I got home to the kibbutz from having visited Alan Lutzker and his family on Saturday night. I joined my classmates Aly, Tamar, Rebecca, and Milad on their way to visit some soldiers they'd made friends with at a party the night before. These soldiers are called "lone soldiers" and come to the kibbutz on the weekend because for whatever reason they don't have families to go home to.
Two of the soldiers were from South Africa, one was an Israeli with American parents, and one guy was from Argentina. The soldiers from South Africa joined the army voluntarily in order to get Israeli citizenship; I think the U.S. has this option for foreigners as well.
We hung out with the soldiers for a bit in their dormitory; they're probably in their young 20s if not 18 or 19. Their dorm reminded me of a college one; somewhat messy, a few posters on the wall.
Today, we had class with our professor of Jewish Studies, Israel "Izzy" Neeman. He was born in America but made aliyah in the 60s or 70s I believe. He's very energetic and can explain Middle Eastern politics from both an Israeli and American perspective since he's had experience in both places.
We discussed the results of the Israeli elections. The new government coalition now looks more center-left than the previous one.
We explored economics and how it plays into people paying (or not paying) income taxes, and what it would mean for a 2 state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. There are some Israelis and Palestinians who want a 2 state solution for the purpose of making trading and business easier across borders, since many Palestinians work in Israel, and Israelis do business with Palestinians.
In Israel, there is a lot of income that does not get reported, and it happens in many Middle Eastern countries. The Israeli equivalent of the IRS doesn't pursue the issue as much as it probably would be in the U.S., partly for economic reasons and partly for cultural ones. If a pub that wasn't reporting its income gets shut down, then all the employees lose their jobs, and the local economy could be negatively affected.
Another topic we touched on was the lack of voting among the Israeli-Arab population. Although Israeli-Arabs have the right to vote, about 50% don't. Literacy levels are lower among the Arab population, but the Israeli-Arabs also have to ask themselves an identity question: Who am I first, an Arab, a Muslim/Christian, or Israeli? Who am I loyal to? Israeli-Arabs are in a tricky position both politically and sociologically.
Then there is the issue of: Do the Arab political parties truly represent Israeli-Arabs? Some Israeli-Arab citizens complain that the Arab Lists (Arab political parties) don't truly represent the population because municipal problems don't always get fixed. If you are an Israeli-Arab, and an Arab party is supporting the more global Arab spring, but isn't fixing the potholes in your neighborhood road or giving enough funding to your local public school, would you want to vote for them?
It's ironic to me that such a small country has such complicated politics!
Professor Neeman said something about Western thinking that I will have to keep in mind as I continue to learn about Israel and the Middle East: "In the West we think in timelines, but in the Middle East, it's more of 'don't betray your values.'"
The West is often criticized for "betraying its values." Professor Neeman said, "Some Middle Eastern people ask why families in the U.S. have so few children?" And the argument is that "Western adults don't stick to their values and so they don't have kids to pass those values on to."
I don't agree with that statement, because I think you can have values and simply decide to have less children (or none), but the argument is also somewhat vague (what kinds of values are we talking about?), so I'd need to have it elaborated to fully understand it.
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