August 26, 2003

Talk with an Israeli Soldier

(About a month ago, I had a talk with an Israeli soldier at the Bethlehem Checkpoint. I never posted my notes on the talk. Before the recent suicide bombing in Jerusalem, it was a little easier to talk with soldiers at the checkpoint. Today Israelis are scared of suicide bombings, and Palestinians are scared of missiles from helicopters, bulldozers that demolish homes, and land lost to ever-expanding settlements and the wall. It's a nasty, vicious cycle of retaliations, and no one wins from this violence.)

[Bethlehem, West Bank] I've been living in the West Bank now for two years, and today I had my first extended conversation with an Israeli soldier. I was coming back from Jerusalem crossing the checkpoint to get into Bethlehem. But a soldier blocked my path and told me that the army would be blowing up some suspicious material so I had to leave the area. I told him that I lived in Bethlehem, and I wanted to go home. He said I could wait or go in using another route. I decided to wait, and we struck up a conversation.

"Shimone" was a decent guy with a good sense of humor. We didn't agree on too much, but he listened to what I said, and he did give me some insight and perspective on things from his point of view. We talked for about forty-five minutes, interrupted occasionally by a loud explosion or someone contacting him on his radio. I appreciated the conversation. There was a lot I had wanted to ask a soldier, but they usually don't encourage such a conversation.

Shimone was an Israeli reservist. He was an attorney when he was not involved in reserve duty. He believed in peace like we all do. Shimone gave me his oral history on the region and reminded me that Palestinians and Israelis used to live together comfortably as friends in peace. His mother was a Jew from Iran. He said that Jews lived quite well in Iran before Ayatollah Humani took control. He estimated that only a few hundred Jews remained in Iran today. He told me of Israeli actions to retrieve thousands of Jews from Iran, Yemen, and Ethiopia, under special programs like "Operation Magic Carpet." (By the way, if there are Jewish refugees who had to flee from their homes during wars, I'm totally in favor of allowing them to return if they want. As I am in favor of allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homes or receive fair compensation from Israel.)

He thought the region was negatively influenced by outside parties (he mentioned the PLO) that made it difficult for everyone involved. He was not opposed to a Palestinian state, although he preferred it to be demilitarized as Palestine is now -- without an army, without heavy artillery, without tanks, without fighter jets, without helicopter gunships. He said that history had proven that the Palestinians could not be counted on to crack down on terrorism, so Israel should be in charge of security. The Palestinians should control municipal projects and education. He was in favor of a Palestinian state over annexing the West Bank and Gaza into the state of Israel and giving the Palestinians the same voting rights and privileges as Israelis -- since this would eventually mean the end to the Jewish state.

I turned and pointed to Har Homa, a large growing Israeli settlement on the hillside of Bethlehem. I asked how he felt about the settlers and his protection of settlements. He prefaced this part of our conversation by saying that he was in uniform and therefore could not openly share his views. I took this to mean that he was not in favor of the settlements, but I was wrong. He not only supported their existence, he said he considered moving to one himself. He said that 90% of settlements are only built on land that is not owned by anyone, unused land, or land that is sold to Israel. (I found this impossible to believe -- but perhaps by some extreme Israeli standard of ownership. Around the turn of the century, when the Turks -- or perhaps it was the British -- were in control of Palestine, they had some system of land registration. If the land was unregistered, then it is open and available for confiscation.) Can anyone deny that thousands of olive trees have been uprooted, farmland ruined, water sources drained, and Palestinian homes demolished to make room for settlements? He pointed to nearby hills without homes. "I wouldn't build a settlement in the center of Bethlehem, but why not on some of these hills?" I offered that even though they didn't have homes, they might be farmland and the sole source of income for a family or community. Even if it was unregistered bare land, that still doesn't make it available for confiscation. He said that the first settlements were not controversial since they were all built on land that no one cared about. After the pattern was established, it was easier to claim more and more territory.

I asked how much the Bible / Torah contributed to his feelings about the settlements. He said his religious convictions were very strong and influenced his stand on settlements. He said that the Bible promises Israel not just the West Bank, but parts of Syria and Jordan as well. He believed in and was willing to wait for the Messiah for this additional territory. Why not wait for the Messiah for all of the promised land? This Biblical argument is hard for me to digest. Was God's promise of land unconditional? And does the Bible say it belongs to Israel exclusively? No one else should be able to live in the region? If Israel makes a Biblical claim to the Holy Land, then shouldn't they stick to other Biblical standards and principles? There must be something in the Old Testament about loving your neighbor. I don't like it when people pick and choose bits and pieces of scripture to support their agenda and totally ignore the rest.

Soon the explosions were finished and our conversation ended. I thanked him, we shook hands and said good-bye. I was happy to have the chance to talk with a soldier, if only to see how he thinks. It's hard for me to understand how some military actions are justified, but this conversation gave me a glance into that mindset. I believe there should be more dialogue. I know a lot of people will say that it has already been tried -- and failed, but how can you trust someone that you don't know? I believe there's too much misinformation readily available on each side for anyone who wants it.