An Academic Day

The Promenade in Tel-Aviv
Yesterday was what I would call an "academic day". I started off by finding an article in the "Ha'Aretz" newspaper, one of Israel's leading newspapers, closely relating to the topic of my research, titled: "The Foolish March of Arab-Israeli Repression"; and later when I came home in the evening, two more articles from the same paper were waiting for me, them too relating to my research topic, titled: " The Opportunity for Young Arabs : National Services"; and "The State is Creating Ticking Poverty Bombs". On the previous day I also found an article in that day's "Ha'Aretz" relating to the topic. Based on all of this, it seemed as though I landed on the right summer to conduct research on this topic.

I then left for Haifa University, where I spent some hours roaming the library in search of books I was after for my research. I was only semi-successful, partly because some of the books I was after simply did not exist in this library, and partly because I was unsuccessful in finding books that were supposedly there. I nevertheless was able to extract some good material and sit down to review them.

A big question that has been lingering in my head for a while and had popped up as I was reading a statistical report was: How do we appease the Arab-Palestinian population of Israel while Israel continues to hold its identity as a Jewish state at its core? Should the state see itself in this way at all? and: Are psychological effects dating back to WW2 remaining at the core of Israel's defense of itself as a state for the Jewish people? Neither of these are easy questions to answer and to be honest I will probably not be able to come to solid conclusions on any of them, but they are nevertheless very important questions to address, even if an answer to them cannot be found.

I ended my day in Haifa with a visit with my friend Ari to the Haifa Educational Zoo- small zoo, but we had a very nice visit.

Tomorrow I am going on an organized trip to Nablus and its surrounding towns. I have never been to the West Bank so I am pretty excited, but also anxious, for obvious reasons. Reports from this experience will be reported in my next entry.

On another note, on Wednesday I went to Tel-Aviv to visit the city and a friend. As my friend, Amit, and I were walking down Dizengof Street, one of the main streets in Tel-Aviv, we came across a number of young people trying to "sell" their faith; they were Jews for Jesus. This fact is not really related to anything. I however, found it quite interesting to see. After inquiring with Amit, I was confirmed that this is in fact a new phenomenon in Israel-
Why? this question neither of us knew to answer.

"The Arab's Whinging Era is Over"