I live in Dubai, UAE, now. I am working in my first career-y job at a management consulting firm as an analyst. This is my apartment:

Maybe this will be the first of many more posts to come?

The Roots of Arab-Israeli Rage, Part 1

Jerusalem under Ottoman Turk rule, 1860

We’ve surveyed Gaza. We’ve read the charter of Hamas. Now, it’s time to begin our 100-year timeline of the Arab-Israeli conflict, so you have the historical context you need to better understand the current fight.
*
In AD 70, the Romans crushed a Jewish revolt, sacked Jerusalem, and destroyed its sacred temple–the focal point of Jewish life. Jews were slaughtered, enslaved, or driven away. By 135, when another rebellion met with the same fate, no Jew could set foot in Jerusalem. The old city was rebuilt as a Greco-Roman one–complete with circus, amphitheater, and baths–and Judea was renamed Palestine.

When Rome turned Christian, Jerusalem followed suit, and churches went up around the sites holy to those in the faith. Pilgrims flocked in, and came for three centuries–until 638, when the city fell to a Muslim army from Arabia.

Muslims, too, held Jerusalem holy. Early on, they even faced toward it in prayer rather than Mecca. Within a century, the Dome of the Rock had been built on the site where Muhammad is said to have ascended into heaven, the Al-Aqsa Mosque had gone up next door, and Jerusalem had become an Arab and Muslim city. Except for a century or two of Crusader rule after 1099, Muslims held sway there almost continuously for more than a thousand years.

But then came Zionism, a 19th-century movement rooted in the idea that the Jewish people, dispersed and persecuted, deserved an autonomous home. That’s where the modern Arab-Israeli conflict–and our timeline history of it–begins.

*

1881 – Jews begin to migrate en masse to Palestine, part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Most of the first Jews come from Russia, fleeing pogroms and harsh discrimination. At the time these mass migrations begin, Jewish communities account for less than 5 percent of Palestine’s population.

1897 – The First Zionist Congress meets in Basel, Switzerland, to discuss Theodor Herzl’s 1896 book The Jewish State. The congress calls for a legally assured home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Herzl writes in his diary, “At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years, certainly in fifty, everyone will know it.”

1914 – World War I begins. The Ottomans ally with Germany and Austria-Hungary against Britain, France, and Russia.

1916 – Arab nationalists, backed by the British, revolt against Ottoman rule in Palestine. The British suggest they’ll recognize an independent Arab state if the revolt succeeds. Yet at the same time, Britain signs a secret agreement with France to carve the region into colonial zones.

1917 – Britain’s foreign minister, Arthur Balfour, says that the British “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.” Zionists hail the declaration. Yet Balfour also says “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”

1918 – British forces gain military control of Palestine. World War I ends, and the Ottoman Empire collapses.

1920 – Arabs in Syria declare independence, but French troops quickly occupy Damascus. As part of the resolution of World War I, France assumes a mandate to govern modern-day Syria and Lebanon. Britain gets a mandate for Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq. Arab nationalists, whose hopes have been dashed by these events, reject British rule. Zionists cooperate with British authorities yet organize their own armed militias. Violent anti-Jewish riots begin.

1922 – The League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations, confirms Britain’s mandate over Palestine, charging Britain with the establishment of a “Jewish national home,” “the development of self-governing institutions,” and the facilitation of Jewish immigration, “while ensuring that the rights and position of other sectors of the population are not prejudiced.” A British census shows that Jews account for 11 percent of Palestine’s 750,000 inhabitants.

1929 – Violent anti-Jewish riots start up again, triggered by disputes over holy Jewish and Muslim sites in Jerusalem and increasing land sales to Jews.

1933 – Hitler comes to power in Germany. Jewish immigration increases. By 1936, almost 400,000 Jews live in Palestine, about 30 percent of the population.

1936 – Arab nationalists revolt, demanding the end of land sales to Jews, Jewish immigration, and British rule. The revolt continues until 1939, with a general strike, bombings of British installations, arson, assassinations, and attacks on Jews. The British impose martial law, seal borders, demolish homes, and arrest, kill, or exile rebel leaders. In response to attacks on Jews, Zionists begin retaliatory attacks on Arabs. Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion notes that the Arab rebels are “fighting dispossession. . . . We and they both want the same thing: We both want Palestine.”

1937 – A royal British commission led by Lord William Peel calls the conflicting Jewish and Arab interests “irrepressible.” Confronted with what it calls “right against right,” the commission recommends that the land of Palestine be partitioned into separate Jewish and Arab zones.

1939 – In an attempt to regain Arab support, the British adopt a plan to limit Jewish immigration, restrict land sales to Jews, and create a Jewish national home within an Arab-majority state. The plan, rejected by Arab nationalists as insufficient, ends Anglo-Zionist goodwill. Despite dire conditions for Jews in Europe, Britain works to prevent Jewish immigration to Palestine. World War II begins.

1944 – Zionist militias grow frustrated by Britain’s continued restriction of Jewish immigration to Palestine, despite Jews’ “mass enlisting to the British Army” to fight Nazi Germany and “the massacre of masses of the Jewish people in Europe.” The militias start a revolt against British colonial authorities and assassinate a British minister in Cairo.

1945 – World War II ends. The Nazi death camps are liberated, and the full extent of the Holocaust becomes clear. Six million Jews have been murdered–one third of all Jewish people worldwide. U.S. president Harry Truman urges Britain to accept 100,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors into Palestine. Arab nationalists protest that help for Holocaust survivors should not come at their expense.

1946 – Zionist militias bomb British government and military offices at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

1947 – Britain gives control of Palestine to the United Nations, which votes to partition the region into two states: one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem under international control. Zionists accept the partition, which grants them 56 percent of Palestine, including fertile coastal regions. Arab nationalists reject the authority of the U.N. to partition the land. Civil war between the roughly 678,000 Jews and 1,269,000 Arabs in Palestine begins. Soon, Zionists control most of the territory allocated to them under the U.N. plan.

1948 – Britain pulls out of Palestine. Zionists, led by David Ben-Gurion, immediately declare the independent State of Israel. Arab armies from Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon immediately attack. The First Arab-Israeli War begins. At first, the war’s outcome is in doubt. But after arms from Czechoslovakia reach Israel, it establishes military superiority and conquers territory beyond that of the U.N. partition, including the western part of Jerusalem.

