If I Had a Shekel…

If I had a Shekel for every time someone said the word “complicated” on this trip, I would probably be able to pay off my school loans.

The funny thing about it is that “complicated” is in itself a very real understatement when talking about modern Israel. Very few questions that we asked didn’t involve the word in one way or another, and it was always accurate.

From Masada looking back at the Dead Sea. Both have their own "complications"

In Israel just the very simple task of saying where you are is fraught with numerous political pitfalls. By using one word to say “we visited ___” instead of a different name I am making a political judgment, conscious or not. For someone like me who tries very hard to attempt to understand everyone (even when the “other side” is 100% wrong), it was both incredibly enjoyable and infinitely frustrating to know that I was making a political declaration by standing somewhere.

For this blog I will do my best to present the alternative sides as I understand them, but I will also try to avoid using “complicated” in every sentence. Any attempt to avoid controversy with place names is probably impossible, so I will call it what it was called by Jamie and let the chips fall where they may.

Brad(l) does his best impression of Israel as Jamie(r) explains the map.

Speaking of complicated, this is as good a time as any to introduce our amazing and incredibly knowledgeable tour guide Jamie. A native of London, he made Aliyah at the age of 25, about 13 years ago, as an expression of his increased awareness of what it meant for him to be Jewish. He is married to a Long Island native and has one son, and by time I write this is probably the father of another son or daughter. Jamie tried (and I believe succeeded) to present every issue as fairly and objectively as possible. He did his best to explain each side, and avoided making many large declarations.

As I said above, being objective in Israel is simply impossible, but Jamie certainly made a herculean effort to do so. Beyond the tour, I had a few opportunities to ask much more detailed and pointed questions about specific topics, where he displayed the same ability to present all sides. Having a tour guide who was able to discuss at length everything from Biblical stories to the state of domestic economic policies was invaluable to my tour. Something I will attempt to talk about later is Jamie’s own complicated relationship with some of the places we visited.