Sweet and Sour

During a visit to St Anne’s Cathedral, a Catholic Church in the Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, I asked Father Michel La Voie, a French Canadian Priest, what it was like to live in the Old City and Israel. He responded in his soft spoken tones “It is like Chinese food, sweet and sour. It gets a little heavy after awhile” Similar sentiments are expressed by Pastor Russ Siler, Pastor of the English speaking Lutheran congregation in the Old City of Jerusalem who is now leaving after four years in the city.

9 June 2007

It is almost as if I am returning to school after a summer break, preparing to write the obligatory essay on what I did over my vacation. Save for the fact that this term stretched out for four years, it was truly a break—a world apart from that which most people in my home country experience on a daily basis. Here is a world in which one is not free to travel where one wishes. It is a place not of freedom, but of restrictions—not of liberty, but of oppression. As my wife Anne and I prepare to leave this land which has been our home these past few years, I wish that I could package this segment of our lives and make it available to you in such a way that you could see, feel, hear, smell, taste, and touch the things we have. Then you would be as overwhelmed by joy, sadness, elation, and despair as we are. But I cannot. All I believe I am capable of doing is telling you what I will miss and what I will not miss as we return to the United States.
I will miss the beautiful homes left to us from a magnificent past, with their arched windows and ornate porches and high ceilings. I will not miss the piles of rubble and rebar which mark demolished Palestinian homes—more than 15,000 of them since the Occupation began, most on the flimsiest of pretexts by the Israeli army or municipal authority—where I know lie crushed under each one a family's dream of a place of their own.


I will miss the magnificent countryside, littered with rocks and hills of every size and description, and the rugged landscapes that Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Jesus, Peter, and Andrew hiked through. I will not miss the monstrous Wall, barbed wire fences, dirt mounds across unpaved village access roads, and ugly, prison-fortress-like crossings and terminals, ubiquitous in their barbarity. I won't miss them, because Israel presents them to you as dire necessities for their security, indeed, for their very survival, while we see the truth of Israel's reality which is to carve up Palestine into ever tinier clusters of humanity whose religious, cultural, societal ties are so slashed into disconnected ribbons that a nation is impossible.
I will miss ever so much the innocent smiles and playful giggles on the faces of the children—Israeli, Palestinian, international—all over the place. I will not miss the heaviness dragging on my heart like an anchor, as I realize how very soon that playful innocence will fall victim to fear and hatred, to bigotry and racism. I will miss the steady stream of visitors—vacationers, pilgrims, seekers, tourists—that arrive like clockwork at our 9:00 am Sunday worship in St. John's Chapel.
I will miss their delight at being in the Holy Land—many of them first-timers, but many more veterans of the land—their eagerness to meet Palestinian Christians whom, they soon learn, have been a vital presence here for the entire life of the Christian Church, and their openness to listen to narratives of the deadly conflict that the rest of the world seldom hears. I will not miss the busloads of tourists whose guide takes them to Bethlehem for a quick peek at the Church of the Nativity, then hurries them back to Jerusalem, because, "It's dangerous in the West Bank."
I will miss the witness of the courageous Israeli and Jewish women and men—Machsom Watch, Rabbis for Human Rights, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Women in Black, and all the others—as they tirelessly seek to stand in solidarity with people who seek justice and to educate those who wonder what unspeakable things are being done in the name of their beloved religion. I will not miss those coarse voices who violently insist—to the detriment of intelligent dialogue, discussion, disagreement, debate, or dissent—that any person who dares to criticize Israeli policy is either self-hating or anti-Semitic.
Perhaps, however, more than anything, I will miss the thousand times a week I hear ahlan wa salan—Welcome—singing out with genuine warmth from face after face of those who are desperately eager to let me know that, regardless of appearance, religion, or nationality, I am their brother. I have no doubt whatsoever that, were one of these persons to be down to his last piece of bread, he would beckon me closer and say, "Come, sit, eat!" What I will never miss are the questions spontaneously emerging from these same warm hearts, "Why does America treat us this way?" "Why do they help Israel oppress us and take our land?" "Will you please tell Mr. Bush that all we want is to be treated fairly; we only want justice." I will not miss these questions because I think they are harsh or prompted by bad intentions, but because I have no answers which will make a whit of difference to my sisters, to my brothers who are so baffled by the way our country treats them.
Some of you have asked what I will do when we return to the States. At this juncture I can only grin broadly and say "Retire!" We do know there are challenges and adventures awaiting us; we just don't know what or where or when. The only certainty in my mind—No. Make that in my heart—is that I will continue to speak up and to speak out. My friends here would understand if I did not. They would softly comfort me, "We know how hard it will be." The problem is that I will not be that easy on myself. I cannot see the tears in my brother's eyes without tasting the salty bitterness in my own mouth. And I cannot swallow the bitter taste; I must open my mouth and let it out! Thank you for your faithful willingness to listen and for your constant support. They have been life-giving! Peace!

