There's Hope Yet

Gabe Pransky was so kind as to share this post on 'The New Face of the IDF' with me on Google Reader (btw, anyone with a Gmail account can sign up for the Common Sensorium's rss feed and get off my email list ;-). It tells the story (briefly) of an Arab girl from the Galilee, Elinor Jozef, who become the first female Arab combat soldier in the IDF. Despite objections from her friends, who remind Elinor the IDF kills Arabs, Elinor replies:

There was a Katyusha that fell near my house [during the 2nd Lebanon War] and also hurt Arabs. If someone would tell me that serving in the IDF means killing Arabs, I remind them that Arabs also kill Arabs... I believe in what I am doing…[a]t the end of the day, this will always be my home too.

So thank you Elinor Jozef for breaking down boundaries and bringing together people of differing backgrounds who share in common that they live in Israel, in a single country on a single piece of land.

As the article concludes:

Tellingly, Jozef does not distinguish between Jew, Arab, Muslim or Christian – in as much as the katyusha rockets from across the border do not make the same distinction either. For her they are all equal; they are all Israelis. And so too is she.

As someone who disavows ideological identities, the Common Sensorium salutes you! At the end of the day, people can't really be boiled down merely to the sum total of their beliefs. There is so much more color and complexity than that. Elinor Jozef realizes this at the young age of 20. Anti-Israel ideologues everywhere, take note.

Non-Israelis Need Not Apply

I really shouldn't be blogging on a Friday with so much work to do so I'll make this brief (my epic blog on my best 10 concert experiences ever will have to wait... ;-(

My only point today is that people that don't live in Israel and don't understand the complexity of the situation here and Jewish-Arab/Muslim dynamics shouldn't express strong political opinions one way or another. I have had only positive interactions with Arab residents of this city since moving here almost 6 years ago. The just-ended World Cup only served to highlight that. I had many 'football'-related conversations with passersby, cabbies, gas station attendants, people out strolling on the local promenade overlooking the old city, mostly with arabs. They were all pleasant and fun - Arabs take their football very seriously.

It was capped with my going to watch the final this past Sunday with my friend David over at his work, JVP. I ran into the former editor in chief of Seeking Alpha there with his son (what up Mick?!) - he works there now and sat in the row behind us. Directly in front of him was an old ulpan buddy of mine named Wahid, an Arab E. Jerusalemite. He does some freelance work for JVP and lives nearby in Abu Tor - a mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood nearby. The ulpan I attended in early 2006 was mixed about 50/50 between Jewish immigrants and E. Jerusalemite Arabs looking to improve their Hebrew for university. Wahid and I always hit it oof and Sunday night was no exception. He seemed genuinely excited to have run into me and spoke very highly of me to his friend he was there with (also Arab). He's a huge football nut (of course) and a generally very affable guy who spends much of his time working with Jews. We agreed to hopefully meet up again sometime soon (I'm leaving to NYC for a month in 3 days).

I write all this because the general perception among both the left and the right living outside this country is that all (or the vast majority of) Arabs living in Israel hate Jews. For the left, it is because of the original sin of Jewish resettlement in this place, only exacerbated by 43 years of settler activity. For the right, it is offered as 'proof' there will never be peace here so damn all Arab Israelis, let's just dig in deeper to our bunkers, because even if an Arab seems nice, he's really just trying to kill us. Living here daily, the reality is infinitely more complex. Oppinionated outsiders, please take note.