Montefiori's epilogue enriched my understanding on the current political situation. Reading this epilogue was an effective complement to Armstrong's book. Reading Montefiori's epilogue gave me more insight into the issue of settlement building in the Occupied Territories; "The aggressive building of settlements, designed to colonize Arab neighbourhoods and sabotrage any peace deal to share the city, and the systematic neglect of services and new housing in Arab areas, have given even the most innocent Jewish projects a bad name. Even though he critizes these and other actions of Israelis, Montefiori is more quick to include positive actions of Israelis in his work.
Before reading Naomi Chazan's article Owning Our Identity, I never thought of the consequences of calling Israel a "Jewish state." While I was reading, I couldn't help to compare this title to calling the United States a "White state," just because caucasions are a majority. Chazan brings up the point that, "Using 'Jewish' as modifier for a state means defining "Jewish' to at least the satisfaction of a majority of Jews. And as any Jew in Israel or abroad knows, that's a centuries'-old conundrum." Sometimes when people ask me if I am Jewish, I respond that I am 'Jewish...ish,' because I no longer go to Shabbat services or go home for the high holidays. I agree with Chazan that, "the correct description for these democracies should be the sovereign expression of the right of the Jewish--or Palestinian--people. The article states that most Israelis accept the 1967 boundaries. How would Israelis react to confronting the outcome of 1948?
When I was googling Naomi Chazan, I started exploring the New Israel Fund website. According to the organization's website, the NIF is "committed to equality and democracy for all Israelis." In an effort to provide civil and human rights for all citizens of Israel, the NIF funds over 800 organizations. One of the issues concerning the NIF is equality of women. In clicking on the women's issue, I came across a webpage titled, "10 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Women in Israel." Here are some of the facts that astounded me: 22 out of 120 (18%) legislators are women, only one is an Arab woman, 350 of 2, 700 (13%) of local council members are women, over half of Jewish girls graduate high school with a matriculation certificate; however only slightly over a thire (34.4%) of Arab youth graduate high school with a matriculation certificate. From browsing the website, it seems to me the NIF is an influential and productive organization dedicated to civil rights and plurality. I would like to learn more about this organization and Chazan's involvment within it.
I would also like to learn about that organization. She has some very good point in her article, and the notion of how one can define being Jewish is something that I am not familiar with at all. You should post the link about the ten things about Israeli women to the class blog, or in one of your posts.
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