Islam's Dome of the Rock on Judaism's Temple Mount-- in the heart of Jerusalem, 1877

1949 – Armistice agreements end military action. The State of Israel controls 77 percent of the land. Jordan controls the eastern part of Jerusalem and the West Bank, which it formally annexes. Egypt controls the area around Gaza. As a result of the conflict, more than 700,000 Arabs flee or are expelled from their homes (the precise circumstances are still in dispute). Israel refuses to let these refugees return to their homes inside the new Israeli borders. Arab states refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state, and organize an economic and political boycott of the country.

1949 – Despite the end of the First Arab-Israeli War, Israel’s existence remains tenuous. Thousands of Arab infiltrators penetrate Israeli borders. Early incursions come mostly from Arab refugees seeking to reclaim houses, possessions, or crops lost in the war. But soon, attacks by Arab guerrillas begin. Border raids pick up where the war left off.

1953 – Israel establishes a special commando unit to carry out retaliatory strikes and deter border raids. In response to an Arab grenade attack killing a mother and children, the unit kills dozens of villagers in the West Bank town of Qibya. The incident triggers a wave of international condemnation, with the United States suspending economic aid.

1954 – Britain agrees to withdraw from military bases in Egypt by 1956. Israel fears that once Britain leaves, Egypt might turn its attention to war. Acting on those concerns, Israeli agents conduct sabotage operations against British and American targets in Egypt, hoping western governments will blame Arab extremists and delay withdrawal. Egypt discovers the agents, executes two, and imprisons the rest. Tension between Israel and Egypt increases, with near-continuous border clashes and guerrilla attacks.

1956 – Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, formerly controlled by Britain and France. Israel, under a secret agreement with Britain and France, invades the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai-Suez War begins. In days, Israeli forces conquer the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip. British and French troops soon enter the region, too–until pressure from the United States compels everyone to withdraw. The United Nations stations troops on the Israel-Egypt border, as a buffer between their forces.

1964 – The Arab states, along with Palestinian Arabs, create the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO charter asserts that the establishment of Israel was “illegal and false,” that international support for a Jewish national home was a “fraud,” and that Jews’ historical ties to the region cannot be “the true basis of sound statehood.” The charter urges other countries “to consider Zionism an illegal movement and to outlaw its presence and activities.”

1965 – A Palestinian guerrilla group led by Yasser Arafat, called Fatah (Arabic for “victory”), begins attacks on Israel. Syrian authorities hang a high-level Israeli spy in front of a crowd in Damascus, broadcasting the execution live on state TV and leaving the body on display.

1966 – A new regime in Syria encourages Palestinian guerrilla attacks on Israel, calling for a “war of liberation.” Fatah, in particular, answers the call. Border skirmishes between Syrian and Israeli forces increase.

1967 – Tensions between Israel and Syria escalate into a full-scale border battle. Syria appeals to Egypt for aid. Egypt orders U.N. troops out of the Sinai, inserts its forces, and blockades the Israeli port of Elat. Israel responds by destroying nearly the entire Egyptian air force on the ground in a surprise air attack. The Six-Day War begins. In days, Israel routs the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and conquers the West Bank (including east Jerusalem), Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and Sinai Peninsula. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs flee. Israel annexes east Jerusalem and sets up a military government for the occupied territories. The U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 242, calling for an Israeli withdrawal and for an “acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of every state in the area.”

1968 – Israel’s wartime success sparks the settler movement, which says Israel has rightfully reclaimed the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria. Jewish settlers occupy a hotel on the outskirts of Hebron, raise an Israeli flag, and refuse to leave. The Israeli government lets the settlers move into the town’s police fort. A few months later, it consents to the start of a Jewish neighborhood around Hebron. The PLO, increasingly controlled by groups such as Fatah rather than by Arab states, revises its charter. It now calls explicitly for the “liquidation of the Zionist presence” through “commando action.”

1969 – Fatah leader Yasser Arafat becomes PLO chairman. Guerrilla attacks against Israel surge. Egypt begins the “War of Attrition,” bombarding Israeli positions in the Sinai with artillery fire. Israel responds with air strikes. Attacks and counterattacks continue until 1970.

1971 – PLO operatives hijack three western planes and force them to fly to Jordan, where the PLO leadership resides. Responding to western outrage and PLO challenges to Jordan’s sovereignty, Jordan’s King Hussein orders his army to destroy the PLO. Its leadership flees to Lebanon.

1972 – PLO operatives murder 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Israeli agents begin a long-term campaign to track down and assassinate the operation’s planners.

1973 – Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. The Yom Kippur (or Ramadan) War begins. Caught off guard, Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights fall back. But after several weeks of fighting, Israel fends off the attacks and reclaims nearly all held territory. Oil-producing Arab states begin an oil embargo against Israel’s supporters, creating an energy crisis in the West.

Jerusalem today

1977 – For the first time since Israel’s start, Israeli voters turn to a party other than the leftist Labor Party to lead the government, bringing the right-wing Likud Party to power. Likud leader Menachem Begin promotes Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which he regards as part of “Greater Israel.” Begin takes a different tack on the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt and Israel begin secret peace negotiations. Shocking the world, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat flies to Jerusalem and addresses the Israeli Knesset (Israel’s parliament).

1978 – Egypt and Israel negotiate the first Arab-Israeli peace accord at Camp David in the United States, with U.S. president Jimmy Carter mediating. As part of the final agreement, Israel agrees to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt within three years. The United States agrees to provide both nations with billions of dollars in economic aid.

1981 – Israeli warplanes destroy a nuclear reactor in Iraq, fearing that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will use it to develop nuclear weapons. Radical Islamists assassinate Egyptian president Anwar Sadat for concluding the Egyptian-Israeli peace. Israel formally annexes the Golan Heights.

1982 – Israel invades Lebanon to root out the PLO, which had been conducting rocket and artillery strikes on Israel in addition to guerrilla attacks. The First Lebanon War begins. Israeli forces advance all the way to Beirut, where Israeli planes, tanks, and artillery bombard PLO strongholds for two months–until PLO leaders agree to leave for Tunisia. Israeli forces allow Lebanese Christians allied with Israel into Palestinian refugee camps to search for remaining PLO militants. They kill hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

1985 – Israeli forces withdraw from most of Lebanon, after years of unprecedented Israeli public protests against the war. Israel maintains a “security zone” three to four miles inside Lebanon for 15 more years. Israeli warplanes bomb PLO headquarters in Tunisia after continued PLO attacks.

