NSWJBD/Honest Reporting Israel Mission Day 2
Today’s report brought to you by Michael Foley and Antoinette Collins…
Today began at Media Central who are the watch dogs against media inaccuracy. Misunderstanding in public opinion is often a result of media oversimplifications and yet 90% of American government foreign policy is informed by and comes from the media.
Aryeh Green addresses the mission
Melanie Robbins od=f Peace Now
To summarise Aryeh Green, Director of the MediaCentral, “I do not believe that people understand the complexities of the Middle East and to simply frame the issues as ‘good guys Palestinians and bad guys Israel’ is not honest or in any way helpful. And in relation to honesty and future ‘honest reporting’ accuracy is Israel’s best ally.
This was further explained to the group by Israeli government spokesman Miri Eisen when she stressed that Israel’s best advocacy is still a one-on-one discussion.
Miri Eisen also raised the all important question “what should Israel’s policy be” with turmoil on her border with Egypt and a civil war on the border with Syria? Currently the policy with Syria is to accept no refugees. However a military field hospital was set up on the Syrian border – about 3,000 Syrians have so far been treated in the hospital.
The above highlights the problem with closed or polemic arguments and the need for a Hegelian process to understand clearly our own agenda or thesis. This will require, as Miri Eisen herself asked- for us ‘to look in the mirror at ourselves’ and then to attempt to see what others see, this will more often than not be the opposite to our agenda or thesis. Here we see or discover the Hegelian antithesis. When the thesis and antithesis are seen together or held in tension as in the current Israel and Palestinian causes we can attempt to move to the Hegelian synthesis. There is no right or wrong – we should not make people choose.
Melanie Robbins of Peace Now strongly presented the difficult issues of disputed territories and Israeli settlements. This presentation raised a number of deep questions and much engagemtnet with the group.
Lee Glassman’s tour of Old Jerusalem provided further insights into the disputes over territory particularly regarding the Jordanian presence up to1967, as well as some stories of profound depth and wisdom associated with this part of the city. Lee spoke with such passion and entertainment it was impossible not to be touched and involved in the history and perspectives he so artfully delivered.
The geo-political situation may all seem impossible to resolve, but at the end of this second day of the mission we had the great privilege of being taken to the top of the Aish Ha Torah Study Center looking out over the Temple walls. This overview was the very spiritual gift we needed to see as God sees- the synthesis of all humanity.
All the Jews living outside of Israel with some cash should live here in Israel. After going to shul for a few years every Shabbos morning, we see from the Parsha that G-D brought us out of Egypt to give us the Torah, both written and oral, so we should live according to the Torah in Israel. You are not doing much good to Israel living outside. If the Lubavitcher Rebbe came here bringing many of his Hasidim , many leftists in charge who want to give our land away to our enemies so they can more easily kill us for their mitzva, would be displaced or made less effective. By living here you can help achieve this. So come on down or up.
Wow Miri Eisen, I’m obviously not a University Scholar but I had to get the dictionary out to try and make some sence out of your comments.I wish you had kept it simple for the dum dums. I tried looking up the word Hegelian and the closest I got was
Hegemony: Leadership Why didn’t you just say leadershiop process? SO then as I still couldn’t work out what you were trying to tell us I broke every thing down from the dictionary.
Thesis: propossition to be maintained or proved: dissertation esp. by candidate for uni.degree. Obvious antthesis is the opposite.
synthesis; putting together of parts or elements to make up complex whole; artificial production of substances from simpler ones.
Polemic; verbal attack; contravercy involving dispute.
tension; stretching or being stretched; mental strain of excitement etc. etc.
Now to quote “When the thesis and the antithesis are seen together or held in tension as is the currant Israel and Palestinian causes we can attempt to move to the Hegelian synthesis.(????) There is no right or wrong – we should not make people choose. Sorry I choose not to even try and understand this verbal diarrhoea, Can someone please translate it for me?? No wonder there is so much confusion in the world.
Eleonora
The Hegelian stuff reffers to the notion of DIALECTICS. Hegel did not invent it at all. If anything, if you really want, it is an old Platonic exercise.
It simply means a confrontation of opposite opinions. This is the fiorst time I run into the term “Hegelian” when talking about simple issues, such as the conflict between Israel and its enemies, even if taken at the “disputation” level. It is precious, unnecessarily pretentious, it does not aid the understanding of the conflictual process.
Big words are being used without clarifying anything, quite to the contrary.
What really concerns me is that important Israelis who have such a vakuebale job to perform with international media, waste their time, a few hours at a time, with a dedicated group of pensioners who do have a bit of spare cash to spend and arebeing treated as useful conduits for promoting important messages. Question is how many of the participants are likely to engage themselves in real missions of appraching and attracting interests from groups which MUST be informed. How many of them DO have the prior, fundamental, proffessional background to warrant such possible missions by the community. How many of them have a proven record of similar activities and how many of them are even physically capable to engage in such “missions”. I reckognised a few faces and I have my doubts.
We had previous such groups and want Lynda to tell us how many of the previous group members have been used by the Board in the missions I am and she is talking about locally, in Australia after their infomed trips !!???
Otto,
I suggest that most of the “dedicated group of pensioners” seem to be about your age. At least they are dedicated!
Dedicated for a holiday!
I’m a 70-year-old Christian Zionist from England. I attended the May-June 2012 Mission which provided me with greater insights into everyday life in Israel. I’m engaged in Israel advocacy on an almost daily basis. Last month the BBC Trust upheld a complaint of mine that historian-TV presenter Dan Snow gave a wrong impression that Israel was responsible for starting the 1967 Six Day War.
Thanks for the reports; sounds like a very informative experience but how about some more personal impressions and anecdotes?