Out of Humous: Going north

Everyone told me that the north of Argentina would be different. When I arrived in Salta I realized it myself.

The vast majority of the inhabitants are not of European descent, street markets replace supermarkets, the siesta is longer and the overall economic level lower.

Since most of the effective tourist hours are dedicated to the sacred duty of siesta, I mostly walked the streets and spent long hours talking to interesting people in the hostel. We cooked large international meals and celebrated them with multi-lingual toasts.

We took a day trip to a nearby park. We got to a viewpoint over the valley in which the city lies and all fell asleep in the sun.

I spent a night in Jujuy in a hostel with a Muslim delegation from South Africa. Nobody made new friends. The next day I went on to Tilcara, a dusty yet rather touristy village in the arid Argentinean north.

I got there with an Australian woman who sold everything she owned and now travels the continent to look for a place to open her own hostel. Looking for a place to sleep, we followed a tip to what turned out to be a peaceful paradise overlooking the green valley and the colorful dry mountains.

I took two tours around Tilcara, one by myself and one with a group, and while at it touched one Jewish Point and one Israeli point. The Jewish point I discussed with Sophia, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust and raised their children in England free of any religious affiliation. I suggested that though her identity was a matter of personal choice, she, like many other Jews throughout the world, may maintain her identity even free of religious beliefs and symbolism, if only she wished to do so.

The tour to the colored mountains and the caves was guided, since it went through unmarked trail. At 2500 meters above sea level breathing is not as effective as it used to be down below. The tour guide, a member of the local community, entered the mountains conducting a short ceremony in which he requested the permission and blessing of the respective gods.

I made conversation with a Basque girl. As we went up she answered my questions about the Basque, their language and their history. On the way down it was my turn to answer questions: Israel, the Middle East, the conflict and the peace process.

Having many conversations of the sort, mostly with Europeans, I often ask myself if I, too, make opinions based on information partial as the information I might have produced had I had to write the Uranus advanced fact book at this instant.

Facts can be useful tool while presenting the Israeli perspective, assuming that the other party is interested. I often suggest that I would appoint my friend to serve as the prime minister of Israel for a year and then he would be able to implement his own suggestions, which might be something like:

Disarm while your sworn enemies committed themselves to your destruction;

Lift your defenses, thus preferring the convenience of your neighbors over the lives of your citizens;

Commit yourself to the security of the other party while he is not committed to yours.

Having years of experience as a lawyer, and having argued successfully less plausible cases, generating good will in favor of Israel and its cause is not always easy and requires a great deal of patience and openness to the concerns and ideals of your counterpart. Listening carefully, many are just frustrated about the way things are.

This, I suspect, might be a reason why you might hear weird arguments like "you have killed more," which calls for a reminder that we are discussing the peace process rather than a killing competition.

Trained in the western way of thinking, people would like to believe that the assumption of rationality is universally effective. This, sadly, is not the case. Some of the involved parties have wills, values and interests that are contradictory to what western philosophy would consider the common good. This is sometimes hard to accept. It always reminds me a radio interview I once heard with a high-profile attorney. When asked how long he thinks it would have taken to solve the Middle East conflict, had the parties issued irrevocable power of attorney to their lawyers, he immediately responded: about fifteen minutes.