1987 – The first Palestinian intifada, or “shaking off,” begins. The popular uprising shifts attention away from the PLO in Tunisia and toward the West Bank and Gaza Strip. New Islamist groups such as Hamas gain influence.

1993 – After secret negotiations at Oslo, Norway, Israel and the PLO sign a mutual recognition agreement, with the PLO recognizing Israel’s right to exist and Israel recognizing the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. Israel promises to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and West Bank city of Jericho and to allow limited Palestinian self-rule. The agreement sets a five-year deadline for more withdrawals and for a “final-status” agreement on issues such as borders, Jewish settlements, the return of Palestinian refugees, Palestinian statehood, and control of Jerusalem.

1994 – A Jewish settler opens fire with an assault rifle in a Hebron mosque. Hamas begins suicide bombings. Israel and the PLO implement the Oslo agreement nonetheless. PLO leader Yasser Arafat comes to Gaza to head the new Palestinian Authority. Jordan makes peace with Israel. Yet at a mosque in South Africa, Arafat likens the Oslo agreement to a peace treaty made by Muhammad with those in control of Mecca in 628. Muslims conquered Mecca two years later.

1995 – Israel and the Palestinian Authority agree on a plan for more withdrawals from the West Bank, with most cities going over to Palestinian control but most land remaining in Israeli hands. A Jewish extremist, infuriated by the plan, assassinates Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

1996 – Hamas steps up suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, striking restaurants, buses, and crowds. Israeli voters turn to right-wing Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who demands “peace with security.”

1997 – Israel withdraws from the West Bank city of Hebron. Netanyahu lifts a freeze on Jewish settlements and begins construction of Jewish neighborhoods in disputed parts around Jerusalem. Arafat suspends security cooperation with Israel and releases Hamas militants from Palestinian jails.

1998 – Israel and the Palestinian Authority agree to more withdrawals, to occur in two stages. Israel completes the first stage but suspends the second, accusing Arafat of failing to honor security commitments.

1999 – Israeli voters return the Labor Party to power. Labor leader Ehud Barak promises to deliver a final peace settlement with the Palestinians. New Israeli withdrawals, completed the following year, leave the Palestinian Authority with direct or partial control of 41 percent of the West Bank and 65 percent of the Gaza Strip.

2000 – Final-status peace negotiations at Camp David end when Yasser Arafat rejects the last offer of Ehud Barak. A second, more violent intifada begins.

2001 – All attempts to halt the escalating violence and to restart peace negotiations fail. Suicide bombings increase. In an early election, Israeli voters reject Ehud Barak and turn to Likud leader Ariel Sharon to restore security. Sharon orders reprisal attacks in Palestinian-controlled territories.

2002 – Palestinian suicide bombers launch a string of deadly attacks, starting on the Jewish holiday of Passover. In response, Israeli forces reoccupy most of the West Bank and begin mass arrests. Israel declares former Oslo agreement partner Yasser Arafat an enemy and demolishes his compound in Ramallah. Israeli forces also begin construction of a security barrier between Israel and the West Bank. Palestinians protest that the barrier makes deep incursions into West Bank territory and unilaterally fixes a border.

2003 – Suicide bombings continue. Israeli forces reoccupy parts of the Gaza Strip and assassinate Hamas leaders. The United States, European Union, Russia, and United Nations release a “road map” of steps designed to get Israel and the Palestinian Authority back into negotiations. Both sides shake hands on the plan, but the conflict goes on.

2004 – Israel’s parliament approves Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip and evacuate all Jewish settlements there. Suicide bombings abate. But now Hamas rocket attacks, carried out from the Gaza Strip, begin to kill Israeli citizens. Yasser Arafat dies.

2005 – Mahmoud Abbas becomes president of the Palestinian Authority. He and Ariel Sharon meet and declare an end to the violence. But rocket attacks, and Israeli reprisals, go on. Israel pulls out of the Gaza Strip.

2006 – Ariel Sharon suffers a stroke and slips into a coma. New leader Ehud Olmert says he’ll continue Sharon’s policy of unilateral disengagement. Meanwhile, Hamas wins the majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament. In the south, rocket attacks increase, and Israeli troops reenter the Gaza Strip. In the north, Hezbollah militants cross into Israel from Lebanon to kill and kidnap Israeli soldiers. The Second Lebanon War begins. For a month, Israeli forces bomb targets throughout Lebanon and try to root out Hezbollah guerrillas, while Hezbollah fires rockets into Israel.

2007 – Hamas militants seize control of the Gaza Strip, splitting away from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. Israel declares Gaza an enemy entity. It responds to continued rocket attacks by Hamas with air strikes, military incursions, and a border blockade, allowing only humanitarian aid into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

2008 – Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip reach an all-time high. A six-month ceasefire ends most attacks, but Israel’s blockade continues. When the ceasefire ends, and the rocket attacks begin again, Israel declares an “all-out war with Hamas,” with eight days of air strikes followed by the move of Israeli tanks, troops, and artillery into Gaza.

–Michael Himick

]]> http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/israel-palestine-conflict-102/feed/ 0 bradleyheinz Jerusalem under Ottoman Turk rule, 1860 Islam's Dome of the Rock on Judaism's Temple Mount-- in the heart of Jerusalem, 1877 Jerusalem today http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/israel-palestine-conflict-101/ http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/israel-palestine-conflict-101/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:34:16 +0000 bradleyheinz http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/?p=252 Continue reading →]]> Jordan borders Palestine and Israel to the West.  Though I don’t live in these countries, their politics are impossible to ignore.  I’ve read statistics stating that Jordan is comprised of anywhere from 60-75% of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.  In a sense, Jordan is a Palestinian state.  Queen Rania is Palestinian.  Jordan has interesting identity issues — the original inhabitants of Jordan, previously nomadic desert-dwelling Bedouin people, comprise a minority, while their Palestinian neighbors from the west make up a majority of the population and lead the economics of the country.  Amman, the capital, has mostly sprung up as a result of the influx of refugees from the foundation of Israel and the following wars.

