The Jewish
People, Zionism,
and the Question of Justice
Mark Braverman, Ph.D.
Qumsiyeh
When I was a boy in the 1950s attending Hebrew School in Philadelphia, we would
receive little cardboard folders with slots for dimes distributed by the Jewish
National Fund. On the cover was a picture of a tree being planted by handsome,
tanned people in shorts. When the card was full, you sent it in and in return
received a certificate with your name on and a bigger picture of a tree, which
was the tree you had planted in Israel. It was fun and it was a thrill I was
reclaiming the homeland. I saw pictures of kibbutzim and orange groves filling
the valleys and dreamt of going there someday.
Four decades later, now a middle-aged man, I saw pictures of Israeli bulldozers
uprooting three hundred year-old olive trees and Jewish soldiers restraining
Arab villagers crying hysterically over the destruction of their groves. I
traveled to the West Bank Israeli occupied Palestine and saw the hillsides
denuded of trees to build concrete Jewish settlement cities. I saw Arab houses
leveled and gardens taken to make way for a 30 foot-high concrete wall cutting
through Palestinian cities and village fields. I saw that this was wrong. I
didn't buy the story that this was for defense. I could see that it was a lie.
When I returned to the United States and began to talk about my horror, sadness
and deep concern over what I had seen, I was told by many of my fellow Jews that
I must not talk like this. I was informed that this makes me an enemy of the
Jewish people and that I was opening the way for the next Holocaust. I was told
by many Jews that I was disloyal to my people, that I had "gone over" to the
"Palestinian side." One Jewish rabbinical student informed his colleagues that I
was obviously a convert to Christianity "masquerading" as a Jew in order to
cause the destruction of the Jewish people. I have spoken about my experiences
before many groups, almost all of them in churches. I have yet to speak in a
synagogue. I am trying hard to make sense out of this and to figure out a way
forward. Here is what I have figured out so far.
Jewish History: Survival and its Shadow
Zionism was the answer to the anti-Semitism of Christian Europe. The failure,
despite the Enlightenment, to establish Jews as an emancipated, accepted group
in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the rise of political
anti-Semitism in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century gave birth to
political Zionism under the leadership of Theodore Herzl. Zionism expressed the
powerful drive of the Jewish people to establish ourselves as a nation among
other nations, with a land of our own and the ability to achieve
self-determination. This is why, in sermons from synagogue pulpits, in lectures
on Jewish history, in classroom lessons for small children, and in spirited
discussions about the Israel-Palestine question, you will so often hear the
preamble "throughout the centuries
," followed by a description of the suffering
of the Jews at the hands of our oppressors. Indeed, it's in our liturgy, notably
in the Passover Seder. The story of Jewish survival despite constant persecution
is in many ways our theme song -- it's in our cultural DNA, it's the mantra of
our peoplehood. It runs deep. [Isn't that what we Two-Seedliners have been
saying all along? -- Eli]
This unique Jewish quality is not the product of some cultural aberration or
collective character flaw. Developing this particular brand of "character armor"
has been part of our survival throughout long ages of persecution,
marginalization, and demonization. We survived, in part, by creating rituals,
habits and attitudes of insularity, pride and persistence that allowed us never
to forget, never to let down our guard, and to always be proud of our stubborn
vitality in the face of "those who sought to destroy us." When, in our modern
liturgical idiom, we talk of the State of Israel as "the First Flowering of our
Redemption," we are reflecting the reality of our survival, the meaning of the
achievement of political self-determination in the context of Jewish history. It
is good to have survived. [Rare is the Jew who sees through this rabbinical
propaganda! "Persecuted people!" HA! -- Eli]
But we must also see clearly the shadow that this history casts on us today. We
have striven to be the masters of our fate but, having achieved this, we must
also realize that we are responsible for our actions and for the consequences of
these actions. Being free, we have free choice. The tragedy of Jewish Diaspora
history, in our own cultural narrative as well as in reality, is rooted in our
history of powerlessness and passivity. [This is nothing but the mythology
created by the rabbis to excite Jews into becoming vengeful revolutionaries. --
Eli] Zionism came to correct this, and it has undeniably succeeded, indeed far
beyond the expectations of Jews and non-Jews alike. [Understatement of the
century!!! -- Eli] But if we now become slaves to the consequences of
empowerment, then we are not free, and we are not truly powerful. The Nazi
Holocaust in particular casts its shadow over our modern history and the history
of the State of Israel. The [myth of the] Nazi's campaign to eradicate world
Jewry has become part of our uniquely Jewish "Liturgy of Destruction," the way
we Jews throughout the ages have made sense of our suffering by turning to the
broader context of Jewish history. From this matrix of vulnerability,
victimization and meaning-making comes the Zionist cry, "Never again!" But the
modern State in its policies, carried out purportedly to preserve our people,
and using the Holocaust as justification for unjust actions, is betraying the
meaning of Jewish history. You cannot achieve your own deliverance, even from
the most unspeakable evil, by the oppression of another people. [This is by far
the most intelligent thing I have ever heard a Jew say!!! -- Eli] Indeed, in
this current era of power and self-determination for Jews in Israel, we face
risks to our peoplehood that far exceed the physical perils brought by millennia
of persecution.
