Yesterday, I got to catch up with a friend I hadn't spoken with in months, and as I was regaling her with tales about life in Jerusalem, she asked a very interesting question that I think I've danced around in previous posts but haven't ever directly addressed before.
I described to her daily scenes that are almost mediocre in a typical Israeli's life, such as the stopping of traffic for the blowing up of suspicious packages, people toting guns up and down the streets as if it were the most normal thing, and soldiers patrolling the Old city streets.
She then asked me that with all the conflict surrounding Jerusalem, if there is a sense of fatalism that permeates the attitudes of the residents here.
This idea of fatalism is very interesting in the context of Israel. The philosophy of fatalism to me implies an almost defeatist attitude because it is being resigned to fate. I understand how any non-Israeli would think this way about Israel. The omnipresence of metal detectors, checkpoints and security guards are frequent reminders of the potential for dangerous situations to arise at any moment. And the media is a constant barrage of images around the conflict.
Like my tour guide in the Golan said: life is hard in Israel because the people here are perpetually reminded that they have to fight to exist on this land, but that's just the way it is. Life moves on.
I would say that Israelis accept that they must fight to survive, but I do not believe that they are resigned to this fact. Rather, it is a sense of incredible nationalism and pride instilled since birth and reinforced with three years in the military that drives this unquestionable sacrifice for their country. Death is but a small part of life, and they will fight to live even if it means they might die.
It seems that while Israel is fated to fight many more battles before attaining the chimera of peace, Israelis are hardly succumbing to others to predetermine its fate.
Most Israelis I've talked to are jaded by the idea of compromise and peace any time soon. In fact, Arab-Israelis and Palestinians are also disenchanted by the prospects of peace within their own government as well as in Israel. Like I've said before, it has become a zero-sum game. Terrorists and extremists on both sides continuously doom any hopes for peace.
Israelis seem to think it is fate that Israel will always be antagonized by the surrounding Arab and/or Muslim countries, but they will not surrender without a tough fight. And as history has proven, they sure can hold their own for such a tiny country.
Showing posts with label Nationalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nationalism. Show all posts
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I need to think up better titles for these posts.
There's nothing like seeing another people be so proud of its own culture to make one reach deep inside and search for her own roots.
Israeli nationalism is very peculiar and unique. Sure, there are the conventional Israeli flags draped over balcony terraces or hung like curtains in apartment windows, but also, as a proclaimed Jewish country, Israeli nationalism is manifested in the tensions between religious tradition and secularization, Palestinians and Israeli Jews, and darker Mizrahi Jews from Morocco and other places in the Middle East and the lighter Ashkenazi Jews mostly from Russia and France.
The recurring symbols of the kippah clipped neatly in a man's shorn hair paired with jeans and stylish Chucks or the pregnant young women pushing along a baby stroller jostled by four other young wearing matching outfits and close in age or the Israeli army soldiers on and off duty in or out of their clean-cut uniforms and always slinging a kalashnikov over their soldiers or casually, not inconspicuously fitting a hand gun in the back of their pants or the security guards at every entrance holding a metal detector and checking your bags with a cursory glance while you wonder how the guy with the gun hanging precariously out of his back pocket got in remind you just how badly this country wants to exist, and just how much it fears for its existence. Desire and fear together usually don't make for the best pair, but it does make for strong nationalism. Whether this is good or bad, I have yet to decide, but I think that if anything, the country is in danger of fostering a radical or fundamentalist mentality in the pursuit of stability while in the process excluding and angering many.
Ever since I've been here, I've felt this really strong urge to seek out any links to my Korean heritage. I've never really felt that I belonged to the Asian (azn) pride mentality that many Asian-American first generation kids feel, and I've always been a "banana" who couldn't really speak Korean slang or get into Korean dramas. It's really a curious phenomena that here in Israel, I'm feeling so much Korean pride, and I find myself searching for fellow Korean students or looking up Korean restaurants in Jerusalem (of which, there is only one) or listening to Korean music because its comforting to hear my own language (anyone have any suggestions for some good songs?) or talking to my mom on the phone in Korean when I rarely bust it out for shame.
Seeing Israelis and their overt nationalism makes me want to feel the same way about my dual nationality. Listening to Michelle Obama's and Hillary Clinton's and Ted Kennedy's speeches at the Democratic convention reminds me of the greatness America can foster amidst the States' growing unpopularity around the world and especially in the Middle East. Finding a Korean cultural center in the heart of Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem makes me proud to be able to say that yes, I'm American, but my origins are from Korea.
