In this past week of tremendous political drama surrounding Israel and Palestine, it is tempting to forget that the entire region is in the midst of profound change.

NYT: Fearing Change, Many Christians in Syria Back Assad
This report in the Times highlights the complexities of Christian contribution to society inSyria, a context entirely different from Egypt, Jordan, or Palestine. Nevertheless, the difficulty of finding a clear Christian

The outcome of Syria's seven-month-old uprising is far from clear. (NPR)

position can help generate empathy for Christians seeking to navigate their communities’ evolving encounters with the various regional states.

NPR: Syrian Leader Digs In For A Long Battle
This very interesting report from NPR highlights the profound complexities of the Syrian manifestation of the Arab Spring. Most important for our interest in the ELCA is the record of Christian public support for the Assad regime, presumably following the previous day’s groundbreaking report in the Times.

AP: Egypt convicts Mubarak’s information minister
Egypt continues the long, slow process of ensuring accountability and constructing a new foundation for civil society. These sorts of convictions are important steps along the way. Until Mubarak is convicted, however, doubts concerning the next steps will remain.

Developments such as these have provided a new context for the tensions betweenIsraelandPalestine. It remains to be seen, however, if these regional changes will help or further hinder the cause of peace. As long as security is seen as incompatible with peace, and as long as the preservation of regimes at the expense of one’s own people, the goal of restoring and reconciling the region will remain elusive.

In June 2010 Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, gave a talk in Madison, WI entitled “Keys to Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”. The Bright Stars of Bethlehem, the US-based fund-raising organization for Christmas Lutheran Church and its ministries, has now posted the videos in seven parts:

1. Too Many Peace Processes and Too Little Peace
2. Too Much Politics and Too Little Care for the People
3. Too Much Religion and Too Little Spirituality
4. Too Much Humanitarian Aid and Too Little Empowering Aid
5. Too Much Passion and Too Little Compassion
6. Too Obsessed by the Past and Too Little Focus on the Future
7. Too Much Pessimism-Optimism and Too Little Hope

These videos give an easy to digest overview of the situation and would make great starting points for a discussion of the situation and future of Israel-Palestine.

Palestinian women swim in the Mediterranean in Tel Aviv, some for the first time, with the help of Israeli friends who faced possible consequences for aiding the Palestinians in getting there. Photo by the New York Times.

Holy Land watchers can take heart that in a season of ineffective diplomatic results, Israeli and Palestinian civilians are finding ways to engage each other through the arts, education and simple recreation.

When the ELCA bishops traveled to the region in January 2009, they were encouraged to read Sandy Tolan’s The Lemon Tree. Now Tolan has reported on the process of bringing Picasso’s ‘Buste de Femme’ from a Dutch museum to the West Bank city of Ramallah. Says Tolan, “It seemed a ridiculous and impossible idea: Bringing a US $7.1 million Picasso into occupied Palestine.” He concludes, “The lesson of Picasso in Palestine? AbdulKarim says it is simple: ‘There are possibilities in impossibilities.'” Read more about how Israelis and Palestinians together overcame the physical and symbolic roadblocks.

Meanwhile, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, Jewish, Arab, and international musicians collaborate in the Masada Street Artist Community. See a video featuring resident Afro-American musician Hazakyah. In the words of July 2011 street festival director Michal Rosenbaum: “Masada Street is a promising intersection of cross-cultural interaction and cooperation; an established hub for multicultural art, music, and social justice activism. It is intentionally open, inclusive and progressive. It’s a special place where Israel’s ‘mosaic of different religions, cultures and social traditions’ mix easily together in both work and play as a part of the daily routine.” Read more

Just this week, the New York Times reported that a dozen Israeli women “risked criminal prosecution” to take a group of Palestinian from the landlocked southern West Bank to visit the beach at Tel Aviv. Many of these Palestinians had never seen the Mediterranean. Observes author Ethan Bronner, In the grinding rut of Israeli-Palestinian relations — no negotiations, mutual recriminations, growing distance and dehumanization — the illicit trip was a rare event that joined the simplest of pleasures with the most complex of politics. It showed why coexistence here is hard, but also why there are, on both sides, people who refuse to give up on it.

