March 28

One issue that I have had quite a bit this semester is the whole question of "so what?"

I thoroughly enjoy learning this material, and I think it is hugely important that we (as Jews, Christians, Muslims, pro-Palestinian, pro-Israeli, pro-peace, pro-security, neutral, etc) learn and understand the giant balagan of the situation. We may never understand, but we must try. What I have struggled with is   answering my questions. I am unable to find answers to the hard questions. Where are we moving on the matter by just learning it? What about peace negotiations? I have further set in stone my belief that there won't be 100% peace in the region, with the matter, so I keep asking myself why is this worth it?

What can we actually achieve by just discussing. Why aren't we acting? How can we act? I hope that this will all get better, but I honestly don't see it happening. So i return to my idea of idealizing the status quo.

I will say that I only see this politically. I try to look beyond the religion, because it won't actually define anything, and won't get us anywhere. Political boundaries shift more fluidly than do religious ones. So my issue is - why are we focusing so much on the culture? Does learning about gender and sexuality issues, or music (besides the politically themed songs) actually help us understand the already incredibly difficult to understand Israeli Palestinian conflict? Or does it just complicate matters.

I have loved learning all of these topics, but I wonder if we focused on just the greater issue and thought on the big scale, could we actually achieve greater things?

So often, with peace negotiations, we try to figure things out without discussing Jerusalem. The thought is to get everything else down, then talk Jerusalem. But maybe we should start with Jerusalem. You can't uproot a tree by pulling on it's leaves... you must start at the strongest (albeit most difficult to manage) part, and move on from there.