There is no doubt that the de Toledo community is overwhelmingly pro-Israel. I’d consider it a challenge to find anyone here at school who maintains a staunch anti-Israel position. Anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian sentiments are often confused with anti-Semitism, and for many, it is inconceivable that the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea could be shared by both Israelis and Palestinians.

This is not a surprising bias. As Jews, we naturally support the idea of our “side” winning complete control of what is now Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank (aka Occupied Territory or Judea and Samaria). Because of the institutional indivisibility of Judaism and the State of Israel, anti-Israel rhetoric is often accused of being anti-Semitic before speakers can fully articulate their argument.

Our community would benefit from perspective. We don’t need people to tell us which side is right, because, as in most conflicts, neither side is truly right. For each claim that the Zionists make to the land, the Palestinians have at least one opposing claim that is equally considerable.

Perspective, however, will allow us to understand both sides, and from there we should be able to make our decision. Coming from a place of great scepticism, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of perspective offered by the Roots talk last Tuesday night.

Rabbi Hanan Shlesinger is an Orthodox Jewish settler in the West Bank. He was born in New York, but soon realized for himself that the story of the Jewish people was comparable to a movie still in production, and he felt the need to move to Israel, specifically to take part in this metaphorical movie. He settled close to the Palestinian village of Beit Ummar, yet had not had a conversation with a Palestinian until a few years ago. As soon as he did, however, his perspective changed.

He began to understand their views on the issues, that the reason Palestinians are afraid of Israelis is because the Israelis carry guns, but the reason the Israelis carry guns is because they themselves are afraid of the Palestinians. Both struggles become valid with perspective.

Antwan Saca is on the other side of the aisle. He is a Palestinian native who grew up in an apolitical family that mandated that the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts would be resolved by the politicians; individuals didn’t need to worry about politics. Eventually he came to understand that he could make a difference, and he definitely made a difference last Tuesday.

One statement Rabbi Shlesinger said stuck in my head. He claimed that the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean is as much Palestine as it is Israel, and as much Israel as it is Palestine. I’ve never heard this statement before in my life, and coming from an Orthodox Rabbi who made Aliyah to live in what he calls Judea and Samaria, it blew me away. And, despite his Zionist background, he is fully committed to peace. He calls himself neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine, but pro-peace. In my mind, if everyone were pro-peace, talks like the one Rabbi Shlesinger gave would work to solve the conflict instead of hateful speech and murders.

Yet I cannot say that, while I agree with Rabbi Shlesinger, his verdict is the objectively “right,” or correct, one, but it is justifiable. In his life journey, he reached his verdict in such a way that he can fully promote and defend it, and if we were all to take the same care that he did in forming opinions, perhaps we would start to see more eye-to-eye.