Russell O. Siler,
Pastor
English-speaking Congregation Lutheran Church of the Redeemer Jerusalem, Old City thesilers@earthlink.net

On self censorship

Iranians that I talked to during my recent trip to this complex country described the media situation as being very nuanced. Although overt censorship is no longer common, there are "red lines" that media outlets critical of the regime would be wise not to cross if they wish to keep their jobs or stay in business. (For a good description of the situation click here) The meeting that we were scheduled to have with a group of journalists was canceled. Although the actual reason for the cancellation was not completely clear, the best guess was that they did not want to risk being associated with Americans at a time when such association could impact their livelihood. As the article points out the location of the "red line" is not clear and therefore journalists need to be careful and exert a large degree of self censorship with respect to what they say or publish. In the US, however, the location of the "red line" with respect to the Israel/Palestinian conflict is very clear and one crosses the line at one's peril as DePaul University political science professor Norman Finkelstein found out. If you are in academia or the media and dare to cross the line your livelihood will be in peril. (For this story click here) My advice would be: If you are in this position and want to keep your job, exercise a little self censorship.

Do I want my child in this world?

This morning in church the sermon included a poem by Wendell Barry

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,vacation with pay.

Want more of everything ready-made.

Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery any more.

Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something they will call you.

When they want you to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute.

Love the Lord. Love the world.

Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace the flag.

Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot understand.

Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium.

Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years.

Listen to carrion - put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world.

Laugh.Laughter is immeasurable.

Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie down in the shade.

Rest your head in her lap.

Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it.

Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn't go.

Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

The line that resonated with me was "Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth?" It reminded me of a conversation I had with a young Palestinian woman on the West Bank. She said "My husband and I are not sure that we want to have children. Is it fair to bring another life into our existence?" We should be concerned if we are creating a world into which women are afraid to bring to life. This is a road to death not resurrection. Perhaps one of the criteria for government policy should be: How will women feel about bringing new life into the world we are creating?

The danger of soft power

Prior to our recent trip to Iran, my wife and I had many people question our sanity in going to such a dangerous place. We heard comments like “Why would you go there?” and “We will pray for you”. We were also warned in Iran of the dangers, if somewhat tongue in cheek. One afternoon we went to a tea house at the end of one of the beautiful old bridges in Isfahan. As I was talking to the Iranian at the reception desk, he asked where I was from. When I said “America”, he responded with a grin “American. Why would you come here? Don’t you know all Iranians are terrorists?” As I was leaving the tea house and inquired how much I owed him he responded “You are Americans; you are my guests”. Upon our return to JFK airport in NYC the immigration official, when he saw that we had been to Iran, said “Don’t you know that people disappear all the time in Iran?” In some respects these warnings were accurate. Several Iranian-Americans have been arrested and detained in Iran in the last few months. (To see the story, click here and here) These people have been primarily human rights advocates and activists. We also experienced the efforts of the Iranian government to reduce the contact between American citizens and the Iranian people. Many of our meetings with journalists and women’s rights groups were canceled either by the government or by the groups themselves who were afraid of the repercussions of meeting with Americans. The group following ours had all of their meetings canceled. The reason given by the government is that they are afraid that contact with Americans will lead to a “velvet or soft revolution” such as occurred in the Soviet Union. The government is afraid that by engaging with the young and restless Iranian population Americans could create a non-violent regime change. The US government, however, seems to be on a completely different path and seems to being to doing its best to sustain the unpopular regime. US and international sanctions give the Iranian regime a scapegoat for their bad economic policies. Efforts to undermine the regime with propaganda and collusion with outside opposition groups, who have little support within Iran, give the mullahs an excuse for their repressive policies. US refusal to recognize Iranian rights under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), military threats and saber rattling tend to solidify popular support behind the regime. It is these types of policies that have succeeded in keeping Fidel Castro in power in Cuba for 50 years. Some Iranians say that the regime would like to see the US attack Iran as it would unite the population against the “Great Satan”. The greatest danger to the regime, as the regime itself admits, is engagement with Americans. The current government might well fall of its own weight. All Iranians that I talked to wanted this to be a peaceful transition created by Iranians. They said “The last thing we need is another revolution. It would set us back 30 years” and “A new government must not be seen as a creation of the west. If it were seen as sponsored by the US, it would have no legitimacy”. The Islamic regime has gradually moderated since the revolution. As one Iranian said to me “We are going through a difficult time now, but this too will pass. Democracy is not a pill that you take.”

End of the beginning-beginning of the end

This month’s travels to the Middle East, including Israel and Palestine, yielded a view of a situation much worse than I saw last year. The light of hope has gone out of the eyes of West Bank Palestinians. Economic sanctions, the cut off of aid, border closings, the arming of factions and the disruption of communication and travel have resulted in frustration and a loss of hope. Internecine warfare and chaos have added to the despair caused by high unemployment and a collapsing economy. It is becoming increasing clear to me, if not to our political leaders, that a negotiated two state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is unrealistic. For there to be a negotiated settlement there must be overlap between the positions of the parties. As the Israeli rejection of the Arab peace proposal indicates, there is a large gap between the minimum that the Palestinians would accept and the most that the Israelis would offer. Israelis are not going to give up modern settlements on the West Bank, like Maal Adumim, which are made suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem by bypass roads. These settlements are home to 500,000 Israeli Jews. Years of weak and even incompetent leadership in the US, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have brought us to this point. They have been unwilling or unable to make the difficult political decisions required for a solution. We are at the end of the peace process and the beginning of the road to apartheid and ethnic cleansing. (Jeff Halper, Coordinator of Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolition makes this point here) Heading down this road, we are in danger of arriving at out-right war. The Palestinian/American lawyer who is the legal advisor to the Palestinian Authority told the story of a conversation that he had on the streets of Ramallah on the West Bank. After he had led a team of Palestinian Authority lawyers at the International Court of Justice who won their case and had the ICJ declare the Israeli separation wall/fence illegal, he was told “You may be happy, but it will have no effect. The US and Israel will ignore it and the rest of the world will go along. No one knows we are here unless we make a noise”. The lawyer said “I knew what he meant”. Sooner or later a Palestinian Israeli citizen, enraged by the death of a sister in childbirth at an Israeli checkpoint or the death of a brother as collateral damage from an Israeli targeted killing will “make a noise” at a coffee shop in Tel Aviv or Haifa. (The novel The Attack by Yasima Khadra explores this scenario.) The resulting Israeli crack down will surface all the fissures in Israeli society and expand the conflict throughout the region. More innocent Israelis, Palestinians and maybe Americans will die. But perhaps there are no innocent Israelis, Palestinians or Americans. In a discussion with an Iranian about the fact that Iranians don’t hold the actions of the US government against individual Americans he said “This may change. You are a democracy and in a democracy, you are responsible for your government.” Israel, the Palestinian Territories and America are democracies. In a democracy you get the government that you deserve.

