No Turkey for Israel this Thanksgiving

I've been awful in the past few weeks and even month? I should say at updating this. I think that as things began to happen, and as my ideas evolved and changed, it felt as though it was too much to put into one blog. I'll try to see what I can do to summarize the latest happenings.

I've just come back from a week vacation from my 5 month vacation in Israel. We booked our plans awhile ago. A Cruise through the Mediterranean. For those who don't yet know the breaking international news: Sometime in the night between May 30th and June 1st, a flotilla (as they referred to it) filled with Humanitarian aid left for Israel. Normally, Israel checks the ships for weapons and "approved" supplies and food. This particular boat headed for Israel had made themselves clear that they were coming to protest Israel's barrier around Gaza. Instead of heading through the normal Ashdod port, they came straight to Gaza, with clear intentions to break the blockade. Israel knew this, the flotilla (it is commonly called) knew this, and as far as I can tell, everyone just sort of let it happen. The flotilla heading for Israel was given multiple warnings by the IDF and still would not stop. As the IDF approached the boat, they were attacked by the members on the boat (International non profits - from the US, Switzerland, Turkey, etc) - but of course the soldiers were armed with weapons, and the members on the flotilla were armed with objects (knives being the most fatal). The IDF attacked when attacked, killing 9 (including one American) and injuring maybe up to 50?

On May 31st, the day(ish) this occurred, my friends and I were in transit on a cruise, to Turkey, Greece, and Cypress. On our first day bound for Turkey, we awoke to the message that our boat had turned around, and that we were heading straight for Greece. This of course got to us very last minute since all of the messages were in Hebrew, and our only fluent speaking travel friend happened to be bed ridden with sea sickness and food poisoning. So there we were, on a cruise full of crazy Israelis, with only Israeli news all in Hebrew (which we at this point did not fully understand) in the middle of the Mediterranean, not sure if we would make it to Greece, and completely cut off from both mainstream news we could understand. From our end, it seemed that Israel ONLY defended itself and that it waited for the ship to arrive before taking any action. It was hard to comprehend why there were riots and protests all over the world, calling this an Israeli Massacre. What could have possibly happened that might have caused this? For me, being much more to the left, my thoughts were that the soldiers reacted appropriately, but the bigger picture still was ignored. They knew the ship was coming, and didn't care to stop it peacefully - it seemed to me that if danger was going to come - then they were ready for it.

The bigger issue is the blockade around Gaza. That is why they protested, and that is what they are against. Are they stupid for going barely armed against the Israeli army? Yes of course. Is Gaza an entirely bigger issue? Yes. As it turns out, the rest of the world, even America, is entirely against Israel on this issue. While that is difficult to see even your allies go against you, it's not unexpected. A lot of my even most liberal of friends here cannot seem to fathom why this would be - and they are behind Israel 100 percent on this issue. I think Israel acted justly in the moment and that the rest of the world is unfairly representing what happened. But what people fail to see is that Israel having a blockade around part of Gaza is obviously a problem. It's a problem for the middle east, and now it's a problem, apparently, for the rest of the world. You can agree or disagree, but the public obviously has a problem with it. And that problem isn't going to go away by ignoring that fact, and just brushing it off and saying, "well, the world will always be against Israel. We have to stick together." I continue to argue with my friends here, and as I do so - the more I find that on this issue, I am alone. Maybe that makes me crazy - but I maintain that if there is a reason that the media is against Israel, all over the world, even within allies like the USA, there must be a reason for it. But I want to back it up: to my previous idea I left everyone with.

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Looking back at the idea I last posted, there is nothing, theoretically, wrong with the idea. The only problem is that Noam Shalit doesn't ACTUALLY have anything to do with the organization that works to bring home his son. Sure, sometimes on Shabbat he will join them in thanks for their work, but other than that he is typically a pretty quiet homebody kind of dad and husband. It happens a lot. I received wrong information. And what's more - when I went to the tent that was set up to recruit supporters in bringing Gilad Shalit home, I could not have met a pair of more apathetic volunteers. My conversation sort of summed up below:

"If I sign this petition here, what does it do?"
"At the end of every month we give it to Bibi (nick name for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minster) but it doesn't usually do anything. It's pretty much a routine at this point. I put in my two hours a month, and I'm done."

