What's going on here?

When I prepare for a trip, I try to strike a balance as I'm doing my research. On the one hand, I want to have an understanding of the history, the geography and the politics. On the other hand, I want to travel light, and not tote a bunch of preconceptions or expectations.

"Do not seek the truth," some Zen guy said. "Give up having opinions."

Good advice, but if I claimed that I was venturing forth without opinions, that would be wrong. I'd like to get some of them out now and see if they hold up.

1. Poor Jews!

Pogroms, Holocausts, and now people want to drive them into the sea. Oy ve! None of this is made up. Few of us don't have some memory of it in our own families. (See Coming to America.) Every suicide bombing plucks this guitar string. Every Jew says "never again." I, too.

But if Jews are SuperVictim, they are SuperSurvivor as well. They are the "chosen people," the ones who made a covenant with God. To me this is nonsense, and it's hard not to see it as arrogant, as well. And yet...

It's 3000 years since King David built Jerusalem. The gods of Egypt are in the London Museum. The temples of Greece, in the museum. Stonehenge is an archaeological site. In this context, the persistance and influence of Jewish traditions and beliefs is impressive. One can almost see how a believeing Jew who survives to this day could be Messianic, could think he survived for a purpose, and that purpose may be at hand.

2. Poor Palestinians

I'm no Bible scholar...stop me if I say something wrong.

When God promised Canaan to Abraham, there were already people living there.

When Moses led the Jews out of captivity in Egypt to the promised land, there were already people living there. Joshua sacked Jericho, etc.

When Theodor Herzl and other 19th Century Zionists dreamed of an end to exile and a Jewish state in Palestine, there were already people living there.

And after World War II, when the remnants of a once large European Jewish population, traumatized and seeking refuge, came at last to the Israel of their dreams, there were already people living there. These people have serious grievances related to their original displacement as well as their abysmal treatment in the occupied West Bank since 1967.

3. Mutual Gains Bargaining

When I read the Friedman passage about rights versus interests, I was reminded of something I experienced when I was working for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Back around 1995, a couple of years after a costly strike, the Union got the Department to agree to a program they called Mutual Gains Bargaining.

The idea was that the Union picked some people and Management picked some people. They got training from a team of UCLA professors specializing in labor relations. They did some role playing. They learned some principles.

Then a bunch of labor-management committees were formed from the different business units and they would meet together to identify and resolve issues based on the principles of mutual gains bargaining - basically identifying issues and negotiating workable compromises.

I was fortunate to participate in this process, so I could see first hand how it worked. Which, usually, was pretty well, and I think both the DWP and the workforce have been enjoying the fruits of the process.

4. But meanwhile...

One of those things you might hear from and not know if it was a Jew talking about Arabs or an Arab talking about Jews: "You can't negotiate with baby-killers."

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