Israel and Palestine: Reality Stood On
its Head
The stormy controversy over the Israel-Palestine question today a controversy
that is splitting the Jewish community here in the United States as well as
Israeli society, stands as evidence of this risk. The history of conflict and
bloodshed between the State of Israel, its Arab neighbors, and the indigenous
inhabitants of historic Palestine is the unavoidable and predictable result of
the colonialist nature of the Zionist enterprise. ["Imperialist" would be a far
better word. -- Eli] Although Zionism, unlike the other European colonial
projects, was not directed originally toward the occupation and exploitation of
a subject people the Zionists sought only to create a refuge for a themselves
[Ha! And Jewish people are supposed to be smart! He swallowed that Balfour
Declaration, hook. line, sinker, rod and reel!!! -- Eli] it is no less a settler
colonial enterprise for that. What is uncanny and tragic is that in the current
discourse, the roles of the combatants are turned upside down: [Now, ladies and
gentlemen, here is the God's honest, gut-wrenching turth:] The Jews are
portrayed as the victims, and the Palestinians as the aggressors. In truth, it
is the Palestinians who are the victims: dispossessed, powerless, and pained. In
every way, the Jews are victorious and all-powerful. The Jews of Israel are, to
be sure, pricked by acts of popular resistance on the part of Palestinians. But
in the perspective of the current power balance, these are pinpricks, no more.
At the same time, this resistance, fueled by the desperation and humiliation of
a displaced and occupied people, has been amplified and exploited by political
forces within and outside of Palestine. As terrifying as acts of resistance such
as suicide bombings and cross-border shellings are, Israel's current hegemony,
power, and certainly her security are not threatened by these acts. Suicide
bombings are horrible and terrorizing. But it is too easy, too convenient to tar
an entire people with this brush, which is precisely what has happened. The
image of the Palestinians as a violent people, as "terrorists" bent on the
destruction of Israel, is not a true picture. The truth is that by and large the
Palestinians are a peaceful, patient people and at this pass an angry,
humiliated and pained people. Their sin over the last 60 plus years has been
their relative lack of organization set up effectively by the British during
their 30-year rule -- in the face of the highly organized and effective Zionist
colonial project. They are paying for this now as they face the ongoing
dismantling of their economy and their infrastructure, and the continuing
program to disable their leadership and ability to self-govern. Israel has taken
over where Britain left off and with far greater efficiency and thoroughness.
[And ruthlessness -- Eli]
The Jewish Discussion
Although it is painful and deeply troubling, I see the ferocity and depth of the
current split within the Jewish community in the Diaspora as an opportunity for
dialogue. This is an issue of crisis proportions for Jews, and we need to take
it seriously. We must encourage this conversation -- we stifle it at our great,
great peril. It is our responsibility as Jews to examine our relationship to
Israel, rather than to passively accept the story fed to us by the Jewish
establishment: the synagogues, Jewish Federations, lobbying organizations and
the rest of the apparatus devoted to maintaining the mighty stream of financial
and policy support for Israel from the US government and from private sources.
We must examine our convictions and feelings about the meaning of the State to
us personally, especially in relation to anti-Semitism. For example, do I, as a
Jew living in America, believe that the State of Israel is important to me as a
haven if I should feel unsafe or disadvantaged in my home country? Do I
personally feel that the existence of a Jewish State is an essential or part of
my Jewishness, or of the religious values and beliefs that I hold as a Jew? Do I
believe that the world owes a state to the Jews because of the centuries of
violence against and persecution of the Jews, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust?