With this in mind, I thought I’d share with the ten or so readers of this blog a great introduction to the issue I found on the web here.  I have copied the text below.  Read, learn, enjoy!

Queen Rania of Jordan -- considered one of the most powerful women in the world

Q: What is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict really about?

A: The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is, in essence, a conflict over territory. Although religion plays a role in defining the identities of the parties to the conflict, and for some Jews, in justifying their claims to the land, the conflict is not, fundamentally, a religious conflict.

Q: What exactly is “the occupation”?

A: In 1967, Israel defeated the neighboring Arab countries in a war that lasted only six days. At the end of that war, Israel had captured the West Bank (which includes the Eastern half of Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. (It also captured the Sinai Peninsula, but this was later returned to Egypt as part of a peace accord that holds to this day). Some of this territory was annexed, specifically the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. The rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has been under a military occupation ever since. This means that the Israeli army has complete control over these areas. Palestinians in these regions have no guarantee of civil rights. They have no government of their own other than what Israel will allow. Israel can impose total curfews on any part or all of the territory. This prevents people from traveling to work, to market or to see family members. It can prevent medical care from reaching people, and people from reaching hospitals. Occupation means the Israeli military has total authority over every aspect of Palestinian life. For more information, watch the video “Occupation 101″.

Q: Are Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel treated equally?

A: No. Although Palestinian citizens of Israel are entitled to vote and participate in Israeli political life, and several Palestinians are members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), they do not receive the same treatment as the Jewish citizens at the hands of the government. Israel still applies 20 laws that privilege Jews over Arabs. For example, the 1950 Law of Return grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, while denying that same right to Palestinians. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Freedom ensures that Israel is the state of the “Jewish people,” not its citizens. This law was passed in 1992 to serve as a “bill of rights,” as Israel does not have a written constitution. Israel’s flag and other national symbols are Jewish religious symbols, not neutral or national ones that represent all the citizens of the state. Government resources, meanwhile, are disproportionately directed to Jews and not to Arabs, one factor in causing the Palestinians of Israel to suffer the lowest living standards in Israeli society by all economic indicators. Human Rights Watch has compiled an extensive study of Israel’s policy of “separate, not equal” schools for Palestinian children, finding that “Government-run Arab schools are a world apart from government-run Jewish schools. In virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this.” As many as 100 Palestinian villages in Israel, many of which pre-date the founding of the state, are not recognized by the Israeli government, and are not listed on maps and receive no services (water, electricity, sanitation, roads, etc.) from the government. More than 70,000 Palestinians live in these unrecognized villages. Meanwhile, hundreds of new Jewish towns have been established on lands confiscated from Palestinians.

Q: Did the PLO reject a “generous offer” for peace at Camp David in 2000?

A: No. In fact, there was no Israeli “offer” at all, in the sense of a comprehensive plan to resolve all outstanding differences between the parties. To the extent that Israeli positions on discrete issues could be discerned, they were not “generous.” Finally, while Palestinian negotiators did not agree to Israeli demands, they did not “reject” them, but sought to continue negotiations, and offered solutions based on long-accepted principles of international law and justice.

Q: What is an intifada?

A: Intifada is an Arabic word derived from a verb meaning “to shake off,” and is the term used to describe the two major uprisings against Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Q: Haven’t Jews and Arabs been fighting for thousands of years? Is there really an answer?

A: In fact, Jews and Arabs have been fighting for only about a century. While Jews were facing repeated expulsion and persecution in Europe, Jews in the Muslim world, though still facing some problems, were faring much better. Jews, as People of the Book under Islamic law, were entitled to legal protections and certain rights. To be sure, they were not the equals of Muslims, and there were incidents of anti-Semitism in many parts of the Muslim and Arab world through the centuries, some of them serious. But both the severity and the frequency of these were far lower than in Europe. There is no doubt that the ongoing and brutal conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as the neighboring Arab states, has created a great deal of hatred on both sides. But it is simply false to say that history shows that Jews and Arabs cannot live together. They have before, and, in a modern, secular state, may well be able to do so on a much more equal footing than existed in the past.

Q: What do Palestinians seek?

A: Palestinians, depending on where they live, face different challenges and thus have different concerns. However, what they all have in common is a basic desire for freedom and equal rights. Palestinians living in Israel seek rights that are equal to Jewish citizens of the state. Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip seek an end to the Israeli military’s domination of every aspect of their daily lives – whether through direct military occupation, as in the West Bank, or control from without, as in the case of the Gaza Strip – and rights to freedom and national self-determination, equal to those of other national groups. And Palestinian refugees and others living in exile want the right to return to their homes, if they so desire, or to receive compensation and support for resettlement, just like other refugee populations in the world.

Q: What was the Gaza disengagement, and how has it affected Palestinians?

A: The Gaza disengagement was part of a unilateral plan adopted by the Israeli government without consultation with the Palestinians, although with the approval of the U.S. government. The disengagement began in August 2005, when Israel evacuated approximately 8,500 civilians from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, and 500 more from four small settlements in the northern part of the West Bank – about 2% of the total number of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories. Israeli troops began to deploy outside of the Gaza Strip, while still controlling its coastline, borders, and airspace. Israel continues to provide Gaza water, electricity, and other vital services. Israel also claims the right to intervene militarily, including preemptively, in “self-defense.” In a sense, this represents a change in the form of military occupation from direct to indirect control. Dov Weisglass, a close adviser of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, stated in an interview with the newspaper Ha’aretz in October 2004 that the plan was intended to put the peace process in “formaldehyde,” to postpone the creation of a Palestinian state indefinitely, and to relieve pressure on Israel to make further withdrawals from the West Bank Many Palestinians see the Gaza disengagement and the intensification of colonization of the West Bank as two faces of a unified policy whereby Israel will rid itself of responsibility for Palestinians, while maximizing its control of their land.

Q: What is Israel’s separation wall or barrier?

