Jonathan Kraft

In Israel, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, it never takes long until the Arab-Israeli conflict comes up. In class today, we dove in headfirst, hearing first from a retired IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) colonel, a professor of law and religion, and a renowned Israeli human rights attorney.

The commonality between all three speakers and subjects is the fact that people on all sides of the conflict seem to conveniently forget important facts when they present their arguments. For instance, when the colonel, speaking about why Israel can never make peace with Hamas, said that “unlike Hamas, we don’t throw people off of rooftops when we disagree with them,” he failed to mention the IDF tanks that fired indiscriminately in Gaza, killing scores of innocent civilians. Equally disturbing, when the human rights attorney spoke about the destructive path of the security barrier, isolating Palestinians behind high walls, he forgot to mention the fact that there has not been a suicide bombing in Israel since the barrier’s construction. And while I found the professor of law and religion very balanced, the substance of his lecture, the fact that Israelis unwilling to submit to an Orthodox wedding must travel abroad in order to get married, is almost unthinkable in a country that prides itself on being the only democracy in the region.

The fact is this. Israelis have many, many opinions, this is true. But it is far too easy to express one’s own beliefs, using the facts that support their points of view, without referencing the equally compelling arguments on the other side and the facts behind them. Now, to be sure, Americans can be guilty of this as well. But the fact is that in Israel, until each side of the Arab-Israeli conflict is willing to admit that the other side has an argument, and, as such, is deserving of something, stalemate will continue. It’s a depressing thought, but when you realize that steps, albeit baby ones, have been made towards achieving some level of mutual recognition, there is some light at the end of the very long tunnel. The challenge is in convincing the hardliners on either side to focus on this and not the (very significant) differences. Only then can peace move forward.