The Holy Land and... Some More Changes

Evacuations are not as bad as they might seem. Not sure how many of you have had the chance, but I would strongly recommend traveling to a soon to be unstable country, purchase some Frontier MEDEX insurance and just wait. Insurance has always been one of those things that I know I need to have, but it kills me that I pay for it and never use it. I finally got my chance. Take that insurance company. They paid for my flight to a "safe haven" - Jerusalem -  and then one more flight - either home or elsewhere. I chose Greece. No biggie. I just spent the past week in Athens and Crete with Solomon Braun, Anna Rubin and Andrea Ucar. Boom. (Whattup BOOM playlist!! You know who you are... Add songs please!)

Solomon at his finest

Paid vacations are awesome

First class slippers or Toms?

The past week in Greece has been beautiful and relaxing and I highly recommend a visit, but I want to focus more on my time in Jerusalem. I mentioned in my last post that I was staying with my aunt and uncle in Jerusalem, seeing friends, playing basketball... all that continued. It was great. Except for my elbow... I really have been feeling so old.
I love Jerusalem. I don't know why exactly and sometimes I feel like I have to pretend to downplay my affinity for the city. I just don't feel like I have any great reasons. Granted, my experiences in Jerusalem have always been uniquely different from any other place in which I have spent time. I am not working. I am not in school. I am on vacation, living in a house stocked with food. I go and come and do as I please. Who wouldn't enjoy that? That being said, I really do love it and I think it transcends being my ultimate vacation. Walking (gavigiating?) the streets, bumping into old friends and Shabbat dinners with family that are comprised solely of salatim... every day really just feels like such a pleasure. And now that the shuk has a bunch of chill bars where you can grab a beer (or a coffee in my case)... what else could I be looking for? Even my thirst for Arabic is quenched.

Every time I am here I try to get together with some friends from Seeds of Peace. It just so happens that most of the people with whom I stayed in touch are Arab-Israeli and from a city up near Kfar Saba called Taybeh. I have made the trip up a few times to see them, but now most of them are at Hebrew University so my life has gotten much easier. I rarely leave Jerusalem when I am in Israel.

This time around I got the chance to go around the Old City with a good friend of mine, Saeed, and his friend (forgot his name... but a very nice guy). Though I have been studying Arabic for a while, this was the first time I really felt comfortable busting it out with him. It felt so good. Comfortably transitioning between Hebrew, English and Arabic, I felt this tremendous sense of accomplishment. Though my interest in Arabic in recent years has been more in the realm of Islamic law, it really began with my Seeds of Peace experience and wanting to connect and listen.... to the other.  A cliche I have grown found of in many application essays. But in all seriousness, hanging out with Saeed and *friend* that night and a couple of other experiences these past few weeks really has encouraged me to think about what type of work I could see myself doing in the region. I might give SoS Kerry a call. Or apparently Ambassador Kurtzer? Rumors about him helping lead the upcoming round of peace talks... How cool would that be??
What else? Oh, right. A few days ago CASA informed us that given the current security conditions in Egypt, CASA was being suspended for the year in Egypt. They presented us with three options. First, defer the fellowship until next year and automatically be readmitted for the 2014-2015 year. Not even on the table for me. Second, return to Cairo for the year through a program that they will call CASIC. Basically all that CASA has to offer except for the name (I know, CASA has a real ring to it) and that the funding would no longer be through the DOE, but rather AUC. Though tempting, two huge downsides. A) All fellows would have to live in the Zamalek dorms. As riveting as that was my last week in Cairo, I couldn't do that long term. B) You should turn on the news. A lot of very scary and violent rhetoric is being thrown around by both sides, yet when talking to many Egyptian friends (and even teachers!) it doesn't seem to phase them. "It is necessary," they say, or "We are tired of all the noise. It is enough already" (one of my teachers actually said that to me). Meanwhile check this to get a sense of what is going on. Mind you, it's pretty gruesome. As great as Cairo was last month and inshallah will be in the near future, I think it is the wrong choice.

So that leaves me with the third option. I will be studying Arabic for the remainder of the year (starting in September) in... drumroll... Amman, Jordan (I was debating an exclamation mark there, but I realize that might be a little premature since I have no idea what life is really like in Amman). I hear it is a little sleepy, not a ton of night life, so my weekly routine of all nighters to which I have gotten accustomed in Cairo might be coming to an end. Short-lived, but definitely whetted my tongue for some more. Oh yeah.   #Reunions2014

The program will be run through Qasid, an Arabic institute in Amman that I have heard is wonderful and demanding. I have a couple of friends who have been there so I am hoping to get some pointers of how to capitalize on this new start. Beginning a new dialect will be somewhat frustrating, but will open up new doors and opportunities... (something like that). Also, I need to start looking for an apartment, but more importantly, I am going to need a new blog title... Suggestions are welcome. Gavigating the Streets of Amman is lame.