Welcome to my country

As an American visitor in Iran who is obviously not Iranian, one is frequently approached in public places with the question “Where are you from?” When you say America”, the usual response is “Welcome to my country” or ‘Welcome to my city”. This response of ownership reflects the strong nationalism of Iranians and their great pride in their ancient civilization, much of it dating from the 2nd millennium BCE. I met a young lady in Persopolis, a palace complex dating to 500 BCE, who was in tears. When asked why she was crying, she responded that “I am so sad that that my country has fallen from where it was to where it is today.” This pride in their country’s historical importance manifests itself when the man in the street supports the efforts of a relatively unpopular regime to stand up to the west and insist that their rights under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) be respected. Given this popular support it is unlikely that US efforts to force Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program will have an impact. The best that the US can hope for is that Iran will live up to its obligations under the NPT and allow effective IAEA inspections to remain in place. The current US sanctions are having little effect. There is some cost to the economy since international credit card transactions have to be processed through Dubai, some US patented drugs hard to obtain and spare parts for US made equipment are unavailable except at a very high cost. Everything needs a middleman. (Our guides mother and mother in law both called to see if he had survived our flight from Tehran to Yazd. They said “Our planes are not safe.”) There is also a cost to the US from the sanctions. Iran is building strong business relationships with French, Russian, Chinese and Arab state business entities. These business relationships will be hard to overcome when relations are normalized and Iranians fully expect that to happen. When there was pressure to sell the US embassy property to pay compensation to the victims of the Iran Air flight shot down by the USS Vincennes, President Amadenijad refused to allow it. He said “The property belongs to the US and they will want it back when they return”. Currently the former embassy is a now closed museum of American “crimes”. Current US policy of attempting to unilaterally isolate Iran will probably have the same effect as US Cuba policy and keep the current regime in place for a long time. We would be better served by engaging this proud nation with its moderate Muslim population and with its potential to be an ally in stabilizing this troubled part of the world.

Remaining in Power

Two weeks of traveling in Iran have it clear that this beautiful and ancient country is a land of many contradictions. The three identities that Iranians hold (Persian, Islamic and modern) are constantly in conflict and shape the views of average Iranians on all the issues that face them. Any government in this country must deal with this reality. In addition, with 75% of the population under 30, there is constant pressure to provide a future based on economic and political opportunity. To Supreme Leader Khamanei it must feel like trying to raise 50 million teenagers. Like any politician Khamanei and President Amedinijad are primarily interested in remaining in power. When the Islamic republic was founded with the overthrow of the Shah, it was an idealistic state. The leaders of the revolution had ambitions of spreading their form of government throughout the Middle East. They set out to suppress all internal opposition, killing and imprisoning members of the Shah’s repressive regime as well as any others whom they saw as potential opposition. Since then a strong dose of political reality has significantly moderated the regime. Social restrictions have loosened. People talk openly about the failures of the regime. They remain, however, reluctant to talk “on the record”. Even the monarchists feel free to express their point of view. The media is not as free as many would like it to be. To deviate too far from the government line risks having your company be shut down. For this reason the media tends to practice self censorship much like the US media practices with respect to the Israel/Palestine issue. Western news, however, is readily available on satellite and on the internet. There is some internet control. In my experience, it is primarily focused on internal Iranian blog sites and sites such as Victoria’s Secret which are deemed un-Islamic. Given the easy availability of western media outlets,it is not clear to me that the US propaganda station is a useful enterprise. It in fact may help the regime by allowing them to accuse the US of interference and give them an excuse to crack down on satellite TV. This is similar to the excuses given for blocking Al Jazeera in the US. (Some Iranians believe that the government bureaucrats are in cahoots with the people that sell satellite antennas. The government confiscates the antenna so that people have to buy a new one.) Some even argue that the regime is helped by encouraging more western TV. Conservative Iranians look at the lifestyle portrayed by US TV programming and conclude that “we don’t want to be like that”. Trying to deal with this educated, informed and demanding population is a daunting task for the leadership. In order to remain in power they must cope with many constituencies and go to great lengths to insure that opposition does not become too organized and motivated. To this end they even maintain two armies, the regular army and the regime loyal Revolutionary Guard) in order to minimize the chance of a military coup. With these dynamics in mind it is important that whenever Americans listen to events in Iran that we remember that much of it is for domestic consumption. Iranian politicians are acting like politicians everywhere-trying to remain in power.

