Why did I decide to cave in and start a blog, at long last?

I have recently read parts from an email exchange, in which two good friends of mine wondered whether I am pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. Relevant quotes spiced up the discussion. It seems, however, that, in the end, the copious repository of my writings proved no less ambiguous the Holy Bible. Whenever one found a handy little quote to prop up his argument, the opponent immediately countered with a quote which proved the exact opposite. And so the controversy remained unresolved. If there is a good reason to start a blog, I think this is one.

Am I pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli? If a question stubbornly resists an answer, it may well be that it has none. It may also be that the question is itself nonsensical. Eight months in Jerusalem have brought me to believe the latter is actually the case, that this question is indeed nonsense disguised as a logical alternative. To begin with, like many other political labels, the terms "pro-Palestinian" or "pro-Israeli" are nothing but empty boxes waiting to be filled with content. Back in Poland I thought I knew what the content was. There was no middle ground. To be pro-Palestinian meant to be an anti-semite and to support terrorism, to be pro-Israeli was to be an idealist and to support the return from exile of the longest suffering people. Or, alternatively, to be pro-Palestinian meant to be a romantic freedom fighter, and to be pro-Israeli meant to be a romantic racist. A clear political alternative either way.

I miss those days. These alternatives now seem to me to have been an easy way out, a ploy to avoid facing the facts as they are. They numbed my sense of the concrete, the actual, the tangible, lulled my mind into the false comfort of easily manageable half-truths. They were my most treasured hideaway. The burden of reality was to heavy to bear, so I put on my back a sack stuffed with light-to-carry ideologies instead. And it felt comfortable. The truth, on the other hand, is unsettling. Once you get down to deal with the facts on the ground, you realize that the pro-Palestinian/pro-Israeli alternative is rendered null, because to want real peace must mean to be neither. Peace is just as needed by the Israelis as it is longed for by Palestinians. But it's also only natural to expect that if anyone wishes to achieve peace he should first understand the conflict. At the end of the day, in Palestine, the question: "are you pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli" translates into "do you think all states should be expected to respect human rights, or is it okay for some to be exempted from this requirement?"

That I expect Israel to make concessions to Palestinians does not mean I'm anti-Israel. It means I want a just peace for all.