New leadership in Israel?

Israel. It's funny to me when I hear that word because two contradictory images jump into my mind. First, I remember the idiosyncratic way that my pastor would say it during sermons or songs when I was growing up. Think "Iz - rye - el."

I was young and at that point didn't have much of an understanding about Israel as a country or an historical touch point- I just knew it was in these songs. Fast forward 25 years and you get me now, and hearing Israel at this point makes me think about war and dropping bombs and politicians yelling at each other back and forth across shifting Palestinian borders.

Because now I know that for more than 60 years, Israel has been trying to reclaim its place in a country re-created out of WWII retribution, and that everything that happens or is done, from settlement-building in Palestinian territory to bombs flying one way or the other, can and will be justified.

It is a place of extremism, a place of flaring tempers, and, most visibly, a place where the bad blood goes back so far that it will never run smoothly.

Or maybe it will. Yair Lapid, a journalist and TV host, has crossed into the political realm with a message that resonated in Tel Aviv and other hubs of the Israeli middle class: Social justice and economic inequality. More importantly in the historical context, Lapid is in favor of negotiating a Palestinian state. This could build a new bridge between the present and the future. For me, that would be a third thing that Israel could mean when I hear the word- growth and peace. I hope so.

After the recent election he said:

"For 30 years this country has been about left versus right. Now we want to change things on the inside: national service, education, housing, a middle class that cannot finish the month."

Image courtesy of acroll via flickr