Journey to Jerusalem
By Casey Meserve
Kingston Mariner
When Robert Kraus made plans in May to visit Israel with his family as part of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston's mission to Israel, the Plymouth lawyer had no expectations that the country would be in the middle of a war when they arrived.
But when the airplane carrying the Kraus family and 17 other mission members landed in Tel Aviv on July 30, they entered a country fighting a new type of war - one with an extremist state within a state, Hezbollah.
The first rockets were fired on July 12, so the 20 members of the JCRC of Greater Boston's mission knew what they were getting into, but the fighting didn't stop them.
"A lot of us had trepidation about going (when the fighting started). Not one person backed out of the mission," said Kraus, a former Massachusetts State Representative and a resident of Kingston.
The cross-cultural mission took Kraus, his wife Ann Hummel and their 13-year-old son William, into nearly every part of the country, with the exception of northern Israel. "Some members of the mission went to Haifa (in northern Israel) but Haifa is a very short distance from Lebanon, but the JCRC didn't think if was safe to go."
Most of the contingent declined to go to a place where Israeli citizens were sitting in bomb shelters, but a few did visit Haifa. Nancy Kaufman, the executive director of the JCRC of Greater Boston, traveled to Boston's sister city. "It was very sobering," said Kaufman. "I came back with mixed feelings about Israel's neighboring countries," she said.
She said the conflict with Hezbollah was very different from the ongoing issues with the Palestinian state. 'This is a terrorist organization that is bombing civilians, there's no other way to describe it," she said.
Kaufman and the rest of her small group viewed bombed buildings and shelters where thousands of Israelis waited out the rocket attacks.
Everywhere the group went, the streets were deserted and many of the shops were closed. "We were probably the only tourists in the country during the war," Kraus said.
The group went to all the tourist destinations - the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built on the spot where Jesus is believed to have been crucified and buried, in Jerusalem, to Tel Aviv, and the Dead Sea.
"Everywhere we went we were greeted with such warmth," said Kofi Jones, another member of the mission.
However, the object of the trip was not to check out the beaches and the tourist destinations, it was to gain a better understanding of the Israeli way of life and the problems that every Israeli faces.
"Israel really is a piece of the Western world set in the Middle East," said Kraus. The small country, the size of New Jersey, must deal with unfriendly neighboring countries and organizations that would like to see Israel cease to exist. "There are some neighbors of Israel that would like nothing more than push Israel into the sea," said Kraus.
The Israeli settlements in the West Bank were an eye-opener for Kraus. "We all think of these settlements in the West Bank as approaching on someone else's territory...as these small settlements with a few buildings and that's it, but this settlement has a population of 35,000 people. It has hospitals and schools; it's a vital community. "
He said what worries many Israelis is that this settlement and others are less than 10 miles from areas with terrorist activities. "A Katyusha rocket could easily reach these settlements."
The mission spoke with numerous Israeli politicians, retired generals and Palestinian representatives. "We saw the good, but we also saw the bad. We saw what Israel was really like," said Kraus.
For the Kraus family, the mission, and most Jews, Israel is about having the right to exist.
"It's about having a home for the Jews...There have been excavations that show Jewish settlements 3,000 years ago, this is homeland for the Jewish people."
The group heard from the other side of the story, meeting with Palestinian representatives. "I understand why Palestinians want a homeland and why Israelis want a homeland. Let's figure out a way to co-exist," Kraus said. "I know that Islam is a beautiful and peaceful religion, but it's what people do with it that creates (problems)."
The group's mission was to experience all Israel had to offer, good and bad. What they came home with was a sense of solidarity with the Israeli people. "No matter what religion you are, and I'm not Jewish, Israel is a very special place," said Kofi Jones. "The air is different, the ground is different than the ground here."
"This war is not about oil, it's not about winning, it's about Israel's right to exist, "Kraus said." If you believe that, as I do, then all the pieces fall into place. I came back firmly a Zionist, and I think everyone who went on the mission did too."
The mission of solidarity was accomplished.