So at this point what seemed like a stroke of genius turned out not exactly as I pictured. In my head, time was ticking. I only have so much time here. What does it mean that I keep on running into these little issues? I wanted to think bigger picture, still. This doesn't change what I wanted. Short stories. Israelis. No problem. But in my mind, there was still this need to give these short stories a theme of some sort. I was frustrated and concerned and over thinking everything. I wanted more to be happening and it wasn't. I decided to turn my room into a giant notepad. I went out and bought gigantic post it notes to put all over the wall - where I can note on everything in my mind. What ideas I have so far, why the process is difficult here, etc etc etc. It turned out that this was the most therapeutic thing I could have possibly done. I was able to sketch out my issues. Visually see my thoughts, and continue to look at them, and come up with a plan. I wrote down every idea I ever had around Israel that inspired and impassioned me. It hit me. The Wall. In almost every short piece that engaged me, I realized that I was compelled by the idea of boundaries, of walls. It's what I see in Israel, it's almost all I can see. Secular and religious, Arabs and Jews, Ethiopians and middle eastern/Ashkenazi Jews, etc. This eventually brought me to my interest in the Wall Barrier in Israel. Very well known - it was set up to separate East and West Jerusalem as a way to keep terrorism out. For Israel, this has actually worked. Terrorism has gone down. But the wall hasn't entirely been constructed. It also is placed in sometimes very strange areas, diving towns and families - so you find yourself at times a Palestinian, completely NOT a citizen of Israel, having to do everything on the other side of the wall (groceries, shopping, medical needs, visiting family and friends). And this type of thing is very common. It's another way that the Israeli government has found a way to divide itself from the rest of the Middle East. Another way it, in my mind, is creating hostility towards Palestinians, giving them yet another reason to be angry. Has it worked for Israel thus far? Sure, definitely, maybe even completely. Is this a permanent and peaceful solution? In my mind - not at all. I wanted to use the wall as a way to inspire my short pieces. Many of them will be on various people's stories - how as an Israeli it has changed them, and if they think of what the other side goes through. How Palestinians have been affected by the wall. And outside of direct short pieces that come into contact with the wall, are stories of people in Israel that have created walls themselves.

But of course even this is ambitious and could be somewhat vague. I know the advice I have gotten and the advice I will get is to focus. Focus focus focus. Choose one topic and stick with it. As much as I yearn for advice, in this specific situation, I am not yet ready to take it. I am here to work on my documentary work - but also for so much more. I am here to learn, to engage in the politics, and every single day I am doing exactly that. If sometimes this distracts me from focusing on my documentary work, I'm kind of okay with that. If I stuck with the idea of ONLY examining the battle between religious and secular Jews, there's an entire world of politics I'm cutting myself off from. Maybe this mindset will slightly deter my final product - but seizing every story that interests me, as of now, is so much more important to my growth as a critical political filmmaker. I'm not sure if I'm cut out for what being a political filmmaker entails, but I need this time to find that out.

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In my political battle with each of my peers on a daily basis, I am constantly fighting. And as I do so, I sometimes isolate myself. Some of the time, I don't even know if I really believe what I am saying. But I've realized now that much of my arguing or changing comes from a need to remain individual. For instance, my struggle in the beginning of my time here to continue my Judaism. In America, this is part of me, it inspires me, and I want so much to connect with Judaism. Here, when everyone is Jewish, I have a much harder time motivating myself to do so. Politically, I still find myself arguing with Americans on the side of pro-Israel. But here in Israel I become more and more critical of Israel, thus causing me to be more and more leftist. Maybe I simply like playing the devil's advocate. But I also think that many of my choices come from finding a way to remain individual, and not lose myself in the norm. Maybe that is what I have been doing with the flotilla that went to Gaza. I'm not sure that when arguing with people I actually feel a certain way - but I know that I want to give someone every opportunity to challenge what they think - before they become extreme in their views. They may be right in what they think - but they need to at least recognize why there is opposition, and why someone against them feels the way that they do.

In the end, it is very probable that my short pieces will fall more along this line - people's passion towards their idea or side, and regardless of how hard they try, their inability to see the other side.