Last two things about Arabic more generally. I learned the word for kal va khomer this week which was freakin awesome ما بالك ب or ناهيك عن. Not a perfect translation, but it works and I loved learning it. Second, I am not sure if I should be embarrassed to share this or not, but I learned a new word in English through Arabic. To calumniate - يشنّع (yushanna3) means to make false statements about (someone) (I am willing to bet that Ben is sitting there, hands crossed, feet up, thinking - obviously I know that). I feel like learning English through Arabic marks a certain stage in my Arabic journey.

Off to Nice for a few days to crash with my mom's college roommate and then Spain for a couple weeks with my family. Summer is shaping up to be just alright. 

My Exodus/Umrah

CASA's spring break this year happens to fall out the week of Passover so, planning on jumping the border to Israel, I had been telling people that I was going to be doing a true Yetziat Mitzrayim, Exodus from Egypt in the spring. Turns out my opportunity arrived slightly earlier than anticipated.

There is a concept in Islam called the Hajj, which, as many might know, is the pilgrimage to Mecca and considered to be one of the five pillars of Islam. Though the Hajj has a prescribed time, 8th - 12th Dhu al-Hijrah (whaddup lunar calendar), one can still travel to Mecca and complete many of the Hajj traditions at any point during the year. This is called Umrah. So basically, I'm calling my early departure from Egypt to Jerusalem, my umrah. I had a lot of fun thinking of these past few days in those terms. I hope you did too. But I doubt it.

I was notified that I would be evacuated to Tel Aviv on Thursday Night. Friday morning, I was on a plane via Amman. When we first got on the bus to the airport, I was a little disappointed. I was being evacuated! I wanted something to happen that would require a lot of exclamation marks when retelling the story. Weaving in and out of protests hoping we wouldn't miss the last plane. Or helicopter... that would have worked nicely. Even as the situation in Egypt was deteriorating, living in Zamalek for the week left me feeling oddly removed from the political upheaval. So I was hoping that in leaving my bubble, I would get a glimpse of "real life." And I did, ish.

Definitely wasn't there last week

Only a few minutes into the drive we saw a fleet of tanks (never thought I would be able to say "fleet of tanks" in context) stationed on the side of the road blocking traffic to a bridge nearby. Twenty minutes later we saw a stream of people making there way to/from Friday prayers on their way to a pro-Morsi rally that was taking place at Cairo University. It was predominantly middle-aged bearded men. Not a single woman. I took some video of the march, but I decided it probably wasn't the best idea. So I stopped and rolled up the window. I took some more video, but I am trying to keep my parent's blood pressure down these days.

I promise there were at least 20 more

We reached the airport safely and quickly said our goodbyes, not knowing when CASA would be reunited. Five days? Two months? Ever??? I was (am?) optimistic. I boarded a flight to Amman and from there to Tel Aviv. I did meet an interesting Israeli woman at the airport in Amman who I ended up talking to for a while. She was a vegan anarchist from Tel Aviv preaching the merits of veganism and anarchism. Shocker. She was very nice, but I couldn't stop thinking about how many different worlds I had traveled through recently. My dad captured it well in a recent email: "Princeton graduation in the afternoon. Flight to Cairo through Germany several hours later. A month settling in to your life in Cairo. Disrupted by massive protests, regime change.  Evacuation. Jordan. Israel." And a vegan anarchist. 

I was just informed that CASA has been cancelled through the summer. Though disappointing, let's be real, not surprising. They hope to restart September 1st. Though optimistic, that is a long ways away. Time will tell.

In the meanwhile, I am in Jerusalem with friends and family. Shabbat in Jerusalem, Dead Sea on Sunday, Yam L'Yam next week and basketball with friends every evening. Back to speaking Hebrew which has come flowing back to me after only a few awkward encounters in which I slip into Arabic. I am actually meeting up with a friend from Seeds of Peace later this week who will take me around the Muslim Quarter and give me a sense of Ramadan in Jerusalem. Should be cool. 

