Politics and Religion

In this photo you get an interesting image: you can see the top of the Dome of the Rock peaking out over the Western (Wailing) Wal. While I couldn't capture a Christian image here, they do abound: if you close your eyes you can almost imagine Jesus riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey and the events of Holy Week unfolding on and near this same place.

A "wall of separation" that keeps a nation from establishing one religion over another may be a good ideal to strive for in a young democracy like the United States but even at home that doesn't mean one can separate religion and politics. We live, as religious people, not in some idealized fantasy world but in the midst of the polis, the city.

The polis of Jerusalem has not given me any answers about how to bring peace to the Middle East. I've been raised to see at least two sides to every issue and while I came here committed to a two-state solution and re-engaging the peace process and leave here committed to the same, it is far more complex and messier than I ever imagined. The following are some reflections based on two formal presentations: one by an Israeli named Ophir and another by a Palestinian named Xavier. A word about each.

Ophir came here from New England thirty years ago. He didn't say which state but obviously he was raised an American. He faithfully spoke about diverse Israeli positions, not one position; but it was also pretty clear he is articulate, caring, thoughtful, and left-of-center in his views. Xavier, as his name suggests, is a Christian Palestinian--a group we tend to hear little about. He is actually the Communications Advisor for the P.L.O., born as a refugee in Chile. He, too, I would consider as articulate, caring, thoughtful and left-of-center in his views. We heard them on separate nights, but if you put these two guys in a room together to sort it all out and said whatever Ophir and Xavier decide will show us the way forward and all must abide, I don't know realistically if they could fix this problem. Add to this the range of views including extremists on both sides and you begin to feel a bit of the despair and confusion that I and our group are feeling. Pray, indeed, for the peace of Jerusalem.

These formal lectures really followed by a series of questions are supplemented by informal conversations with people here like Kalil, who is the janitor here: a Muslim Palestinian who commutes here every day from Bethany, through the check-points, and Nassar, our guide, a Christian Palestinian born and raised in the old city, along with the staff here.

For now some of my own learnings for what it is worth. Perhaps if we can all be confused together and open together to the Spirit's guidance (and willing to push our own leaders to work for peace) and if the Church can challenge the Christian Zionists who only want to force Armeggedon on us all, well, perhaps we can be instruments of God's peace. As I read the Bible that is our vocation; not trying to force the events of the Book of Revelation to happen as we read them...

Ophir described the political situation of Israel as making up roughly five evenly divided and very diverse groups: Palestinian Israelis, Russian immigrants, Jews from Arab Nations, Ultra-Orthodox, and "WASPs." Yes, in terms of the first group, while we tend to frame the problem as Palestinian and Israeli conflict, 20% of Israeli citizens with Israeli passports and the right to vote are Palestinians. Imagine this: being a Christian Palestinian Israeli! We don't tend to reflect on what that is like when we frame the problems faced here but they do exist, although there are definitely fewer and fewer Christians here. In any event, Russian immigrants came from the former Soviet Union and Jews living in Arab nations before 1948 came here and the Ultra-Orthodox are growing in numbers. WASPs, of course, stands for different letters than in the U.S. and I forget the details but these are the more secular founders of Israel.

Ophir does work on reconciliation and said every meeting on these issues ends up with an "aha" moment as the fear on both sides is exposed. Israeli citizens are afraid of the Palestinians and of acts of terror, and Palestinians are afraid of the sheer power and force of the Israeli government and military. To insert here a brief comment from Xavier related to this issue: his take on the second intifada is that the leadership of the P.L.O. was committed to the peace process but some radicals sent homemade rockets into Tel Aviv. Eight persons were killed and he condemned that violence. But he also insisted that the response was brutal and efficient and more than 1000 Palestinians including 400 children were killed. Western media, he said, tends to focus on only one side of the terror that is experienced here on all sides. So everyone wants peace but everyone feels like the victim. It is easy, Ophir said, to paint Palestinians as the victims at certain points in the past sixty years or so but along the way and in the larger context it is more complex. All that said, a reminder that this is a guy who is working toward peace and wants the peace process and essentially feels a two-state solution with the 1967 borders would be "just."

Here is the problem: the Israeli settlements beyond those 1968 borders. Xavier Abu Eid's lecture was entitled "Shattered Peace: Israeli Militarism and Unilateralism." The title gives away the ending. He showed us four maps which tell a sad story: 1947, before what Israeli's call "independence" and Palestinians call "the catastrophe;" 1967, before the Six-Day War; 2000; and today. The picture becomes clear that as the settlements increase beyond those 1967 borders including roads and infrastructure for the settlers and walls that keep Palestinians from their cousins and friends and even in some cases their spouses, getting back to those older borders will be impossible. (Literally, by the way, I mean that about spouses: Xavier told us about his cousin, a Bethlehemite, marrying a woman from Jerusalem. Because they have different colored identification cards it's a mess and what cards do their children get?) About the Wall, Xavier's view was simple: "if you want to protect yourself you build a wall around your borders. But this is about a unilateral grab for even more land."

So if you feel more confused, and very sad, then you are beginning to understand the situation here. I come back, though, to Bob's words that I think I've shared previously--Bob is the assistant to the bishop and dean to the English-speakers here. He has said several times that Christians (not the Zionist fundamentalists but the rest of us) represent a moderating voice here in the midst of radical extremists. Perhaps like in American politics, but even far more urgently and necessarily here, the "middle" needs to find it's voice. I include people like Xavier and Ophir in that middle. Solving the problems here, even with reasonable and fair people, will still be almost impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.