Encouraging

I've been encouraged twice this past few days on the "situation" in the Middle East. First, on Friday we had the awesomest guest speaker in my usually tense "Gov't and Politics of the Middle East" class: a Northeastern student who was a member of the Israeli special forces. Itai, an undergrad with a distinct Israeli accent, flew helicoptors and blew up buildings from the air, but he is the most optimistic, balanced, pro-peace person I've met since 1999. He has Palestinian friends, and misses being able to go to Nablus or Bethlehem for lunch. One of his best friends was killed in the Passover bombing, but he's not bitter, and he equates Palestinian extremists with Israeli settlers and religious extremists, whom he dislikes for their strong-arm tactics in the government. He has little respect for politicians on both sides, and said with a chuckle that "if you leave this problem to the people, they will solve it in one hour!" Itai's focus is on the people, and while I approach the problem from a Christian perspective, seeing the need to redeem lives one at a time, I applaud his approach - mending peoples' hearts, one at a time; "you should put hope into these people, not hate!"

His perspective on the military is admirable; he sees its role in defense, and does not consider it a malicious organization at all, repeating that under no circumstances whatsoever would the army target civilians. At the same time, he knows it doesn't have the leading role in making peace, and wants to see negotiation, not force, used by leaders on both sides.

This guy, who just started a pro-peace organization - "Connections" - with students from another class, even had a good word about the two leaders. "Prime Minister Sharon", he said respectfully, "is a great general, but he's not the right man to lead his people." Likewise, "Arafat has a great vision for his people, but he cannot implement it."

The second piece of encouragement is no surprise: today's news that Israel has agreed to let Arafat go in exchange for the assassins of Israel's deceased Tourism Minister. This is especially a victory for the Bush administration, but I fear it will not bring a whole lot of change to the situation. Sharon has allowed 33 settlements to be established (see NYTimes map) since he became Prime Minister, and Arafat seems to either lack control over even the Fatah, or to be allowing the suicide bombings to go forward.