Consider my head cleared.

Well, this just pisses me the hell off.

American-Israeli Michael Oren, author and — oh yes — Israel’s ambassador to the United States has just told the world that I am “fooling around with the lives of seven million people” in pursuing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is opposed by the current Israeli government. Moreover, he made this scurrilous accusation when speaking at the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, of which I am a member.

Or, in other words: The man walked into my house and accused me of not caring if my fellow Israelis die. And walked out.

I am truly having a hard time marshaling my thoughts here without resorting to language as vulgar as the accusation.

Did the man call me out by name? No, of course not. He cares not a whit about who I am or what I think (if he did, he might not have said what he said). No, Oren made his indefensible, heinous allegation not about me personally, but about J Street — an organization which I support, in both word and deed, and which would not exist were it not for the will of a hundreds of thousands (quite possibly millions) of American and/or Israeli Jews such as myself.

In America, Jews who support J Street reflect the opinion of fully two-thirds of American Jewry — because that’s the percentage of Jewish Americans who believe that a two-state solution is what’s best for Israel and that, moreover, the American government should pressure both Israel and the Palestinians to achieve it. They are — we are — not marginal, nor are we cavalier about the lives of anyone.

On the contrary, those of us who actively support a two-state resolution to this bloody, decades-long conflict have taken a good hard look at the constant, consistent, endless failure of Israel’s military to actually resolve, rather than manage and perpetuate, the conflict and have come to the conclusion that love of Israel demands a vigorous search for peace. That if we care for Israeli lives, if we want no more Israeli toddlers, babies, soldiers, mothers, grandfathers to die horrible, useless, pointless deaths — then we absolutely must commit ourselves to peace.

I recently blogged about the roughly 2,000 people, Israelis and Palestinians, who have died since Israel first refused to negotiate the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit (the release of whom Israel is now negotiating), but if we were to go back and count up all of the Israelis who have died since Israel launched its occupation of the Palestinian territories?

Well, quite honestly, the spirit fails. I can’t bring myself to do that on this last day of Hanukkah. But suffice it to say that if there had been a peace agreement, most of those people would have died very differently indeed.

Here’s the exact quote:

[J Street is] a unique problem in that it not only opposes one policy of one Israeli government, it opposes all policies of all Israeli governments. It’s significantly out of the mainstream.This is not a matter of settlements here [or] there. We understand there are differences of opinion. But when it comes to the survival of the Jewish state, there should be no differences of opinion. You are fooling around with the lives of 7 million people. This is no joke.

Needless to say, the assertion that J Street “opposes all policies of all Israeli governments” is so absurd as to be laughable (“all” policies? Really? J Street has a problem, with, say, kibbutz subsidies? Not to mention: Remember Yitzhak Rabin, Mr. Oren? Remember the policies of his government — policies for which an Israeli Jew killed him?), but never mind that. It’s clear that the man was fuming, and he lost the plot for a second.

The plot being to impugn me and mine, and to accuse me of a callous disregard for the very lives that I have spent the better part of a quarter of a century fighting to protect and improve.

I am J Street, Mr. Oren, and you owe me one hell of an apology.

**********************

Earlier:

Israel/Palestine: the basics.

Israel/Palestine peace advocacy – places to start.

Israel/Palestine – a reading list.

/knocks on side of head/ Nope! I got nuthin’!

I have been struggling all day to come up with something to write. I feel I owe it to the folks who come by here, daily or occasionally, as well as to myself, because after all: I have set myself up as a provider of the Daily Blogging!

But I can’t for the life of me think of anything I want to write about.

I think this is a combination of many factors, including (but not limited to): my earlier recorded angst/desire to deal well with said angst; my long-held hesitation to deal critically with Israel/Palestine during Jewish holidays (talk about your buzz kill!); and my sheer exhaustion over the troubles that face these United States/the world community/the planet. So… yeah. I may need to move on to puppehs and cute shoes.

