Israel from the Inside: A Discussion with Chris Mitchell of CBN News -- Part One

By Craig von Buseck
CBN.com Contributing Writer

CBN.com – CRAIG VON BUSECK: When you arrived here in 2000 you probably thought things were bad enough, but with the Intifada things just totally escalated.

CHRIS MITCHELL: It changed dramatically. It was a difficult time in a war zone. It was following the Camp David Accords that did not work. So we knew it was tense but didn't realize how dramatically it would change in just a few weeks.

VON BUSECK: In your opinion, having been here and observed as a reporter, what was the cause of this most recent escalation?

MITCHELL: I think it was Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. They decided not to accept the peace accord that Ehud Barak had offered them. It was more generous than any other Israeli Prime Minister had offered them and they refused it. I feel it was a calculated effort to get what they wanted.

VON BUSECK: To try and sway world opinion?

MITCHELL: Exactly. To try and sway world opinion.

VON BUSECK: They could not have designed a deal better for them than what Barak offered them and yet they said no. In my estimation, this showed that they are not interested in peace, they are interested in annihilation. Is that a stretch to say that? I am referring to the leadership. I am not talking about the rank and file.

MITCHELL: I don't think it is a stretch because they were offered the most generous peace proposal that had ever been offered and it seems like if that did not satisfy them than they don't necessarily want peace. They want Israel. They want all of Israel not just part of it.

VON BUSECK: So, that is why it continues then. That is the answer to my next question. Why does the bombing continue on such a regular basis? Up until before the Iraq War the suicide attacks slowed down a bit, but for a long time there was just one after another.

MITCHELL: I don't think it will stop necessarily. I don't see any end to it when you have groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad who are committed to continue the jihad, the holy war against Israel forever until they have victory. So, I don't necessarily see it ending at all.

VON BUSECK: And then they are teaching their children in school, 'hate the Jews', 'they have taken our homes', 'we must drive them into the sea'. Is that a feeling that is across the board or are there pockets of "normalcy" in the Palestinian rank and file?

MITCHELL: I think that there is some normalcy, I think there certainly are people and parents who don't want their children to be indoctrinated like that. I have seen that. I have also seen Christians that are suffering within the Palestinians areas that don't necessarily agree with that kind of mindset or worldview.

VON BUSECK: I had a student who was a Palestinian from Bethlehem who came to Regent University to study and was doing quite well. But only halfway into his program had to go home. Things were so bad he had to return to help provide for his family. Can you talk a little bit about what Christians throughout the Palestinian areas are suffering? They seem to be in the worst place because on one hand they are Palestinians and they are dealing with those issues while on the other hand they are Christians and the Muslims hate them. What have you seen?

MITCHELL: What I have seen is a very complicated situation because it is hard to generalize necessarily about Christians within the Palestinian areas. There are some Christians that are quite pro-Palestinian in that they accept the political point of view of the Palestinian Authority and support them. That could be part of the traditional churches, sometimes evangelicals as well. There are other Christians who do not hold that point of view but they are reluctant to express that because if they do they will be ostracized, persecuted, or worse. Also in the Palestinian areas there are Muslim converts to Christianity that have suffered directly because of their conversion. They have been imprisoned, sometimes tortured, and they sometimes live on the run. There are a whole variety of situations facing Christians within the Palestinian areas. I would say that it is very difficult for Christians in those areas that might have a biblical point of view, that accepts Israel as God's chosen people and accepts Israel's right to the land here. But it is very difficult for them to express that.

VON BUSECK: What are your expectations as these prime ministers meet?

MITCHELL: I think after being here for two and a half years, my expectations are not that high for a political breakthrough. I would expect that there will be a "momentum" and it is almost more of a public relations effort sometimes to keep things rolling, at least to keep a perception that things are rolling. It might lead to some sort of interest, or raise expectations of a lot of people, but I am not sure if I have a lot of optimism in how successful Abu Mazen will be, or of this roadmap.

VON BUSECK: On the way over here we were delayed because only a couple of blocks away from the Prime Minister's residence, where the prime ministers are going to meet tonight, we saw several police cars with their lights shining. There was also a bus that appeared to be filled with police officers. I was watching CNN earlier today, and they were anticipating this meeting. You were saying that you drove past and there were satellite dishes up everywhere. The world is watching. It is an interesting group that has put this together. You have the United States, the Russians, the European Union, and the U.N. representatives. Three out of four of those groups have not necessarily been totally friendly to Israel. How does Israel respond to that knowing that Sharon wants to move forward with peace, obviously, but he doesn't want to compromise security? Do they say, "We must have security first and then we will talk about the roadmap?" Is that the strategy they are going to use in light of people who have presented this peace plan?

MITCHELL: Well, I think they have to work at it gingerly this time. They have to maintain the perception that they want to continue peace negotiations. But they also want to guarantee their security. I think they are trying to do as much as they can to try to negotiate within the framework of the roadmap. Supposedly, there have been comments by both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice that there would be no negotiations and much give and take about what might happen with the roadmap. For example, the Palestinians have said that they have accepted and Israel has not in total [Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has since accepted the 'Road Map']. I think that one thing that will happen following this meeting tonight with Abu Mazen and Ariel Sharon will be when Sharon goes to meet with President Bush in a couple of days. I think his hopes are that he will express to Bush what his reservations are about the roadmap [this meeting was cancelled due to a rash of suicide bombings both before and after the meeting of the two prime ministers].

VON BUSECK: What are your thoughts, from your perspective, having been here, what do you think of this plan?

