I have been in Israel for barely 24 hours at this point and have already met a wide variety of people and experienced a broad diversity of opinion. This morning, we heard from Col. (res.) Miri Eisen, a very dynamic, articulate former Foreign Press Advisor to the Prime Minister. She laid out the three major challenges to the state of Israel now in its 60th year as: 1) domestic with growing gaps between rich and poor, 2) the Iranian relationship (or lack thereof considering that country's refusal to acknowledge Israel and the threat of nuclear armament) and 3) Palestine and the resolution of the 2-state solution. Her perspective was a bit hawkish, but she was very clear and engaging. I confess I could have listened to her for quite a bit longer and was surprised by my response to her opinions.
Then we heard from a Palestinian woman, Shireen Essawi and a Jewish man, Aaron Barnea, who have both lost loved ones to the violence here and are committed to furthering peace and reconciliation through education in classrooms, doing summer camps for youth, and media-oriented responses such as art installations and documentary film. Their stories were so poignant and they both were honestly involved in the reconciliation process. Aaron stated: "A peace agreement is not peace. It is a piece of paper." He was very clear that any governmental policy making had to be reinforced through active education and reconciliation processes.
This afternoon we spent touring the old city of Jaffa/Joppa and the modern city of Tel Aviv, learning about its history including a trip to Independence Hall. More on that later. Now it's time for dinner! (We're nothing if not well fed here...)
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