The Last Hurrah

Well, after four months in Egypt, today is my last day. It's pretty sad actually. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing my friends, being at Lawrence, and eating food that doesn't contain beans, I really wish I was staying longer in Egypt. Arriving here and starting school was a bit of a rough adjustment, but Cairo really grew on me. I love this city. There's always something happening and the people are amazing. Obviously there are a lot of negative things that I've experienced here as well, but overall I'd say that my experience was entirely positive. It really challenged me and let me be independent in a ways I haven't been in the United States. I've grown to be fairly comfortable here and I only hope that I'll be able to return sometime in the not so distant future.

Kittens are the best study buddies.

I don't think it's really fair for me to try to reflect on my experiences in Cairo while I'm still here, But I'm sure I will in the coming months. I need some time to adjust to the cold and the culture, and I'm anticipating that reverse culture shock is really going to kick my butt. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I begin school in 12 days and am spending the time between now and then traveling, so it'll probably be longer than that before I really have time to think about this experience. And yes, that's right, I did just finish my semester yesterday, and I do start school again in less than two weeks. Thank you Lawrence. Everyone loves having class on January 2nd.

In the meantime, I'm off to Portugal for a week to see my sister and explore Lisbon. I'm hoping that it will be a nice first destination as I readjust to first world living (and to alcohol). But mostly I'm hoping that it'll be fun! So that's what's up.

Thanks for reading my blog. It was fun. As reluctant as I was at first to keep a blog, it really became a great way for me to think about my experiences, remember them, and keep everyone back home up to date! I'm pretty impressed with geographic diversity of my readership, and if you're reading this from the Phillipines, Ukraine, Sweden, or really anywhere else, or if I don't know you or that you're reading my blog, I'd love to hear from you. Post a comment or send me an email if you want.

So thanks.

Have a lovely holiday season, congrats on surviving the apocalypse.

Deborah

How Many People Can I Piss Off in One Post?

Alright, so I suck at updating my blog. Sue me.

I was thinking that I would keep this post pretty light and fluffy because it's probably my last one from Cairo, but I don't really want to. Maybe I'll write a fluffy post later this week. I might even write one once I'm back in good ol' 'Merica just so I can reflect a bit. We'll see. For everyone who's wondering, my American cellphone will be turned on at approximately 10pm on Friday, December 28th.

I know there are a lot of things going on in Egypt right now, and you're welcome to read about them in the newspaper or on the internet, but I'm not going to address them. Though I will suggest this article from a few days ago. It's a really good look at poverty and politics. I like to read Egypt Independent if you're looking for more up to date info than the NYTimes can provide.

The best graffiti in Cairo.

This post's about Israel and antisemitism and all that stuff all piled into one not very well educated or researched blog post, that could also probably use some grammar and punctuation checks. Sorry. People constantly ask me my opinions on this, and I figured it's time to share. I thought about writing it a few weeks ago during all the Gaza/Israel escalating violence stuff, but I'm not an expert and I hope that both myself and my readers have cooled down a bit since then. If you're one of those people who has a view on Israel and can't possible maintain a friendship with someone who disagrees, you should probably stop reading now, because I'd like to maintain our friendship. There is also a small amount of fairly non-profane profanity. This is your warning.

I've never been super gung ho about Israel. Even though my involvement with both reform and conservative American Judaism has taught me that Israel is the greatest place on Earth and I should forever give money to Israel, my parents never really pushed the whole Israel thing and I was never super interested in just buying the crap that people sell you in school or religious school or really anywhere. Because I have a brain, and I'm a bit sassy, and the combination of those things makes me somewhat skeptical of being fed information or opinions.

And though I've never been overly enthusiastic about Israel, I've never questioned that Israel should exist and that it deserves our support. But I'm not a big fan of unconditional support. And there are some things that are hard to forgive. For the past year or two I've slowly been educating myself more about Israel and Palestine and everything related to Israel and Palestine, and now I've lived in Egypt, and all those things put together have made me even more conflicted about Israel than I ever was before.