These are all important questions they need to be asked, confronted, and
measured against the realities of contemporary life. Furthermore, as Diaspora
Jews we need to question where we get our information about the history of the
State of Israel and about the current political situation. What news services do
we rely on, what websites do we visit? What do we know about the discussion
going on inside Israel today, exemplified by the active dialogue to be found in
the pages of Haaretz, the organizations voicing opposition to Israeli government
policy, and the accelerated pace of revisionist Zionist history being produced
by Jewish Israeli historians? [Note that this Jew doesn't think about consulting
anti-Zionist non-Jews!!! I guess our opinion doesn't matter! Sob! -- Eli]
We must become willing to overcome our profound denial about the current reality
and the injustices wrought by Zionism. Walter Brueggemann, the Protestant
theologian, in his work on the prophetic imagination, writes about the prophetic
call to grieve and to mourn, that only in this way can we hope to move on to a
new and better reality. Only when we are able to cry, in Jeremiah's phrase, for
our own brokenness, and to confront the implications of the suffering we have
caused, can we be the beneficiaries of God's bounty. In other words, we must
break through the denial about what we have done. The power structure, of
course, is committed to the very opposite. The State turns the story on its head
in order to paper over the truth: "This is done in the name of national
security." "These others are the terrorists, they are the obstacles to peace."
[Ah! That's the owrd: 'DENIAL'. All Jews are IN DENIAL about their own guilt!
How can "God's chosen people" be so evil as to engage in occupation and
oppression of innocent non-Jews? They forget that usury is forbidden by Yahweh!
When have these "chosen" ever obeyed this law!!! -- Eli]
One particularly "slippery" form of denial, of this failure to grieve, [Well,
since the Talmud says that non-Jews aren't even human, what's there to grieve
about? Dead goyim are just another mess that needs to be cleaned up! Call the
cleaning crew!! -- Eli] is how some Jews take issue with some of the actions of
the Israeli government while still avoiding confronting the fundamental issues
of justice. This can take several forms. The first is the "pragmatic" approach,
which can also be called the appeal to "enlightened self-interest." "The
Occupation," so this position goes, "was a mistake. It's bad for Israel. Denying
self-determination for Palestinians and subjecting them to the humiliation of a
military administration breeds hatred and desperation, which is then visited
upon Israelis in the form of violence." Some American Jewish organizations,
hoping to avoid being marginalized by the mainstream community, or labeled
"Pro-Palestinian" adopt this position, ignoring the issue of justice.. "Israel,"
they say, "should smarten up and change its policies if it wants to live in
peace and limit the economic drain of unending conflict." In informal
conversations with some Jewish Americans who articulate this position, I have
heard confessions that their position is really much more extreme with respect
to their feelings about Israeli policy, but that they feel it important to hew
to this line for strategic purposes, in order to maintain credibility with the
Jewish establishment as well as with government legislators.
A second kind of denial, for me more serious and more disturbing, is to be found
in the ranks of what has come to be called the Jewish Progressive movement. In
his critique of this element of American Judaism, Jewish Liberation theologian
Marc Ellis notes that whereas this element of Jewry critiques aspects of Jewish
ascendancy by recognizing the validity of Palestinian aspirations, it limits the
scope of the critique by accepting the need for this same Jewish ascendancy as a
solution to Jewish history. This viewpoint acknowledges the issue of justice,
but attempts to do this within the context of Jewish mainstream assumptions of
entitlement with respect to the rights of the Jews to historic Palestine. "If we
can just clean up this messy business of the Occupation," say these people,
"things will come out alright, and we will be able to enjoy the land with a
clean conscience." This viewpoint limits the discourse to actions post-1967: it
denies the history of Palestinian displacement prior to that. Indeed,
Progressive Jewish organizations avoid discussion of the Nakba, an Arabic word
meaning "catastrophe" used to describe the ethnic cleansing of three quarters of
a million Palestinians from historic Palestine by Israeli forces between1948 and
1949. Indeed, progressive Jews have been known to become quite irritated with
fellow Jews who raise it. Finally, it avoids the fundamental question, which is
how a Jewish State, founded as a haven and a homeland for Jews, can be a true
democracy, providing justice and fair treatment for its non-Jewish citizenry. It
avoids the related and equally fundamental question of demography the issue
that, above all others, drives Israeli foreign policy and fuels the current
political and military conflict. On the whole, Jews outside of Israel across a
wide spectrum from "establishment" to "progressive want to avoid these questions
indeed, they are off limits.
