to the very front and attached myself to the barrier, which was good because during some of the last songs, the guys in the group who do the rapping stepped off the stage and onto one of those block platforms closer to the crowd.  Needless to say, I got some awesome photos:

The end:

And me:

Apparently, Israel is home to the most rabid of soccer fans, something I discovered last night when I attended the season opener of Israel’s professional soccer season, Jerusalem (Beitar Yerushalayim) versus Tel Aviv (Hapoel Tel Aviv).  It turned out to be a truly Israeli experience.

The scene at Teddy Stadium was unlike anything I could have imagined: hordes of people wearing yellow and black (the Jerusalem team colors), vendors hawking everything from scarves to sunflower seeds, and lots of flashing lights and fireworks.   We went through the security checkpoint at the entrance to our section, but the whole group kind of just stood in place until something happened (I don’t know what), and everyone all of a sudden started to rush the steps.  After much pushing and shoving, I managed to snag a coveted square foot on a railing.

That’s right.  We had tickets, but no assigned seating.  I was not expecting something like this to be so unorganized that people could just sit and stand wherever they wanted to even though all of the seats are numbered in an orderly fashion.  But hey, it’s Israel.

It wasn’t very long after this that I discovered my mistake: I was wearing a red shirt, the Tel Aviv team color, and at least 5 Israelis asked me why I was wearing red.  Thank goodness for the man selling Beitar Yerushalayim t-shirts, who I found within minutes.  I am now the proud owner of the most horrendous yellow t-shirt, but I had to show my loyalty.  Some crowd shots plus the most adorable fan (the one in the sombrero):

The game started early, which is really weird considering this is Israel, where things never run on time, and I had no idea soccer games were so short!  Two halves of 45 minutes each, and they never stop the clock.  Here are some of my better game shots:

(This one is really cool because the guy in the red who’s
upside down did one of those kick the ball over his head things)

The people there were mostly Jerusalemites, but there was a sizable crowd of Tel Avivians as well.  The Jerusalem cheers ranged from the relatively docile team fight song to something that basically equated hating Hapoel to hating Arabs.  When the guy standing next to me wasn’t screaming that one, he was yelling at me for taking pictures.  Oh, and the scarves are huge here, and everyone in the stands was waving them around.  Makes me think about my Harry Potter-esque Raymond House scarf, which is somewhere in storage in Poughkeepsie…

One thing that really struck me was the fact that there were very few women there, and that I stuck out like a sore thumb.  Even among the Israelis, the demographic was pretty much uniform: mostly sabras (people born in Israel) with darker complexions, and no one who looked remotely European or American (except for our group, of course), or even anyone who looked like they might have European or American parents.

In the end no one scored, but I left completely satisfied with my first ever soccer match.  However, I long for the 3-hour Saints games (WHO DAT!), and I’ll be keeping up with my boys!

I guess it’s about time everyone gets a general idea of where and how I’m living, hence this lovely virtual tour of my ‘hood.  First up, we have a view of the k’far from the south gate.

Every time I enter the k’far, I have to go  through either this gate or the north gate, which both have security checkpoints.  On the right you can see a bit of an incline.  This is because the k’far is located on Mt. Scopus, or Har Ha’Tzofim, which is this really big hill that I have to climb up and down every day for ulpan.  During the regular school year a shuttle runs between the k’far and the Hebrew University campus, but of course they decided to not give us that option during the hottest months of the year.  Alas, my calves will thank me in the end.

Here’s a view of the k’far from a gazebo-balcony sort of thing.  As you can see, all of the buildings look the same.  This is because there’s actually a law here that any building erected in Jerusalem must be built with Jerusalem stone.   And here’s my building, Building 6:

Next up is the playground, which is where everyone congregates to do homework, access the various free wireless networks, and relax in the mild nighttime climate:

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for: the inside!  Please don’t mind the blinding white paint/appliance scheme, and if you have any decorating suggestions please comment!

The above is the view from the front door, and farther to the left (not in the picture) is a sofa and two chairs.  My mother must be ecstatic that the Clorox wipes have the preeminent perch on the counter top.  All that’s left is my room:

It’s a mess, I know, but I’m still settling in.  The room is really nice and really clean, and I have tons of closet space and almost too much shelving.  In case you wanted to know, the window shutters are heavy metal, just in case of bomb threats.

I think that’s everything, but check back for more updates soon.  I have pretty pictures and interesting tidbits from my weekend up north!

