March 10, 2005

Alison on Aliyah:  “Peace” and Indifference

            In the past month I have received countless emails from friends and family asking me what’s happening here regarding the “new peace plan” and how I feel about it.  Most express a great deal of hope, exclaiming things like, “Maybe this is really it!” or “It’s finally happening!”  They all want to know how Israelis are reacting to it and what the atmosphere is like over here.  My responses have been apologetically bleak and uninformative.  The truth is, I have found myself saying too often, no one seems to be paying much attention at all.

            Of course, there are plenty of news reports, abounding with quotation marks:  “peace process,” “road map,” “cease-fire,” “unilateral cooperation.”  One can almost hear the sarcasm dripping from each phrase, and every expression of possibility is followed by a sentiment of wariness and uncertainty.  Indeed, it is difficult to place any kind of trust in an agreement made by the “talking heads” of both sides, with no cooperation from any of the parties actually responsible for the violence.  Just today, on the website of one of Israel’s major newspapers, Ha’aretz, the following was written:  “Abbas and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared an end to militant and military violence in last month’s Sharm el-Sheikh summit, but militant Palestinian groups have not formally joined the truce.”  What kind of a cease-fire can there be, if no one agrees to it except the people who have no control over the real actors in the battle?

            I have to admit that, despite all of this, even I got excited the first time I heard about Arafat’s dubious replacement and his willingness to negotiate.  The first few days after the announcement (through American media, not Israeli), I kept expecting to walk outside my apartment and feel the difference.  I thought I might hear people talking about it or see more smiles on people’s faces.  What I didn’t fully realize until recently is that this is nothing new for Israelis.

            Indeed, Israelis of today have lived through so many wars, and multiple Intifadas, and more promises of peace and better things to come than they can bear.  When it comes to political issues, many with whom I have talked just seem so bitter and jaded, with hope being clearly a risk they aren’t willing to take.  The other day I asked a friend of mine about the new negotiations, and his response was an acidic chuckle.  “But maybe this time it will work?” I pushed, hoping to find a glimmer of hope.  “Do husbands who beat their wives ever stop?” he asked in return.

            There are simply too many of us here who believe that nothing will ever really change, that Palestinians don’t really want peace, that compromise will never be enough for either side.  The phrase, “They just want to run us all into the sea,” is a common one around Jerusalem, and a tough one with which to argue.  As I sit in my class on Arab-Jewish co-existence each week, I try to empathize with the other side, to understand their pain and the trauma they have experienced at the hands of Israelis.  But part of me isn’t willing to compromise, and part of me just wishes they would simply go away.  It seems clear, most weeks, that many of them feel the same way.

            And then, two weeks ago, another bombing.  A big one, with many casualties caused particularly by the nails and shrapnel packed into the explosives, designed to maximize damage.  This was the first bombing inside of Israel in nearly six months, and while I wouldn’t characterize the country’s reaction as shock, a deep air of disappointment seemed to permeate the air.  I suppose this is a testament to the nugget of hope that had indeed begun to plant itself somewhere within us.

            So here we are again, more or less back to “square one.”  I suppose that’s why no one is spending much time or energy talking about the new plan.  I don’t think anyone really buys into it at all, and I consistently get an “I’ll believe it when I see it,” attitude when I ask people about it.  It’s a sad state of affairs when a country has lost its hope of a peaceful existence, and its desire and will to change its status quo.  I’m not sure anymore which side has less faith in this vision.  We continue to talk about it, and we continue to watch the news reports about all the summits and all the hand-shaking and all the fake smiles.  But as for the general atmosphere over here, I’m sorry to report that the “peace plan” has produced a great deal of hollow indifference.