I will try for something tomorrow, but in the meantime, I’ll point you to a handful of other people’s work that strikes me as worthwhile:

1. Rabbi Brant Rosen on the fact that an alarming number of Jerusalemites are being kicked out of their homes for the crime of not being Jewish.
2. Matt Yglesias on the nature of politics and why better-than-nothing is actually better than nothing.
3. One of my favorite xkcd comics in the history of EVAR!

If you guys out there, in your teeming millions, have any thoughts about what you’d like to see on this blog — or any other thoughts on what is clearly a case of writer’s block, because I mean, please: Look at yesterday’s post! — please feel free to leave your ideas, suggestions, rambling notions, etc in the comments!

How many dead, to arrive back at square one?

On Sunday, the State Prosecutor’s Office declared that Israel would release 980 prisoners in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Shalit. HaAretz, December 1, 2009

So, Israel has nearly completed its negotiations for the release of Staff Sergeant Gilad Shalit.

Shalit was captured, while on duty, in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants on June 25, 2006, one day after Israel kidnapped two suspected members of Hamas from their Gaza home. It may be recalled that immediately after Shalit was taken, his captors demanded that 1,000 Palestinian prisoners be freed in exchange for his release, and the Israeli government announced unequivocally that it would hold “no negotiations over the release of prisoners.”

And so.

I have compiled a short, and certainly incomplete, timeline outlining the things Israel has done since June 25, 2006 in retaliation for the capture of its soldier, in retaliation for subsequent Hamas retaliations to Israeli attacks, and/or in the name of bringing Shalit home without negotiation:

1. June 28, 2006 - Israel launches an assault on Gaza, dubbed “Operation Summer Rains” and said to be aimed at freeing Shalit. Great damage is done to Gaza’s infrastructure in the first days, including the destruction of several bridges and the Strip’s single power plant, leaving much of Gaza without electricity or running water.
2. June 28, 2006 – Israeli jets fly a sortie over the home of Syrian President Bashir Assad, an act of saber-rattling directed at the government Israel accuses of being one of the main sponsors of Palestinian militant organizations. The IDF simultaneously “[raises] its alert level on the northern border, mainly for fear that Hizbullah or other groups will attempt to take advantage of the situation and cause an escalation.”
3. June 29, 2006 – The IDF kidnaps 64 Palestinian legislators and officials from inside Gaza, including eight government ministers.
4. October 10, 2006 – The UN reports that a total of 256 Palestinians have been killed since June 28, of whom 60 are children. 848 have been injured. Some 355 acres of agricultural land have been destroyed, and 3,000 commercial fishermen have lost their incomes because the Israeli navy will not allow them access to fishing grounds off the Gaza coast. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed and 31 Israelis injured. In response to the operation, Hamas has fired 465 Qassam rockets into Israel.
5. November 1, 2006 – Israel launches “Operation Autumn Clouds,” focusing its attack on the Beit Hanoun neighborhood which frequently serves as a base for rocket fire into Israel. Over the course of eight days, the UN reports that at least 82 Palestinians are killed and 260 injured, and HaAretz concludes that “the IDF wreaked havoc and terror in Beit Hanoun and left behind hundreds of wounded, as well as destroyed houses, uprooted orchards and a water system that was brought to a standstill. But despite all this, the declared aim of the operation was not achieved and the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel continues.”
   
6. November 14, 2006 – The UN expresses its “shock at the horror of Israeli targeting and killing of Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun while they were asleep and other civilians fleeing earlier Israeli bombardment.”
7. February 27, 2007 – Israel launches Operation Warm Winter; between Feb 27 and March 4, Israeli forces kill 120 Palestinians, including 34 children, and 269 Palestinians are wounded. In the course of hostilities, 224 rockets and 49 mortars are fired into Israel; one Israeli is killed and 14 injured.
   
8. December 27, 2008 – Israel launches Operation Cast Lead, now more commonly known as the Gaza War. In the first day, at least 225 Palestinians are killed and 700 wounded; B’tselem reports that in the course of the war, which lasts until January 18, 2009, Israeli forces killed 1,387 Palestinians, of whom 773 did not take part in the hostilities and 119 were under the age of 11. Three Israeli civilians were killed by Qassam rocket fire, six Israeli soldiers were killed in combat, and four were killed in a friendly fire incident. In July, the United Nations Development Program reported that it would likely take the Palestinians a year to clear the half a million tons of rubble created by Israeli bombardment and bulldozing in the course of the war. It’s widely presumed (and suggested by official Israeli statements) that the continued captivity of Gilad Shalit is at least one of the reasons for the launch of the war.

