Shalom...Achshav? Matai? Peace...Now? When?

Again, I experienced a sad sense of distance reading today's news from the West Bank. Many people have asked me how my trip was, and all I can say is it was amazing...it was depressing...it was fascinating...and I'm so very glad I went. And to keep us all plugged in, here some interesting websites about what’s happening in Israel/Palestine.

One of the most memorable, and certainly one of the more distressing meetings we had was with Hanna Barak, one of the founders of Machsom Watch, an organization created by a group of Jewish Israeli women who observe the treatment of ordinary Palestinians by Israeli military at checkpoints throughout the West Bank. I was astonished to learn that there are 546 checkpoints scattered throughout this tiny piece of land. We watched a brief, heartbreaking film about the daily bureaucratic obstacles faced by Palestinians at these checkpoints. While it’s true that checkpoints have uncovered and foiled would-be terrorists, the bulk of the people trying to get through them are merely trying to receive much needed medical care, go to work, or simply pay a social visit to another village. Machsom Watch reports on their observations, and intervenes where it can to assist with emergency, or just quotidian problems. Here is brave, lovely Hanna.

We also met with Yossi Alpher, who is a former advisor to Ehud Barak, and is the Israeli co-author of the site Bitter Lemons which presents Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on the conflict. You can read an excellent, informative briefing he wrote on the Gaza crisis in the form of a Q&A here.

And here's mom and me after our last round of meetings in Tel Aviv. Still standing and still smiling.