So I’m basically in level 2 of ulpan, which is actually pretty good considering my experience with learning Hebrew at Vassar.  We use the same book I used last year, so it’s just luck of the draw that I’m familiar with it, even though at Vassar we skipped about a cumulative third of the material.  There is a middle-aged woman in my class who is studying to be a female chazzan, someone who leads and chants the liturgy during prayer services.

She’s really struggling, and we usually end up sitting next to each other in the front row of the classroom, so when we have to pair up to do exercises she’s usually my partner.  Yesterday, she asked if I would tutor her.  This was one of the few times I’ve ever felt truly honored, and I accepted.  I get where she’s coming from, because sometimes our teachers assume we know things that we actually don’t, because when she asks if we understand a concept, one or two people might answer “yes” and then we move on.  Ulpan in general is supposed to move quickly.

We met for an hour this afternoon, and I thought it went really well.  We went over the material that will be on the test Thursday, and we’re going to do another session tomorrow night.  She’s also going to pay me, which is pretty awesome.  I could never get a real job here since I don’t have a work visa.

Today I also moved into a new apartment, this one all girls.  It’s much cleaner, and the ambiance definitely jives more with what I was looking for.  This weekend I’m heading to Rosh Ha’nikra up north for rafting, zip-lining, a winery tour, and an awesome Shabbat.

Let me just preface this post by saying that Jordana Cutler is 27.  I really hope I can be that cool and successful by the time I’m 47.

As was the case with Rep. Berkley, I got a nice email about a meeting at the student center with Jordana Cutler.  Once again, not many people showed up.  And once again, I have no idea why.

Cutler, who did the study abroad program at Hebrew University back in 2002, is in the business of political communication, which in Israel is something altogether different.  The industry here is called hasbara, or “explanation.”  On a side note, I would like to make it known that I did not have to look this word up.

Hasbara refers to how the Israeli government describes its policies to the international community and promotes Israel in general, and could even be termed “public diplomacy.”  Once we got to talking with Cutler, it became clear that she is indeed a master spin doctor and really knows how to do her job.

She started with an explanation of the five points that Prime Minister Netanyahu laid out in his speech at Bar Ilan University in June.  The first three dealt with legitimacy.

Topic number one was Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.  She said that the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is the core of the conflict.  More on my ideas about that later in this post (so read on!).

Number two was the refugee problem, or “problems,” as she put it.  First, there are the Arab refugees who fled what became the State of Israel during the 1948 war who claim they have the right to come back to the homes they left.  But Arab aggression against Israel also forced Jews living in those countries to flee.  The difference, according to Cutler, is that while Israel welcomed the Jewish refugees and provided for them, “the Arab states didn’t do anything for the refugees, and they put them in camps.”  Now, Cutler continued, “they’re asking us to solve the refugee problem, but the solution will be found outside the state of Israel.”

The third topic relating to legitimacy was the end of the conflict itself:

“In none of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians has there been discussion of the end of the conflict.  The Prime Minister said that one of the terms of negotiation must be that this is the end of the conflict.”

Points four and five were security-related, the first of the two being demilitarization.  This refers to the creation of a Palestinian state that is demilitarized, i.e. the Palestinians would be sovereign over where they live, but they “wouldn’t have certain rights that could threaten or encroach,” such as military capacity, a weapons cache, and rights over airspace.  As Cutler put it, “Israel wants to live peacefully alongside a demilitarized Palestinian state.”  What she really put the emphasis on was this:

“For the Prime Minister to get up in front of the whole world to recognize a Palestinian state was very tough for him.”

The fifth point was all about guarantees:

“Israel needs guarantees from the international community that the Palestinian state will be demilitarized.  That doesn’t mean we want foreign troops, which certainly didn’t work in Lebanon or Gaza…It means that if the Palestinians violate terms, Israel is guaranteed the right to respond.”

And last but not least, economic prosperity.  She touted Netanyahu’s expert status in the fields of economics and economic growth, and said that “he wants to raise the economic growth of the Palestinians to Chinese rates.”  Some examples of his heroic gestures include taking down road blocks in the West Bank that he thought were no longer needed as well as extending the hours of the Allenby Bridge, the bridge that connects Jericho in the West Bank to Jordan.

Cutler also talked about tourism from a perspective that I neither heard of nor considered.  There are only 2 million tourists in Israel each year, and the government believes there “should be more tourists than people living here.”  Meanwhile, there are significant historical and religious sites all over Israel, including in the West Bank, that are currently not being utilized.  The idea is to cooperate with the Palestinians and the international community to boost tourism by getting these sites up and running.  This could be a decent idea, if only Israelis and Palestinians could agree on anything regarding religion.