*****

On the day that Gilad Shalit was captured (and — lest we forget — Lt. Hanan Barak and Staff-Sgt. Pavel Slutzker were killed), I wept along with most of Israel. I cannot state this firmly enough: This young man must be brought home, and the loss of his fellow soldiers is a terrible, terrible thing. The rockets that fall on Israel’s south, and the resulting death and destruction, are a horror.

But I cannot believe that Gilad Shalit is more important to me, or Israel, than the roughly 7,000 Palestinians currently held by Israel are to their families and their society. I cannot believe that the deaths of Barak, Slutzker, or the 22 Israelis killed in Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks since 2004, are any more excruciating to us, than the 1,845 deaths that I have documented here (which represent only those killed in the events listed above, not the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the same time period) are to the Palestinians.

And those 1,845 deaths — as well as the 19 Israeli deaths listed above, not to mention the 1,256 days that Shalit himself has been away from home and in captivity — are all directly related to the Israeli decision not to negotiate the exchange of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Shalit’s return.

The very deal that sits on the negotiation table, near final agreement, today.

There are days when the facts — simple, spare, devoid of analysis — speak for themselves. And break the heart.

**********************

Earlier:

Israel/Palestine: the basics.

Israel/Palestine peace advocacy – places to start.

Israel/Palestine – a reading list.

1. leaving much of the Strip without electricity or running water.
2. June 29, 2006 – Israeli troops seize 64 Palestinian legislators and officials — including eight government ministers, telling Reuters that the detainees were not intended as “bargaining chips for the return of the soldier…. It was simply an operation against a terrorist organization.”

The new need – part deux.

Thanksgiving behind us, we are now officially in Buy This For Your Loved Ones season. The catalogs and newspaper circulars are fat and frequent, as all of American capitalism throws its weight behind convincing us that THISTHISTHIS! is  just the thing we need to purchase in order to effectively demonstrate our affection.

I love gifts — both giving and receiving them. I don’t even mind capitalism as much as a good liberal probably should. But this year, I am particularly struck by the disconnect between the incessant drum beat to buy more stuff — and the fact that so many of us can no longer afford what we actually need.

If ever there were a time to direct our funds to supporting not corporations but people, I believe this holiday season might be it. Climate change is progressing even faster than expected; thousands of military families grieve the loss of their dead (or struggle to adjust to the injuries with which their soldiers have returned home); one in four American children lives on food stamps. And honestly, though it certainly feels like this year is particularly bad, the human experience is always one of struggle and need — and, as the song says, we get to carry each other.

So, following you’ll find a short list of organizations that I personally like, to which you might consider directing some cash if you have it to spare, or think that maybe Aunt Bertha would appreciate the gift of charity as much as she might a new scarf. Needless to say, this is but a tiny handful of the worthy organizations and community efforts out there — just find something that’s meaningful to you, and give what you can. That warm glow really is the universe giving back to you….

But first of all! If you want to vet a charity, you can go to the Combined Federal Campaign at the US Office of Personnel Management, the Better Business Bureau, Charity Navigator, and/or Guidestar to get trustworthy information about how the charity in question functions.

