If Israel had a relationship status on Facebook, that’s what it would be – at least according to our speaker s yesterday.  The three of them must have described the Palestinian-Israel issue in those two words a dozen times or more.  Of course, it is an extremely complex problem.  One aspect our guides walked us through was the behind the table negotiations going on among the myriad Israeli political parties.  Besides leading to strange bedfellows when building coalitions, it can lead to a seemingly schizophrenic list of wants and desires.  For example, one party is the Pot Smokers who promote the legalization of marijuana, who split over internal strife, with one faction joining the Taxi Drivers then becoming the Pot Smoking Taxi Drivers.  Good thing we’re getting around town on a bus.

Yesterday we spent some time discussing the tensions among the 3 primary Israeli political interests – security measures of today, future peace, and human rights.  Not surprisingly, security wins out most of the time.  This point was highlighted by the security fence around Jerusalem, which makes simple things like visiting family, going to the doctor, and shopping very difficult.  More difficult is some of the blatant discrimination when it comes to sanitation, electricity, and building permits which reminded me of what segregation era had to be like in the US.  Not inspiring to say the least.

Despite the complexity of the situation, all of our guides are optimistic, and one was very optimistic, about future peace prospects.  As he said, in 2007 nearly all of the issues surrounding Jerusalem were agreed upon, so Jerusalem itself is not the briar patch many make it out to be.  Moreover, 10 years ago any discussions of dividing Jerusalem would be thought of as crazy radical leftist talk.  Today it is a common topic of conversation.  The sticking point, however, is trust.  Again, not surprising to anyone who has followed the situation.  But this leads to an issue I mention to students all the time – how do you build trust?  Everyone knows it’s difficult to do after one loses trust.  If it were easy to do, the situation here may have already been resolved.  Meeting others’ expectations is what it takes – and being clear is about what those expectations are is important, which is easier said than done.  Nevertheless, our guides’ optimism was encouraging.