A: In October 2003, Israel began construction on a “separation barrier” in the occupied West Bank, justifying it on security grounds. The barrier consists, in places, of a wall twenty-five feet high, razor wire, trenches, sniper towers, electrified fences, military roads, electronic surveillance, and buffer zones that sometimes reach 100 meters in width. Much of the wall will be built on lands confiscated from Palestinian landowners within the West Bank – not within Israel’s own territory. Many Palestinian homes, business, orchards, and other valuable assets in the route of the wall have been destroyed. The wall has been challenged repeatedly before the Israeli High Court, which has several times ordered the military to re-route specific sections of the wall, although the court has held that a wall built on Palestinian lands does not, in principle, violate international law. However, the wall must be militarily justified and conform to the principle of “proportionality” (that is, that the burdens imposed on civilians are proportional to the security benefits achieved through the military’s action). The wall was also the subject of a case before the International Court of Justice. The ICJ ruling, announced in July 2004, held that the wall is illegal, must be dismantled, and ordered Israel to compensate Palestinians damaged by the wall’s construction. It also called upon third-party states to ensure Israel’s compliance with the judgment. Although an advisory opinion, and therefore not binding on the parties, the ICJ judgment is an authoritative statement of the status of the wall in international law. In the course of the opinion, all fifteen judges of the court found Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, to violate international law. The wall has become the focus of weekly protests across the West Bank over the last five years. Led by Palestinians, these protests have used nonviolent techniques like sit-ins and roadblocks and have drawn increasing support from Israelis and internationals.;

Q: What happened during Israel’s 2008 invasion of Gaza?

A: According to the Goldstone Report, and corroborated by Israeli and international human rights groups, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups had committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. While the report condemned violations by both sides, it clearly differentiated between the moral and legal severity of the violations of the Israeli forces compared to those of Hamas and other less culpable Palestinian armed groups. “The following grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. As grave breaches these acts give rise to individual criminal responsibility.” For more on the “Laws of War,” watch this video.

]]> http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/israel-palestine-conflict-101/feed/ 4 bradleyheinz Queen Rania of Jordan http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/im-on-tour/ http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/im-on-tour/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:28:39 +0000 bradleyheinz http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/?p=241 Continue reading →]]>

Walking down the street, you might think it was Halloween, or that a United Nations meeting just let out. Around you people are donning the traditional garments of the Levant, the Gulf, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and others I’m not even sure of. Really, like many Americans or Europeans that visit Jordan, they’re just tourists. And while they may have come to see Petra, or the Dead Sea, or well-preserved Roman ruins, the primary purpose of their trip is to visit hospitals, clinics, laboratories and private practices. And walking down this street hosting many of these destinations, I am among them.

Jordan is a new nation, and early on it recognized that unlike its neighbors, it had little to offer in the way of natural resources, so it began to invest heavily in education and national security. Its citizens are highly educated, English-speaking professionals who are leaders in the region for banking, IT, advertising, medicine and law. Jordan is also a secure nation from which the US safely administers its war in Iraq, and many regional corporations headquarter their operations in Amman.

So while solutions remain unfound in Israel & Palestine; the Syrian government and the US can’t seem to get along; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has enough oil to make friends with anyone while denying its citizens meaningful participation in the government; Lebanon recovers from a civil war and braces itself against Israel and internal strife; Egypt tries to suppress its mounting tension, debt, and swelling population; and Iraq, well, smolders, Jordan sits calmly in the middle, absorbing refugees while providing the stability and educated workforce for business to carry on elsewhere. At only about 25% that claim themselves to be natives, Jordan is a nation of refugees, and its stability is its greatest export. When rich Iraqis need stable banks to hold their wealth, they look to Jordan and the West. When rich Palestinians were driven from their country, they came to Jordan. When Egyptians found no work in their home country, they came here.

Doctors, nurses and pharmacists study their trade in English. In fact, many university departments conduct all their scholarship in English. This equips them well for international participation in conferences and training, as well as working and studying abroad. At first I was surprised to learn that my dermatologist went to medical school and carried out his residency in Philadelphia. But when a new acquaintance shared with me his love for Stanford, which he gained at their medical school during a summer specialist training in advanced treatments for cancer, and my ophthalmologist his love for Harvard, and my dentist his 10 year schooling in London, I realized that Jordan’s reputation as a great medical tourism destination is well-founded. The treatment here is of the highest international quality. It’s the best in the region, which is why these streets of clinics and hospitals are full of people from all around the world.

I’m blessed and spoiled as a Fulbrighter. One of the many benefits is I enjoy is great insurance. I have diplomat insurance, the same stuff they give those working for the US Department of State. I show up, get treated, scan the invoice, email it to someone, and money shows up in my account. It’s so easy. I’ve been touring myself, taking care of things I never thought to ask a doctor about in the States, because who knows the next time I’ll have insurance this good. But even if I didn’t have insurance, I’d probably still be visiting these doctors. Let me explain.

I had a little internal problem taken care of that required me to be put under, have some minimally-invasive surgery, and spend the night in the hospital. I was told by a US doctor, that though the procedure took but twenty minutes, the whole thing would have cost upwards of thirty thousand dollars in the states. There was an anesthesiologist involved, a surgeon, nurses, and a night in the hospital. Because of my insurance, I paid nothing. They covered the entire $900. No, not a typo, it was less than thirty times cheaper in Jordan. With a specialist surgeon trained in Europe.

I broke my tooth in fourth grade. They bonded it, a more temporary fix, expecting that I’d break it over and over throughout an active adolescence (I only snapped off the bond once, into Bryan Berka’s head in the Ozarks while trying to play chicken fights in the lake with a chubby cousin on my shoulders). I have two cavities, and an old one needs to be replaced. I need a full cleaning and treatment. “How much is this going to cost, doc?” He started with the three cavities. He started writing, first a one, then a five, and I thought, ok, one hundred fifty JD a cavity, that’s like two hundred bucks, that’s about what it would be in the States, no problem, they’re my teeth, they need to be fixed, right? But he stopped there. 15 JD a cavity. Using silver or porcelain. That’s $21.16. That’s like a pack of smokes, a magazine and a cup of coffee in NYC. Dude shaved down my tooth, made molds of both my upper and lower jaw, installed my crown, deep-cleaned and treated my teeth, and is filled my cavities for about three hundred bucks.

So, dear reader(s) at home, next time you’re faced with a tall order of work that needs to be done on your body, consider coming to Jordan. You could get the work done here, and with the amount of money you’d save, go on a vacation of a lifetime in five star hotels in some of the most spectacular historical sites in the world. You’d return to the States renewed, repaired, and with more money than if you had stayed at home.

wait, is this thing real??