And now, my personal list:

1. Heifer International: “Heifer International is a non-profit organization whose goal is to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance & sustainability” — on the theory that if you give a family a fish, they eat for a day, but if you provide them with a clutch of chicks….
2. Mercy Corps: “Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities”– and they are often among the very first responders to any tragedy around the world. We sent them money during Israel’s assault on Gaza this past winter.
3. The Heartland Alliance: “Heartland Alliance helps people living in poverty or danger improve their lives and realize their human rights.  Through our diverse programs, we serve people in the toughest of circumstances and that are the hardest to reach, including survivors of violence, torture, and war and people living in extreme hardship or poverty.”
4. To show support for American troops and their families, Iraq and Afghanistan Vets of America (the founder and executive director of which, Paul Rieckhoff, is often a guest on Rachel Maddow’s show) would be happy to hear from you. The Department of Defense also has links to several organizations.
5. Sierra Club: “Since 1892, the Sierra Club has been working to protect communities, wild places, and the planet itself. We are the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States” (and my girl just gave herself a homework assignment to help the polar bears, and collected $30 to send them!).
6. Israel/Palestine peace advocacy: This list is a good place to start…
7. … or if you want to combine your love for Mother Earth with your love for peace in the Middle East, go check out Friends of the Earth – Middle East.
8. Hunger assistance: Feeding America — or, of course, your local food bank. (Don’t forget that $5 is a lot more useful to them than a few cans of food — they can always buy far more with your money than you can!)

Ok, it’s a start! Also, I always like the idea of giving presents that also serve to support communities in need — shopping at Ten Thousand Villages, for instance.

If you have any ideas you’d like to share, please feel free to do so in the comments.

We get to carry each other. Happy December!

Idle.

I am rather lazy. Really.

When I share this information with people who love me, though, they poo-poo it. They see how busy I am, how involved I am with family and friends, and they protest. No! They say. It isn’t so!

But, in the spirit of either a word means a thing or it doesn’t, I must counter-protest: It actually is very much so.

If the definition of lazy is “resistant to work or exertion; disposed to idleness” (and it is), then we have hit the nail squarely on the head re: me. Given half a chance, my default mode is idleness (well: book reading. Or hanging out. I’m great at hanging out!), and virtually every one of my exertions is a result of my superego being just a squosh bigger than my id. Because my id would really rather not, thankyouverymuch.

And so we come to poetry. (Really!)

One might easily expect an egghead such as myself — one who loves language and words and the very letters that form the two so much that she collects the letter A — to be into poetry. Like, really into poetry! And I’m not. Why? Because I’m lazy.

Poetry requires involvement and engagement and real application of the heart and mind, and dude — I just want to be idle. So I am, at best, a very poor word geek indeed. I like Auden, I like Dickinson (no relation!), I like bits and bobs of this and that. But more often than not, I just don’t bother.

See? Lazy.

But I’m making an exception here (excuse me for a moment, I have to exert myself), because some things are worth it.

Like this particular poem, translated from Hebrew and brought to my attention by my rabbi and friend, Brant Rosen, from the new book With an Iron Pen: Twenty-five Years of Hebrew Protest Poetry:

Then We Didn’t Yet Know

Then we didn’t yet know
That the Occupation would be forever.
Even when it would be forcibly extracted like a tooth
and tossed behind electric fences
and magnetic crossings
while cement and petrol magnates
traveled from Ramallah to Gaza -
even then it would be remembered longingly -
how young it was, the Occupation,
composed only of Arab women bent over tomatoes
in Jewish fields, men with nylon bags
waiting for work at Ashkelon junction,
jumping into grey service Peugots,
and the Secret Service men who lived three to a villa in Afridar
actually changing their license plates to army license plates before
going off to work, so they wouldn’t be identified.
It was young. In the restaurants they peeled vegetables into large tins, then
fried them, built on scaffolds. There were many organizations.
And they were young:
volunteers with Chinese weapons, poets,
but the Occupation didn’t recognize them,
because it was busy arguing in the classroom whether to return territories or not
and Ofer P., whose father was wounded in the battle of Jenin,
and had shrapnel stuck in his back
said, “In any case, there’ll be another war.”
That’s what his father taught him.
That’s how young the Occupation was,
and look at it now.

Dahlia Falah (translated by Rachel Tzvia Back)

And if that’s not enough, there’s this piece*, performed by poet, educator, and NPR commentator Kevin Coval, an artist whose words have slayed me and flayed me on more than one occasion. Listen, please, because it’s the truth:

I may be lazy — but some words will quicken the dead.

**********************

* I should have noted: This poem is “Hero Israel,” from Kevin’s book Slingshots (A Hip-Hop Poetica).