Okay, I think that does it for the five points.  A heated question, answer, and debate session followed, so here are some highlights from that.  She pretty much made everyone look and feel stupid.

Someone brought up a recent article written by Ha’aretz reporter Barak Ravid, which claimed that Netanyahu said Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are “self-hating Jews.”  Her response:

“It’s a lie.  The Israeli media has a problem.  We asked Ravid, can you us your sources, can you corroborate it.  He couldn’t.  He published it without asking for a response from the Prime Minister’s office.  When we read it in the paper we were stuck defending ourselves.”

I believe her, and I hope my instincts are good on this one.

Then we got to the issue of the settlements.  She gave the spiel that the decision to uproot settlements must be done in negotiations, and that dismantling the Gaza settlements in 2005 was a failure because it led to “6,000 rockets and mortars.”  And also, most Israelis don’t see the settelments as obstacles to peace, blah blah blah.  And then:

“The Palestinians have started to say that until there’s a settlement freeze, they won’t negotiate with Israel.  This is a new demand.  People tell them they have a chance to make new demands with the new government.”

Israel supposedly says it has no preconditions for negotiations with the Palestinians, but Cutler also said that Netanyahu will never divide Jerusalem and will not dismantle “illegal settlements.”  This is where the business of preconditions gets tricky, because it’s not like the Palestinians are politically naive.  At least in my opinion, Netanyahu’s policies classify as preconditions because he will never go back on his word.

A few of the people in the room asked questions about the potential demilitarized Palestinian state, some claiming that there is nothing like it in the world and that it would not even be a state at all since it really wouldn’t have complete sovereignty.  Cutler said, in true hasbara fashion, that there is no precedent for a demilitarized Palestinian state, and therefore:

“I think to compare a demilitarized Palestinian state to anything else in the world is useless because the situation is unique.”

Personally, I am not a fan of a militarized Palestinian state, but in terms of political theory, what Netanyahu is proposing isn’t really a state, but some kind of pseudo-protectorate.

But the gist of her talk was that:

“I think that the day the Palestinians can cross the rubicon and recognize Israel as a Jewish state, everything will come into place.”

And then I asked her a question about Jerusalem, about how she thinks they can overcome that obstacle when it’s clearly the crux of the problem and one that can never be solved.

And here’s the “gotcha” moment:

“The core of the conflict was that the Palestinians didn’t agree that the Jews had a right to be here.  The core is not Jerusalem.  Jerusalem wasn’t even united until 1967.  What’s to stop them from saying, now on to Haifa, now on to Tel Aviv?”

I wasn’t suggesting that Israel divide Jerusalem, but okay, fair enough.  She basically chopped everyone up into pieces whenever we asked her questions, so I was in good company.  That’s it for now.  I have a vocab quiz in about an hour.  Wish me luck!

Today’s Times-Picayune Living section centerpiece:

For Chef Reggie Davis, the best place to address the plight of local at-risk teens was obvious.

In the kitchen.

“There’s a need here in the Mid-City area that’s not addressed by youth programs such as ours, ” said Davis, the executive chef and head culinary trainer for Liberty’s Kitchen, a non-profit youth development program near the corner of Tulane and Broad. “We’re offering them a new set of survival skills…”

I worked really hard on this.  Read the rest HERE!

So a few weeks ago, I mentioned in a post that AIPAC was sending over some 200 Congresspeople on a mission to Israel.  I also said that I would probably never see any of them.  Well, all of that changed when I got an email/Facebook message from Jeff Seidel, who runs a student center here, which said that he had set up a meeting for Hebrew University students with Representative Shelley Berkley, a Democrat from Nevada who serves Las Vegas.  She’s been working with AIPAC for years, and was first elected to the House in 1999.  Rep. Berkley is in a uniquely powerful position in terms of her Congressional activites because she sits on the Committee on Ways & Means as well as on the Council of Foreign Relations, which are two of the most influential legislative entities.

Her credentials aside, I of course jumped at the opportunity.  Last night, five of us went to the David Citadel hotel, which is about as expensive as it gets here in Jerusalem, to have a casual conversation with Congresswoman Berkley.  When she walked into the hotel she introduced herself, and so did this other guy who looked vaguely familiar.  Who was it?  None other than Representative Steny Hoyer, a democrat from Maryland who also happens to be the House Majority Leader, i.e. second-in-command to Nancy Pelosi.  Yes, I met him!!!!!