Here in Egypt, I have experienced anti-Semitism like nothing I've ever seen firsthand in the US, or anywhere else for that matter. Most people don't know that I'm Jewish, and that's really for the best. As unfortunate as it is, anti-Semitism is a totally accepted, normal part of life in Egypt. You're a minority if you're not anti-Semitic. A student in one of my classes accidentally found out I'm Jewish and immediately stopped talking to me. A different student in a different class asked if Israel was founded "just because some of them got burned." I was so surprised that I wrote it down. That's a quote. And even more horrifying for me was that no one spoke up. Not even the professor. In an academic setting, a modern Middle Eastern history class that discusses political Zionism and the creation of the state of Israel, it is totally appropriate to refer to the Holocaust like that. It's sad, but not surprising to hear that kind of stuff out on the street. But in an academic setting. In a school that wants to be Egypt's best university. Yeah. I mean, you can watch people rant on television about how Jews are destroying society and are morally bankrupt. And many people don't know any better. They're taught this, they can't differentiate between Jews and Israelis and the Israeli government, and they've never met a Jew so they've got no personal experience to change their views. Egypt has very few Egyptian Jews left because they all got the hell out. They had to. Prison, persecution, or leave. So they left.

This has made me love Israel. The US is safe, no one cares. Yeah, there's the occasional horribly offensive joke or slur or whatever, but in general I've never had any real problems with anti-Semitism in the US. Of course stupid groups exist, but we're fairly well protected and supported. But my experiences here in Egypt have confirmed for me more than anything else that the state of Israel needs to exist. There needs to be a place where Jewish people can be Jewish without anybody giving them crap about it. Without being targeted specifically because they're Jewish.

But Israel's policies get in the way of my adoration. This is a country that was created for people who were persecuted and removed from their own countries, people who needed a safe place from the rest of the world. So naturally it makes sense for Israel to remove people from their land and to make them second class citizens if they get to stay. To prevent their spouses from joining them in their own homes, or stop them from coming or going by using checkpoints. Right? I don't think so. Just because people treated Jews like shit doesn't make it okay for Israel to treat other people like shit. People who are just as entitled to that geographic location as Jews are.

And I know there's all this "they attacked us and people died" stuff. And you know, it's true. Israel has been attacked and people have died. But Palestinians have died too. And it's not exactly a fair fight. Israel's got this giant military operation and the unending support of the US government. I'm not saying they shouldn't defend themselves, but if we're comparing who has better resources, who is more able to fight, it's not even a comparison worth making. Think about it for five seconds. But I don't want to overlook the inability of the Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to get their shit together, because the violence does go both ways. I'll say that it's very unfortunate that this conflict is about organizations and governments fighting with each other. It seems to me that they lost track of the people they were supposed to be fighting for some time ago.

And we as involved citizens of the world need to distinguish between people and governments. Between Israelis and Israel. Between Palestinians and Hamas. Between Americans and the United States. Because shit, I don't want people thinking I'm the US. I'm not, and most days the more I can distance myself from the American government, the better.

Obviously this conflict goes back nearly a hundred years and isn't about to be resolved in a blog post. It has a long history of Western involvement and wars and peace treaties and all that. I can't say why it was okay to move in to an area that was already somewhat populated. I don't buy the religious entitlement to the land crap, but I also am not willing to blame modern Israel for its location. But I can blame it for how it treats its citizens. Particularly the Arab citizens. Israel has been called an apartheid state, though there is no agreement on this matter even amongst various UN missions and committees or amongst academics. But the very fact that apartheid status is debatable is a sad and disheartening commentary on the state of social and racial concerns within Israel.

I don't have the answer for Israel and Palestine. I know that escalating violence is certainly not it. I know that committing human rights violations is not the answer. I think a two state solution is probably unattainable at this point, but I don't know if a one state solution is realistic after decades of conflict. And Israel will never give up its Jewish majority to allow that. How can it be a Jewish state without a Jewish majority? This muddled situation is not just Israel's fault. The Palestinian Authority brings plenty of incompetence to the table.

So what do I think about Israel? I don't know. I want to love Israel with everything I've got. I see the need for Israel. I believe in Israel. But I can't possible love a country that is willing to ignore an entire population. A country that continues to ignore the UN. It's hard to overlook human rights violations. Israel can do wrong. It does all the time.

I'm going to conclude by defending myself. I know it's popular to say that anyone who doesn't support Israel 110% is a bad Jew. I have been told this by some lovely American Jews. I am not a bad Jew. Questioning Israel does not make me a bad Jew. In fact, I don't even believe in "bad Jews." I think Judaism really values questioning, engagement, and interpretation, and to give any less than that would be dishonest of me. I do support Israel 110%. I support Israel by staying educated, by questioning what's going on, by showing that I don't agree with the government. I show my support by being invested and educated and making it clear that Israel can't do whatever the hell it wants just because I'll support it unconditionally. I don't need to post an "I stand with Israel" flag on my Facebook. Because there's more to support than being a blind follower. I stand with Israel. If I didn't, I wouldn't bother being engaged or opinionated. It wouldn't be worth my time.