Bucks
Allyson Mitchell Part II
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Last week, I introduced you to Allyson Mitchell, a Palisades resident who is becoming an expert on the Middle East. She graduated from Moravian College in 2008 and has made several trips to Jordan.
Allyson doesn’t see a solution to peace in the Middle East. “But I’d like to help,” she told me.
During her senior year, Allyson was an intern at the U.S. State Department working in the Bureau of Middle East Affairs, Arab Media Unit. She was an Arabic liaison for Middle East periodicals like Al Jazeera, the English version of the Arabic-language news network. Allyson believes that the Middle East is not shown fairly in the U.S. media.
Allyson analyzed U.S. foreign aid to the Middle East. Israel ranks first, Jordan second, and Egypt third. While at “State,” she held a secret level designation. Allyson enjoyed her work, “But maybe not for a career,” she said.
“With America’s media, you get the outcome but not the reasons why,” she continued. Allyson was referring to the strife in Gaza, which borders Israel. Starvation and health problems have made life terrible for the Palestinians, she began. But Israel has blocked the border so no relief is possible. Palestinians can’t find work in neighboring Israel because the border is closed. Why? Israel closed the border because Palestinian fanatics fire rockets into Israel. And the cycle continues.
“I dislike hard core Zionists and Muslim extremists,” Allyson said. “That’s the reason why there’s been an impasse between Israel and the Arab world for 60 years. Most of the people on both sides want peace,” she added. “Without those two [Zionists and Muslim extremists], there’d be peace. The only viable solution is two countries, Israel and Palestine.
“If you’re a Christian or a Muslim, it’s difficult to live under a Jewish state [Israel],” Allyson opined. “That holds true with any theocracy. It would be similar for Jews living in a Muslim religious country.”
Allyson attended the University of Jordan for six months. It has 50,000 students. She learned that 60 percent of the Jordanian population is Palestinian; only 40 percent is Jordanian. “That’s because people fled from Iraq and Iran,” she explained. “Jordan hasn’t had a census in a long time because it would show that Jordanians are the minority,” she told me. “People identify themselves as Palestinian.”
Like her maternal grandparents, Allyson is very athletic. Joyce (Gerhart) and Kenneth Fly were star athletes at Quakertown during my high school days. It was no surprise that Allyson was an excellent soccer player for Palisades during her high school years. In Jordan, Allyson was a member of the Olympic Club Team. “We had a good team but nine year old boys were at our [skill] level,” she observed. “Jordanian boys are better players than American boys at the same age.”
She added that armed guards were present during an international women’s tournament, which she played.
While in Jordan, Allyson traveled to neighboring Syria. Damascus, its capital, is only two hours distant. Lebanon is very close as well. I asked her whether she visited Israel? “No,” she quickly replied.
“Israel will have to be a separate trip,” Allyson responded. “No Arabic country will allow me entrance if I have an Israeli stamp on my passport.”
She told me about her trip to Yemen, which borders on Saudi Arabia. “My plans were to be in Yemen for six months but the difference in the culture was so great that I couldn’t take it for more than a month,” Allyson explained. “Yemen is very tribal. The poor people are very friendly…the rich are not.
“In Yemen, it’s very different,” Allyson continued. “You seldom see women on the street. The few that you do see are covered from head to toe. But mostly, you don’t see women at all.”
I was fascinated by her story about a flat tire in Yemen. “I had my second flat tire in 24 hours,” Allyson began. “My spare [tire] was flat and I was stuck in the countryside. Two men in a big SUV pulled up. I couldn’t speak their language and they couldn’t speak English. So we used hand signals to communicate. They couldn’t have been more helpful. They drove me [and the flat tire] to a local mechanic who repaired it. They fed me and took me back to my car and installed the wheel.”
I wonder how many of us American men would stop to rescue a damsel in distress these days?
I told Allyson about Mighty Betsy and my trip to Egypt several months ago. We swapped stories about Cairo. “I did not wear revealing clothing but felt uncomfortable in the city,” she said. “There was a lot of “cat calling.” Her living expenses in Cairo were very different from ours. “One night in the youth hostel cost only $7 bucks,” she said.
As my interview with Allyson was winding down, I thought of one last question. She’s not afraid of adventure and clearly enjoys the Middle East, especially Jordan.
Could you marry a Jordanian some day, I wondered?
“I could see myself as a Jordanian wife but it would be harder for a Jordanian man to live with me,” Allyson laughed. “I’m so independent,” she quipped. “I don’t take “no” for an answer if I think that I’m right.”
Allyson Mitchell is only 22. “I’d like to think that I’ve accomplished a lot in 22 years,” she concluded. “Hopefully, there’s a lot more to come.”
I have no doubt about that.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith