Day 9 - Jerusalem

Today was a long day. It was filled with meeting with very important people. This morning we started out at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We met with several people there; and the topic of priority was Iran. A nuclear Iran is unacceptable. And a lot of the discussion had to do about that, and the measures we can take to make sure that doesn't happen. I mean, Iran wants to Israel. It denies Israel's right to exist. One of the speakers said to "take religion out of the game" and not to mix religion and politics. I don't really understand how we can do that though when every Muslim nation is basically a theocracy based on skewed ideologies. Yigal Palmar, representing relations with Lebonan and Syria detailed Iran and Israel's history and how we can learn from it.

Josh Reinstien directs the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. We met with him today and about 4 members of the Knesset today after lunch. It was very interesting to hear about the Israeli government, since they don't even have a constitution and their elections aren't direct…but has to do with the amount of support a party has. There are currently I think 12 parties in the Knesset, 7 of which are represented in the Christian Allies Caucus. The more popular your party is, the more seats you get in the Knesset. We heard from 4 different ones today, all from different parties. It was interesting to hear about what they had to say about the state of their country. One woman talked about how she is pushing for lower taxes for working mothers so that unemployment doesn't go up among mothers trying to raise a family and work at the same time. If taxes are too high on them, they might just not want to work at all. Another education bill she is pushing deals with allowing people to still have a pension when they pursue an education, which isn't allowed right now. Another gentlemen spoke about his idea about the 2 state resolution - and that was he believes that there should be a total Jewish state and a total Muslim state (Palestine) and we should relocate all the populations to make this a reality. I don't think any of us really saw the logic in this statement, especially since he also claimed he wouldn't negotiate with Jerusalem. He says the Muslims have no historical claim there - and that part is true. Jerusalem never appears in the Qu'ran. So I wouldn't be opposed to kicking them out. But the Muslim world wants Israel dead. So I don't know that a 2 state agreement will work. But he did have a point - even if they give land up, they're gonna keep wanting more, because there will always be Arab populations in Israel. It was an interesting time to meet with such high ranking officials.

After dinner, we met with Meir Javedanfar. He is an expert in all things Iranian, being an Iranian Israeli. He says that Iran is Anti-America and Anti-Israel. They know they can't take over the USA, so they settle for Israel. He recalled that in 1979, Iran had a great relationship with both the US and Israel, and they were all strong allies. However, after being bombed by Saddam Hussein, they launced a nuclear program, which is what we're scared of today. He feels that although a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, that the US should do everything in its power to have talks with Iran. Even if they refuse to hear us, at least we know we're done everything we can. Someone made it comparable to talking with Hitler, but he said at least England talked with Hitler, and Hitler lied to England…therefore we had a reason to go to war against him. We disagreed with him for most of the time, and that made for lively discussion.

It was a long day. Full of learning a lot. Learning from myself. And others. Tomorrow is even more packed so I'm going to bed.