Listener Reflections

This is your place to publicly comment on the topics and issues addressed in Speaking of Faith programs. React in a personal way, and put into words what this program meant to you.

Submit Your Reflection about "Two Narratives, Reflections on the Israeli-Palestinian Present (part 1)."

Question for Halevi (April 7, 2006)
First I want to thank you and the help of your enlightening programs! A question now for your Israeli speaker: I don't doubt his sincerity and his desire to share the land with the Arabs, which sounds generous, but it comes after the Israelis have taken much of that land recently by conquest, backed in large part by U.S. dollars and armaments, so putting them in a position of vastly greater strength. I understand that dispossessed Arabs would like to get their land back. So aren't the Israelis talking much as the Russians did when they gave the impression that "What is mine is mine, and what is yours is negotiable?" End of thought, but not of conflict.

Jack Parker
South Range, MN (Listens to SOF OnDemand)

Drawing Unfair Analogies (March 12, 2006)
You asked Mr. Halevi if, since Sharon has gone from being a wartime general to a statesman looking for peace, why can't Hamas do the same. You're obviously viewing a platform advocating racism and genocide with being a soldier defending his country in a war whose aim is its destruction that's been going on for 58 years and more. You seem to think it's not a war between tiny Israel and 300 million Arabs with all the oil, but between rich powerful Israel and the weak Palestinians. You draw an equivalence between the Berlin Wall and, adopting the Palestinian phrase, the West Bank wall. You should learn that the Berlin Wall was meant to prevent a population from leaving, while the Israeli security barrier is meant to keep terrorists out. Does it seem to you that you're showing deep hostility to Israel?

Jesse Weiner
New York, NY (WNYC, 93.9 FM)

The Importance of Hearing from Those Involved (March 12, 2006)
Thank you for another fine program. It's so important for us, far from Israel and Palestine, to get information directly from the people who are living in the midst of the conflict. Yossi Klein Halevi is clearly a person who combines great integrity and intelligence with great warmth and depth of feeling, making his words all the more valuable to us. I learned a lot and gained some good understandings. The main thing I'm left with, though, is that the essential cause of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians — and multitudes of other conflicts around the world — is simply hatred and ignorance. They could get along if they wanted to, but many — on both sides — just don't want to. How sad! Won't we ever learn?

Bob Salmon
Cranford, NJ (WHYY, 91.0 FM)

Influencing Israeli Policy (March 12, 2006)
I think your first guest is more or less representative of the problem from the Jewish side, discussing his entitlement using the promises of God, the suffering of the Holocaust, and the unreasonable terror of those whose homes and lands were bulldozed and stolen. Unless there is a reconsideration of what has happened over the last 200 years or so, I see no hope for an end to conflict, much less congenial relations that existed as recently as the 1850s.

I have no religious interest in the area; I am nominally Christian, although I am searching for a better way of life through other teachings. I see the Palestinians as the fundamentally "wronged" people, by the Israelis and their precursors the Zionists, the British, and the United States. Never discussed is the fact that the numerically superior Palestinian people were literally bulldozed out of their homes and villages and made homeless by the Zionists/Israelis. Their ancestoral homes and ways of life were stolen, and they should have justice.

The European Holocaust and genocide was a terrible thing, but the huge wrong by the Nazis hardly justifies the cruelties visited upon the Palestinians by the Israelis. So far as Israel being a land promised to "the people" by God, this is just irrational religious extremism, no less dangerous and damaging than claims made by extremist Christians and Islamists. The UN, USSR, and US made everything worse in 1948 by recognizing Israel as a legitimate state. That, in effect, delegitimized Palestine and its people. To make it even worse, the U.S. has treated Israel as a favored nation, and used Israel as its eyes and ears in the region making America the object of hatred. Further, the Israelis have nuclear weapons, which underlies the urge for Iran to arm.

The Israelis have done a mostly successful job of rewriting history, and in winning the public relations battle in the U.S. and the West. Meanwhile Israel and its 6 million citizens continue to keep the pot boiling for the rest of the world. America can influence Israel's behavior toward a better outcome, but it does not. Most recently, the wall is something that the U.S. could have influenced. That should never have been built. As essential reading I suggest A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples by Ilan Pappe. Professor Pappe wrote it as a textbook for a course on the subject at the University of Jaffa. Pappe is Jewish, and his classes were, at least at the time of the writing, mixed Jewish, Muslim, and Christian.

My sentiments began forming when I wrote a paper on the subject in college 30 years ago. I continue to read about the goings-on, with little hope for any peaceful ending to it. There is no shared vocabulary, much less an understanding of what the area could or should be. A start would be Americans educating themselves on the subject through legitimate sources such as the Pappe book. At least then we could try to influence our government to do the right thing.

