Daniel Lubetzky

Final high school exam grade results were released in the West Bank
today. I could not get through for hours on calls to Jawal
(Palestinian) cell phones. Every year this day lines get tied by
parents anxious to learn of their childrens’ results.

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This is usually the case in Gaza also. With Hamas having seized
totalitarian control of Gaza, Hamas refused to allow the educational
national committee to manage the grading process – and instead
instituted its own. This was quickly rejected by the PA. So all
children in Gaza are now in educational limbo.

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If there is no progress towards a two-state  solution, the next wave of violence will be an INTRAfadah within the West  Bank.

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 Intrafadah: a violent uprising like the first and second intifadah, only this time instead of Palestinians fighting the Israelis, the fighting will be within Palestinian factions, as it was in Gaza, pitying Fatah vs. Hamas, and as it can be in the West Bank, if there is no progress towards peace AND parallel progress to build Palestinian political institutions and to ferret out gangs and militias.

The Chinese character for Crisis is made up of two symbols: danger, and opportunity.

This insight is by now known all-too-well in the Western world.

What is less known is that most Chinese people have never thought of this beautiful relationship.  For them “crisis” is “crisis.”  And if you push them to explain what that word consists of, and whether they have ever realized of the connection of the components within the word, most will be thinking about that connection for the first time!

The same often happens in our daily lives and cultures and languages.  We are too close to exceptional wisdom which surrounds us.  We don’t question assumptions, we take things for granted, and we assume all facts as they are provided to us – particularly when they are printed or broadcast via media. 

Humanity would be so much better off if we humans were more critically aware and curious, and fight the herd instinct.