So the past days have been pretty intense. Here is a list of things I will address:
1) There was a series of unfortunate events.
2) Ir-Amim
3) Gilad Shalit
4) B'Tselem
5) Reut Institue
1) In the past few days I learned that the adapter/converter I bought at RadioShack, which they told me was specifically for Israel, turned out to be made for Eastern Europe (I will be demanding a refund upon my return to the States). Next, since I only had a power converter for the plug and not an adaptor, I blew out my toothbrush charger. The final straw was when my phone magically slipped out of my pocket on a bus without my knowledge. But at least I haven't gotten arrested...yet.
2) I went on a tour with Ir-Amim, which was a refreshing, purely factual experience (although some will probably argue the opposite). While giving strong numerical, legal, and published facts they provided enough information to make the reasonable conclusion that Israel's positions and actions in East Jerusalem not only cause harm to many Palestinians, but also cause harm to the future prospects of ensuring a secure Israeli state.
3) In Jerusalem, right by the Prime Minister's house, there is a large tent where volunteers and visitors come and sit in a constant vigil for Gilad Shalit (a soldier who has been in the captivity of Hamas for five years now). There are volunteers who live next to the tent 24/7, and Shalit's parents who live nearby. Gilad Shalit's mother happened to be there, and when a few people tried to speak to her she just nodded. A volunteer came over and explained that she rarely speaks now. Hamas is asking for the release of many Palestinian prisoners, and high-ranking Hamas officials, in exchange for Gilad Shalit. The only right answer is that Gilad Shalit must be released, unfortunately it's unclear what the means and methods for this end goal are.
4) Those of you who already know of B'Tselem probably hate it. B'Teselem is The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. It is considered a pretty left wing organization, and say what you want about some of their stances, testimonials, or video footages, but I challenge you to deny the economic, statistical, and mathematical facts that they provide here:
http://www.btselem.org/statistics.
Our group met with the CEO of B'Tselem, Jessica Montell, who may be best known in the US for her Op-Ed in the Washington Post after Goldstone had written his retraction. Here is her Op-Ed:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beyond-goldstone-a-truer-discussion-about-israel-hamas-and-the-gaza-conflict/2011/04/05/AFsP7PlC_story.html
5) My favorite event in these past days was meeting with one of the main persons at the Reut Institute. As defined by Wikipedia, the Reut Institute is "a policy group in Tel Aviv designed to provide real-time long-term strategic decision-support to the Government of Israel" (that had a lot of hyphens). This was highly informative, and of everything I've seen and heard here, this was by far my favorite. I encourage you to scan through their website:
http://www.reut-institute.org/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3769
I apologize that most of this has been just a reiteration of what I have done, and not much of an expansion on that. That will change. The Israeli Presidential Conference ends on Thursday night, so expect a post about that whole event on Friday/Saturday. At the beginning of next week the formal research project will be starting, so my posts will start to focus more on depth. However, I will say one thing now:
After meeting with various groups, hearing multiple speakers, and having numerous discussions, I have decided that Israel only has three real choices when regarding the Palestinian Territories (sorry but I just don't see the "three-state-solution" of Jordan and Egypt absorbing the Territories as a real choice).
1) Israel keeps the status quo, leading to a continual slipping of international support and the forcing of either choices (2) or (3).
2) Israel annexes the Territories.
a) Israel gives the Palestinians full citizenship (since they now live within the State of Israel), including voting rights. This would lead to the Jews no longer being in the majority, and the end of a "Jewish" state.
b) Israel denies voting rights to the Palestinians and therefore creates an Apartheid-like state where the minority controls the government and denies political rights to the majority. Note: This is only if Israel annexed the Territories, so Jimmy's Carter claim of Israel facilitating an Apartheid state is false.
3) Israel supports a sovereign Palestinian state existing along its borders, therefore, ending international condemnation of the Occupation and keeping a Jewish majority in the "Jewish" state.
(Can you guess which one makes the most sense?)
For those who are curious about my blag's statistics, here you go:
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