Please watch the entire thing! Certainly worth 40 minutes of your time!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
September 19, 2011
The United Nations vote for Palestinian Statehood occurs tomorrow, September 20, 2011. I am so lucky to be here; and today we visited the house of David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel. Keep yourself informed!!
Friday, September 16, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
I know I keep saying this, but I am so happy here. I really have never felt so content before and so in love with a place the way I am with Israel. Everyday I cannot help but think about how lucky I am to have this experience. I am surrounded by so many wonderful people. I have already formed friendships with people that I know will last a lifetime. There are some incredible people on my trip; it really is inspiring to be surrounded by people my age who are fun, intelligent, and so passionate about learning, Israel, and Judaism the way that I am. Life in Israel for Israelis is not easy, but for me it is a joy to wake up every morning, go to Ulpan until 2:30, spend the afternoon on the beach, get dinner with friends, talk about life, and go out and about it TLV. I am so glad I chose Career Israel as a program. There are alot of programs to bring young people to Israel, but I am so impressed with the staff of Career Israel. They have been so supportive, approachable, and helpful and I am so appreciative to them. We have the opportunity to hear fascinating speakers (this week we had Gil Hoffman, chief political corespondent for the Jerusalem post, often seen on CNN and BBC news - I took a video of most of his don't, but don't think it would be legal to post it here...) Also, my Ulpan teacher is wonderful - we have learned at least 250 words (I am keeping a list and actually made flash cards, even though a bunch of my friends here are fluent and just speak for me when we are out). I have had sushi 3 times this week (not surprising) and I should probably start to eat more Israeli food because everything here is sooo fresh and delicious. Tonight a bunch of us went to Kabbalat Shabat services on the port by the beach, we watched the sun set and sang songs, there were so many children playing. We walked home (about an hour walk) and had a Shabat potluck dinner in my building. I am attaching a video of the services tonight and a picture of a bunch of us from my program on the beach yesterday! Shabat Shalom!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Week 1 Pictures!
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| Dome of the Rock The only place deemed "holy" to jews; the site of the 1st and 2nd temples. The third holiest place in Islam. |
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| IDF @ Kotel |
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| Market in Jerusalem |
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| Sunset @ TLV Beach |
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| TLV Beach |
Week 1!
Hi Guys! I feel like I haven't written in a while, and so much has happened this week, but if I don't stay on top of this now I will never do it! The rest of orientation in Jerusalen was great! We went on several tours and had some very interesting speakers, including the CEO of the YMCA and the chief advisor to the mayor of Jerusalem for Arab affairs. After that particular presentation, we toured the West Bank to learn about the "settlements" and security fence. We also went to the Kotel Tunnels, which I had not been to. Basically, you walk along most of the entire length of the "Western Wall" (the visible part of the wall where people pray is actually only a small portion of the wall that was built by King David after the distruction of the first temple as a means to create the platform for a larger second temple eventually built by King Harrod). We also visted the Temple Mount/Dome of the Rock, and the grave of Jesus. We spent the first Shabat in Jerusalem, it was very relaxing; we had some time to lay at the pool there and get rest which was great since most of us had spend the past few days packing and travelling and meeting 95 new people (all of whom I really love!!). On Sunday we arrived in TEL AVIV!!!!!!! I was so excited to move into the Beit Leni appartment and get unpacked and settled. My roomate Maya is great, and we made our very small, modest room very cozy. The bathroom floods everytime we should but that is just one small issue that we are making the best out of ;). And I don't really care because I am just so happy being here in general - every day is amazing and I am learning so much. In the past couple of days we started Ulpan, which is a hebrew emersion course from 9:00am-2:30pm everyday. I am in level 2 out of 5, my teacher is great and we have already learned close to 100 words (wild guess), but I still can't really say any sentances. Last night I had a great sushi (of course) dinner with Hannah and Maoz (both from Taglit, Hannah also came back to Israel for a 10 month program and Maoz was one of our Israeli soldiers on Taglit). We have spent the past few days running errands to get settled (the location of our appartement is amazing, so close to the market, a huge shopping mall, the beach etc...). Everything is VERY expensive here! Today we went to the beach for the first time during sunset and it was so beautiful, and the sand is the softest and the water the warmest I have ever felt. Tomorrow we have a lecture from the chief political coorespondent for the JPost, so I am looking forward to that! Also, I am posting some pictures here really soon!! Miss and love to all! XO
Friday, September 9, 2011
The Beginning
I am here. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet - but so far everything is great and I am so happy. I will just say that my luggage at the airport was a disaster (I won't go into details but $250 later, a third checked bag, and a broken duffel...I have all my stuff - half of it currently at Galit's house in Ramat Gan).