So… the “Israel” lobby?

Writing in HaAretz today, Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeffer presents a scathing appraisal of the Diaspora’s Israel lobby. Though he focuses on Great Britain (where he was born, and lived until he was 8), Pfeffer also takes on the lobby in the US, speaking truth to arrogant, self-righteous power across the globe:

… the real problem with today’s Israel lobby, in Britain and the United States, is not with its finances and their lack of transparency but with its entire mind-set. The basic fact is that by its actions, the lobby is now causing Israel more harm than good…. On every level — moral, political, diplomatic, economic, military and religious — this country is being rapidly corrupted and damaged by the continuing occupation of the West Bank. By granting blanket support to all policies of whatever Israeli government happens to be in power, and by branding critics of these policies as either self-hating Jews or anti-Semites, they’re contributing to Israel’s siege mentality and delaying the day when Israelis will finally realize that there’s only one practical and ethical alternative. [emphasis mine]

He goes on:

We are at a pivotal point. The rise of the right in Israel’s last election does not signal that the voters are opposed to territorial compromise and a two-state solution. On the contrary, polls consistently show a clear majority of Israelis favoring this outcome…. In effect, Israelis voted for Benjamin Netanyahu hoping that he’d go against his party’s manifesto. All the signs point to a prime minister on the brink of a decision. He could take the plunge or he could retreat back into his ideological and political comfort zone. International pressure will play a major role in persuading him to make a necessary decision, but the message emanating from the Israel lobby is that should he decide to hold out and play for time, he will continue to receive their unreserved support. Such support could prolong Israel’s procrastination – with deadly consequences.

Other than the fact that I believe Pfeffer gives Netanyahu more credit than he deserves (I don’t see Bibi on any brink, I see him clinging to the Likud’s long-held rejectionist platform. But reasonable people may disagree reasonably), this is pretty much, to the letter, what I have been saying about the Israel lobby for years, and I believe it pretty much lies at the heart of the establishment of J Street, as well. A real love of Israel means helping it to achieve what it actually needs — not blindly driving it further down the path to ruination.

If history ultimately records the rise and fall of the modern Jewish State as yet another Jewish disaster, the folks at AIPAC — and apparently their British counterparts — will hold a healthy share of the blame. The road to hell is paved, as they say, with good intentions.

Particularly when those intentions come vacuum-packed in an almost pathological unwillingness to grapple honestly with reality.

“Those children deserve to have someone ask why they died.”

I am trying to Be Responsible. Last week’s illnesses, the weekend’s wedding, and my own turn down Feeling-Like-Crap Lane earlier this week have all combined to create a circumstance in which I OWE PEOPLE A LOT OF WORK!! Ahem. Which I am trying to complete. So, I haven’t even taken the time that I took last week to say “Aaah! No time! Here’s something cool!”

But.

I saw a post by MJ Rosenberg yesterday (at Talking Points Memo’s TPMCafe), and had to say something.

Though Rosenberg often writes some of the sanest stuff on the web about Israel/Palestine, with this post, he wrote nothing, instead simply putting up two minutes of tape from the House floor (re-posted below).

In the video, Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) tells Congress, in no uncertain terms, that: Yes, Israeli children deserve to not live in fear of Hamas rockets — but Palestinian children have a right to not be killed by the Israeli military. He speaks in front of a poster-sized photograph of Palestinian toddlers laid out on a blanket, looking for all the world to be asleep — if not for the wailing of a man on his knees beside them.

Unlike most of our elected officials, Rep. Baird has actually been to Gaza and Sderot (the Israeli town where more Hamas rockets have fallen). He has seen with his own eyes the facts with which both sides have to live, and he has taken an inspiring lead in calling for changes in American policy. You can read about his trip, watch videos of him interviewing people living in the region, and read his thoughts about the Goldstone Report (and the Congressional response to it) on his website. [Though, note: As of this writing, the link to his op/ed about H.Res. 867, the anti-Goldstone resolution, leads to a statement about health care. You'll find the op/ed here.]

