Some of you may have followed Israeli news this week as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was indicted with charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He’s the first sitting Prime Minister of Israel to be indicted while in office, and it’s a particularly difficult time for Israel to go through this process. Amidst total political disarray and no real government to speak of, this isn’t exactly what Israel needs right now. It would be much easier to put up a facade, to not charge Bibi, to continue only focusing on forming a government. But in indicting the Prime Minister, Israel has made a bold statement about being transparent and holding its leadership to the same standard as any other citizen. Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said, “It is my duty to the citizens of Israel to ensure that they live in a country where no one is above the law and that suspicions of corruption are thoroughly investigated.” Israel has made it clear that morality in its leadership is crucial because it protects those who live in the country and has their welfare in mind. Israel has now told the world that even if it doesn’t look good to indict your Prime Minister, working in the people’s best interest is more important.
Another news story came out this week about Arab leaders who oppose boycotts of Israel and the BDS movement. This group of liberal Arab leaders from across the Middle East has declared that despite the intention of putting pressure on Israel, boycotts only hurt more people, particularly the Palestinians it claims to support. The goal of this small group, called the Arab Council for Regional Integration, is to engage with Israel to put infrastructures in place to help the lives of Palestinians. While they aren’t representative of broad Arab opinion, they are trying to look at the lives of individuals affected by boycotts. They state that these practices aren’t actually taking care of the people they are supposed to be helping, the people for whom they say they are advocating. It’s simply not improving lives.
In both of these stories, I’m realizing the importance of digging deep into an issue, of not acting from a place of what seems right on the surface, but realizing what’s actually valuable for the lives of people. Israel is a complicated and beautiful place, and of course these two issues are very different. But they both teach us that in situations that are complicated, there’s no easy surface level answer. It requires looking at the lives of real people, their lived experience, and asking hard questions. The answers to those questions come from a place not of impulse, and not of appearance, but from understanding people.
Israel is still a young country and she’s still figuring out her way, both internally and in her image to the world. And her neighbors are still figuring out their way and how they relate to Israel. As they make their way, may Israel and her neighbors continue looking at the lives of people they seek to protect. And may we learn from them to look at the people around us, work to understand their lives and their truth, and treat them with the integrity that we witness as these two stories unfolded this week.
