By Jacob Dean, NFTY in Israel Participant, Bus 4
I have always been intensely interested in politics, and because of my Judaism this interest has always included Israel. Especially given the controversy surrounding it, I have spent quite a bit of time reading about, discussing, and vehemently arguing over Israel’s history and current problems. One of my primary reasons for going on this trip was to get some actual, firsthand experience of the place I had spent so long observing and debating from a distance. Israel is a fantastically complex place, and I hoped that spending a month here would give me at least a little understanding of the ways in which all of its peoples view the world. However, I was concerned that the trip might be designed in such a way as to make this sort of broad experience difficult. I was confident that NFTY in Israel wouldn’t try to push a biased viewpoint, but I was concerned that it might gloss over Israel’s struggles and flaws in an effort to make the trip an uncomplicated positive experience.
Luckily, my fears have proved entirely unfounded. I have been consistently impressed by the balanced, informative nature of our activities on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and our counselors’ personal stories of their time in the IDF has provided a valuable perspective. This trip’s destinations routinely force us to confront Israel’s recent past and the nature of its present situation. In fact, as I write this we are on our way to visit Israel’s border with the West Bank and hear from both a Palestinian and a Jewish settler about their lives in such a contested area. Not only has this trip been a fun experience, which has strengthened my feeling of connection to Israel, it has granted me a deeper understanding of all sides of its complex political position.
