Temple Israel teach in
Seth Brysk, Director of the Israel Action Center of the JCRC-Boston, along with Temple Israel clergy (Rabbis Elaine Zecher and Stephanie Kolin), provided a "teach in" for members of the Temple Israel community tonight.
The evening was well-enough attended to require moving everyone from the the lounge into the main sanctuary. Unfortunately, the acoustics of the sanctuary were not as conducive to the format of the evening, and many of the comments and questions from attendees were difficult to grasp, so Rabbi Zecher's goal of "allow us not just to hear the people in the front to talk at you, but for us to talk with one another" was not easily met.
Seth began with a presentation entitled "Israel in Maps"; a PDF version can be found here. This presentation provided the opportunity for attendees to gain some historical understanding of the border, and the seeds of conflict.
Unfortunately, I felt that in Seth's efforts to be neutrally informative (especially in the face of questions like, "what is the correlation between the Christian fundamentalism of George Bush and the Islamic fundamentalism of Hizb'allah?"), he didn't manage to reach in as an agent of change, with one exception: the myth of disproportionality. When asked on it, Seth noted the standing orders to members of the IDF to not engage in targeting of civilians, and highlighted the extraordinary measures - from leafletting to automated telewarnings - taken by the IDF which place the IDF at increased risk.
There were a few statements made that I will follow up on separately, as I think out the issues they raised for me.