Message for the Supreme Leader

Much has been made in the Iranian blogs the last few weeks about the effort by the Iranian government to crack down on “unIslamic dress” in order to encourage more conservative dress among Iran’s youthful population. (75% of Iranians are under 30) The “fashion police” have been out on the streets peering into cars and stopping women on the streets to chastise them and some times arrest them for “bad hejab”. (I have not seen any of this activity) Our guide said that his wife felt the need to purchase a new manteau that would cover more of her curves. Yesterday my wife, Marcia, decided that she needed to purchase a second manteau. I am not sure whether this reflected the need to make more of a fashion statement or the practical need to be able to get one washed after wearing it for a week. Buying a manteau is a bit like buying a Model T Ford. For the most part you can get any color that you want as long as it is black. In order to accomplish this mission, we asked the young lady at the hotel desk where to go buy a manteau. This was the wrong question. I should have asked “Where does your mother go to buy a manteau?” After a hair raising cab ride through the traffic mayhem that is part of the adventure of Iran and the near death experience of crossing the street (I find it useful to find an Iranian woman covered in a complete abaya and stick close to her. The men are much too agile.) we arrived at the mall. This was Thurday night, the Saturday night of the Iranian workweek, and the mall was filled with young people “cruising” to hook up with members of the opposite sex. The girls were dressed in jeans and manteaus that had to have been painted on. The XXL size in the shops was about a 10. After 30 minutes in this mall, I have a message for the Supreme Leader: In your battle to improve Islamic dress in Iran, you are losing.

PS: Our cab driver finally understood the problem and took us where his wife shops. Mission accomplished.

View from Tehran

Tehran is a clean, bustling city of:
Traffic mayhem,
Parks
High end malls
Warm hospitable nationalistic people
Beautiful women in hejab measured in inches and manteus that barely reach the thigh
Pictures of martyrs
Death to America murals
Ancient artifacts
Snow covered peaks
Palaces
Bazaars
Wealth and Poverty

Voices from Gaza

Zakeya Shabit, grandmother, patient at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza: “During our Ramadan feast, the Israelis shot at a school near our home. Four of our bed-rooms and our kitchen were demolished. My brother was killed. My nephew was shot at her neck. 6 donums of our land were uprooted. We call God to interfere.”

Hanniyeh, nurse at Al Ahli Arab Hospital: “During an invasion we cannot reach our kitchen to get water, because it is near the area of shooting. They shoot at anything that is moving. So the family gathers in the center of the house to have as many protecting walls around them as possible. Anyone can be killed at any time. We started taking shifts in sleeping, because sometimes they knock at the door at night, and if we do not hear them they may shoot the whole house. Even if I smile, my heart is suffering! May God help us!”

Imm Alla’, patient at Al Ahli Arab Hospital: “I want to understand one thing: Are human beings divided into classes? Are not all people human beings? Are Moslems, Christians and Jews different from each other? Are we as Moslems second class human beings? Why should my mother have to grieve and cry? Would you agree if someone was to take you out of your house? Kill your son? Take your water? Bulldoze your trees, your land, your house? Where are our human rights???”

Imm Ahmed, patient at Al Ahli Hospital: “We cannot continue to live in fear our whole life. Fear has become a common feeling. When the airplanes are bombing we prepare ourselves for death.” “We are the living dead! Better to die than to live like this. Enough! They have taken the land and we are left and forgotten in Gaza. There is no hope! We only want to live in peace!”
“The psychological pressure causes headaches and affects our eyes. We are all psychologically ill. I am here in the hospital because of the situation. I believe my illness is a direct result of the psychological impact of the shelling and bombings. We cannot take it any more!”

Dr. Maher Ayyad, medical director at Al Ahli Arab Hospital: “The voice of peace is weak in this land. It should be strong and the whole world should encourage the people of this land to make peace. People should be more open and believe that this is the land of God which was given to all of us. We can live together. They cannot dismiss all Palestinians, and we cannot dismiss all Israelis. Let us live and grow together. Killing will not solve anything! All who draw the sword will die by the sword! Let our children grow in a better atmosphere! Let us make this land the Holy Land!”

Suhaila Tarazi, director of Al Ahli Arab Hospital: “The Arab Christian can be a mediator between the Jews and the Muslims, the West and the Middle East. For us Christianity is peace and love for everybody. But we fear that Jesus will not find one single follower when he comes back. The Church should help the Christians to stay here. This is the land of Christianity and all His followers. Christians should be here to help and give a good example of Christianity.”
“But where is the conscience of the true Christians in this world? It is very dark in here. I do not see any hope. The situation has deteriorated in a way I cannot describe. In a week’s time 48 people were killed.”
“Israel has the right to security. But it does not have the right to excessive weapons. They are empowering Hamas.”
“It seems that Israelis have no sense of guilt about what they have done to the Palestinians. The Jews have suffered so much and I feel with them. But why do they victimize other people? Will not any person who was once poor remember the value of a piece of bread and give it to the one in need?”

