Israel Symposium

Israel is experiencing momentous changes, both domestically and in its foreign relations, and the developments of the next few months are likely to shape the country for decades to come.

This is the overall impression I bring back from my 10-day working trip to Israel and Palestine, including 7 days with Meretz USA's incomparable travel-and-learning program, the Israel Symposium.

Having met more than 50 individuals - Jewish and Arab; Israeli and Palestinian; left, right and center; senior politicians, activists, intellectuals, journalists and ‘regular folk' - in over a dozen locations, my mind is still awash with fresh information, new data, contrasting assessments and conflicting narratives. 

Here are some of my unbleached reflections:

Presented by Meretz USA and the World Union of Meretz

The Israel Symposium is an extraordinary one-week journey to Israel that allows participants to meet, learn from and build bridges with key Israeli and Palestinian policy and opinion-makers, Arab and Jewish social activists, journalists, academics, authors, and artists. 

It is a perfect experience for someone who cares not only about the security of Israel's people, but about the moral character of its society as well.

Between March 13-20, two dozen people took part in Meretz USA's fact-finding mission to Israel and Palestine, the "Israel Symposium", which this year took place at the height of recent US-Israel tensions over continued Israeli expansion into areas of Jerusalem beyond the Green Line.

Over the course of seven intensive days, we met with more than 50 different Israeli and Palestinian figures from across the political spectrum - politicians and diplomats, military figures and human rights activists, journalists and entrepreneurs - in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Nazareth, Beersheba and elsewhere. Here is some of what we came away with:

From Dr. Irving Peyser: Meretz USA 2009 Israel Symposium Participant*

Whereas I have been interested in Israeli politics for many years, and I have visited Israel numerous times in the past, I never had the opportunity on those occasions to critically examine the problems and challenges facing Israel. But by joining all of you for the past week on Meretz USA's unique and fascinating Israel Symposium, I believe I have achieved these goals and more.

The timing of the Symposium could not have been better planned, following on the heels of the Israeli elections. The theme, for the most part, was the peace process and the prospects for peace, and this, too, was right on target for this most critical time in the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians.

by Ron Skolnik, Executive Director of Meretz USA

I have just returned from a very intensive 12-day stay in Israel, most of it in the framework of Meretz USA's annual seminar in Israel, the "Israel Symposium". It will probably require another few weeks to sort out the many and diverse perspectives that I heard, and synthesize them into a full and organized report, but - with so many raw impressions fresh in my mind - I would like to use this column to share with you a set of initial thoughts.

First, the political context: I arrived in Israel less than a month after the elections that voted a clear right-wing majority into Israel's Knesset, and that dealt a severe body blow to both the Labor and Meretz parties. And it was less than two months since the end of the Israel-Hamas war, a military action that was supported by 96%(!) of Jewish Israelis. An even more telling statistic: 65% of Israel's Jews continue to believe that the government ended the war too soon, and that it should have "finished the job" of eradicating the Hamas in Gaza, regardless of the political and human costs.

Understandably, I encountered an Israeli left that was still in a state of shock and disarray. Nonetheless, amid the pessimism, and perhaps because of it, some on the Left have already begun to address how the peace and human rights camp can redefine and reorganize itself to take up the challenges of the 21st century.