To return to the new Peace Now website click here.

Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle: "Israel will run out of time if it doesn't act"

Author Noa Nir, APN intern and daughter of APN Spokesman Ori Nir, participated in APN's Fact Finding Mission to Israel
Noa Nir - APN Intern

8/7/08

By Noa Nir


Noa Nir, 15, interns at Americans for Peace Now. She is the daughter of Ori Nir, spokesperson of APN.

My friends and I sometimes reminisce about when we were 9. Nine was when we all lost our last baby teeth, when we stopped playing dress-up, but still played with Barbies.

But there was one big difference between my 9 and my friends'. When I was 9, living in Jerusalem at the climax of the second intifada, a man blew himself up outside my school.

I went to the International School of Jerusalem, the only English language school in town. The imposing stone building used to be a hospital, where my grandmother gave birth to my father.

The building sits on a street that serves as a corridor connecting East and West Jerusalem. The street is called Ha'Nevi'im (The Prophets), but six years ago macabre Jerusalemites dubbed it "Suicider Alley" because many bombers used it to cross from the east side to the west and sometimes exploded en route to their target.

East and west. Black and white. That was the mindset during my two-year stay in Israel.

Before going to the International School, I went to a school down the street from where my family and I lived, near the German Colony. Before class, the rough kids would stand on their chairs screaming, "Death to the Arabs! Death to the Arabs!" Everyone joined in. My British friend Leah and I sat apart from the other children, reading English books.

When I moved to the International School, I thought of it as a safe zone - until the suicide bomber walked down the street. His head landed in the playground of the French school next door.

Seems normal

More than half a decade has passed since my family left Jerusalem and moved to Arlington, Virginia. I'm six years older, safer, wiser.

Even so, when my father and I walked through downtown Jerusalem on our way to the Dan Panorama Hotel recently, it was hard to comprehend how much the atmosphere in Jerusalem has changed.

Life seemed - dare I say it? - normal. People were rushing into the narrow alleyways of the predominantly Arab Old City instead of out. The King David Hotel, which offered us its presidential suite as we were heading out in 2002, when business was nearly nonexistent, was now full.

My grandparents now hardly ever talk about "the situation," which was the dominant topic of conversation when my family lived in Jerusalem.

Six years pass by quickly for a growing girl. Six years was all it took to transform a violent, terrifying city into a booming tourist attraction.

And yet, during all the meetings that I attended in the six days of Americans for Peace Now's fact-finding mission last month, there was always a sense of urgency. "Time is running out," everyone kept telling us. "Something must be done."

I kept wondering, "Why? Look outside. Couples are strolling along the sidewalks with their young children. Arabs are sitting in the same cafes as Jews. Merchants in the Old City are selling IDF halter tops."

"Time? Time for what?" I asked myself.

During the week, however, I realized that if Israel doesn't start changing now, it will not be able to continue for long as a democratic Jewish state. Israel will run out of time if it doesn't act immediately to resolve its conflict with its Palestinian neighbors.

True, reaching a peace accord now seems all but impossible. Unpopular governments led by weak politicians on both sides lack the political power and the confidence of the public to sign an agreement. Almost all of our speakers - Israeli, Palestinian and American - seemed to agree on that.

But they also agreed that some progress can be made now, and that significant progress depends on help from the U.S. administration.

It mainly depends on the Israeli public, though. Six years ago, Israelis were almost obsessed with politics. Today, the mere mention of politics to an average Israeli can result in physical sickness.

One of our speakers, pollster Tamar Hermann, observed that Israelis have gone beyond depoliticization - they are now anti-politicized.

She told us about a recent poll which showed that 25 percent of Israelis say they want to vomit when they hear the word "politics." Israelis despise everything that is political, even though the political process in Israel can have an existential impact on the future of the state.

Israelis, of course, have many reasons to dislike politicians and politics. The prime minister has been charged with involvement in corruption scandals. The president was charged with sexual assault and sexual harassment. Other politicians are facing prison terms for corruption.

At a brunch the Saturday before my father and I flew back to Washington, a family friend showed us a sticker that was attached to the plastic wrapper on his airplane meal on a recent trip abroad. On the sticker, in peaceful coexistence, were a kosher stamp and a Muslim "halal" stamp. "Right here is the hope for peace!" our friend told us triumphantly.

And I wondered: what will it be like the next time I come to Israel? Will Israel's leaders have made significant steps towards peace? Will the Palestinian leaders? Will the American? Will people care at all? Or will I get caught in a third intifada?

I wish that on my next visit, people on both sides would stop viewing Israeli-Palestinian relations in black and white, and instead focus on the shades of gray. I wish they would realize that the "peace" they live in now is a false and temporary peace.

In the long run, life will be neither normal nor sustainable unless they make the sacrifices and the hard choices that must be made to achieve peace with their neighbors.

I'm back in Arlington now, and Israel feels far away. But no matter where I am, the problems of that tiny, complicated country will continue to touch my life.

The conflict that Israelis - and non-Israelis - would rather not discuss will spiral out of control if we continue to ignore it.