Upon arriving in Israel we were shepherded by Amon and Tina onto a colossal air-conditioned bus. On board we met Tal, our logistic leader and educator, and our driver Avi. Then the behemoth took us to a Neve Shalom, where we ate our sandwiches and were introduced to a lecture from the Englishman, Caleb Ben Dor. Our speaker was educated in England and made Aliyah in 2005. He currently works in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Caleb had three points to discuss with us and he did this in a style kind of like a BBC documentary. With an English accent, and a classy Power Point we learned most importantly the following: that because he’s English with an accent, no matter what he says, he sounds smart.
However he was smart with valuable things to say. He referred to what he called the sound byte theory of the current Israeli situation. In Israel, bumper stickers are political. And bumper stickers are about the size of a sound byte. This theory is that the bumper stickers suggest that everyone has their own tidbit solution to Israel’s problems.
His response to this was two-part. Number 1 is that the problems of Israel are many and complex. He next mentioned that to help people understand this the byte sized discussions must be responded to with an engaging response. This is Number 2. This response should engage others in conversation and help people understand that Israel is more than just a land to discuss. it is a people living in the land with problems that need solving.
Israeli families have pressing issues. Top on the list are Iran, Israel’s relationship with the United States, the Israeli economy, relationship with the Palestinians, and Israel’s civil society. This lecture, however, was just the first and over the next 10 days we will try to learn and understand the complexity facing today’s Israeli families.