By chance, one week before Shmuel spent a Shabbat at his sister’s, I spent a Shabbat at a West Bank settlement as well. While he had the excuse of his nephew’s post wedding Shabbat, I had no such excuse, only a desire to see an old friend from 40 or so years ago and a desire to see him on his home turf. I found the experience quite confusing, besides the usual: friends of old who have kept the faith with Torah, with large families, looking forward to retirement, the presence in a settlement nowhere near the lines of 67 added an element of unusual confusion.
Although as has been noted the two state solution is nowhere near, that is still my hope and thus my friend’s home, would have to be evacuated like the Gaza settlements. I imagined receiving a call in the middle of the night (Friday night) from the IDF, telling me to help evacuate the family of my host from their home, to ease the process of evacuation.
In fact my only mention of politics was at the lunch table, “Do you think Israel will ever annex the West bank?” and my friend said, “Not today and not tomorrow.” Although the heat was intense my friend and his wife took me on a tour of the settlement and from the fringes we could see the surrounding hills, mostly empty. My friend’s wife said, “See. There’s plenty of room here for everybody.” I didn’t argue. If everyone would get the vote and full rights, she is right. It’s not a lack of room that’s the problem(although there is a lack of water, it seems.) but the lack of a political agreement.
As a rule I try to minimize my participation in prayer services because they tend to send my compass’s needle twirling instead of pointing towards true north. But Shabbat afternoon I participated, but when I reached the paragraph that prays for peace, I found the contradiction between my vision for peace and the fact of the settlement a bit too glaring.
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