BULLDOZED VINEYARD
Yesterday the Israeli government sent in bulldozers to destroy a 20-acre vineyard near where I’m staying in Israel. You might wonder why. Fair question.
Despite the Holocaust and years of wandering without a homeland, Israelis still bear the brunt of a world fundamentally anti-Israel. The government here walks a tightrope every day between trying to survive as a country, protect the Jews who live here, and placate the world.
Generally when Arabs kill Jews, the Israeli government uses the brief positive sympathy to okay something for the Israelis. Jewish blood purchases a step forward. So recently 9 Jews were killed and the government green lighted some more Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria—in areas expressly carved out for settlement by the Oslo Accords.
The anti-semitic world press sees this as encroachment and so to placate Anthony Blinken et. al., the government balances almost any pro-Israel project with an offsetting anti-Israel project. In this case, a farmer’s vineyard was the tit for tat.
This way the government can publicize that it destroyed a Jewish something, which makes the world happy, while it gingerly advances Israeli interests quietly behind the scenes. Unfortunately, here as everywhere in the techno-sophisticated world, the farmer gets no respect and takes the brunt of this political dance.
Farmers don’t own their land. The government grants them permission to farm and if it doesn’t suit government interests, the farmer loses. Just like in America, the farmer receives scant honor from the powers that be.
I did my first public presentation last evening half an hour south of the Sea of Galilee. A handful of folks did not speak English so a wonderful interpreter gathered them together on one side of the room and interpreted simultaneously. I love interpreters—the whole idea of being able to switch languages in real time simply amazes me.
Working with an interpreter like this, though, does bring up some amazing cultural nuances. The big one last night was when I talked about having a larder or pantry of food supply as part of a home security protocol, Hebrew has no word for larder or pantry. Nobody stocks food in their house. They go to the grocery daily so literally do not have an equivalent word for a home stash of food.
The closest was cupboard, but that doesn’t really connote the English idea. To get stumped on such a foundational food concept was truly intriguing. I don’t know if this indicates a great faith in God’s provision or if it’s a result of always being on the run or if it’s a left over from daily Manna in the wilderness wanderings or perhaps a cavalier view toward food security. But the concept of keeping a well-provisioned home was a brand new idea to folks in the audience; I was intrigued but they warmed up to the concept. Maybe they’ll reconfigure their kitchens and add a pantry.
Isn’t it interesting how building a secure local food system starts with such basic concepts? It isn’t rocket science. Provisioning your home, planning into the future—at least a few weeks—and buying in bulk are mainstays of creating functional regional food security. Here, like elsewhere, people tend to want things to be different without participating in the needed changes. I’m encouraging participation, at all levels, because ultimately that’s the path to freedom.
If we want flourishing farmers, we need to patronize them directly, ask how we can help them, and lift them up from their political policy bottom-feeder status.
How is the best way to elevate farmers’ status in society?