Anyway, I was going to write more, but my computer is being really difficult with me and lagging insanely while making weird whirring noises like it's about to blow up. I have so much to write about especially after a long phone conversation with some sage words from a wise friend, but it's 2 am here, and I have to wake up in three hours because I'll be going hiking in the Galillee region in northern Israel tomorrow at the crack of dawn.
I'll also update some photos from a night perched on a wall in the old city (check out the red sultan pants!) and tonight's venture to the Jerusalem Beer Festival that felt more like a sedated rave with more drunk people than high people where I tried the strangest beer called "Leche del Diablo" from a company called the Dancing Camel. Can you guess why I tried it? Something Spanish and something Middle Eastern, what could be better?
Two days later...
Tif, I mean to post this before I left for the weekend, but my computer was acting up (per usual), and I didn't have the patience to wait for it to restart again. I just got back home from a weekend trekking around the Golan Heights, and I will post about that tomorrow. I have Ulpan tomorrow morning, so for now, I'm just posting what I mean to post before I left.
Israeli nationalism is very peculiar and unique. Sure, there are the conventional Israeli flags draped over balcony terraces or hung like curtains in apartment windows, but also, as a proclaimed Jewish country, Israeli nationalism is manifested in the tensions between religious tradition and secularization, Palestinians and Israeli Jews, and darker Mizrahi Jews from Morocco and other places in the Middle East and the lighter Ashkenazi Jews mostly from Russia and France.
The recurring symbols of the kippah clipped neatly in a man's shorn hair paired with jeans and stylish Chucks or the pregnant young women pushing along a baby stroller jostled by four other young wearing matching outfits and close in age or the Israeli army soldiers on and off duty in or out of their clean-cut uniforms and always slinging a kalashnikov over their soldiers or casually, not inconspicuously fitting a hand gun in the back of their pants or the security guards at every entrance holding a metal detector and checking your bags with a cursory glance while you wonder how the guy with the gun hanging precariously out of his back pocket got in remind you just how badly this country wants to exist, and just how much it fears for its existence. Desire and fear together usually don't make for the best pair, but it does make for strong nationalism. Whether this is good or bad, I have yet to decide, but I think that if anything, the country is in danger of fostering a radical or fundamentalist mentality in the pursuit of stability while in the process excluding and angering many.
Ever since I've been here, I've felt this really strong urge to seek out any links to my Korean heritage. I've never really felt that I belonged to the Asian (azn) pride mentality that many Asian-American first generation kids feel, and I've always been a "banana" who couldn't really speak Korean slang or get into Korean dramas. It's really a curious phenomena that here in Israel, I'm feeling so much Korean pride, and I find myself searching for fellow Korean students or looking up Korean restaurants in Jerusalem (of which, there is only one) or listening to Korean music because its comforting to hear my own language (anyone have any suggestions for some good songs?) or talking to my mom on the phone in Korean when I rarely bust it out for shame.
Seeing Israelis and their overt nationalism makes me want to feel the same way about my dual nationality. Listening to Michelle Obama's and Hillary Clinton's and Ted Kennedy's speeches at the Democratic convention reminds me of the greatness America can foster amidst the States' growing unpopularity around the world and especially in the Middle East. Finding a Korean cultural center in the heart of Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem makes me proud to be able to say that yes, I'm American, but my origins are from Korea.
Anyway, I was going to write more, but my computer is being really difficult with me and lagging insanely while making weird whirring noises like it's about to blow up. I have so much to write about especially after a long phone conversation with some sage words from a wise friend, but it's 2 am here, and I have to wake up in three hours because I'll be going hiking in the Galillee region in northern Israel tomorrow at the crack of dawn.
I'll also update some photos from a night perched on a wall in the old city (check out the red sultan pants!) and tonight's venture to the Jerusalem Beer Festival that felt more like a sedated rave with more drunk people than high people where I tried the strangest beer called "Leche del Diablo" from a company called the Dancing Camel. Can you guess why I tried it? Something Spanish and something Middle Eastern, what could be better?
Two days later...
Tif, I mean to post this before I left for the weekend, but my computer was acting up (per usual), and I didn't have the patience to wait for it to restart again. I just got back home from a weekend trekking around the Golan Heights, and I will post about that tomorrow. I have Ulpan tomorrow morning, so for now, I'm just posting what I mean to post before I left.
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