{"id":37801,"date":"2024-08-26T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T18:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37801"},"modified":"2024-08-25T17:09:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T00:09:47","slug":"michael-scott-aa-and-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/michael-scott-aa-and-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Scott, AA, and The Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read this entire book, and I still don’t fully understand the situation in the Middle East. I didn’t prior to October 7th, and I still don’t fully after October 7th. Honestly, I just don’t get it. Reading The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict\u00a0<\/em>by Martin Bunton only seemed to confuse me more, and the material only covered up to 2012! My goodness, it’s crazy to think about how much has happened since 2012, let alone what has taken place since October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

It makes me think of Season 5, Episode 9 of The Office. <\/em>Accountant Oscar Martinez attempts to explain what a budget surplus is to Michael Scott, the manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch. Afterward, Michael Scott asked Oscar to explain it him “like I’m a 5-year old,” at which point Oscar used an analogy about “his mommy and daddy giving him money to run a lemonade stand.” It’s a funny scene. I thought it about it the entire time I read this book, and I think about it every time I read or watch the news regarding the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

I wish someone would tell it to me “like I’m a 5-year old.”<\/p>\n

I know the Palestinian-Israeli conflict goes clear back to the days of Isaac and Ishmael, but even in saying that, all too often we deem Isaac to be the de-facto good guy, and Ishmael the bad guy…but, honestly, it’s just not that cut and dry. Yes, we must dig into the past, even as Bunton says “there can be no assessment of the present, nor discussion of the future, without an understanding of how the conflict unfold from the beginning” (Bunton, 19). Bunton goes onto concede that there “many layers of complexity that have been added to the conflict….”<\/p>\n

That’s the understatement of the century. There are massive layers of complexity. Massive. And we may never get to the bottom of those answers because of the layers of complexity from the past. It’s like asking “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Or wondering if “Adam had a belly button,” or “why abbreviation<\/em> is such a long word?” One could spend a lifetime pondering why feet stink and noses run. One could spend another lifetime wondering what color a Smurf turns if it chokes.<\/p>\n

Things that make you go hmmm.<\/p>\n

And things that send me to ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

I asked AI to explain the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as told to a 5-year old. Here’s what it kicked out:<\/p>\n

“Imagine there is a big box of toys. Two children, named Sam and Alex, both want to play with the toys. The problem is, they can’t agree on how to share them. Sam says, “These toys are mine, I was here first!” But Alex says, “No, these toys are mine, I need to play too!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Both Sam and Alex feel very strongly about this and sometimes they get very upset and fight over the toys. Their friends and family also take sides, and this makes things even more complicated and sometimes leads to more fighting.<\/em><\/p>\n

The grown-ups around them are trying to help Sam and Alex find a way to share the toys so that they can both be happy and play together without fighting. But it’s a really hard problem to solve, and they are still working on it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Bottom line: Two people. Two perspectives. One land.<\/p>\n

Both see the land as their historic homeland, and in the case of the Jewish people, it is a safe haven after centuries of persecution, including the horrific murdering of more than six million Jews. Of course, “safe haven” is a relative term.<\/p>\n

When one thinks of Palestine today we generally think of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and segments of Jerusalem. These are the hotbeds of conflict that dominate our news currently. Bunton helps us understand that the term “Palestine” denotes both a geographical region as well as a political unit, and that prior to “the First World War, there was no ‘Palestine’ as such, rather a territory…” (Bunton, 38). He is differentiating between a region and a political entity that emerged in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Now, scripturally, Palestine was home to various ancient civilizations, including the Canaanites, Philistines, and the Israelites. So, ultimately, who<\/em><\/strong> the land belongs to boils down to how<\/strong><\/em> you read and understand the Scriptures. And, I think we all know THAT isn’t a cut and dry issue. There are many interpretations of the Bible, often influenced by our biases, and faith traditions. It’s not a simple issue. To complicate it even further, Bunton’s Very Short Introduction<\/em> inserts a whole cast of characters including the pesky HAMAS<\/strong>, which I now know is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya <\/em>(Bunton, 121).<\/p>\n

Welp, that cleared it right up. Someone, please, give me an acronym like I’m 5-year old!<\/p>\n

Here’s one: \u00a0AA.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most know AA as Alcoholics Anonymous. In\u00a0The Big<\/em> Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, <\/em>there is a reference in Step Nine to “sweeping your own side of the street.” It’s a invitation to make amends with people that have been hurt, but to realize that one cannot fix others, only themselves. However, one can take care of oneself (ie: sweep your own side of the street), and be kind to others in the process. \u00a0That’s AA, as we know it.<\/p>\n

But to me “AA<\/strong>” is about A<\/strong>braham and A<\/strong>bu. Two people with two perspectives in one land.<\/p>\n

Abraham<\/strong> is a Jewish elderly man. He has been the tour guide I have used for over 30 years. I have been to Israel ten times now, and most often Abraham has led us. He loves his land. He loves his people. He weeps over it. I have witnessed this 70 year old man cry for joy as he watched little children playing in the streets of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. We wept with him.<\/p>\n

Abu<\/strong> is my new friend. He is an Arab man that lives and works in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. I seek him out every time I go to Israel, and I keep in touch with him online. He was the first person I reached out to after the October 7th Hamas attack. Some would wrongly lump him in with those brutal attacks because of his religion and political alignments. I do not. Abu is loving, kind man. He loves his land. He loves his people. He sweeps his own side of the street. He actually, literally sweeps. He keeps is store and sidewalk clean. But more than that, he speaks kindly of his Jewish neighbors. He wants to be in Palestine. Abraham wants to be in Israel.<\/p>\n

Two people. Two perspectives. One land.<\/p>\n

I know I may simplistically thinking like a 5-year old, but isn’t it possible that two people groups, holding two radically different perspectives, could coexist in one land, especially if they both sweep their own sides of the street?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read this entire book, and I still don’t fully understand the situation in the Middle East. I didn’t prior to October 7th, and I still don’t fully after October 7th. Honestly, I just don’t get it. Reading The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict\u00a0by Martin Bunton only seemed to confuse me more, and the material only covered up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[3222,2391,3224,3223],"class_list":["post-37801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-bunton","tag-conflict","tag-israeli","tag-palestinian","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37801"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37921,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37801\/revisions\/37921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}