Dead Sea is awesome

Fish and Chips at the Shuk

The insurance company should contact me in the next day or two about the next step. I am pretty sure I get either a flight home or to another country. The plan is to go travel a bit in Europe until I meet up with my parents and brother August 1 in Spain. Solomon Braun and I are in negotiations about traveling together. Amsterdam? Berlin? I am taking suggestions. SERIOUSLY. All things considered, things could be worse.

In truth, life is good. 

The Day After

After hours of waiting for the army to announce it's plan, we now know what Egypt's future holds. So it's all over. The people have won. The army and the Egyptian people are one. 4lyfe.

That is the impression you might get from walking around Zamalek last night. Minutes after General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced the suspension of the Egyptian constitution and called for early elections, Zamalek erupted. I was out getting a bite to eat when General Sisi got up to speak. People out on the streets stormed through the doors and hovered around the TV to hear the decision. I was getting excited.

Sisi Laying Down the Law

The second he announced the suspension of the constitution, people erupted. Hugs, kisses, hi-fives. A woman standing next to me, wearing a hijab, started crying. I was tempted to throw in a little fist pump to fit in with the crowd around me, but I held back.

After reveling in their excitement for a few minutes, I left the restaurant only to be met by a parade of people walking down the main street in Zamalek. Not gonna lie, I saw a guy with a pistol. He was shooting off rounds into the sky, celebrating Egypt's... victory. Needless to stay, I quickly made my way back to the dorm where I could enjoy my celebrations in front of the TV. Where I belong.

I've been asking my Egyptian friends about the role of the army in the past days, the series of arrests that has placed over 300 Brotherhood members in prison and just... Democracy, in general. I pretty much get the same answer from everyone. The people wanted the army to step in. The army is the people. In truth, I get it. It really did feel like the army's role over the past few days was very much as a tool of the people. To ensure safety and prevent bloodshed. But arresting the entire Brotherhood leadership... where does that fit in? Preventing bloodshed maybe? Ehh, not buying it. That balance between army as protector and army as political enforcer is kind of scary.

Unfortunately, many of my conversations have been cut short because... In light of the recent events and fear of retaliations from Morsi supporters over the next few days, CASA has been asked to evacuate. Temporarily Inshallah, but still. They say they will reevaluate in 5 days.

So where to?

Tel Aviv. Things could be worse.

You choose

A Long Wait

At this point, all I can do is wait. The army's 48 hour ultimatum has come to a close. Apparently, at the invitation of the army, religious and political leaders are in talks right now and should have some sort of statement concerning a map for Egypt's future. They should be announcing it soon. Or so they said an hour and a half ago.

The Freedom and Justice Party (the official party of the Muslim Brotherhood) refused to take part in the talks. Morsi has not addressed the public since last night. In all honesty, it is probably better for him. He really dug himself quite a hole.

Morsi gave a 45 min speech last night in which he used the word "shar'iah," (الشرعية) legitimacy, 56 times. I know you all thought it was like Islamic law Shari'ah (الشريعة) and got really excited. Me too. But alas, he meant the legitimacy of his presidency (note the placement of the apostrophe), demanding that the opposition respect his legitimacy as the first democratically elected president of Egypt and work within the confines of the Egyptian constitution. Compelling, right?

But that's not new. He has been saying the same thing since day 1. It really felt like he was unaware of the millions of people out there chanting "Down with Morsi!"(I actually have no idea if it was millions. That's what Egyptians are telling me, so I will play along). There was nothing that signaled a willingness to compromise or reconsider the positions he staked out almost a month ago. I wanna give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but it's hard to see what he was expecting from that speech.

Still didn't take this picture

But what was more disturbing, was the violent rhetoric he used. At one point he said that if the cost of defending the legitimacy of his presidency was blood, then he was willing to pay that price. That his blood is a cheap price to pay for the sake of Egypt. What do you respond to that? His supporters are picking up on that rhetoric and saying they are willing to defend Morsi's legitimacy at any cost. Oy.

Morsi getting pisssssed

Egyptian's were mocking his speech. They say he and the Brotherhood are done. The army is going to show them who is boss. Yet in spite of this optimism, there is still an uneasy feeling in the air. "What's next?" I ask. "We'll see...," they say. One guy even suggested that Gamal Mubarak, Husni Mubarak's son was gonna emerge a hero and run for president. He said the people of Egypt would back him. I doubt it, but to me it points more to how lost people are. Confused.

A lot of people saying "rabbina yustur" May God protect us. No one is quite sure what the next move is.

So I wait.

Safely and indoors. Duh.

And... I might be on Al-Jazeera tonight. Stay tuned.