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October 2000 Issue

Mood on the Street in Israel: Abraham's Sons Unbound

By Greg Newmark

In Jerusalem on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, I wished, as I do every year, that Abraham had not agreed to sacrifice Isaac. This year I was not frustrated by the wrenching ethical issues, but by the location. Middle Eastern tradition holds that that "place which God told [Abraham]" is the limestone slab protected by the gilded Dome of the Rock and, not coincidentally, also the launching pad for Mohammed's ascent to heaven. Modern history has made the Rock, and the Temple Mount surrounding it, the place where the first stones are often thrown.

Two days previous, Ariel Sharon, never one not to make the first move (he led troops across the Suez Canal in 1973 to surprise the Egyptian Army from behind), had made a breakfast tour of the Temple Mount. He brought along an entourage of a thousand policeman and within minutes had come and gone and effectively pulled the pin on the incendiary device that is Jerusalem. By Rosh Hashanah eve, barely 36 hours later, rocks were being thrown off the Temple Mount on the Jews praying below at the Western Wall, widespread riots had begun, and people had died. Not an auspicious way to start the year.

At first, the violence seemed to be contained to the problem of authority over the Temple Mount. The agonizingly difficult issue of sharing a central holy site has remained one of the least resolved issues on the road to peace. On that Rosh Hashanah morning, I could still wish God, with his omniscience, had picked another mountain for his sacrifices and that Sharon had just stayed home. But, as Rosh Hashanah passed into the Days of Awe, it was clear that the fervor was not limited to a single site, Sharon had catalyzed, but not caused the reaction, and that the days ahead would in fact be awful.

The images have been emblazoned across the world's televisions and newspapers. These days of soul searching have revealed the region's ugly side. Armed conflict, children being killed, helicopters used as a form of crowd control, and Druze soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces fighting for their lives from Palestinian attack and finding their Israeli support suspiciously slow to arrive.

While Israeli newspapers have been referring to the situation as Intifada 2000, as if this were a new model year for a uprising, these riots are categorically different. The Palestinian rioters are not armed merely with rocks and Molotov cocktails. This time they have guns, military training, and a greater freedom from Israeli reprisals.

Furthermore, this time the violence is not just in the territories. Israeli Arabs, that oft forgotten minority that comprises a fifth of Israeli citizenry, joined the fray throughout the Galilee as well as in Jaffa, Acco, and Haifa. These domestic protesters expressed their extreme frustration with their second class status in Israel. Shockingly, that status was reaffirmed by the willingness of Israeli policemen to use lethal force.

One teenaged victim of this armed response had been active in Seeds of Peace. On Shabbat Tschuva, a young congregant introduced the prayer for peace with a few words about her Arab friend who had been killed. She brought the immediacy of the violence within Israel home to everyone. Ned Lazarus, an American who is the Jerusalem coordinator of Seeds of Peace looked somberly on. "This has been our toughest week ever," he said afterwards.

Unfortunately, things only got worse on Saturday. The Palestinian looting and razing of Joseph s Tomb was an ugly display of why Israelis are not keen on giving up authority over holy sites. While the scenes were unpleasant for Israel, they did not compare to the fear and concern for the three soldiers abducted by Hizbollah that same day. In Israel, preserving life will hopefully always trump preserving stones.

Preparing for Yom Kippur was certainly surreal. Israeli radio played silence to enable Orthodox listeners to leave on their stereos, lest something happen. Although not voiced, everyone surely thought about a tense Yom Kippur three decades before.

Fortunately, this one was relatively calm. As the holiday settled over Israel, the honking of Israeli drivers was replaced by the laughing of children biking through the streets. For me, Kol Nidre refocused my energies on Yom Kippur. Seeing Martin Indyk, the American Ambassador to Israel, and his family at the other side of the shul was pacifying. If he was there, things must be going somewhat smoothly. Besides, what a good story with which to divert concerned relatives. (His aliyah was followed by Dr. Ruth's daughter's.)

On the Jewish calendar the Days of Awe are meant to be a time of reflection, reckoning, and, ultimately, redemption. Surely, in the violence there are lessons to be learned. The pain of this time, should, as for Abraham, lead to a receptiveness to a new course of action. At our break fast, we turned up the radio when the news came on detailing the confrontations that had occurred on Yom Kippur. Instead of redemption, there seemed to be a return to strife, hatred, violence, and death. Despite the lesson of the binding of Isaac, the progeny of Abraham remain all too willing to sacrifice their sons.

Greg Newmark was born and raised in Ohio. After graduating from Yale in 1997, he moved to Boston for two years to work as a public transportation planner. Currently, he lives in Jerusalem where he struggles with Hebrew and is in desperate search of a good burrito.

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