Each year more than 25,000 high school students on both sides of the Green Line encounter each other in the Dialogue Meetings sponsored by the Parents Circle Family Forum.

This group is comprised of equal numbers of Israelis and Palestinians who have all lost family members to ongoing conflict and violence. After hearing the joint testimony of an Israeli and a Palestinian member of the group, one Israeli student wrote, “This was a fascinating encounter. I never had a dialog or met a Palestinian in the past. It was an eye opening experience which gave me a different perspective. I discovered things which I never believed happen on the other side and also their willingness to reconcile. This gave me so much hope and caused me to look at things differently.” Read more

Such people-to-people efforts may not replace the need for forceful and savvy advocacy toward the goals of ending the occupation, birthing a Palestinian state, and giving Israelis secure and normalized relations with their Arab neighbors. But these formal and informal programs do contribute to human flourishing in concrete and meaningful ways that can and should continue after those political aims are attained.
Carol Schersten LaHurd

The US Senate has passed resolution 185, a move that would cut funding to the Palestinian Authority if it pursues its current announced intention to seek statehood through the United Nations.  The Senate also called on President Obama to veto any such movement if it came to the security council and called for a review of the Hamas-Fatah unity agreement.   The resolution, which was co-sponsored by 87 senators, also calls for the Palestinian unity government to “publicly and formally forswear terrorism, accept Israel’s right to exist, and reaffirm previous agreements made with the Government of Israel.”

Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid, the resolution said.   

Senator Henry Reid, after the vote, said:

“the United States of America will not give money to terrorists bent on the destruction of the State of Israel. America’s willingness to continue our current aid program will depend on the Palestinian government’s insistence that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist, that it renounce violence and that it honor the commitments made by prior Palestinian Authority governments.”

The move, which was co-sponsored by 87 senators, is only a Senate resolution right now and does not have the force of law.

According to a new report by the Congressional Research Service, aid to Palestinians amounts to about $600 million, in addition to donations to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).  The US gives Israel about $3 billion per year.

An UNRWA report done on the 5th anniversary of the Gaza blockade shows that unemployment in the 2nd half of 2010 reached an unprecedented 45%, one of the highest rates in the world.  Real wages continued to decline, especially in the private sector, falling 35% since the first half of 2006.

These are disturbing trends, and the refugees, which make up two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million population, were the worst hit in the period covered in this report. It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution.  – UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness

Read more     |   Read full report   |  See Peace not Walls Gaza page

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Another UNRWA report shows that a record number of children were displaced in May by Israeli eviction or demolition of Palestinian homes and families.  UNRWA has also created a new website called Demolition Watch that monitors these demolitions and evictions, and calls upon Israel to stop this practice as they claim it violates international law

President Obama gave a long-awaited speech on the Middle East on Thursday, May 19, that brought immedate criticism from pro-Israeli groups and GOP presidential hopefuls.  Nothing he said was really new except perhaps that Palestine should have an international border with Jordan, which is in conflict with Israel’s plan to have a militarized buffer zone between Jordan and Israel.  The rest of the speech was, by some standards, very pro-Israeli, emphasizing our shared values and long-term commitment to Israel and its security.  Prime Minister Netanyahu, however, responded with a number of things he wanted to push President Obama on, calling the 1967 borders “indefensible.” 

The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, in a statement responding to the president’s speech, said it resonated with ELCA statements and values.  In the statement, Bishop Hanson also advocated for a shared Jerusalem as the capital of both states with equal access to all Christians, Muslims and Jews, and affirmed: “the right to self-determination so that the God-given dignity of all people is respected and recognized. This principle, though, must be fully realized everywhere, without exception, so that peace, justice and development will be possible.”