The flight from Newark was quick and easy. Galit picked me up at the airport and we went for an amazing breakfast at Max Brenner's (google it). We had: coffee, strawberry milkshake (amazing), eggs, tomato/cucumber salad, breads and different spreads, yogurt with granola, fruit and chocolate (they are famous for chocolate). Yum! It was extremely hot so we went to drop and rearrange my bags at Galit's house and sit in the air conditioning and exchange American for Israeli music on our computers. She drove me to the bus station and I was on my way to Jerusalem! The taxi was not the most cost conscious means of transportation but oh well (sorry, Dad - never again!). The taxi driver got very lost but I made it to meet the Career Israel group, we hung around and met each other and then had dinner and some icebreakers. I'm meeting lots of great people! The first night we had a speaker to give us an "Israel Update" - I want to share some of the presentation here.
The talk centered around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (although it is not clear when "Palestinian" became a word that could not describe Israelis...technically it is an Israeli-Arab conflict but I will use Palestinian to keep with common language). The first question is where does this conversation even start? Ancient times? The breakdown of the ottoman empire? The first Aliyah? 1948? 1967?...For this presentation our speaker started in 1947/8. There are 4 main conflict issues regarding the territory conflict (and general conflict) between Israelis and Palestinians:
1. Jerusalem
2. Terrorism
3. Settlements
4. Refugees.
In terms of conflict resolution, it is a very complicated; the solution can not be expressed in one sentence. Also - before I go into more detail on this subject I will say that, compared to people here I am very naive. Please don't take my notes on this blog as an explanation of the entire situation, rather, they are things that I find interesting during my time here. It is a learning experience most of all.
I digress...back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...it is really unclear whether or not the maximum of what Israel could "offer" in negotiations with Palestinians would ever be enough for them to accept, enough to create peace. Obama recently made a statement that negotiations should use the 1967 boarders as a starting point for negotiations - this is something that the Likud party is historically opposed to, as those boarders are not defensible. More recently, there is talk about a UN vote for Palestinian statehood. Palestinians are weaker in bilateral negotiations (Israel has a state, an army, a thriving economy). When Palestinians take the issue to an international arena, they gain strength (the UN has voted against Israel in several situations). Israelis have two perspectives on the UN vote (according to our speaker). The first is that a UN vote gives Israel no voice. If all of the cards get taken away, what is left to negotiate? On the other hand, maybe a UN vote for a Palestinian state would preserve Israel as a "jewish state" (as opposed to being diluted into a secular democratic government). From the US perspective, Obama has emphasized need for an independent Palestinian state, but on the other hand is dedicated to its strong alliance with Israel. (In short, we don't think that a UN vote should be the means to establish one). Actually, Palestinians have even started to doubt the UN vote. If it passes, virtually nothing will change on the ground the day after (although in the long term it would give them more power) - and in addition - one area of major controversy, the West Bank, has been the only area in the region to NOT experience demonstrations recently (think Egypt, Syria, Libya, even the Israeli social protests). There is also question of exactly how the vote would take place and what the terms would be. The US, Russia, England, France, and China are permanent members on the UN Security Council. The US has said they would veto, but that may not be depending on the wording of the terms of the agreement. So...the jury is still out...things will unfold more in the coming weeks. The speaker also spoke about the crisis with Turkey and Egypt/Sinai. I really want to write more about these but I am trying to finish this post). Yesterday we went to the Kotel and walked around the Old City. We also listened to a speaker who is the CEO of the YMCA here and is a Palestinian-Israeli. A very interesting perspective, but again trying to finish this post already! Last night we stayed out for a while after dinner to smoke hookah and get some drinks. We walked around Ben Yehudah street which has lots of amazing shops and restaurants. It has been unbearably hot during the days skit was nice to walk around once it actually cooled off. More detailed updates to come when I get my laptop from Galit on Sunday when we move to our apartments in Tel Aviv. My roommate in TLV is a girl name Maya from Seattle who went to Madison. She is sooo sweet and we are excited to move into our new home for the next 5 months ! Love and miss you all!! שבת שלום!(Shabat Shalom) -Mar
The flight from Newark was quick and easy. Galit picked me up at the airport and we went for an amazing breakfast at Max Brenner's (google it). We had: coffee, strawberry milkshake (amazing), eggs, tomato/cucumber salad, breads and different spreads, yogurt with granola, fruit and chocolate (they are famous for chocolate). Yum! It was extremely hot so we went to drop and rearrange my bags at Galit's house and sit in the air conditioning and exchange American for Israeli music on our computers. She drove me to the bus station and I was on my way to Jerusalem! The taxi was not the most cost conscious means of transportation but oh well (sorry, Dad - never again!). The taxi driver got very lost but I made it to meet the Career Israel group, we hung around and met each other and then had dinner and some icebreakers. I'm meeting lots of great people! The first night we had a speaker to give us an "Israel Update" - I want to share some of the presentation here.