MITCHELL: Well, we talked to a Jerusalem Post reporter yesterday. It could be a non-starter in many ways. I think it might have made some of the mistakes that the Oslo Peace Process did where it put artificial schedules and timelines on the negotiations where there would be a Palestinian state within three years. I think the reservations that a lot of believers have, a lot of Christians have, is that this is something that is really contrary to what the Bible says.

VON BUSECK: Handing over Judea and Samaria, the biblical Promised Land ... Pat Robertson has made quite clear his thoughts on that as well. What is your take on Saeb Erekat's resignation [former Palestinian Authority minister for negotiations -- an Arafat loyalist] right on the verge of the two prime ministers meeting? What does that mean?

MITCHELL: It might mean there is a lot of tension going on behind the scenes in the Palestinian leadership. I think that in the last several months with the appointment of Abu Mazen as Prime Minister, there has been a lot of tension between Abu Mazen and Arafat. I think that there is a lot that is not seen, reported, or known about all of the tension that is going on with the Palestinian leadership right now.

VON BUSECK: What preconceptions did you have coming into Israel that have been proved totally wrong? Things that you thought, 'this is the way it is' and things where you said 'I was misinformed."

MITCHELL: I think the biggest misconception I had was that it was cut and dried. This is the most complicated place that I have ever been to. Within society, culturally, sometimes linguistically, but certainly spiritually. It is very, very diverse. I don't know if it was a preconception, but it startled me that it was such a diverse and complicated place with so many different points of view -- points of view within points of view. For example, it is hard to look at the church, there are so many different facets of the church. Then, there are so many different facets of Israeli society, Arab society, and Palestinian society. So it is a very complicated place to be.

VON BUSECK: There is not only a huge division between the Palestinians and the Israelis, but you have schisms in the Israeli population as well. I had heard about some of the differences, but when you come here and start talking to people, and they start showing their attitudes, you see the divisions in their words, and even in their body language. For example, there are different viewpoints between the ultra orthodox, the reformed and the secular Jews. Just there are a bunch of divisions I think that most Americans may not really understand.

MITCHELL: No, I don't think they do.

[At this moment a loud noise sounding like an explosion was heard from somewhere in the city -- that next morning, seven people were killed in a suicide bombing. Within the next two days, four suicide bombings took place by terrorists trying to thwart the first meeting of the Prime Minister of Israel and the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.]

MITCHELL: Explosions are typical. It is pretty common in the last two and a half years to hear things like that.

VON BUSECK: I interviewed a young French immigrant who lives in Israel, she is a Jewish young lady, who is studying art up at Hebrew University. She was with her boyfriend in the cafeteria. He was a diplomat who had recently graduated from Hebrew University and was on his first assignment for the Diplomatic Corps. During their meal a bomb went off there in the cafeteria. He was killed, but she survived. They were sitting across the table from each other. She got hit in the back of the head with some shrapnel, and the doctor said if it was a centimeter off she would have been dead. She told us that the thing that is so difficult is that these suicide bombings have become so commonplace that people in some ways experience a numbing to the reality of it. But she said she felt as though the terrorists crossed a line in bombing the cafeteria at Hebrew University. It had been a place where Jews and Palestinians, Arabs, and foreigners all came together, and she said her feeling up to that day was that this was neutral ground. Now, she says there is no hope or any safe place. Is that what you have seen and experienced?

MITCHELL: Yeah, I think there is no place that is off limits now. Whether it is a supermarket or hospital, as you said there is a numbing effect. The bombings have been incessant and so frequent that there is a numbing effect on most people here, and it doesn't phase you as much as it used to. It is not shocking like it used to be. It just becomes part of daily life. You just realize it could happen anytime, almost anywhere. And you think about it, calculate perhaps, if you are at a particular place. You say to yourself, 'well, it is early in the morning, there are not a lot of people here. So, the risk is probably lower'

VON BUSECK: We are doing that on this tour. They have said, 'avoid late night, crowded places. Avoid where young people are crowded together in the evening.' You don't think that way in America. Maybe we should but we don't, thank God. How has your family adjusted to this reality living in this type of a place? Has it been tough or have they found pockets of comfort?

MITCHELL: They have found pockets of comfort in friends and church. They have found good relationships. It has been a difficult adjustment. I knew that when we came here that we were coming into a war zone. Little did we realize how quickly it would turn into quite a war zone. They have adjusted well and they have adjusted by avoiding certain places and perhaps being a little streetwise in where they should go and should not go.

VON BUSECK: The same would have been true if you have moved to Manhattan.

MITCHELL: (Laughs) That is true.

VON BUSECK: You could say that about any major city, but it is magnified here.

MITCHELL: There is an emotional adjustment to it as well that I think we have all had to make one way or another. It can be stressful and you don't realize it as much until you leave. Sometimes when you are staying here long, there is a tension in the area and it is not until you leave that you realize that you are sort of living in that kind of stressful situation.

VON BUSECK: When you go back to the United States do you sense yourself calming? Are you are almost on guard here?

MITCHELL: Yes, that is true.

VON BUSECK: When you were making the decision to come here, I am sure you prayed and sought God's counsel. Did you talk to all of your different family members? Did you talk to your wife? Did you talk to your kids? How did you make this decision?

MITCHELL: Well, I talked to her about it. We didn't take a vote. We felt like the Lord led us here. There were varying degrees of excitement or reluctance. But I think after we have all been here a long time, or as long as we have, I think they have all appreciated the experience. In fact, it has been a life-changing experience.

Read part two of this interview with Chris Mitchell

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