This is denial it is a fundamental failure to accept the consequences of
Jewish actions in pre- and post- 1948 Palestine-Israel, and thus a failure to
grieve over the particularly Jewish tragedy from which we as Jews suffer today.
Returning to the pre-1967 borders (as if that will ever happen) will not make
everything better. It will not make Israel a just society with respect to its
Palestinian citizens. It will not erase what was done to the Palestinians who
were driven out of their cities, towns and villages in 1948. It does not place
the issue of justice as primary. Rather, it places the interests of Israel as
primary, and promotes an entitled, supremacist, paternalistic stance with
respect to non-Jewish inhabitants of historic Palestine, on whichever side of
the final status border they may reside when a political settlement is finally
achieved. It pre-empts our horror over the crimes we are committing and the
suffering we have caused. It muffles our own cries of pain over our sins and our
cruelties. It squelches the agony of confronting the contradictions and the
excruciating dilemmas. It blocks the discussion. It closes our hearts.
Conclusion: Christians, Jews,
Anti-Semitism, and Our Accountability
The issue of anti-Semitism is complex and deeply embedded in two thousand years
of Western history. Among liberal Christian theologians and religious leaders,
Supercessionism the concept that Christianity, embodied in the Gospels, came
to replace Judaism as God's plan for humankind has become the Great Evil. The
argument, well supported by history, is that this idea, developed in the first
centuries after Christ and central to Christian belief and doctrine, laid the
groundwork for anti-Semitism. But in their zeal to correct the injustices of the
past, and to in effect atone for anti-Semitism, Christian leaders and thinkers
are in danger of losing sight of an important aspect of early Christian thought.
Christianity, in its reframing of the relationship of God to humanity, produced
a revolution -- in effect, it moved the concept of "Israel" from the tribal to
the communal. In the Christian reframing, God's commitment to humanity through
his election of the seed of Abraham, assigned a special role in history, was
transformed into God's love for humankind and the invitation to all to become
part of a universal spiritual community. This was a great contribution, a great
step forward, and it has special relevance today, as all religions struggle to
move from "Constantinian," power-based religions to communities based on a
commitment to diversity, human rights and Justice. The choice between religion
based on and consorting with political power and oppression, and religion
grounded in a concept of community is one that must be faced by all the faiths.
Jews and Christians must talk about this, indeed they must come together with
their Muslim friends and colleagues to together confront what may be the central
challenge of our times. We stifle this discussion at our peril.
To our Christian sisters and brothers I say do not, out of a sense of guilt
for anti-Semitism, give the Jewish people a free pass. Do not confuse
anti-Semitism with critique of Israel, and in so doing fail to hold Jews
accountable for our choices and our actions, as members of the human community,
as individuals, and as a nation state -- especially as a nation state. To make
this mistake, to allow yourselves to be I will use the word bullied by the
threat of the charge of anti-Semitism, is to commit a pernicious fallacy. As
Jews we sought political self-determination, and we got it. Now we must behave
in accordance with principles of justice and in accordance with international
law as an expression of universally agreed-upon principles of justice. As Jews,
we are confronted daily with this choice as we witness the illegal and
oppressive actions of the Jewish State toward the Palestinian people it is so
rapidly displacing. Empowerment political empowerment presents a mighty
challenge to values. The Prophets knew this well, continually speaking this
truth to the power structures of their day. To the crushed and exiled Jewish
people of his time, Second Isaiah declared that redemption and comfort was
coming, but only when the people acknowledged the divine meaning of their
suffering. To my coreligionists in Israel and America, I say that we will
ultimately survive as a people only to the extent that we can understand how our
own suffering makes us part of humankind, and responsible for suffering wherever
and whenever it happens. It was Roberta Feuerlicht, the Jewish ethicist who
famously wrote, "Judaism survived centuries of persecution without a state; it
must now learn how to survive despite a state."
[Friends, isn't it obvious that even the most well-intentioned Jews are unable
to grasp their own self-absorbed ethnocentrism? No matter how "liberal" or
"tolerant" they are, they cannot move beyond condescension!!! Such is the hold
that the rabbis have on their minds. Everything must be framed in a "Jewish "
context. No other contexts matter!!! To paraphrase Goethe: "No Jew can be free
who still thinks like a Jew." -- Eli]
Mark Braverman lives in Bethesda, MD.
He is a member of Jewish Voices for Peace and serves on the Boards of
Partners for Peace and the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East
Peace.
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/markbraverman/
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