Israel-Palestine Conflict: Is There a Resolution in Sight?

If I am being completely honest, based on what I have learned about Israel-Palestine relations I think that it is somewhat unrealistic for us to believe that there are any prospects for a peaceful and sustainable resolution to the conflict. The truth of the matter is that the relationship between the two is so deeply rooted and holds so much conflict within that I believe it would take something big to even come close to a resolution. What would truly be important is for both sides to be willing to find a way that would resolve this long-standing rivalry, which I believe is pretty unlikely. In order for this to happen, both Israel and Palestine would have to be willing to put a long history of conflict behind them, which is not necessarily an easy thing to do.

When we had first started to talk about Israel-Palestine relations, I found myself being overly optimistic as I thought it was much simpler to come to a resolution than it really is. As we dove further and further into their very complicated past and the many factors that play into it, I developed what we discussed as being the realist approach to the situation.

When we discussed possible resolutions in class, Kristin and I discussed that we do not believe that this relationship will get anywhere without a big act of violence that would really shake things up and force agreement upon them. I feel that this way of thinking is plausible for any relationship that is so deeply driven by conflict and disagreement.

Having said that, I, along with many of my classmates (I would hope) in no way wish violence and terrorism upon the Israeli and Palestinian people. That being said, I do still believe that having been at a sort of standstill for so long, it would be improbable for any change to erupt without a big event forcing it upon the two.

My Water Diary

Within one day last week I washed my face twice for 2 minutes each, brushed my teeth twice for 3 minutes each, showered in the morning for 10 minutes, showered in the evening for 20 minutes, and drank a total of 100 fluid oz of water. Although I forgot to take note of how many times I washed my hands that day, the total amount of water that I used for those things alone in one day was a lot. Typically when I think of my daily water use and my water footprint, I would have never thought that it would be as high as it was when calculated on https://www.watercalculator.org. Before using this website, I don’t think I ever realized how much things like food consumption and even your shopping habits can effect your water footprint. After taking the test, I was told that my daily use of water is about 2,982 gallons per day, which is significantly higher than the national US average of 2,200 gallons per day.

I am sure that many of my classmates would agree in that it was surprising to find out what some of the things that were affecting my water footprint the most were. For example, I have always known that our diets affect the environment, but was never fully aware that the amount of times you eat meat in a day can affect it that drastically. What surprised me the most was when I answered the question about my shopping habits. I am someone who will never pass up a shopping day, and even spend a good amount of time shopping online. As soon as I admitted this to the survey, the water line that ran across the screen began to rise until it was almost all the way to the top. It was aspects of the survey like these that led me to believe I may need to reconsider how I am spending my time every day.

In the US, I would guess that the many of people are not all that concerned with their water footprint because the vast majority of water comes from within the country. Given that water is a much hotter commodity in the Middle East, the relationship that people have with it is much different than that of the people living in the US. Specifically for the peninsula, they barely have any water coming from within the region, so most of it is coming from other regions. Because it is such a difficult material to get there is clearly going to be less of it, therefore there is going to be less for people to consume. This is undoubtedly going to effect many aspects of the regions politics and economy.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-worldgeography/chapter/8-5-arabs-islam-and-oil/

In an area where access to water is much more limited in the United States, its people are going to be forced to be more mindful of the amount of water they are consuming. Like I said earlier, before I took the water footprint survey I rarely thought about how much water I was using in a day, generally because it isn’t really of concern in the US. There are many things that are affected by the amount of water a country has, including the amount of food that can be produced, along with many other materials. From an economic standpoint, the more scarce the water supply is within a region, the more expensive it is going to be to get that water. The likelihood of corruption is also probably higher in these regions because the people could become upset with the government if they do not feel that they are doing enough to provide for their country, leading to possible outbreaks of violence. It is inevitable that having sufficient water supply is going to help a country survive without conflict given the amount of industries that need it to survive.

There is Always an “Other”

In any community, there is always going to be an “other”. Now, this “other” is undoubtedly going to vary depending on what community you are looking at. For example, from my perspective when I think of Dickinson I would consider a group of “others” to be non-athletes. Since my first day at Dickinson every single one of my friends has been an athlete, and that often leads to me feeling like I am on the outside. While this is a very minor example, and there are probably people in the Dickinson community who feel as though being an “other” really impacts them on a daily basis, this was the first thing that popped into my head.

When I started to think of my town, it was hard for me to place who I thought would be grouped as an “other” in the community. While I would love to be able to say that I grew up in a diverse community where everyone shares and embraces their differences, the truth is I didn’t. In my grade school, everyone was the same. Our parents all worked similar jobs, we all lived in similar houses, and we all had after school activities that we would rush to once the school day came to a close. When I look back on high school, it was a chillingly similar experience. Given that it was a private high school where boarding was an option, the biggest difference in our lives was that we did not share the same school district and some people had to travel further than others every morning.

