Leah >>> Morocco

I'll be spending the fall studying migration in Rabat. Should be interesting.

[leahinmaroc]

Sahara camp at night

[leahinmaroc]

Chefchaouen

[leahinmaroc]

Camels at dawn

[leahinmaroc]

Southern Morocco

[leahinmaroc]

sunset over the Dades

[leahinmaroc]

Old madrassa in Fes

[leahinmaroc]

Riding camels in the desert.  (Sorry for the long absence!)

[leahinmaroc]

Looking at a mosque from an alley in Fes.

[pragmaticmiddleeast-blog]

Israel was a country founded by socialists. David Ben-Gurion’s center-left Mapai Party dominated Israeli politics for its first thirty years. After ceding power to Likud for twenty years, the Labor Party under Yitzchak Rabin made a comeback, signing the Oslo Accords in 1993, which set an...

[leahinmaroc]

This article is from several months ago, but I think it's good background for what's happening now.  The more I read about what's going on, the more I disapprove of Israeli politics.

You know that feeling you get when someone you've known and trusted for a while betrays you?  That pit in your stomach?  That's what I'm getting.

While I'll defend the rational, peace-loving members of my fellow Jewish community, I'm done with defending the radical, right-wing, racist members who live in America and Israel.  They'll have to answer for themselves.

[therockinmoroccan]

for all my maghrebi friends :)

[leahinmaroc]

so true

[leahinmaroc]

Street in the old medina of Fes

[leahinmaroc]

typical, beautiful Moroccan tile work in Fes

[leahinmaroc]

more Fes rooftops

[leahinmaroc]

The tanneries of Fes

[leahinmaroc]

I love the contrast of textures, of materials.  Fes.

[orshorishim]

Something I have learned from war: Disappointment. Tragedy can bring out the best in people, but all too often it’s in spite of the worst in people. Hamas asked for a cease fire around 6pm to go into effect at midnight. Less than a couple hours after 6pm they killed another Israeli civilian as...

[leahinmaroc]

Above all, let there be peace.

My friend is teaching English in Israel.  He's been documenting what's been happening in his small town, where there reside both Jews and Arabs, coexisting peacefully.

The last week has been hard for me in determining how I feel about the conflict.  On one hand, as a Jew, I believe that the state of Israel should exist and that it has the right to defend itself.  On the other, I can't possibly condone its actions.  What Israel's military has done is reprehensible.

What I think we need to keep in mind is that the common Israeli is not a commander of the IDF, nor is the common Palestinian a terrorist.  There is common ground between us.  Most people, regardless of nationality or religion, cannot support this senseless killing.

It's sad to me that so much bloodshed has happened in the past week (and, in general, throughout history) due to religion.  Muslims and Jews even worship the same god: we just have different names for him and express ourselves through different rituals and traditions.

This fighting is not only terrible, it's immature.  What can we expect until we learn to grow up?

[leahinmaroc]

Fes rooftops