The Beginning
As you may know, I have begun my two-month journey in Israel. I left home last Sunday and traveled to Washington D.C. for a 4-day Strategic Communications Conference as training for my job. After a four-day crash course in strategic communications, which involved listening to speakers for 12 hours a day, I hopped on a plane to Ben-Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv, after a brief stop in Atlanta. Approximately 12 hours later, our group of media fellows landed in Tel Aviv, where it was just about an hour before Shabbat. Because several of my colleagues are observant Jews, we had to rush to our hostel to get ready for Shabbat. From that point on, I vaguely remember putting some combination of hummus, cucumbers, challah and various other Israeli foods into my exhausted body before sleeping.
12 hours after going to sleep (3rd time I've used that number), I woke up and headed over to Ben-Yehuda Street, the big shopping street in modern Jerusalem to utilize the free public wireless to catch up on my e-mails. My own school can't get wireless, but the ancient city of Jerusalem already has free wireless for the general public. It was very interesting to start my trip on Shabbat in Jerusalem because the city really does shut down (Think: America in the 50s). In a way, though, the rest was perfect for a jet-lagged traveler, so I spent the day wandering around Jerusalem and the Old City. At night, I watched The World Cup at a bar off of Yafo Street. Argentina was playing the Ivory Coast, although it took me a few minutes to figure that out because the game was in Hebrew. As I settled into my seat, I was shocked to learn that I could understand the foreign language all around me. It was Spanish! The bar was packed with Jews from Argentina. Argentina has the fifth largest Jewish population in the world, so I've been hearing Spanish all over the place here.
The next day, I began work. After a brief orientation, we met with Lisa Goldman, a freelance reporter who specializes in blogging (part of the inspiration for this blog). Goldman's message essentially was that blogs play a role in the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by showing the human element of both sides. I thought the most interesting thing about Goldman's discussion was her discussion about the rise of blogs in the Middle East. According to Goldman, there are over 70,000 blogs in Iran, although they are extremely restricted. I think this shows a lot about the situation in Iran.
The Revolution in Iran was a people's revolution, although it was taken hostage by an ideological extremist. I believe that this culture of political action still lies in the Iranian people. That is the reason why this regime has been so brutally repressive. They fear their people. According to Ilan Berman, the author of Tehran Rising, that is part of the logic in pursuing the bomb. Therefore, the way to diffuse the threat of Iran is free the people from its tyrannical government. Easier said than done.
On Monday, I took a bus tour of Jerusalem. The most exciting thing for me about the tour was using the Arabic option (it was translated in nine languages, all of which seemed to be important in Israel). I'm actually finding that my Arabic is significantlly better than the last time I was here.
Today, we went to meet with Col. Uri Dromi of the Israel Democracy Institute. His group is engaged in drafting a constitution for Israel, 59 years after the creation of the state. His talk really illustrated that Israel is a country that is still very much up-for-grabs. Everybody is interested in the struggle with the Palestinians, but Israel has equally interesting internal conflicts. I'd love to get more into that, but it's a long entry already and I just wanted to get this thing going. Hope all is well back in the states.
12 hours after going to sleep (3rd time I've used that number), I woke up and headed over to Ben-Yehuda Street, the big shopping street in modern Jerusalem to utilize the free public wireless to catch up on my e-mails. My own school can't get wireless, but the ancient city of Jerusalem already has free wireless for the general public. It was very interesting to start my trip on Shabbat in Jerusalem because the city really does shut down (Think: America in the 50s). In a way, though, the rest was perfect for a jet-lagged traveler, so I spent the day wandering around Jerusalem and the Old City. At night, I watched The World Cup at a bar off of Yafo Street. Argentina was playing the Ivory Coast, although it took me a few minutes to figure that out because the game was in Hebrew. As I settled into my seat, I was shocked to learn that I could understand the foreign language all around me. It was Spanish! The bar was packed with Jews from Argentina. Argentina has the fifth largest Jewish population in the world, so I've been hearing Spanish all over the place here.
The next day, I began work. After a brief orientation, we met with Lisa Goldman, a freelance reporter who specializes in blogging (part of the inspiration for this blog). Goldman's message essentially was that blogs play a role in the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by showing the human element of both sides. I thought the most interesting thing about Goldman's discussion was her discussion about the rise of blogs in the Middle East. According to Goldman, there are over 70,000 blogs in Iran, although they are extremely restricted. I think this shows a lot about the situation in Iran.
The Revolution in Iran was a people's revolution, although it was taken hostage by an ideological extremist. I believe that this culture of political action still lies in the Iranian people. That is the reason why this regime has been so brutally repressive. They fear their people. According to Ilan Berman, the author of Tehran Rising, that is part of the logic in pursuing the bomb. Therefore, the way to diffuse the threat of Iran is free the people from its tyrannical government. Easier said than done.
On Monday, I took a bus tour of Jerusalem. The most exciting thing for me about the tour was using the Arabic option (it was translated in nine languages, all of which seemed to be important in Israel). I'm actually finding that my Arabic is significantlly better than the last time I was here.
Today, we went to meet with Col. Uri Dromi of the Israel Democracy Institute. His group is engaged in drafting a constitution for Israel, 59 years after the creation of the state. His talk really illustrated that Israel is a country that is still very much up-for-grabs. Everybody is interested in the struggle with the Palestinians, but Israel has equally interesting internal conflicts. I'd love to get more into that, but it's a long entry already and I just wanted to get this thing going. Hope all is well back in the states.
posted by Nate | 4:52 AM
2 Comments:
Nate, Jess told me about your blog, and I am so excited to read about your adventures while you are ba-aretz. Enjoy every moment. Take care, and keep it up.
Hey Nate I'm so glad to hear from you. I didn't think it would be until you came back 'til we conversed in some way. Well it sounds like you're having the most interesting summer out of all of us back here in Wheeling combined. And hey...you just added to my "learn something new everyday". I had NO idea that Argentina had the fifth largest Jewish community. That's amazing. Thanks for always feeding my mind. You keep doing that and I'll keep you posted on new music I like too :) Take care.
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