« IN THE PRESS

It's definitely interesting

By Mark Davis

JERUSALEM - "There are a lot of ways to die in Jerusalem," says attorney Danny Seidemann, who moved here 30 years ago, right after college. "Boredom is not one of them."

He can say that again.

Seidemann is fond of taking visitors on a tour of the West Bank that features -- in his words --"everything you never wanted to know."

By that, he means that the very American concept of "can't they all get along" is not possible. At least not the way things are now.

The way things are now, in Seidemann's view, Israel has not done enough to make Palestinians feel secure. Make them less fearful and more secure, he says, and they will be less likely to advocate and even practice terror.

This man has served for years in the Israeli military. How could I tell him that I thought his view was an ill-conceived appeasement of terror?

Tactfully, that's how. And he took it in the proper spirit.

This is one country that loves debate. Everybody loves tossing hot topics around, and any subject is fair game. It's like a national sport.

Except in this sport, talk of injuries involves real life. Just yesterday, two more suicide bombers plied their evil trade in two towns about a half-hour north of me.

Talk about sobering. I wondered what we would all do if somebody detonated himself at a bus stop a half-hour north of Fort Worth. I would think much of life would just flat-out shut down.

Not here. Buzz about the bombings filtered through a public that reacted the way it always reacts when this happens: a shrug and an expectation of even more security.

That means even more security than the normal Israeli routine. A trip to a supermarket, a walk to an art fair on Ben Yehuda Street or re-entering a hotel lobby -- all of these earned me a professional, no-nonsense pat-down and briefcase search.

OK by me. So was the famed security at El Al, Israel's national airline. That's where my odyssey began in earnest, at JFK International Airport in New York.

I have always wanted to visit this part of the world, with its second-to-none religious and historic significance. To be able to do my radio show and file these columns from here this week is an even greater thrill.

What's the old line? "It isn't paranoia if everyone really is out to get you."

Israel does not exactly let any old somebody in here to tour sensitive areas and throw down opinions along the way, even staunchly pro-Israel folks like me. But with the cooperation of the Jewish Community Relations Council and a broadcasting enterprise called the America's Voices Program, here I am.

Before coming, I had to know that they were comfortable with a diversity of opinion. I have my views, but I always crave others.

Not only was that fine -- it was expected. So I was pleased to be able to bring a solid pro-Palestinian voice to yesterday's radio show. Little did I know it would come from an Israeli Jew.

At one point, as we visited a Palestinian shopkeeper on Jericho Road whose business has been obliterated by the security fence (which looks like a mini-Berlin Wall), Danny Seidemann reached out to Hassan Ekermawi and said: "Don't you think we can get along, you and me, Hassan? Jews and Palestinians don't need a wall between them."

I hated to spoil the moment, but I had to point out that Danny and Hassan hold many of the same views. Of course they can get along, but how about showing me an Israeli sworn to uphold his faith's concept of a united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel?

Put him in a room with a Palestinian equally sworn to snare the eastern half of Jerusalem and make it the capital of the new Palestine. And while we're at it, make it one of the many Palestinians who believe that Israel must be wiped off the map.

Then maybe things aren't so chummy.

I'm here until Sunday, when you can read my next dispatch about a trip to the kibbutz at Misgav Am and to the hospital in the north where Hezbollah missile attack victims had been taken.

This is a nation that is at once proud and pained, modern and ancient, reassuring and scary. It is impossible to be bored here. I love it.

-- This article first appeared in Star-Telegraph.

Posted on Sun, Aug. 17, 2003

« IN THE PRESS