Greetings everybody,

It has been a busy last month – I have been living out of my bags but after a wonderful visit to Belgrade for a week followed by four days in Amman – I am finally returned to my own bed in Jerusalem! It is a great feeling to feel settled again…

Anyway, I wrote a blog post on the Kids4Peace blog about the trip to Amman – please check it out, and feel free to follow that blog as well, though I do not typically write blogs there (in fact I wrote this one under somebody else’s login) – http://k4pblog.org/2013/05/20/a-new-perspective/

The trip was amazing – seeing the Israeli and Palestinian youth, age 15-17, interacting with a group of Jordanian Palestinians who have never been to Palestine or Israel, or met a Jew for that matter, was remarkable. Everyone undoubtedly learned a huge amount, I know that I did – seeing the way an outsider with a vested interest in the conflict reacts to the people engaged in the Conflict on a daily basis and vice versa was fascinating. It made me draw a comparison to my own family. I realized that the people on the outside, who don’t deal with the realities of the Conflict on a regular basis but care deeply about it can’t engage in the same way. There is a different meaning for peace, for extremism, for reality. The Jordanian youth made me see how they fought and argued from an extreme angle and even the Palestinian youth from Israel/Palestine had trouble agreeing with them on most issues.

Dialoguing Youth

I think this is the same situation with the majority of Jews outside of Israel and even for this within Israel that don’t live near or interact with Arabs at all, or live in an area of danger. It is very useful to truly hear the other side, to listen to them and understand where they are coming from – to share your thoughts, ideas and interests and have the others’ returned to you. Hearing the Jordanian Palestinians opened up the understanding of the third stakeholder – the outsider with a vested interest…

Then we got to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for photos – very cool!

Me with President Mahmoud Abbas

Much more interesting though was sharing dinner with his son Yasser. If there is one way, we all decided, for Jews and Arabs to logically discuss peace – it is over a large and delicious meal! As extreme as he sounded in his speech to the youth, Yasser opened up in a much different and realistic way when in a small talk with us. For example, he argued strongly about how all Palestinians should have the right to returnand compensation, but when he talked with just us, he admitted that only 10% max would want to return, and they would only get to if certain conditions were met (as in, their home is unoccupied, they are willing to take on Israeli citizenship and others agreed upon). This is much more realistic, but not having these realistic opinions shared with a peace group makes the process difficult… But, this is the rhetoric coming from both sides.

2 cities. 3 homes. 3 neighborhoods. 5 beds. Its been a tough past few weeks as I’ve bounced around waiting for my room to return to me in exactly 2 weeks time.

And none of this counts the weekend in the north near Acre, the week I will spend in Belgrade starting tomorrow night, and the weekend after that I will be in Amman.

We’ve all heard it before – moving is stressful, it takes a toll on body, mind and spirit. But moving 3 times in as many weeks and living out of the suitcase is especially difficult. It feels kind of nice now that I am back in my own apartment although I am living on the couch for a few nights. It still returns a sense of normalcy.

The nice thing in all of this is that I have been able to get an idea for what it is like to live in Jaffa – a mixed Arab/Jewish neighborhood – and Beit Safafa – an entirely Arab neighborhood in the south of Jerusalem. But nonetheless, it has been a tough few weeks and I am looking forward to a little vacation time.

As I was in the process of all of this, I had an assignment due for school, long commutes through traffic from Jaffa (south of Tel Aviv) to Jerusalem, a couple of grant proposals to write, a budget to finalize, and my first activity to prepare for my first weekend seminar with a youth group – along with the normal haul of work.

I am looking forward to the 20th of May when I will finally return to my own bed in my own room in the boring old neighborhood of Talpiyot, when I can unpack my bag once again and feel settled in.