I shook the department head’s hand, grabbed my diploma, moved my tassel, sat down and smiled. Another of life’s rites of passage completed, and I wondered what the next would be.

Since as long as I can remember, I always looked forward to that next bit of freedom. A later bedtime, for instance, or losing my training wheels and the growing legs that pedaled harder, better, faster, stronger. Upon high school I dreamed in red convertibles, awaiting the day I could go anywhere, do anything, I believed. To Wisconsin! …if I wanted. I got my license and bought lottery tickets and alcohol on their appropriate birthdays. At each of these milestones, I had more responsibilities, but more control over my life. I relish growing up.

For Americans, after 21 our subsequent ages don’t really matter the same way anymore, but for me, I still had graduation to look forward to. Until then I was living on my parents’ bill. A dependent. Sure, my parents had always been very liberal with me. I took the driver’s seat and they sat in the back, ready to correct me if I got out of line, but they let me choose the path. I appreciated this, and this is all to say that while I may have remained a dependent, I had felt fully in control of my life for a long time.

I felt proud with my diploma in hand. I had worked my ass off to get it, and like losing two training wheels or gaining four wheels and a license, it represented to me a new freedom. I had passed a respectable finishing line: I could never go to school again and still be considered an academic success, one who had completed his scholastic tour, one deemed ready for the “adult world.” I could get a job. Lucky for me, I get a paycheck to study and research, and am financially secure.  I am no longer a dependent.

I am an adult. Sure, this is easily disputed, but by most definitions of the word, I have reached Adulthood. I filed taxes as an independent this year. I did my own taxes! People from my high school class are married and have kids. When I make big decisions, like where to go, and when, I no longer present the idea for approval or denial, but just tell those I love what I’m doing. I rent cars, fly to foreign countries. I find my own apartments and negotiate the contracts. I have electricity and water and internet and phone bills. I even have business cards.

This is not to say I have finished growing or maturing or that I don’t make mistakes. No, I stumble and fall and fuck up, which as I kid I thought, by definition, adults never did. Adults had everything together and confidently walked their chosen paths. I remember as a freshman watching high school seniors at their lunch tables. I imagined them secure in their maturity, comfortable having it “all figured out.” Strangely I had the same thought about the college elders. Now, as an adult, as I have argued, I now realize nobody has it all figured out. Anyone who claims they do is full of shit, or naïve, or have become stagnant in complacency.

My aunt tells me, always with a smile on her face, that she still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she “grows up.” Neither do I, and probably never will. But as an adult now I have become comfortable with uncertainty, excited with the possibilities it represents. I want to keep growing but never “grow up”.

Yesterday I bought unsweetened bran cereal of my own volition.  I am such an adult.

]]> http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/bbh-is-an-adult/feed/ 5 bradleyheinz shakehandgraduation businesscardscan myroom mykitchen mylivingroom hannahlandscape catstand http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/dead2red-race/ http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/dead2red-race/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:09:06 +0000 bradleyheinz http://bradleyheinz.wordpress.com/?p=212 Continue reading →]]> 11pm Thursday March 4th, 2010: Matt B., friend from Wisconsin / Yemen, arrives safely to my apartment.  We begin a year of catching up.  I drink 3 cups of coffee and smoke about half a pack of cigarettes as I prepare.

2am Friday March 5th, 2010: Team Honeybags calls; they are waiting outside and ready.  I bounce around the car, overcaffeinated, until

3am: Huge hidden pothole on the road to the starting line at the Dead Sea explodes two of our tires.  I change one while three army officers amusedly observe the white guy in biking tights in the whee hours of the morning change that tire in no time flat.  Other team members flag down cars and ask if we can buy a spare, but to no avail.

3:30: Team Honeybags is jammed into a car driven by an employee of Bike Rush, our team sponsor, and another employee stays behind to “figure out the tire.”  We speed to the starting line, for if the team is not registered and does not begin with the rest of the participants, said team is disqualified.

4:00: With minutes to spare we register and start.

4:02: Despite shouting all the advice out the window we can, our first biker just can’t get the gears on the bike to work correctly.  From all the jostling on the ride over, something has come undone, and we begin the race like tortoises.   Poor Lydia is pedaling like crazy but only inching forward.  We stop to switch bikes.

The Next Twelve Hours: Dude used rocks to hammer the rim of the wheel back into shape, speeds forward to switch cars with us.  We are now 4 people in a roomy car and one on a bike instead of 5 in a tiny coupe and one on a bike.  We face packs of wild dogs jumping from the side of the road to chase the biker down.  We face a 2 hour sandstorm in which we barely pedal in place, cannot see, breathe, or stay optimistic.  We see teams around us cheating.  “I’m coming up on someone! I’m going to pass them!  Damnit, this is the fourth time I’ve passed them….” They put the bike in the back of their trucks and drive past us.  By the grace of God we reach Aqaba and think we are almost done, but they picked the most outlying hotel for the finish line.  Here is the final stretch, video by Regina:

(Most of the race was through the desert: sand dunes framed by distant mountains, nearby Bedouin villages, and the empty expanse of the soul.  The trees and traffic were quite the change in Aqaba after twelve hours of sandy monotony.)

We finished. 12 hours was the alloted time, we made it in 12:30. We finished. We didn't cheat.

Looks like developers here have noticed that as well, and have plans to change the urban landscape here.  Article below.

Downtown Amman -- from NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/world/middleeast/24amman.html?ref=middleeast&pagewanted=print

Sidewalks, and an Identity, Sprout in Jordan’s Capital

AMMAN, Jordan — It might be too much to call it a miracle, but the government of this ancient metropolis that rolls out over seven sun-burned hills has managed something that until now seemed impossible. It built sidewalks that are easy to walk on.

But wait, Amman has achieved something else, too! It has put in park benches. And not just in parks, but right there, on those new, flat sidewalks that do not end suddenly, for no apparent reason. Sidewalks and benches are easy to dismiss as discretionary conveniences, unnecessary urban flourishes. That is especially true considering how people here need so much — better jobs, better schools and better health care.

But to talk to those behind the sidewalks and the benches is to see these ubiquitous objects as powerful tools of social planning, tearing down walls between rich and poor, helping a city bereft of an identity develop a sense of place and ownership.

“I think it made people a little happier,” said Omar al-Deeb, 68, who grew up in the less wealthy East Amman side of the city.