If you live in Washington state, or know someone who does, pleaseplease, write to Rep. Baird to thank him for taking such a principled stand. If you don’t, but want to thank him anyway, you unfortunately can’t send an email from the website, and I wouldn’t recommend sending anything to his DC office (security measures mean that snailmail into Congress moves at an almost literal snail pace, taking upwards of two to three weeks to arrive…!), but, you could fax the DC office [(202) 225-3478] or send a note to his Vancouver office:

Rep. Brian Baird

O.O. Howard House
750 Anderson Street, Suite B
Vancouver, WA 98661

As always, if you’re an American Jew, mention it. Something along the lines of:

Dear Rep. Baird,

I am not one of your constituents, but I am an American Jew who believes very firmly in the need for a just resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and I just wanted to thank you for the comments you recently made on the House floor regarding the Goldstone Report and the situation in Gaza. I was horrified to learn that Congress passed House Resolution 867 — turning our eyes away from ugly truths will not make them any less true, and it’s time that the Jewish people and the American political class understand the truth of Gaza.

Thank you again and all the best,

NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE

All righty then, here’s his statement. And God bless him for it:

**********************

Earlier:

Israel/Palestine: the basics.

Israel/Palestine peace advocacy – places to start.

Israel/Palestine – a reading list.

Oh, for the love of Moses!

It has been brought to my attention that the Goldstone Report has near god-like (Satan-like?) power. Behold: It made a man shoot people in a synagogue, just yesterday!

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday expressed “deep concern” over a shooting at a Los Angeles synagogue earlier in the day in which two people were wounded…. Likud [Member of Knesset] Danny Danon, meanwhile, said the attack was the result of a damning United Nations report on Israel’s winter offensive against Hamas in Gaza, compiled by South African jurist Richard Goldstone.  “The criminal attack in Los Angeles is a clear result of the Goldstone report,”he said. “Countries across the world need to reject the report, which brings with it hatred and anti-Semitism, and harms the peace process.” – HaAretz

Because, you know, no one ever picked up a gun and decided to give violent expression to an unhinged mind, before Goldstone. Certainly no one ever targeted Jews!

About seven years ago, I had the privilege of participating in a University of Chicago panel discussion with the late, great Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf (z”l); Peter Novick, author of the excellent The Holocaust in American Life; and Ali Abunimah, of The Electronic Intifada. Before us was, essentially, one question: Is criticism of Israel anti-Semitic, by definition?

My short answer: Don’t be daft.

My longer answer, as adapted from the talk I gave at the panel, appeared a week or so later in the Chicago Tribune, and you’ll find it, below. Because, bottom line, my thoughts on the matter haven’t changed in seven years — and clearly, neither have Israel’s, given its response to Goldstone. (In my head, just now, I ended that sentence with the words “poor man” — and I mean: Really! That poor man! Sigh.)

BUT, before I go on to the Tribune op/ed, I want also to mention that the US House of Representatives has apparently lost its damn mind — or, 114 of the Representatives have, at any rate — and is passing around House Resolution 867, which calls on President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to

oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of the “Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict” [the Goldstone Report]in multilateral fora.

So, a) to follow up on yesterday, Hamas now looks more reasonable than these 114 US Representatives. And b) if your Congressmember appears on this list, please let them know how much you disagree with the resolution! If his or her name does not appear, please let them know how much you hope it never will! And please spread the word to other people who might be interested in having their voices heard. For a very good take on why the resolution is so wrong-headed, please read this statement by Americans for Peace Now.

And now, to our main attraction:

On anti-semitism and criticism of Israel

By Emily L. Hauser. Emily L. Hauser lives in Oak Park

December 9, 2002

Does anti-Semitism exist? Of course. There have always been people who object to the peculiar religion of the Jews. People who believe that we are by nature power-hungry, evil.

Sadly, in the face of this, the fear of anti-Semitism has become one of the Jewish people’s few unifiers. We long ago stopped agreeing on how to worship God, educate our children, or treat women. About the only positions over which most Jews are near agreement are: 1) the Holocaust proved that Jews are never entirely safe, and 2) Israel is Good. For those who might waver in the latter, the former is referenced as corroborating evidence. Ethnic anxiety (to paraphrase Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic) has become virtually our only proof of authenticity.

