Last Night

So I have plenty of half finished blogs and blog topics that I have either began or made a file for. I have been pretty busy with harvest lately but have wanted to write more about what kind of things I have observed and done each day. Yesterday, though, deserves an immediate documentation.

Monday morning I woke up groggy and a little under the weather but still went to work all day. Later I went and played basketball for 2 hours until 10:30. Of course, I woke the next day even more tired with a full day ahead of me and it was hot. I decided early in the morning that I would try to get out of afternoon's work then fall asleep to a replay of MNFL. I guess one never knows what's going to happen.

Brit, my olive-picking boss, recognized that we were both tired so she recommended that we go to a conference on the Israel-Palestine situation. There were some incredible speakers, both Israeli and Palestinian and both with some insight into the prospect of peace. There were directors of peace organizations, chief negotiators for both sides, former ambassadors, policy advisors, and foreign policy professors. All of these men were dignitaries that had differing perspectives on mistakes committed by each side in the last 10 years of the "peace process" and differing ideas on what the future looks like. One of the more compelling aspects of this conference was that it was held on the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister that had just signed the Oslo Accords bringing Israel and Palestine the closest to peace they had ever been. Since that time the two sides have only grown further and further apart. (One of the speakers said that Arafat told him that after hearing of Rabin's assassination that the peace process had died along with him.) There was absolutely no congruence on any idea except that this must be solved soon. Most believed that the only healthy way to establish a future working relationship is a full divorce, with a boat load of hang-ups and a division of Jerusalem. A one-state solution, in everyone except one man's opinion (an American sadly) would not be sufficiently able to attain some reasonable level of stability or equality. The analogy that the speakers used about a division was to compare it to a domestic divorce. In order for there to be some level of regional stability there had to be substantial levels of state and cultural stability. One speaker also pointed out that a pure quantitative analysis of a unified democratic state does not imply that there would be equality for the Palestinians. Institutions like Hebrew University in East Jerusalem, that cater to the Israeli and international students, would have already established and would further the educational and socio-economic gap between Israelis and Palestinians. It was the most interesting series if speeches that I have ever heard concerning this muddled situation.

Midway through the seminar Brit got a text from a friend that invited us to Tel-Aviv for a debut of an album that his friend had been working on. I said no immediately because I remembered my promise to get some rest that night. But as we left the conference after 3 ½ hours of paying attention, I convinced myself to go because… well why not? So we went back to Augusta Victoria, I had a cup of coffee and then we were picked up and heading toward the coast.

Picture over the bar at Tsuzammen and I have no idea why

I had no great expectations for the “concert.” It was in a bar called Tsuzammen (which I think may be Yiddish because it is close to the German word “zusammen” meaning together or same). It was a very small coffee shop like bar that was probably at capacity with a mere 30 people. The Indie / Fiona Apple sound (not my description) of this woman and her acoustically gifted husband was very pleasant for the laid back night. After the show was over we started back toward Jerusalem.

I learned from this night that I am absolutely justified in “burning the candle at both ends” as my mother would say. I realize that I only have a short time here and the more culturally and out of my comfort zone experiences that I have, the more rich an overall experience this will be. I woke the next morning slightly late for work and tired but content.