Last Class

History of Jerusalem is over, and I must say I enjoyed it very much. I love learning Jewish history, and since I already have a foundation of it, learning more is just easy and fun. And learning more about Islamic rule over Jerusalem and the Crusades was also a lot of fun, and very important.

I was a little disappointed in the last class. I think the professor got off on some long tangents and we weren't able to ask him enough questions about his views and stuff. And then all the views were like 'Centrist. Pro-peace. I love everyone." Like Professor Cargill said about the news, blood makes the news. It would have been more fun to hear Cargill take one side over another just for the controversy of it, but like most people, I am pro-peace. I am pro-Israel first, but the Palestinians like every other legitimate people in the world deserve their own state if they so wish. I don't know if I have talked about my views explicitly in this blog, but here is how I like to frame it.

There are two legitimate groups of people, with legitimate claims to the same peace of land, who have shown they can't coexist with one another. OK, lets break it down.

2 legit groups of people: I don't know anyone with an education who would say the Jews aren't a legit group. They share a common history, religion, cultural traits, holidays, much more so than Muslims and Christians. No need to waste time agreeing with everyone here. Palestinians on the other hand are much more complicated. We have Arabs who are the broad ethnic group over the region of Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and other countries. The Palestinians are one type of Arab who have, over the past couple centuries, become their own distinct group of people through geography and shared experience. Arguing that the Palestinians are not a distinct group of people is fruitless and will only upset people, because they are and they are convinced of it themselves. We can't convince Palestinians that they aren't Palestinians, and we can only work towards peace if we accept that they are a legitimate group of people.

Legit claims: Jews trace their historical roots back to Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Jewish literautre, and canon tells us this, as does archaeology. Jews also as a group of people deserve their own coutnry to escape the persecution they have faced historically. Why has anti-semitism fallen since the creation of the State of Israel? Not because people are scared of another Holocaust, because there are only Jews in a few places. Israel has about 40% of the world's Jews. America, which historically has low anti-semitism, has another 40%, and then 20% dispresed in Canada, England, France, South Africa, Argentina and other countries. I believe there basically aren't enough Jews in most of the world for people to hate the Jews, and this has a lot to do with the creation of the State of Israel. Since there are few Jews in most places now compatred to 1939 and thus there is less anti-semitism. So basically the creation of Israel has cut down persecution of Jews, which is one of its goals and reasons it should exist. That point got lost somewhere in all that. Palestinian claims can be traced back over the last couple centuries. It is acknowledged in the Balfour Declaration, in the Israeli Declaration of Indenepence, in (many biased) UN declarations, by countries around the world. So Palestinian claims to the land. the problem is that these claims developed over different times and in different places. Zionism was born in Europe, Palestinian claims in Palestine. Israeli claims go back thousands of years, Palestinians only a few centuries. But who is to say who is more convinced and who is more deserving. The Israelis won the wars, many started by the Arabs, but that doesn't delegitamize the Palestinian claims. The land of Israel is still their homeland.

More often than not that they can't coexist: Let me clarify, the Israelis and Palestinians have coexisted in many places for many years. But Israeli history is marked by peace negotiations. Why? Because there is no true peace. There is cohabitation, but no real peace.

This is problem as I see it and its difficult. Its complicated. Things contradict one another. People don't get along. Not everyone on each side agrees. But such are people and such is the conflict.

I don't want to end my blog only speaking on the conflict because I don't believe the class was a giant context to the conflict. Jerusalem is much more today than a conflict. It is the center of Judaism. It is the home to hundreds of thousands of people. It is many ways a modern city, not like Tel Aviv, but still modern with universities, and companies, and McDonald's. I really don't know how to end not on a sappy note about Jerusalem being everything to everyone and we can hope for the future peace and all that and thats not how I want to end a blog.

So, the class was fun. I love history. I love Israel. I look forward to taking another class like this while at UCLA.

Joey

PS-I'm definitely happy to be mentioning UCLA as a way to close.