I’m still in Israel for the second half of my two-week visit, at the moment sitting at the desktop computer of my cousin Gila, at Kibbutz Kabri in the Western Galilee, overlooking Naharia and the Meditteranean. There’s much to think and write about from my intensive first week on Tiyul with the Partners for Progressive Israel “Israel Seminar” program hosted by the Meretz party. We’ve met with a wide range of activists, analysts and officials–from Likud ministers Benny Begin & Moshe Ya’alon and the head of the Yesha [settlers] Council on the right to Meretz head Zahava Gal-on, other Meretz leaders and MK Dov Hanin (a Communist of the Hadash party) on the left, and the Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad and numerous other Palestinians and Israelis in between.
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| Group photo, most wearing “My heart is on the left” Meretz T-shirts;Shani is front & center. |
The Seminar participants were an impressive bunch, including: five academics (two historians, one philosopher, a journalist and an astronomer), an internationally celebrated singer & actor (our board chair, Theodore Bikel), a very impressive graduate student in international relations, plus an idealistic recent college grad who aspires to be a journalist.
Shani Chabansky, 22, blogged daily at her personal weblog, which I hereby link you to. She refers to us by our former name of Meretz USA and writes with youthful exuberance, with an intensely ideological lens, while presenting a useful running report on our activities. I’m going to take some time to digest what we’ve experienced and will write more either later this week or next.
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