The talk centered around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (although it is not clear when "Palestinian" became a word that could not describe Israelis...technically it is an Israeli-Arab conflict but I will use Palestinian to keep with common language). The first question is where does this conversation even start? Ancient times? The breakdown of the ottoman empire? The first Aliyah? 1948? 1967?...For this presentation our speaker started in 1947/8. There are 4 main conflict issues regarding the territory conflict (and general conflict) between Israelis and Palestinians:
1. Jerusalem
2. Terrorism
3. Settlements
4. Refugees.
In terms of conflict resolution, it is a very complicated; the solution can not be expressed in one sentence. Also - before I go into more detail on this subject I will say that, compared to people here I am very naive. Please don't take my notes on this blog as an explanation of the entire situation, rather, they are things that I find interesting during my time here. It is a learning experience most of all.
I digress...back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...it is really unclear whether or not the maximum of what Israel could "offer" in negotiations with Palestinians would ever be enough for them to accept, enough to create peace. Obama recently made a statement that negotiations should use the 1967 boarders as a starting point for negotiations - this is something that the Likud party is historically opposed to, as those boarders are not defensible. More recently, there is talk about a UN vote for Palestinian statehood. Palestinians are weaker in bilateral negotiations (Israel has a state, an army, a thriving economy). When Palestinians take the issue to an international arena, they gain strength (the UN has voted against Israel in several situations). Israelis have two perspectives on the UN vote (according to our speaker). The first is that a UN vote gives Israel no voice. If all of the cards get taken away, what is left to negotiate? On the other hand, maybe a UN vote for a Palestinian state would preserve Israel as a "jewish state" (as opposed to being diluted into a secular democratic government). From the US perspective, Obama has emphasized need for an independent Palestinian state, but on the other hand is dedicated to its strong alliance with Israel. (In short, we don't think that a UN vote should be the means to establish one). Actually, Palestinians have even started to doubt the UN vote. If it passes, virtually nothing will change on the ground the day after (although in the long term it would give them more power) - and in addition - one area of major controversy, the West Bank, has been the only area in the region to NOT experience demonstrations recently (think Egypt, Syria, Libya, even the Israeli social protests). There is also question of exactly how the vote would take place and what the terms would be. The US, Russia, England, France, and China are permanent members on the UN Security Council. The US has said they would veto, but that may not be depending on the wording of the terms of the agreement. So...the jury is still out...things will unfold more in the coming weeks. The speaker also spoke about the crisis with Turkey and Egypt/Sinai. I really want to write more about these but I am trying to finish this post). Yesterday we went to the Kotel and walked around the Old City. We also listened to a speaker who is the CEO of the YMCA here and is a Palestinian-Israeli. A very interesting perspective, but again trying to finish this post already! Last night we stayed out for a while after dinner to smoke hookah and get some drinks. We walked around Ben Yehudah street which has lots of amazing shops and restaurants. It has been unbearably hot during the days skit was nice to walk around once it actually cooled off. More detailed updates to come when I get my laptop from Galit on Sunday when we move to our apartments in Tel Aviv. My roommate in TLV is a girl name Maya from Seattle who went to Madison. She is sooo sweet and we are excited to move into our new home for the next 5 months ! Love and miss you all!! שבת שלום!(Shabat Shalom) -Mar
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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