Mr. Deeb sells shoes and sandals in a tightly packed neighborhood where shops and homes, mosques and churches all cling to the sides of a hill, linked by narrow, winding streets. His workplace is a plastic chair on the corner of Al Taj Street and Bader Street, right next to one of the city’s latest innovations, a pedestrian walkway with trees and benches. A street once clogged with cars is now a place where families from a side of town that often felt ignored by the government have benches to sit on.

“Everybody likes it,” said Ahmed Sosa, 38, owner of a nut shop just off the new square that opened this month.

These are not one-time projects, a few benches here and there, but part of a master plan for Amman, an attempt to bring order to a city with roots that date from 8500 B.C. and whose modern incarnation hosts 2.5 million residents, 3 million in the summer. Amman’s master plan has a slogan — “A livable city is an organized city, with a soul” — a subtle way of describing what Amman does not want to be, which is Dubai.

“We were facing Dubaification,” said Gerry Post, a Canadian who is president and founder of the Amman Institute for Urban Development, a team of mostly Jordanian architects, urban planners, designers and thinkers created by Mayor Omar Maani to help restore, rather than reinvent, Amman.

When Mr. Maani was appointed four years ago, there were plans to build 16 glass and steel towers along a main road of Amman, towers that would block out the vista of white houses carpeting the hills. The tallest was to be 80 stories. The towers would have strained the infrastructure, but more troublesome to the urban planners, they would have created islands of privilege for the very rich.

The projects were relocated to three low points around the city, preserving the skyline and a sense of community, along with the much needed investment.

“I don’t want two cities in one,” said Rami F. Daher, the architect and urban reinventor behind some of the city’s most subtle and yet most audacious projects.

In Mr. Daher’s world, benches matter, as do sidewalks.

“Most important of all is social diversity and justice,” Mr. Daher said, sounding more like a political activist than a planner.

Jordan’s political system makes change difficult. Like many others in the Arab world, it offers a veneer of democracy that in the end yields to one central power, in this case the monarchy. The urban planners see a chance to empower citizens by changing the spaces around them, but by first asking how they want to live. They do surveys, and Mr. Post has trained staff to hold community meetings.

“What’s lacking in the city is a sense of citizenship,” Mr. Post said. “We have to create a sense of citizenship as well as stewardship.”

Jordan has grown with each wave of immigrants — Circassians, Armenians, Lebanese and Palestinians. Later, Jordanians who lived in smaller villages and cities moved to Amman, helping it develop into an economic, political and cultural center. But no matter how many generations later, people rarely identify as being from Amman, many people here said. Developing an urban identity and altering deeply held customs are difficult tasks.

Already, though, there have been some small victories.

“If you’re a girl and you’re just hanging out on a regular street or sitting on a sidewalk, it’s considered inappropriate,” said Reem al-Hambali, 20, as she sat in the bright winter sun along the first pedestrian plaza built here. “Everyone will look at you and ask, ‘Why is this girl sitting there?’ But here it’s O.K. We can sit here and it’s normal.”

But the experience of Wakalat Street also demonstrates the pitfalls of change. The street had been the exclusive realm of wealthy shoppers from west Amman, and shopkeepers were not interested in building a more egalitarian space. They wanted people with credit cards.

Those shop owners did not care to have a lot of young people of modest means hanging around. It intimidated their customers, they said. So they complained, and the city promptly removed most of the benches.

Another major project was a nearly mile-long stretch of road on the eastern edge of west Amman that is now called Rainbow Street. It was quietly on its way to becoming an exclusive, inner-city community for the rich and privileged.

That did not happen.

The city would not let Mr. Daher close the street to traffic so he had it paved with cobblestones, to slow the traffic, soften the view and fill the air with the rumble of traffic passing over the bumpy pavement. But most of all, Mr. Daher said, the sidewalks were flattened for walking.

There were problems. The British Council, which has been on that road for years, refused to lower a massive wall, to protect its prisonlike security facade. But a local school did lower its walls. Stores were set back to allow pedestrians to pass, and to make room for benches.

People like Rainbow Street. They mingle with Ammanis from other parts of the city. Some residents have complained about the foot traffic, and others have complained that prices and rents have gone up. But Rainbow Street appears reborn.

“It’s a change for us, but it’s a good change,” said Samar al-Sarayreh, 17, as she sat with her sister on a scenic overlook of the city. “When I come here now, there are fewer cars and there is a place to sit down and relax outside the house. It’s a public place for everyone.”

I think this is actually in Saudi, and most signs in Jordan are in English

Often my life in Amman feels like I moved to a new American city, rather than abroad.  I suppose a lot of this sentiment comes from having living in Yemen for a stint, which, quite the opposite, makes one feel as they had moved to another century on another planet.

I’ve lived here for over 6 months now, which means I’m probably just so accustomed to this place that it feels “normal” to me.  Throw me in Chicago or San Francisco and my jaw might drop at the ‘craziness’ of it all.

Then, I get messages like these from the Embassy.

Subject:   Tawjihi Celebrations – February 6, 2010

On Saturday, February 6th, the Jordanian Ministry of Education intends to release the interim results of the high-school exam (the Tawjihi).  Families throughout Amman often celebrate when the results are announced, and for some the celebration is exuberant.  Groups of young adults may drive around in cars blowing horns, and some individuals may shoot into the air.  The direct threat is minimal, but traffic can be congested.  Please do not be surprised if you hear shooting.

Wait, am I in the Middle East, or is this just another one of those family vacations in Arkansas?

I believe that when many people unaffiliated with the Middle East conjure up a mental picture of it, they see arid deserts, maybe an oasis here and there, a bunch of camels, and dark men in turbans.  This isn’t a post  listing and  breaking all the stereotypes of the Middle East.  This post will address just one of them: the weather, and more specifically, the temperature.

Jordan is a desert.  It’s the fourth water-poor country in the world, according to some documentary I watched here a couple of months ago.  There is a lot of sand.  There are cacti and little scrubby greens gripping pebbles hoping to eke out an existence.  Despite this desert, I am freezing my toes off at the moment.  It is snowing outside, has been since I woke up, and should be snowing until two days from now.

I didn't take this. Thanks camelsnose.wordpress.com, whoever you are.

