Still no water.
I just returned from the Church of Nativity this evening where I saw this monk with a crazy wild dog ‘Rambo’ of course I went over to pet the dog & sat & spoke with a Franciscan monk, Leszek, who was looking after the dog. After talking with him about his life as a monk, how he got into the clergy. Anyway Leszek works in the church & was in the church during the 2002 siege & gun battle between the Palestinians & Israeli’s & was fascinating to speak with. Speaking with a person with that kind of insight was quite telling. He has sympathy for the Palestinians. He said it is not even the Palestinians that get hassled crossing the checkpoints he also does as well. He can not transport anything to Jerusalem other than himself. He lectures philosophy in Jerusalem & He pointed out that before 1967 Egypt & Jordan also controlled Palestine. These people are getting it from both sides, their Arab ‘brothers’ & the Israeli’s. He also pointed out an obvious flaw in the 2 state solution the fact that Gaza & the West Bank are geographically distanced from each other. He also pointed out that it would be currently impossible since the cities within the west Bank are separated by Israeli forces
I met with Castro last night, the nephew of Walid the butcher. Castro is getting his PhD in Illinois. It is interesting to hearing someone with both perspectives. He was born & raised here & educated in America. The 2 American girls from New York were saying how in the US there are massive protests for any professor siding with the Palestinians. Petitions for professors to not be allowed to teach to students not being allowed to get their Masters or PhD’s it seems as though it is McCarthyism all over again. Without exception people here harbour no ill feelings towards any Jewish people. In fact some would like to live side by side in peace in one nation. I personally do not see that happening. At any rate
As far as 911 I suppose they have the same ideas as you do back home ranging from the Americans and or Israeli’s did the attack, to they knew & let it happen, & some here do believe it was Saudi radicals. But NOBODY condones or supports what they did; the responses were consistently that is not Islam we are not about harming people. When it happened so many here knew ‘it would not be good for us’. It seems as though if we make the entire culture villains it somehow justifies what we do to the 99.9% of peaceful people here who simply want to live in pace & have freedom for their children.
I feel terribly and incredibly guilty beyond what I could ever express. We take so much for granted & become so gluttonous wanting a new motorcycle car or whatever when all these people desire is freedom. They are 20 minutes from a beach a beach that under these circumstances they will never be able to visit.
The frustrating misnomer is that they teach their children hate or war & nothing is further from the truth. It is actually the opposite they try & foster peaceful resolution & understanding. They do not want war, they are so sick of this. Most every male here has been shot, shot at and imprisoned; it is pretty amazing that they keep such a warm friendly demeanor all things considered.
I can not say everyone will be happy with a 2-State solution on either side but I can not see it being any other way. With some of the amazing things that has happened in our lifetime, the Berlin Wall coming down, an African American becoming president & with what equates to leader of the free world 45 years after segregation & the civil rights movement there has to be hope but this may not be an easy or quick solution. There will have to be hard sacrifices on both sides and they must stay the course & not allow the few radicals to hijack the peace in this region
It is difficult at times to separate the politics from the human aspect of what the Palestinians endure on a daily basis. MY hope is that the young people that I have lived with & worked with & are happy to call my friends never accept that being a prisoner simply by right of your place of birth is OK. I also hope that their frustration does not morph into something violent
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