Yet, does this mean, can it possibly mean, that any criticism of any Jew is, by definition, anti-Semitic? The term assumes baseless hatred, and allows us to summarily reject anything it touches. But if I do wrong, and someone points it out, isn’t the wrong still mine, even (and this is very important) if that someone hates me?

We take the easy way out when we conflate criticism of Israel’s government with anti-Semitism. If all criticism of Israel comes from a place of baseless hatred (or, in the case of Jews who express it themselves, typical self-loathing) then we needn’t consider it, hold it to the light and examine its contents. The accusation of anti-Semitism thus consistently serves to paralyze thought within the Jewish community, as McCarthyism once did within American society.

Much as I can’t believe that as a loyal American, I’m not allowed to criticize the American government, I also can’t believe that as a loyal Israeli, I mustn’t criticize, or brook criticism of, the Israeli government. Being in a state of war doesn’t make governments incapable of error, nor does war itself justify every action a government takes. When we elevate Israeli politicians and generals to the kind of infallibility that assumes that criticism can only be made with evil intent, we remove them from history, reality, the very normalcy to which Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion is said to have aspired.

To say that Israel is held to a higher standard than most is equally ahistorical. Humanity has never been anything but inconsistent in judging friends and foes — Israel has been held to standards higher than some, and lower than others. The question should not be: Are we being treated fairly? Are we allowed to be as bad as the next guy? But: How do we do good? How do we behave with fairness?

Having said that, I will agree that some of Israel’s critics are flat-out, flaming anti-Semites. But the bigger truth is that some of the people who criticize us from a place of hatred aren’t anti-Semitic — they just plain hate us.

It’s very popular, in Israel and the diaspora, to discuss anti-Semitism in Palestinian schools. The enduring appeal of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is frequently cited. Following the suicide bombing at Hebrew University, many Jews pointed out that most of the Jews killed there weren’t Israeli — the target was Jews, qua Jews, they said.

And yet. Isn’t there a difference between, say, an American blaming “the Jews” for the world’s ills, and a Palestinian — told over and over that Israel is a Jewish state, for all Jews, everywhere, eternally — who blames “the Jews” for the ills his countrymen suffer? Is it baseless hatred — or hatred based in 35 years of my boot on his neck? Why do we want to believe that the Palestinians wouldn’t notice how badly we’ve treated them if no one were to point it out? Do we honestly believe they hate us so much for our peculiar religion that they would rather die, than see us live?

It’s true that this hatred, the kind found in every conflict ever launched between peoples, often takes on classically anti-Semitic expression among Arabs generally. It’s further true that if any Arabs hope to achieve reconciliation with Israel, they will have to learn to respect our sensitivities, recognize them as legitimate (2,000 years of persecution don’t just go away) and find a new vocabulary. To draw any comparison, for instance, between Israel and Nazi Germany is ghastly and repellent — and it frees us to reject anything else the speaker may say.

In all honesty, though, personally, I don’t care if the critics of Israeli policies are anti-Semitic. I don’t care if the Europeans, Americans, or Palestinians like me — at this point, I’d be surprised if the Palestinians did. As an Israeli, what must matter to me is the morality of my country’s actions, regardless of personal feelings of pique. We need to examine our history fearlessly, and find a way to right the many wrongs we have committed. Rather than hide behind our fears, I want to have the strength to do the right thing.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune

**********************

Earlier:

Israel/Palestine: the basics.

Israel/Palestine peace advocacy – places to start.

Israel/Palestine – a reading list.

You know you’re in trouble when.

Here’s how to know you’re in trouble: When Hamas sounds more reasonable than you do.

I am no fan of Hamas. I have a number of reasons for my lack of affection, not least the fact that on more than one occasion, one of their bombers could very easily have killed me. Then there’s the fact that the organization was founded out of a desire to rid the world of my home (let’s be frank), a goal premised in an ideology based in the sort of religious fanaticism that I find deeply disturbing no matter who’s expressing it (or what the religion).