According to an ELCA press release, “In addition to his statement, Hanson was among 29 Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders who sent a letter to Obama today offering support for ‘strong, sustained U.S. leadership, in coordination with the Quartet, to press for agreement on a two-state peace agreement before it is too late.’ The religious leaders urged Obama to visit Jerusalem and the region soon to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart negotiations. 

Here are two of the many analysis articles, add your favorite in the comments.

What’s really behind harsh GOP responses to Obama’s Middle East speech? –
The Christian Science Monitor  
Obama Gets Real on Israel – Daniel Levy, The American Prospect

http://youtu.be/5q3xHE9D9dc 

The schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) have been providing excellent education for students in Palestinian communities since 1851 – regardless of gender, race, religion, or ability to pay. They were the first schools in the region to teach girls, and women’s rights, along with mutual understanding, democratic values and, of course, holistic, academic excellence are among their goals. Christians and Muslims learn side by side how to live with one another with tolerance and friendship.

The schools teach English from Kindergarten through the 12th grade, equipping students for dialogue with international partners and expanding their opportunities for college and careers. Through the ELCJHL Libraries Project, we invite you to accompany teachers in the Holy Land as they build libraries that foster a love of language and learning right from the start. A great book has the power to open a world of possibilities!

This project allows you to purchase books from a list of books developed by the ELCJHL teachers.  The students,  teachers and parents thank you for building up their libraries and their education!

Download a flier about the project.  |    Read more about it on the ELCJHL website 

The April 27 news that Palestinian factions have taken steps toward a unity government (see Fatah and Hamas Announce Outline of Deal) has created a storm of reactions, especially in the Israeli and United States governments. There have been similar responses to Palestinian unilateral moves toward statehood.

Notably, however, even in Israel not all the reactions are negative. Americans committed to the cause of Middle East peace can read Israeli and Palestinian news outlets to understand the diverse range of positions often ignored in less nuanced approaches here in the U.S.

Below are pertinent excerpts from Israel’s daily newspaper Haaretz (for this reader, Israel’s NY Times equivalent) and the Ma’an News Agency, which calls itself ” the main source of independent news from Palestine.”

Israel can redeem itself by recognizing a Palestinian state
Haaretz Editorial
Israel can improve its status if it takes its fate into its own hands. It can be the first to welcome the establishment of a Palestinian sister-state, wish it luck, hold out its hand in peace and express a desire to discuss borders, refugees and settlements issues, this time on an entirely different level − as two sovereign states.

Perhaps such a courageous and generous step will help Israel shake off the stranglehold of delegitimization closing in on it, reduce the responsibility it has been charged with for the refugee problem and the occupation, and shift the conflict from the religious to the territorial dimension. On the tactical level, Israel will be able to pass the responsibilities required of a state to the Palestinian side as well, whatever its government.

What matters is peace, not with whom peace is made by Yoel Marcus
The reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah is not necessarily a negative development, if the Palestinians are bent on an agreement. It creates an opening for an Obama initiative to create order here, while neutralizing terrorism.

In the absence of leaders, it’s up for Israelis to make peace by Akiva Eldar
Netanyahu’s demand that Fatah concede its peace with Hamas in favor of peace with its neighbor is an indication mainly of hysteria. If the prime minister were genuinely interested in promoting the two-state solution, he would willingly accept Hamas’ readiness to accept the conditions of the organization that signed the Oslo agreement, which is taking steps against the use of violence and is committed to the Arab peace plan.

Masha’al, Abbas to sign unity deal
The announcement sparked a firestorm of criticism from Israel, which said it would damage chances for peace, but Abbas said the interim government would not dictate policy when it came to negotiations with Israel, which would remain the mandate of the Palestine Liberation Organization that he heads.

Will Palestine be born this fall? by Daoud Kuttab
The failure of the peace talks because of Israel’s intransigence and the inability of the Quartet, coupled with the world praise for the performance of the Fayyad government, have all paved the way for the possible unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. Over 140 countries have indicated that they would support such a declaration when it comes up for a vote at the UN. This number might go even higher once the reluctant countries of Europe make up their mind