Time is Running Out

Last month King Abdullah of Jordan spoke in front of the US Congress. His message was essentially that time is running out for a peaceful settlement of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict. Progress must be made soon on finding a just solution or the situation will begin to go downhill rapidly. Congress in its wisdom promptly ignored him. Perhaps they felt that he should be satisfied with the opportunity to speak in front of this august body of pontificating politicians. In this respect Congress is following in the footsteps of President Bush who completely ignored the Iraq Study Group when they said that the road to peace in the Middle East runs through Jerusalem. As I have wandered around the Middle East for the past week and a half, most of the conversations that I have had would confirm King Abdullah’s opinion - time is running out. As the economic, political and security situation continues to deteriorate under occupation and economic boycott in the West Bank and Gaza, the frustration, loss of hope and anger within the Palestinian population is growing daily. Stories of nine hour trips from Nablus to Jerusalem (an 1 ½ hour trip without check points) in which only westerners get to finish the trip and Palestinians must turn back are frequent. At the King Hussein Jordan/Israel border crossing I met a young doctor from Columbus, Ohio, who was on her way to see her parents in Ramallah. She said that it was entirely possible that she would be denied entry altogether. As I proceeded through the 2 hour labyrinth of Israeli border security, she disappeared. I have no idea what happened to her. A Palestinian shopkeeper who I know in Bethlehem said “2008 will tell. The wall/security fence will be completed. The Palestinian Territory will be divided into Bandustans. Everything will be more difficult. We shall see; I am not optimistic”. My Palestinian driver in Jordan feels that it is already too late. He says “There will be no peace. Both people will continue to suffer”. An Israeli Palestinian said “If something doesn’t change soon Israel/Palestine will become another Iraq”. This scenario is Israel’s worst nightmare. Twenty percent of the Israeli population is Arab Palestinian. To date they have largely confined their protests to the political arena. Should the palpable anger that was in the voice of this young man boil over into violence, he may well be right. When a German journalist who has been here for over 2 years was asked if he saw any hopeful signs, he paused for a long time and then said “Only the patience and hope of the Palestinian people gives me any optimism”. Palestinians continue to use the word “hope”, but there is no longer the light in their eyes. Time is running out!

Making Lemonade from Lemons

Three years ago during a visit to Al Adiseyah, a small rural village in northern Jordan, the leader of the local social welfare committee described the problem that the area citrus farmers were having in obtaining a good price for their lemon harvest. Working with a Jordan based NGO we have attempted to assist the farmers in resolving the issues. In the process we have had several false starts because we forgot one of the lessons that we should have learned from observing economic development in Central America. The Americans would come into these countries and say you have these problems and we can come and solve them for you. The Communists, on the other hand, would come and sit in the coffee shops and say “you people shouldn’t be living like this.”A better solution was when advisors would try to motivate the local people to identify their problems and take action to solve them. Once we engaged with the local community and not just the leaders we were able to find a solution that works for them. Twelve young single women have formed a group to produce concentrate for lemonade from the lemons that can not be sold at a reasonable price in the fresh market. The young women are able to increase their family’s income by about 10%, but beyond that they feel empowered and as one said “we are not just sitting at home waiting for a husband”. In this part of the world there are many cultural barriers to full participation by women in much of community life. These barriers have the effect of marginalizing half of the brain power of the population and they place these countries at an economic disadvantage. It was amazing to see the change in the dynamic within the group once the men left the room. As an American man I was able to be an honorary woman and observe this change. These young women have been encouraged to speak up for what they want and to try to achieve it. By doing this we may have created some problems for their fathers, brothers and future husbands. We in the west tend to define a “better life” in economic terms and we are surprised that in other cultures a “better life” may be defined in other ways. We all define a “better life” and success in our own way and in our own terms. For me success in this project will be when we can call these women and ask them to come and work in a bazaar or farmer’s market to sell their product and they can say yes and come without having to ask permission from their father, brothers or husband.

Pushing the Envelope

Yesterday our Iranian citizen’s diplomacy group had a conference call to meet each other and discuss pertinent issues before our departure for Iran. During the course of the discussion about appropriate dress for women in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sanaz, our trip coordinator, pointed out that “Iranian women can push the envelope, but American women need to respect legal and cultural norms.” This might be a good piece of advice for Americans in the political arena as well. It was a lesson that we neglected to heed in our rush to install western democracy in Iraq. We seem to be going down the same path in our call for “regime change” in Iran. Iraq had and Iran still has a large relatively wealthy, educated population who would like to see changes in their political and economic situation. While it may be difficult for the poor uneducated populations of authoritarian counties like Zimbabwe to effect change, the people of Iraq probably would have and the people of Iran probably will figure it out without an invasion or a second CIA coup. Many Iranians are working within legal and cultural norms of Iran to effect change and “push the envelope”. You can see this happening in these pictures and by visiting blog sites like “View from Iran”. (To see click here or on the link to the left- I recommend it) As Tom Friedman pointed out in a recent column “Probably the best thing that we can do to effect change in Iran is to issue 50,000 student visas to Iranian students.”

A War of Narratives

Today NY Times columnist David Brooks wrote this piece about the difference in world view between the Arab Middle East and the western world. Although I agree with some of what he said, I thought that some comments were called for.

