Full Circle of the Second Lebanon War

It's hard to imagine that as a foreigner, I have experienced the full circle of the cause and outcome of the Second Lebanon War. As I sit at my window at work and listen to the church bells from the Old City ring, calmness is the last thing on my mind. I’m angry. In fact, I’m furious and want to pull my own hair out and scream. Why? Because of Samir Kuntar… because of Ehud Goldwasser… because of Eldad Regev… because of Gilad Shalit…. Because of Hezbollah…. Because of the IDF…… Because of the Lebanese and Israelis who perished in the Second Lebanon War. What a horrible waste of good life.

Even more so, how can people celebrate the achievements of murderers? Is the brutal killing of a 4 year old enjoyable? Sure maybe your 4 year old brutally died in the Second Lebanon War when the IDF stupidly missed their target, but does that mean you should rejoice in another innocent child’s death? What about the suffering of the Goldwasser and Regev family who today received the bones of their sons? Why keep them in the dark for so long about the fate of their children when you knew the truth? Is that good diplomacy? Is that how an Islamist group possing as a political figure should act? Should that be the action of a religiously pious group?

I was supposed to spend time in Israel the summer before college, but instead the Second Lebanon War began on July 16, 2006 with the abduction of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and I feared too much for my safety. Instead, I ended up in Budapest and Vienna. There, I began to search for answers to the disaster known as Israel and the Middle East. From watching wailing Lebanese and Israeli mothers on BBC and a pro-Lebanon/pro-Palestinian rally in the middle of Vienna’s Stephansplatz to hearing Tony Blair’s hopeful speech of the entrance of a new age and visiting Vienna’s depleted Jewish neighborhood from WWII, I told myself that there had to be another way other than war and animosity in the Middle East. In order to personally combat the situation, I became determined to face the fear that most likely every Jew adopts someway or another: the fear of Muslims and the Islamic faith. How does one do this? One simply loosens the reins of his or her fear and becomes friends with it through learning and respect.

The next summer, I returned to my original plan of visiting Israel for one month and left the US on the exact date of the war's one year anniversary. I was still unsure about my safety in such a place. Sometimes, I would have slight panics while on really crowded buses or in really crowded places. There even came a situation in a resturant where I found a lonely, open bag left behind by its mysterious owner on the only available table. Nervously, I peered into the bag, knowing that in that crowded resturant, in that busy time of day, in that perfect location, it all could be over and I would not have the slightest chance of life. Baruch Hashem/Hamdallah, it was a false alarm and only a lonely, left behind bag missing its forgetful owner.

As for the Second Lebanon War, the wounds for both combatents were still rough and scabby. The war had been finished already for almost a year, but where were the Goldwasser and Regev boys? Alive?? Dead?? What could possibly be their fates?? Hezbollah did not wish to elaborate on such simple details as the sign of life and Israel did not wish to admit to a blotched war, so the scab stayed unhealed and began to take on the form of a scar.

Another year passed as it became 2008. I, for the first time in my life, gained Muslim friends at school and what a wonderful thing it was! Even though most of my family members feared (and still do) for me, my fear was pleasently in a deep sleep. I returned to Israel this time for the entire summer and began my internship at the Jerusalem Music Center, which I'm still participating in. By that point, I believed to have found my balance inbetween the conflicting sides and the ability to be rational about all situations.

Throughout Israel, the patience of Israeli citizens had noticablly grown thin concerning the whereabouts of Goldwasser and Regev (and Gilad Shalit) and their hopeful return home. I noticed this thinness on city banners demanding their return, in the uninspiring news, and even on socialite headquarters, Facebook! There were negotiations here and there and suspicions everywhere. Finally on July 16, 2008, after exactly two years of painstaking round-abouts, the prisioner swap was decided, the truth of the soldiers was known, and the scar permanent with an additional touch of morbidly etched purfling.

Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were merely remains left in two solomnly shiny black coffins and Samir Kuntar, the do-er of unforgivable acts, and his buddies free to celebrate with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Especially the living Samir Kuntar, the do-er of unforgivable acts... the brutal killer of an innocent father and helpless 4 year old daughter and family destroyer. What a horrible waste of good life.

The full circle of the Second Lebanon War and I, the understanding Jewish foreigner and mediator who experienced its bending contours can barely come to terms with it. None-the-less, I still hope with determined actions and thoughts, because I believe people are good at heart.

Interning In Jerusalem Summer 08

Much has happened since I left the States. As I perused my previous writings, I realized how apprehensive I must have been about interning in a foreign country, even though I obviously didn’t want to admit it. Now that I have been at the Jerusalem Music Center for exactly one month, I can finally express my views and feelings fully.

It’s amazing to me sometimes how different it is here. Many of the ideas that I suggest to my co-workers are either unheard of in Israel or impossible to act upon in Israel. By this point, I feel like I have used every inch of brain power and imagination to find new ways to promote the Center. I’ve used all of the tricks up my sleeve and yet I know that if this place was America, so many more possibilities would be available. What I learned in my Intro to Public Relations course last semester about international PR was right on the mark. Even so, I did achieve a few successes here and there, which I am very happy about. As for my co-workers, I could not have asked for a sweeter group of people. The thought of leaving the warm atmosphere of the JMC in a month seems so uncomfortable. Besides the importance of upholding a hearty work ethic, my desire to assist my co-workers is not only for my personal success, but truthfully to ease their workday as they care about the Center very much and work very hard. I want them to succeed in their efforts. I want them to see that their caring nature makes a difference. If only the arts could be so successful. If only communities could realize the importance of culture in society. If only Middle Easterners could understand the concept of organization.

Besides interning at the Jerusalem Music Center, I have also found myself assisting the Hand in Hand Arab and Jewish Education schools. Here too, I have suggested very significant forms of action concerning the evaluation process of their new curriculum, which covers the issues of: history, citizenship, language, identity, and relationship to the land. While my ‘supervisor’ understood the importance, as an American Jew who made Aliyah, his supervisors did not. I even told them that I would take care of the entire evaluation process, despite my lack of time and transportation. None the less, I received the red-light and left them that idea with a description of how they could evaluate their curriculum and what a ‘focus group’ was. I did get to write an invitation to Tony Blair and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to visit the schools, which I must admit was pretty cool.

With all of these discoveries, it makes me question how I could ever work outside of the States. Despite all this, I have learned a lot from my experiences and I am enjoying these moments in my life as a female, Jewish-American intern in Jerusalem.