Our Parallel Universe

Strolling through Tel Aviv yesterday, I couldn't help marvelling over how, on the surface, Israel seems like a perfectly normal western country going about its business on a Thursday morning. Men in snappy clothes hurried to work, chicks in tights and big sunglasses walked dogs and looked beautiful, shopkeepers hawked their wares and pedestrians daydreamed at crosswalks.

In the paralled universe of the Gaza Strip Palestinians were gingerly making their way over the rubble of the old barrier separating them from Egypt as, in a great rush of relief so loud you could almost hear it, they gleefully liberated themselves from the ongoing siege that has virtually suffocated them.

Watching them on tv, it was hard not to sympathize with those poor souls who ultimately pay the price for the decisions of their leadership, which in this case is the continuing rocketfire from Gaza on to civilian settlements in sovereign Israel. The Palestinians are skillful at manipulating the media to their advantage but no matter how the picture is painted the bottom line is still the same: Israel's responsiblity is to the security of its citizens first, and to the welfare of the civilian population from whence the rockets come only second. We're in a game of trial and error here, where the ultimate goal is to find the most effective way to pressure Hamas to stop the rockets without actually reoccupying the Gaza Strip.

Many Israelis are cursing Ariel Sharon and his Disengagment for having created this situation and I think everyone would agree today that it was a fatal mistake to ignore the Palestinian leadership and execute the job unilaterally - under no circumstances can territory be evacuated in a vacuum. Fundamentally, however, the Gaza Strip has no place within the future final borders of the state of Israel. We must continue to think creatively until we find the carrot/stick that will put an end to the rocket fire.

A tourist couple wrote me a thank you note this week at the end of their tour. Amongst other things they said, "We think you guys (Israel) are too nice and accomodating - and we think they will never be satisfied no matter how much you give them back - so I'm for you keeping it all. I have been amazed at how kind you have been towards the Arabs and Muslims."

I wish I could have conveyed to them a story I heard the following day from a friend, who went to a seminar on Israel's War of Independence this week. She said that the thing that stayed with her the most was related by the Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk when describing his experiences as a soldier during the war: "We had conquered an Arab village and rounded up the villagers to expell them. As they were leaving, several buses pulled up carrying Holocaust survivors who were to occupy the abandoned homes. And I have struggled to live in that gap ever since."

It is a complex reality in which we live. Despite our extraordinary achievements and despite the Tel Aviv bubble, Israel is still a nation fighting for its survival and forced to justify its existence every day. As long as the Palestinians choose to pursue the armed struggle we will do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves, even if it makes us look bad.

We will continue to soul search in cafes over double lattes before during and after, and hope that we won't always have to live by the sword. It's still hard to be optimistic, but then again, this is the Middle East - anything can happen...