I remember visiting Israel in the fall of 1970, when I was 20, with a group of young English students and professionals, to live and work for a month on a kibbutz a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee. I am not Jewish and knew nothing of the history of the region since Biblical times, except for the fact of the Six Day War three years earlier. On our last night at the kibbutz we were shown a purported documentary film about the origins of the state of Israel that included scenes of Arab families packing up their belongings and apparently voluntarily leaving their villages. Something seemed off about these scenes and I strongly suspected that they had been fabricated and were not truthful. I had had a wonderful time on the kibbutz, and my discomfort at the suspicion that the film—and my hosts—were lying to me did not mar the experience; but I have never forgotten it.
"The first step toward reason is to recover our senses and recognize that outright victory for either of the antagonists would mean unfathomable suffering for peoples and a region that have already suffered far more than enough." The appropriate conclusion to a discussion about an excruciatingly difficult problem.
I remember visiting Israel in the fall of 1970, when I was 20, with a group of young English students and professionals, to live and work for a month on a kibbutz a few miles south of the Sea of Galilee. I am not Jewish and knew nothing of the history of the region since Biblical times, except for the fact of the Six Day War three years earlier. On our last night at the kibbutz we were shown a purported documentary film about the origins of the state of Israel that included scenes of Arab families packing up their belongings and apparently voluntarily leaving their villages. Something seemed off about these scenes and I strongly suspected that they had been fabricated and were not truthful. I had had a wonderful time on the kibbutz, and my discomfort at the suspicion that the film—and my hosts—were lying to me did not mar the experience; but I have never forgotten it.
"The first step toward reason is to recover our senses and recognize that outright victory for either of the antagonists would mean unfathomable suffering for peoples and a region that have already suffered far more than enough." The appropriate conclusion to a discussion about an excruciatingly difficult problem.
A brilliant piece that makes us think. Thanks!