A War of Narratives

I just attended a conference that was both illuminating and depressing. It was co-sponsored by the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan and the American Enterprise Institute, and the idea was to get Americans and moderate Arab reformers together to talk about Iraq, Iran, and any remaining prospects for democracy in the Middle East.
As it happened, though, the Arab speakers mainly wanted to talk about the Israel lobby. One described a book edited in the mid-1990s by the Jewish policy analyst David Wurmser as the secret blueprint for American foreign policy over the past decade. A pollster showed that large majorities in Arab countries believe that the Israel lobby has more influence over American policy than the Bush administration. Speaker after speaker triumphantly cited the work of Stephen Walt, John Mearsheimer and Jimmy Carter as proof that even Americans were coming to admit that the Israel lobby controls their government.
The problems between America and the Arab world have nothing to do with religious fundamentalism or ideological extremism, several Arab speakers argued. They have to do with American policies toward Israel, and the forces controlling those policies.
As for problems in the Middle East itself, these speakers added, they have a common source, Israel. One elderly statesman noted that the four most pressing issues in the Middle East are the Arab-Israeli dispute, instability in Lebanon, chaos in Iraq and the confrontation with Iran. They are all interconnected, he said, and Israel is at the root of each of them.
We Americans tried to press our Arab friends to talk more about the Sunni-Shiite split, the Iraqi civil war and the rise of Iran, but they seemed uninterested. They mimicked a speech King Abdullah of Jordan recently delivered before Congress, in which he scarcely mentioned the Iraqi chaos on his border. It was all Israel, all the time.
The Americans, needless to say, had a different narrative. We tended to argue that problems like Muslim fundamentalism, extremism and autocracy could not be blamed on Israel or Paul Wolfowitz but had deeper historical roots. We tended to see the Israeli-Palestinian issue not as the root of all fundamentalism, but as a problem made intractable by fundamentalism.
In other words, they had their narrative and we had ours, and the two passed each other without touching. But the striking thing about this meeting was the emotional tone. There seemed to be a time, after 9/11, when it was generally accepted that terror and extremism were symptoms of a deeper Arab malaise. There seemed to be a general recognition that the Arab world had fallen behind, and that it needed economic, political and religious modernization.
But there was nothing defensive or introspective about the Arab speakers here. In response to Bernard Lewis’s question, “What Went Wrong?” their answer seemed to be: Nothing’s wrong with us. What’s wrong with you?
The events of the past three years have shifted their diagnosis of where the cancer is — from dysfunction in the Arab world to malevolence in Jerusalem and in Aipac. Furthermore, the Walt and Mearsheimer paper on the Israel lobby has had a profound effect on Arab elites. It has encouraged them not to be introspective, not to think about their own problems, but to blame everything on the villainous Israeli network.
And so we enter a more intractable phase in the conflict, which will not be a war over land or oil or even democratic institutions, but a war over narratives. The Arabs will nurture this Zionist-centric mythology, which is as self-flattering as it is self-destructive. They will demand that the U.S. and Israel adopt their narrative and admit historical guilt. Failing politically, militarily and economically, they will fight a battle for moral superiority, the kind of battle that does not allow for compromises or truces.
Americans, meanwhile, will simply want to get out. After 9/11, George Bush called on the U.S. to get deeply involved in the Middle East. But now, most Americans have given up on their ability to transform the Middle East and on Arab willingness to change. Faced with an arc of conspiracy-mongering, most Americans will get sick of the whole cesspool, and will support any energy policy or anything else that will enable them to cut ties with the region.
What we have is not a clash of civilizations, but a gap between civilizations, increasingly without common narratives, common goals or means of communication.

Dear Mr. Brooks:

You are right to say that there is a gap between the views and narratives of western societies and Middle Eastern Arab cultures. However, you neglect to address the larger question of why that gap exists and how it can be closed. Clearly both parties are guilty of “dialogue” by press release which does little to promote understanding. We would be better off, however, to seriously address questions like “Why are proponents of radical political Islam popular in secular states like Lebanon and The Palestinian Territories?” and “Why do authoritarian governments remain in place in this part of the world?” To paraphrase Bill Clinton, the answer is “it’s the policy stupid”. As long as the US/Israel continues to occupy and oppress the Palestinians, the message of resistance promulgated by radical Islam will resonate with the man on the street. As long as the US supports and supplies authoritarian governments in the region, the Saudi supported mosque and its message of radical Islam will continue to be the focus of political resistance. We might listen to our Arab friends when they raise the question “Why would the US have policies that are clearly against its own national interest?”

Everybody is right and wrong

As I prepare for my upcoming trip to the Middle East, including Iran, the current kerfuffle over the detention of 15 British soldiers and sailors by Iran has caused a bit of unease in our group. It doesn't take much research to determine that the situation is a lot less clear than the governments involved would have one believe. Shortly after the incident British Royal Navy Commodore Nick Lambert described the situation as follows: " There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they were in Iraqi territorial waters. Equally the Iranians may claim that they were Iranian territorial waters. The extent and definition of territorial waters in this part of the world is very complicated." Commodore Lambert has not been heard from since. A quick browse of the book with the intimidating title of "Continental Shelf Delimitation and Related Maritime Issues in the Persian Gulf" makes the description "very complicated" seem like an understatement. Controversial former British diplomat Craig Murray added to the flap by posting an article on his web site under the title "Fake Maritime boundaries". (Click here) The 15 soldiers and sailors have become pawns in the game of power politics. The Iranians are trying to send a message of "don't mess with me". As an Iranian blogger pointed out: "We probably could have avoided all this with the application of a little technology, namely a bull horn. Surely a country that can master nuclear technology can handle this technology." In this day of diplomacy by media statements a little quiet diplomacy would help resolve a murky situation where nobody is right. I guess as long as everybody is just yelling at each other and not shooting at each other our trip will still happen. Lets hope so.