Rep. Hoyer excused himself to go to bed, and so Rep. Berkley brought us upstairs for cold drinks and conversation.  She actually paid for my bottle of water, which normally files under the category of the banale, but it’s cool to tell people that a Congresswoman paid for my drink.  I was there to listen but, as always, I also took notes.  Here are a few excerpts to familiarize you with her ideology, which is obviously pro-Israel.

On pulling out of Gaza in 2005:

“My hope was that it would give the Palestinians the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that they were capable of self-governance…The Palestinians have turned Gaza into a camp that will lob missiles into Israel, and the weaponry is becoming more sophisticated because it’s being supplied by Iran.”

On the two-state solution:

“I was a great advocate for many years, but I think one has to earn a state of their own, and they haven’t demonstrated they can do that.  I’ve become lukewarm until they can demonstrate that they’re capable of self-governance.”

On Obama’s rapport with Netanyahu and the Israeli government:

“The Obama administration is making a big mistake focusing on the settlements and suggesting that if settlement activity ceased, the Arab world would line up to sign a peace agreement with Jerusalem…Im not seeing much discussion right now with the administration.  It was their mistake to criticize Israel’s government and undermine them.  If anything, their should be pressure on our moderate Arab allies.”

On Iran:

“I see the situation becoming more dangerous for Israel on all fronts…I do not think the world can tolerate a nuclear Iran.”

I tried asking her some of the really hard questions.  For example, I mentioned that New York Times editorial from a few weeks back about how Obama still has not directly addressed Israelis.  So I asked her what she thought about that and, like any decent politician, she never gave me an answer. 

Berkley also made mention of her disapproval of Obama’s belief that the “best way for a two-state solution is to work with Arab countries.”  This is typical AIPAC rhetoric, and something I definitely do not agree with.  I mean, it’s called the Middle East for a reason.  Because it’s not just one country, but a lot of them.  Israel is surrounded by Arab countries.  That’s not changing anytime soon.  Egypt and Jordan both have peace treaties with Israel that have never been broken, no matter how badly relations may have deteriorated in recent years.  AIPAC may not like the idea of giving up the Golan Heights, and I can’t say that I do either, but as Reuven told me three and a half years ago, it will eventually happen and it’s something we’ll have to deal with (for those of you who don’t know, Reuven is right about everything).

However, I do agree with Rep. Berkley’s criticism of Obama’s approach to the settlement issue.  Solving the issue of the settlements is obviously important, but the only thing that truly matters when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian situation is the status of Jerusalem.  There’s a reason why it’s always discussed last at peace summits and then ultimately avoided.  For example, let’s take the Camp David Accords of 1978, a meeting between President Sadat from Egypt and Prime Minister Begin from Israel, coordinated and moderated by President Jimmy Carter.  The two tracks for negotiations were the Sinai and the Palestinian issue.  The Sinai had been successfully dealt with by the second week of the meetings, as Israel agreed to pull out gradually, but East Jerusalem was the biggest obstacle.  Begin and Sadat finally agreed to a new formula in which Egypt, Israel, and the United States would all include letters stating their positions on Jerusalem. 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is about as vague as it gets.  There will be no peace in the Middle East until the issue of Jerusalem is solved, and until then the settlements are just extra and no agreement about their status means much.  If Obama really wants to pressure Netanyahu, it should be about the status of Jerusalem.  Of course, Bibi has much more political experience and savoir-faire than Obama, and can artfully dodge just about any “request” that comes from the White House. 

I leave you all with this gem of a photograph:

When I started with the Living section in July, the section editor told me that his goal was to have me write for all of the sub-sections.  This included WISH, the T-P’s oh-so-fluffy monthly fashion magazine.  I love clothes, shoes, and jewelry just as much as the next girl, but I was really nervous about writing a piece for WISH because I had neither a particular interest nor any previous experience in that arena.  But every section is short on writers and manpower in general, and thus I found myself interviewing Beth Payton, Saints head coach Sean Payton’s wife, about her “Favorite Things.”

“Beth Payton enjoys being on the sidelines, except when it comes to her off-the-field passion — the Paytons’ Play It Forward Foundation.

Payton and her husband, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, founded the charitable organization in 2007 to improve the quality of life for local families.

The foundation recently hosted a golf tournament. “We raised close to $100,000, which will go to organizations that benefit children in the New Orleans area,” she said. The money will be directed to educational initiatives and programs that work to improve local health care and social welfare…”

Everything about shopping is towards the bottom, and the article is really short, so go read it!