So needless to say, I had a feeling that writing this blog post would be a challenge for me. Should I write an entire post on how I (sometimes) feel on the outside because I am not an athlete at Dickinson? Should I write about that one time that I felt uncomfortable in Catholic school when I was still a Methodist and had to watch all of the other kids practice for their First Communion? Definitely not.

http://www.buckslocalnews.com/news/newtown_area/newtown-supervisors-approve-multi-million-dollar-expansion-plans-for-village/article_7be0da60-f977-5152-b06e-a43397175ce7.html

As I was struggling to decide what to write about, I turned to my friends and family and asked them who they thought would be considered the “others” in the small town of Newtown, PA. My dad immediately made me think about such a large group of people in my community that people often forget about because you rarely see them. When I began to think about this perspective, I realized that there are so many people in my community who are probably very often unaccounted for because they are not who people would typically picture when they think of my area. They are the people who are behind the scenes and really make the town what it is. They are the people who are running every successful landscaping business in the community, owning most of the stores that we use weekly, and working to prepare the meals when we go out to eat.

I had never thought about the group of people who have immigrated to the US who make up a fairly large part of my community and how they are probably the most prominent group of “others”. In my day to day life at home I rarely interact with these people. A woman and her sister have come to my house to clean every 2 weeks for nearly my whole life, and while I have interacted with them countless times, Polish is their first language and the language barrier has always stopped me from really getting to know them. A friend of mine, Madie, also has had the same woman coming to her house for practically her whole life. Her name is Sonia. I have met Sonia multiple times, but have never really had a conversation with her. Over the years Sonia and my friends mom got very close, so close that when Sonia was eventually diagnosed with cancer, Madie’s family bought her a car to help make getting to treatment easier for her. This is a story that will always warm but heart, but when I think about the “others” in my community, it is sad that I can only think of one person who has developed such a close relationship with someone they welcome into their house on a weekly basis.

I understand completely how lucky I have been my whole life to have had the privileges that I do. Putting this into perspective has really made me reevaluate my community, and has pushed me to think about the “others”, and how living in Newtown, PA must make them feel. What are their lives like? What is being an outsider in a town that everyone is so similar like? It has honestly motivated me to find out and to work on making connections with them in the future. It makes me think about how where you’re from is a huge part of your identity. For all of these people, the “others” in my town, that part of their identity isn’t with them anymore. While living in Newtown may be a new part of their identity, it makes me wonder what it feels like to have another part of them missing, or even how out of place they must feel in a community that I have always gone to for comfort.

 

Where I live; where they live

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where the neighborhoods are filled with cookie cutter houses that all appear to be almost exactly identical. I grew up in a town where while religion is important to a large part of the community, it is not everything. I grew up in a town where in the winter the ground is covered in snow, and in the summer the AC is blasting. These are all things that are likely to act as barriers to understanding what life is like for those living in the Middle East.

My understanding of what I thought life in the Middle East must be like prior to taking this course was mostly taken from the way it is depicted in the media and film industry in the United States. On the news, when you see anything about Middle Eastern countries it is likely that it will be about war, poverty, or corruption. Many films that I have seen about the Middle East have been about war and violence. I think that this is the reason for the common misconception that every Middle Eastern country is poor and underdeveloped, which is clearly untrue. While I think that these depictions of the Middle East most definitely have led me to understand the privileges I have had my whole life, it also gave me a false sense of what life is like in other parts of the Middle East that are just as developed as the area that I grew up in.

From a geographical standpoint, the climate and  topography of most Middle Eastern countries is drastically different from where I live or anywhere that I have visited in the United States. In my area, any land that has not been built on is typically farm land, and there are certainly no deserts anywhere close to Newtown, PA. While the summers are hot, the highest that the temperature will reach is usually no more than 100°, and in the winter everyone knows that a heavy coat and gloves are a necessity. This was something that I have never really put into perspective when it comes to how this might affect me day to day, but clearly with such a different geographic setting, life in the Middle East is definitely going to be different from here.

In my opinion, life in the Middle East would be hardest for me to understand from a cultural standpoint. From what I know, religion in Middle Eastern countries is very important, and is often what causes a lot of conflict between countries. While I did grow up going to Catholic school, I have never found that it consumed my life or that religion ever caused any sort of controversy between the people around me. I think that the way people from my area who I would consider to be ‘super religious’ practice their religion would seem like nothing to many Middle Eastern people.

These are just a few of the things that I believe will act as barriers to my understanding throughout this course, and I recognize that life in a small suburban town in the United States has a long list of differences from life in the Middle East. Although these barriers are present, I look forward to searching for ways that life may also be somewhat similar in comparison to the Middle East throughout the semester.