After breakfast, we had 2 separate chats with guest speakers. First, Gershon Kedar, Minister Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, took us through an enlightening hour on the relationships between Israel, US, Palestine, Iran, Turkey, you name it. Talk about complicated - when you are geographically surrounded by so many countries, not all of whom are necessarily friendly, friendly relations are definitely problematic and complicated
Next we met with Gadi Wolfsfeld, political science, communications and journalism professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for a discussion on Israeli politics, the news media, and the political system. What a MESS!!!! Very down to earth and insightful. Essentially national elections mean you cast a vote for a political party, not an individual, and there are a number of political parties, mayabe 12-17 at a time. Each party publishes a list of their party members in order, #1 being their party leader, and so on. The Knesset, their governing body, has 120 seats. When elections are over, and say your party won 25% of the vote, that means you get 25% of the 120 seats. Obviously everyone wants more than 50% of the vote but, with so many parties, that never happens. So no matter who wins, that party has to form a coalition, makes deals with other parties in order to have a majority. And the #1 spot in the party becomes Prime Minister. And, of course, there are political parties that are something right out of Monty Python, like the Ex-Husband party. And no matter what, they all get time on TV to promote their agenda. wacky!!!!
We then rode the Kiryat Gat, a city of about 50,000 west of Jerusalem, near Gaza. There we visited an Absorption Center, one of many centers in Israel set up to acclimate new immigrants upon arriving in Israel. This one was specifically set up for Ethiopian immigrants. We met with the director, himself an Ethiopian immigrant, as well as visited a couple of classes, one where they were learning to read, write and speak Hebrew and a computer class, their first-ever intro to the computer. It turns out that there has been a group of Ethiopian Jews faithfully practicing the religion for over 2000 years and they never knew there were more outside of their country, nor did anyone in the world know they existed. Imagine - they neither read nor write, so for 2000 years, they kept up an oral tradition of remaining faithful Jews. Now they are being welcomed into Israel, acclimating themselves to life in a moden world with modern conveniences. Sometimes the stay at the absorption center can last 1 1/2 years. And this is only one of some 23 centers throughout the country.
Next we met with Gadi Wolfsfeld, political science, communications and journalism professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for a discussion on Israeli politics, the news media, and the political system. What a MESS!!!! Very down to earth and insightful. Essentially national elections mean you cast a vote for a political party, not an individual, and there are a number of political parties, mayabe 12-17 at a time. Each party publishes a list of their party members in order, #1 being their party leader, and so on. The Knesset, their governing body, has 120 seats. When elections are over, and say your party won 25% of the vote, that means you get 25% of the 120 seats. Obviously everyone wants more than 50% of the vote but, with so many parties, that never happens. So no matter who wins, that party has to form a coalition, makes deals with other parties in order to have a majority. And the #1 spot in the party becomes Prime Minister. And, of course, there are political parties that are something right out of Monty Python, like the Ex-Husband party. And no matter what, they all get time on TV to promote their agenda. wacky!!!!
We then rode the Kiryat Gat, a city of about 50,000 west of Jerusalem, near Gaza. There we visited an Absorption Center, one of many centers in Israel set up to acclimate new immigrants upon arriving in Israel. This one was specifically set up for Ethiopian immigrants. We met with the director, himself an Ethiopian immigrant, as well as visited a couple of classes, one where they were learning to read, write and speak Hebrew and a computer class, their first-ever intro to the computer. It turns out that there has been a group of Ethiopian Jews faithfully practicing the religion for over 2000 years and they never knew there were more outside of their country, nor did anyone in the world know they existed. Imagine - they neither read nor write, so for 2000 years, they kept up an oral tradition of remaining faithful Jews. Now they are being welcomed into Israel, acclimating themselves to life in a moden world with modern conveniences. Sometimes the stay at the absorption center can last 1 1/2 years. And this is only one of some 23 centers throughout the country.
We then had lunch with a group of Chicagoland college kids working at the Center as counselors for a couple of weeks through the organization called Kefiada. They got to share their experiences as well as what they missed about being away from home.
From there, we rode to Moshav Shekef, a farming community southeast of Kiryat Gat; it grows mostly grapes and cherry tomatoes, even ships them overseas. Meeting with Gadi, its leader, we got a real sense of how much he and his family were pioneers when the Moshav was started back in the 1980's and how much it has grown since then to a community of over 300 people. We also talked about security - there is a Palestinian town, Beit Awwa, in shouting (unfortunately also shooting) distance. A wall was erected for protection but there were times in the past where the kindergarten on the Moshav did come under fire. While we were standing outside looking out on the town, we did see and hear shots, not a pleasant experience. Gadi did brush it off as "they are always celebrating something". The relations between Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs in the area are definitely strained at times. The Moshav is surrounded by fencing and alarm systems to protect it from thefts.
From there, it was back to Jerusalem and the hotel for a chance to catch one's breath before we headed out to dinner.
Dinner was at Joy, an absolutely beautiful restaurant in the hip part of Jerusalem, great decor and the food was superb, definitely a top of the line restaurant in every respect. During dinner, we met with Yossi Klein Halevi, writer and correspondent for the New Republic for a lively discussion on why there is still no peace in the Middle East. Some real down to earth examples of the interaction of Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land. Still trying to decide if one should be hopeful for peace or not.
Walked back to the hotel and passed a memorial for 8 people riding on a bus killed by a terrorist in 2004, a sobering reality of the difficulty of trying to get people to just get along. Instead of going straight back to the hotel, Jeff and I decided to climb up a path to the Old City and enter the Jaffa Gate to see the Old City at night, very cool, very quiet, a calming end to a long day. good nite:)
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