My apartment is not outfitted with central heating.  This is pretty typical in this city, from what I can tell, and is way cheaper than having diesel pumped into a storage tank atop your roof, which is required for one form of central heating.  The Japanese student across the hall from me started using his electrical heater once it got cold.  His electricity bill went from ~15JD to 68JD for the month.  I, fortunately, have a gas “souba”:

The little heater that could

This little guy is fueled with a gas tank.  I’m not sure what kind of gas it is. I’m assuming propane?  Natural?  I actually have no idea.  It needs replacing every couple of weeks and costs about ten bucks.

It's kind of just like using a gas grill to heat your apartment

A few random times a day, you’ll hear this death-knell of a melody announcing the gas truck’s presence.  It’s so lovely that a pair of artists banded together to try to change it: The Gas Car Project.  When it passes in front of your house, you lean out your window and scream GHAAAAAZZZZZZ!!!! and hope they hear you.  I hollered at someone earlier today, and I think he gave me the hand-sign equivalent of “ha RIGHT! Look at that hill you live on top of, and look at all this snow. LOL good luck!”

Sometimes after the shower I put it on 2 or maybe even 3 and sit in front of it while I fully dry out.  I always turn it off at night, and sometimes, when I am out of kitchen stove gas, I need to improvise:

I need coffee!! Also, my favorite socks were once sopping and are now not as wet

Our building is insulated in such a way that I swear to God when I return home from school my apartment is always colder than the outside.  My souba is such a relief that I try not to think about it blowing up, or carbon monoxide poisoning, or anything of the like.  I look forward to April.

Karnak Temple

The city doesn’t sleep. While there, we got swallowed up in the excitement, and often crashed well after the sun had risen. When crossing the road, I can’t tell if it’s better to do so with your eyes open or closed. You literally have to walk into oncoming traffic if you ever hope to cross. The pedestrian crossing lights show a little green man running for his life. Amazingly enough, Cairo has a metro system. You need to position yourself in the middle of a wave of people, and shove your way onto the car. The smog is so thick it soon forms a blanket on your tongue.

You marvel at boys on bikes balancing bags of bread on their heads weaving in and out of traffic, a whole lane dedicated to pedestrians who spilled over from the sidewalks, fancy cars rubbing bumpers with old beaters, and the occasional pack animal, all streaming along together. Horns are such that you only really notice them when they’re not there, maybe at 4am. You can buy dirt cheap meat sandwiches on the street while marveling at the zillions dollar hotel just beside you.

I think her name needs to be changed. Cairo pops out of her armchair at the first suggestion of fun, ready to put you in her station wagon and take you to the zoo, or the museum, or out to the desert. She knits you scarves and lives a little more modest than you. You respect her, and maybe even fear her, but she’s got a photo album that suggests she’s been around the block in her day. She’s proud and fearless. Cairo is your chain-smoking grandmother who drinks too much coffee and pinches your cheeks too hard before slathering your face with kisses. “Why haven’t ya been around to see me sooner?!”

For being so busy, Cairo also knows how to slow it down and keep it personal. Almost every corner shop offers up coffee and shisha, where those with jobs take long breaks among those not similarly encumbered / lucky, spend hours reading newspapers, shooting the shit, watching television and the hustle shuffle by. Five am still truckin’, we head to a favorite, only to move on to the next. “At capacity,” said Bunduq.

So we rode horses to the pyramids. Where are they? I asked. Nobody was quite sure what direction to point in. It was really, really late. The dust was really thick. We were privileged to be at a human oasis somewhere between Giza and the open desert, where hundreds of men plus Cate and Sarah had taken to partying the day before the first day of the Festival of Sacrifice. Bonfires tickled the sky, tea was served from dusty platters, little guide-boys managed dozens of horses and camels as we wandered around the party. There was a hash tent from which dozens of satisfied stony gazes watched those dancing around the fire. Cars competed to out blast one another with the latest in funky, gritty Egyptian electronica. “Those cars way out there,” Bunduq explained, “Are where you take your girlfriend if you’re lucky enough to get her away from the house for a night.”

We ate dinner in old castles, we wandered ancient marketplaces. I didn’t buy any trinkets. I don’t buy things anymore. Pack lightly. Don’t forget your manners. Avoid trinkets. Drink water, don’t die. These are the simple rules I live by, and they’ve served me well so far. For my 9 days in Egypt, I lived out of a day backpack, one you might send your sixth grader to school with. I didn’t pack socks, I washed my underwear in the sink.

We took a 15 hour train ride to the south, former capitals of ancient empires, Aswan, Luxor (Thebes). We saw the sites: The Valley of the Kings, The Valley of the Queens, Hatschepsut’s Temple, The Colossi, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple. Took a felucca ride on the Nile. I saw King Tut. I read a ton of books about King Tut when I was little. When I was little I used to want to be a paleontologist, or an archaeologist. I wanted to be the next Howard Carter, and discover something glorious. “You can’t even spell archaeologist,” my parents would marvel, “Let alone know that you want to be one at 9 years old!” I created a picture book in third grade entitled, “An Archaeologist’s Dream.” Then I used to say, when I’m an Egyptologist, I’m going to have to learn the Egyptian language. Speaking as such, I imagined the billboards in modern day Egypt bore the same hieroglyphs I saw in my books. I think I had the revelation in 2^nd year Arabic at Stanford that this childhood declaration of mine had come to fruition. I am learning the language of Egypt, albeit not as a paleontologist-to-be. Why I’m learning Arabic, I believe, will become clear in the years to come, if it indeed has a purpose in my future. For now, I’m content with study for the sake of study.

Seeing these ancient sites in person, after the ten-year-old me had dreamt thousands of dreams about them, completed one of the loops of my life. I don’t think I can say much more about them. They are fantastic. Imagine! They were created thousands of years ago, and have stood the test of time. We rode camels. We saw more old stuff than I can keep tabs of. We saw the villages hugging the Nile the entire length of the river, from Cairo to Aswan. I saw Egypt, and it was great. But deeper than that, I feel like a chapter in my life is finally complete, the last plot elements finally written in. I am grateful. I feel mushy and cliché but I wonder what other visions of mine, childhood or otherwise, will come to be.

the world's first surf board -- Hatshepsut's Temple

Felucca ride on the Nile -- Aswan

a guide hamming it up for the camera

token pyramid picture

brett i swear this is not photoshopped.

Check out all my photos from Egypt here.