But when faced with the fact that the United Nation’s Fact Finding Mission on the Conflict in Gaza (aka: the Goldstone Report) called on Hamas to investigate their behavior in last winter’s war, Khaled Meshal, Hamas’s political leader, said the other day that “if the report or any other side has any reservations on Hamas’ actions, we are ready to explain them and we will form an honest and neutral investigative committee in Gaza to give Goldstone and its committee and the international community the facts.”

Huh. Compare this to the response of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu: “The Goldstone report is a kangaroo court against Israel, whose consequences harm the struggle of democratic countries against terror.”

Setting aside my own opinion on the war and Israel’s behavior in it — indeed, setting aside my own opinions of the occupation — there is a very basic question to be asked. Is it possible that, in the course of a massive incursion into someone else’s territory, your army and its soldiers behaved as something less than angels? Even setting aside the question of intent — isn’t it just possible that Israel did something wrong?

I would wager that Meshal is a smart guy, and can see exactly the impression Israel is making on the world stage right now. Having been told by Justice Richard Goldstone, a highly respected member of the international legal community (and a lifelong Zionist, to boot), that the Israel Defense Forces did some pretty unethical stuff in the course of the war, Israel has doubled-down, dug in its heels, and pouted. Having conceded that some sort of inquiry might be necessary — to make the world shut up already — Netanyahu has promised the military that no officers or soldiers will be called on to testify.

The entire country looks more like a thwarted child than a responsible member of the international community. Meshal has very little to lose by saying “Hey, look, we’ll look into it” — and he probably knows that he has a whole lot to gain.

But here’s the deal: Like them or not, Hamas is Israel’s enemy — by which I mean, they are the people with whom we have to deal if we want this 60+ year war to end. We don’t get to pick our enemies, and I would venture that for the most part, nobody much likes their enemies. I’m pretty clear on the fact that they don’t like us, for instance.

But now, with one interview, the feared head of a fairly repulsive organization has come out looking calm, reasonable, and responsible, while Bibi and his bunch look, at best, like Eddie Murphy in Raw.

My fear — my deeply-based-in-reality fear — is that the United States, the world’s sole remaining super power and the only force on earth that could possibly sway Israel toward responsible, moral behavior, will let them get away with it.

Even if the report eventually gets to the Security Council, there is little chance it will take any action, primarily because of objections by the United States, Israel’s closest ally which has veto power and has said the report is biased and should not be taken up by the UN’s most powerful body. – HaAretz

I’m just sayin’ — if Hamas looks more reasonable than you? You’re in trouble.

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Earlier:

Israel/Palestine: the basics.

Israel/Palestine peace advocacy – places to start.

Israel/Palestine – a reading list.

J Street update.

I said yesterday that I would like people to be open to surprises when discussing Israel/Palestine — and then I was, myself, surprised!

I don’t know how I missed this, but J Street got a hell of a letter on Wednesday from Tzipi Livni, former Israeli Foreign Minister and head of the Israeli opposition. Livni is a woman who has made quite a journey in the course of her life and political career, born to parents who were uncompromising Revisionists and served in the far-right Irgun, raised to believe firmly in the ideology of Greater Israel, and for years a staunch member of the the Likud party.

When she joined Kadima, it was quite a shift — when she endorsed a two-state solution, it was kind of stunning. Here’s some of what she wrote to Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, after Israeli ambassador Michael Oren snubbed the organization in advance of this weekend’s conference:

I would like to congratulate you on your inaugural national conference. I believe most American Jews support Israel and want to see it thrive as a Jewish and democratic state. Like you, I believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by realizing the vision of two nation states, living side by side in peace and security, is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole.

In my view, the discussion within the pro-Israel community of what best advances Israel’s cause should be inclusive and broad enough to encompass a variety of views, provided it is conducted in a respectful and legitimate manner. Along the way, we may not agree on everything but I do believe that we must ensure that what unites us as Jews who are committed to Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, and democratic State is far greater than what separates us.

(You can see the whole thing here).

Yay for surprises!