Determined Optimism in Protracted Conflict

BY JILLIAN TIMKO

I first met Liran Braude during orientation week at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He grinned, shook my hand, and then kindly demonstrated the correct pronunciation of his name, “Lee-run,” by pumping his arms up and down as if running a race. Later, over a round of beers in Harlem with him and a few other students, I heard Liran say for the first of many times that he came to SIPA to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A former Israeli paratrooper, Liran’s commitment to this stalled and divisive conflict has taken different forms and overcome many obstacles throughout his life. But instead of giving in to disillusion and bitterness, he remains determined to make a difference.

Born in apartheid South Africa to a Jewish family, Liran moved to San Diego with his parents and two brothers at the age of 13. The summer before beginning college at UC Santa Barbara, he went on a birthright trip to Israel. While visiting Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery, some active-duty Israeli soldiers found the graves of friends and began sharing their stories with other trip participants. In this moment, Liran had an epiphany. 

“I realized my whole family has been fleeing anti-Semitism forever, and how important it was to have a country to live where we were safe as Jews, free from persecution,” said Liran during an interview. Two of his grandparents emigrated from Lithuania to South Africa to escape anti-Semitic pogroms in the former Soviet Union. Another was an Austrian Holocaust survivor, and the fourth was descended from Jews who fled Spain during the Inquisition and settled in what is now Israel at least 250 years ago. Liran cancelled his flight back to San Diego, put his college education on hold, and joined the IDF, where he served for two and a half years in the 101st Airborne Division. 

Liran said this decision was completely out of character for him, shocking his friends and family members. He described himself as conflict-averse, someone who had never wanted to fight anyone, who hated guns and was afraid of heights. “I joined to protect everyone, not harm anyone in particular. Including Palestinians,” said Liran. 

Liran’s role within his unit was the lead light machine gunner, who led from the front and was charged with providing cover fire for his unit during combat operations. “I can’t claim that everything works cleanly because it doesn’t,” Liran said. “But our guiding light is to do everything in our power to safeguard human life, including militants.” 

During his service, Liran won an award for “Most Outstanding Soldier.” He also became very disillusioned with his ability to make an impact on the conflict as a member of the military. He had hoped to change the way settlers and Palestinians interacted by being an exemplary IDF soldier and demonstrating goodwill to his surrounding community. But while he was stationed in Hebron, one of the Palestinian children who he often played soccer with tried to stab another soldier. Liran realized he was naïve. “One soldier like me was not going to change the conflict,” he said. His previously self-identified right-wing views softened, and he became “pretty miserable” by the end of his service.

He returned to UC Santa Barbara in 2010 to complete his undergraduate degree, majoring in economics and accounting and planning to leave the conflict behind for a career in business. But various events, including a controversial BDS divestment campaign at his university and the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, pulled him back. Liran described the divestment campaign as vicious, and that he had felt obligated to defend his anti-BDS position on campus. During the 2014 Gaza war, he “could not care less” about his studies. At some point, he asked himself why he was trying to work on Wall Street when his heart was clearly still focused on protecting the Jewish people.

By graduation Liran had dropped his ambition of working in finance, instead getting a job at the Anti-Defamation League in San Diego, believing that one strategy for protecting the rights of Jews was protecting the rights of all people. However, he soon came to believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was exacerbating anti-Semitism around the world, and resolving the conflict was actually the best way to protect the Jewish community. “That’s why I went to SIPA,” he said. “With the aim of resolving the conflict.” 

Nearly two years later, he remains resolute. While he is no stranger to how hostile this topic can be on university campuses, he says that the conversation in graduate school is more mature. “People have strong opinions and that’s expected. But the ability…to be able to sit down and have an ongoing relationship [with students from Palestine], and exchange ideas and have honest conversations…it’s unbelievably refreshing.”

Liran specifically referred to Farah Abu Sahliya, a Palestinian SIPA student. Farah likewise appreciates his friendship with Liran. “It’s been interesting and challenging. We disagree on so much regarding the conflict, but we’ve somehow found a way to become friends…I don’t often get to hear Israeli views and perspectives from an actual person, particularly one that is eager to hear my views on things.” The two recently got dinner to debrief on the student trips they each led over winter break to Israel and Palestine, sharing the narratives that each trip was focused on but also catching up on their personal lives.

After graduation, Liran plans to return to Tel Aviv, enroll in an intensive Arabic course, and then seek a job at an NGO or in the Israeli government. He quickly adds that he doesn’t want to seem idealistic, as if he knows he comes across that way. “I have no illusions about [the conflict]. It’s a mess. It’s a complex, multifaceted, layered situation that will take generations to untangle and resolve…But if you know you’re starting from the gutter and working your way up, there’s only one direction to go.”