Pharaoh: The ruler as an idiot

Recently Yossi Sarid, former Israeli Education Minister, wrote this op ed piece on the Exodus story in Haaretz, the English language Israeli paper.

Pharaoh: The ruler as an idiot


Tonight, when we are all gathered around the table and telling about the Exodus, let us pay attention to Pharaoh, whose story is the story of the folly and shortsightedness of rulers. So much attention has been devoted to the leadership of Moses, who was one of a kind, that the leadership of Pharaoh, who was one of many like him, is shunted aside. Did the scriptures intend to compare two types of leaders so that those who are led would see? We hereby recommend reading the Haggadah this evening as a present-day text. If the leadership of Moses was based on a great vision of saving a nation from its oppressors, the leadership of Pharaoh was based on a petty accounting of how to profit from the enslavement of another nation. The Egyptians embitter the lives of the Israelites with hard work, and force them to build Pithom and Ramses. Imperial history has always built treasure-cities, which immediately surround themselves with a security fence for defending against the fury of the forced and overworked laborers.
Moses opens his national and personal march toward freedom with an attack. He strikes an Egyptian man from the civil administration or the border police who is beating a Hebrew, and inters his body in the sand. Moses flees to the land of Midian, and from that moment he's a wanted man. From the time the uprising erupts, it becomes clear the king is an idiot, and not much time will pass until the slaves go free in spite of him. He conducts a losing battle and trips on every bump on the road. When Moses and Aaron come to him for the first time, urging him to let their people go, he dismisses the two authoritatively: "Get you to your burdens." The king is still certain that if he only makes things hard for the Hebrews, they will prefer survival and a livelihood over sacrifice and redemption. From now on, he won't even give them straw for the bricks. God is familiar with these foolish types who have no idea where they and their subjects are living. The more he hardens their hearts, the blinder they become. The 10 plagues begin to land on Pharaoh one after the other, but he refuses to be impressed. Blood floods the entire land of Egypt, Pharaoh and his magicians swallow frogs, the lice suck the marrow of man and beast, and the king does not give in. He does not agree to allow the Israelites to leave. As soon as the threat of one plague is removed, Pharaoh immediately refuses once again. He still does not understand that the next plague will be more lethal. Only when Egypt fills up with wild animals does Pharaoh begin to sober up, but there is still a long way to go. And before the landing of the locusts, protest demonstrations begin. The citizens of Egypt want the affair to end. "How long?" they ask. "Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?" Like his fellow rulers, Pharaoh knows how to count demonstrators and to read surveys. He offers additional gestures: The men will leave, but without the children. And when the plague of darkness falls he offers another concession: "Let your little ones also go with you," but without the flocks and cattle. When Moses and Aaron reject this offer too, the king gets furious, stops the negotiations and threatens to prevent them from leaving: "See my face no more, for on the day you see my face you shall die." And then the last and terrible plague strikes, the plague of the first born. "And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead." And what common sense failed to achieve was achieved by bereavement. Only now, after a fateful delay, does the king agree to a general exodus from Egypt - men, children, flocks and cattle. Up to the bitter end those blind rulers will never understand that anger is not appeased with miserly concessions and stingy gestures, and that national aspirations for independence cannot be destroyed. And even at the last moment, when the tortured nation was already on the way to its independence, the enslavers change their minds and chase the new situation as though the wheel of history could be turned back. Then the sea sweeps over them, and they plummet like lead in the mighty waters. What is left to us when we don't read the story of the Exodus properly? We are left with a belly full of matza balls and with "Pour out thy wrath."

This has generated a lot of comment regarding exactly what he is talking about and who is playing which role in modern times. ( To see the comments, click here) My reaction is that, probably, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.

An open letter to Nick Kristof

Here is a comment that I posted on NY Times columnist Nick Kristof's comment page regarding his op-ed piece in today's NY Times. (To read the piece, click here) As of now I am one of 233 comments most overwhelmingly positive. His normal number seems to be about 5. Something may be happening.
Dear Nick:
It pains me to say this in a country that claims freedom of the press as one of its core values, but thank you for your courage in writing this important piece. People like you and Jimmy Carter may force the debate in the U.S. that, as you say, rages in Israel. You will probably feel the rage of the usual suspects, but I guess that goes with the territory. This weekend we had a conference in our town on Darfur with Brian Steidle sponsored by our Jewish community at which your role in bringing this tragedy to the front was praised by all attending. I hope that my Jewish friends will feel as positive about you today as they did yesterday. With a new unity government in the Palestinian territories I hope that the PA will claim the only piece of vacant land in Israel/Palestine - the moral high ground. Acceptance by the PA of the Arab League proposal for a two state solution would put enormous pressure on the US/Israel to engage on the serious issues. Your leadership may be important in making something happen. We would then see if a two state solution is really possible. It is not clear to me how 300,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank can be made to disappear.

Who are the proliferators?

In the past few months there have been lots of discussions over adherence to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). (For more than you wanted to know click here) The U.S. has threatened Iran with dire consequences if it doesn’t live up to its obligations under the NPT. Hans Blix, the former chief UN inspector in Iraq, said at a recent lecture in Boise that who the violators are is not as clear as the U.S. government and media would have us believe. The NPT was negotiated in 1968 and signed and ratified by 188 nation states. Three states (Israel, India and Pakistan) neither signed nor ratified the treaty and proceeded to develop, test and deploy nuclear weapons (NW) outside the framework of the treaty. One (North Korea) ratified the treaty, broke it and then withdrew. The treaty has three basic pillars:
1. Non-proliferation - The 5 nuclear weapons states (NWS), Russia, China, France, U.K. and U.S, agreed not to transfer NW technology and not to use NW unless attacked with NW. Non- nuclear weapons states (NNWS) agreed not to receive, manufacture or acquire NW.
2. Disarmament – The NWS states agree to reduce and liquidate their NW stockpiles.
3. Peaceful uses – All states are allowed to develop nuclear technology for peaceful uses.
The treaty has been generally successful. In forty years no NNWS is known to have developed NW under the IAEA inspection regime. Several states (Israel, Pakistan and India) have never let them in and have developed NW. One (North Korea) kicked them out and then developed NW. The NWS, however, have done almost nothing to live up to their disarmament treaty obligations. All proposals at the Disarmament Conferences have been rejected by the NWS under one pretext or another. The NNWS have fumed over this failure and some have used it as justification for their own nuclear development programs. The UK recently said that it needed nuclear missiles to defend itself from Al Quada. As Hans Blix said: “Attacking Al Quada with NW is like trying to kill a mouse with a cannon”. (To see Iran’s reaction to this, click here.)The US/Israel have said that they need NW to defend themselves from Iran, a state whose leader has said that he wanted to “wipe Israel off the face of the map”. A better translation of his statement from the Farsi is “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”. This translation has a somewhat different tone; unfortunately it doesn’t meet the political agenda of the US and Israel. (For more on this, click here.) If, in forty years, the 5 NWS had made some effort to live up to their treaty obligations to reduce and liquidate their NW stockpiles, they might have more leverage with countries like Iran and North Korea who feel the need to defend themselves from the overwhelming power of their adversaries. Hans Blix argued that NW have outlived their usefulness and the time is right for disarmament. In this age of globalization, it is not as though China would want to blow up its best customer or that the U.S. would want to blow up China. Nobody in the U.S. would have anything to wear or any TV’s to watch.

The New "Axis of Evil"

The BBC recently polled 28,000 people from around the world inquiring which countries they felt had a positive influence and which countries had a negative influence. (For the entire article, click here) The top four (or bottom four depending on your viewpoint) for negative perception were Israel, Iran, North Korea and the United States. Those with the most positive perceptions were Canada, Japan and the European Union. Some commentators have explained the difference between the countries as based on the degree of engagement (some might call it meddling) in world affairs. I am inclined to think that the difference is more related to the emphasis on the use of soft power rather than on hard power. This week two young people (an Arab Muslim man and a Jewish woman) from the Israeli village of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam spoke in our community. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is a village of 50 families half way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that has been intentionally established to have Arabs and Jews living alongside one another in peace. (To learn more about this, click here) When they discussed the fact that they get no help or encouragement from the Israeli government (the government refuses to sell them any more land to expand and gives the school the least amount of money they legally can) the Rabbi asked the question “What about support from Hamas; do they help you?” After pointing out that Hamas is a political movement in the occupied Palestinian territories and not in Israel, Naomi said “Hamas has nothing to do with us; we are just trying to live together in peace with justice.” Ahmed said; “I agree with almost nothing they say, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk to them and try to find a way forward." When Naomi was asked what her Jewish friends say when they find out that she grew up and lives in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam and works to help Palestinian prisoners she said: “They say ‘Oh, you must be one of those’.” When Ahmed was asked “What needs to be done for you to have more impact?”, he said “The governments , not just the Israeli government, need to pick up on this model. We can help show that people of religious and ethnic differences can live alongside each other in peace, but only our governments can make a big difference.” Perhaps we need more of “those” to encourage the new “Axis of Evil” to pick up on this model of peace with justice and try to move it forward with soft power and not guns and armies.

Watch where you are going

Recently this picture of Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz inspecting troop deployments in the Golan Heights has made the rounds of Israeli and international media. (For the whole BBC article click here.) Mr. Peretz has received a lot of criticism and ridicule for looking through binoculars with the lense caps still on. (It is good to have something to laugh at occasionally in this part of the world.) It does seem to me, however, that this is a great metaphor for the whole situation in the Middle East. The U.S. cannot see the civil war in Iraq and therefore cannot figure out what to do. Israel can’t see that without justice for the Palestinians, there will not be peace. The Palestinians can’t see that without security for Israel, there will not be peace. Israel can’t see that without dealing with the issue of the Golan Heights, there will not be peace with Syria. It is not only lens caps, however, that keep people from seeing the path to peace. All parties are looking back at their history and are focused on past injustices, real and perceived. This hindsight affects their perspective on the present problems. When Linda Biehl, the mother of Amy Biehl who was killed by black rioters in South Africa, spoke to high school students in our town about her forgiveness of the perpetrators, she said: “I can’t do anything about the past; I can only affect the future.” Looking back at the past instead of ahead for opportunities is like trying to drive on the road to peace looking in the rear view mirror. If we did that in our cars and hit a tree, the police would probably say: “Why weren’t you watching where you were going?” Maybe when the peace process hits a tree we should ask the same question.