Don Ladig
St. Louis, MO (KWMU, 91.7 FM)

Another Type of Effort (March 12, 2006)
I want to thank you for the programs on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the important role religion plays in this scenario. I have prayed for both sides to be reconciled and move on to build a nation for Palestinians. However, with the election of Hamas it seems that the strain between the Palestinians and Jews and Americans is worse. Recently I struggled with how we Americans could reach out to the Palestinians and reveal our true concern for them as well as the Jews. What if 1,000 medical personnel would donate one week of their lives to go the Gaza and the West Bank and see every Palestinian child and give innoculations, check-ups, dentistry work, etc? Perhaps this hands on care for their future generations would reveal a depth of concern that has been missing at least in their perception of Americans. Of course, the Hamas leadership would have to guarantee the safety of all participants and even provide their own translators. This approach has nothing to do with "politics" and is concerned with precious children.

Herb Ireland
Wheaton, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Wall, Fence, or Barrier? (March 12, 2006)
Your program on the "Israeli-Palestinian Present" is very interesting, but it's unfortunate that you (like many others) are characterizing the security barrier primarily as a "wall" and comparing it to the Berlin Wall. The Jewish Virtual Library provides a reasonably accurate description of the barrier and its route. It states that, "…only a tiny fraction of the total length of the barrier (less than 3% or about 10 miles) is actually a 30 foot high concrete wall, and that is being built in three areas where it will prevent Palestinian snipers from around the terrorist hotbeds of Kalkilya and Tul Karm from shooting at cars as they have done for the last three years along the Trans-Israel Highway, one of the country's main roads." In short, the barrier is primarily a fence, not a wall.

Ken Freedland
St. Louis, MO (KWMU, 91.7 FM)

Israei-Hamas Understanding (March 12, 2006)
I am a member of an organization called PNAI (Parents of North American Israelis) and believe that it is essential to have knowledge of both sides of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis as they struggle to find peace in these two distinct societies. We often hear only one side, listen to only one voice, and rarely understand the viewpoints of the other. Suicide bombers, death, and violence are apparent on all sides yet God exists within both religions. I was impressed with the thoughts and ideas of Open House, as discussed by today's speaker. Play for Peace,an organization that works with children on both sides of the conflict, also works to better the understanding of youth who are our future leaders in this struggle. Thank you for presenting both sides of an essential issue facing all of us in our world.

Susan Myers
Mt. Prospect, IL (WUIS, 89.3 FM)

Both Sides Being Wrong (March 12, 2006)
I applaud Yossi Klein Halevi for insisting that any true progress toward ending violence between Arab and Jewish Israelis must include a true respect for Islam (and for Judaism as well). In that spirit of respect, is it too simplistic to just stop? To me, both sides have obviously hit the wall, have they not? Perhaps rather than thinking of both sides as being right/right, they are both wrong/wrong.

Louise Kennedy
Tayorville, IL (WUIS, 89.3 FM)

Role of Religion in Arab-Israeli Conflict (March 12, 2006)
Your guest, the Israeli journalist, spoke of the importance of religion in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I was disappointed that he did not actually speak of his view of the Koran. I would very much have liked to know your guest's thoughts on the words in the Koran compared with the Jewish teachings concerning those who do not follow the Jewish faith. Your program purports to deal with religion as such. Why is there so little discussion on the actual words in the Bible, the Koran, or whatever documents are followed by your interviewees? If, as your Israeli guest pointed out, religion is at the root of the issues in the Middle East, why is there no elucidation of religious documents? As far as I could see, the program seemed to remain within the area of politics rather than religion. I will listen next week hoping to hear you question your Islamic guest on the words of the Koran and how they effect his/her attitude towards unbelievers.

Marion Karczmar
Chicago, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Israel's Security Barrier (March 12, 2006)
On this morning's program, I heard Ms. Tippett refer to Israel's security barrier as a "wall." In doing so, she (probably inadvertently) took sides in a controversy. Supporters of the barrier call it a "fence." Opponents call it a "wall." Based on photographs I have seen, the barrier is a fence in some places and a wall in others. It would be more correct and politically neutral just to call it a "barrier."

Judith Alexander
Oak Park, IL (WBEZ, 91.5 FM)

Kids with Cameras (March 11, 2006)
I enjoyed your show today about the Middle East conflict. I am the director/teacher of a Kids with Cameras project in Jerusalem, completed last year. Twelve Palestinian and twelve Jewish kids, ages 8–12, made a portrait of their lives and of their city, Jerusalem, as part of a series teaching photography to kids in marginalized communities.

Jason Eskenazi
New York, NY (WNYC, 93.7 FM)