Finding a moral place to stand
A reader of this blog goes to my temple and warned me that the first grade curriculum was very focused on Zionism. I have been struggling for some time to understand the Isreali-Palestinian conflict and I haven’t gotten as far as I would like.
My family was pro-Isreal not just because my father is Jewish but because I think that most liberals of their generation are or at least were. It wasn’t something we discussed but when the subject happened to come up, whatever criticism my mom or dad might have about the way things were being handled, they were definitely pro-Isreal. So I came to the issue with that bias.
I have been reading some history and reading the various propaganda (both sides) and asking more knowledgeable people a lot of questions but am no closer to understanding it; I don’t think I ever really will.
Hearing that Noah was going to start getting fed a very pro-Isreali curriculum panicked me. I wasn’t ready! I didn’t have a firm opinion! I thought of pulling him out of religious school for the year but I love the other things he’s learning there — the baby Hebrew, the songs, the prayers.
Around this time, I read an article in The Sun by Starhawk, a Jewish-Pagan peace activist. The article was a version of this one (she has several other compelling pieces on her site):
[T]o simply condemn Zionism as racism without acknowledging the context of centuries of racial hate against Jews from which it arose is to absolve those who have blood on their hands as well. Worse, it is to support the complacency of Jew haters and fascists who now emerge into the open again. Israel has indeed served the interests of the Western powers in subjugating the Arab world. But Israel also arose out of an oppressed people’s dream of liberation. To discount the oppression, to deny the strength and the beauty of the dream of a homeland, is to miss the full tragedy of what is happening now. Unless we understand the dream, we cannot truly comprehend the nightmare.
…
To acknowledge the truth of what Israel is now doing is to face a grief so deep and overwhelming that it seems to suck away all hope, is to gasp again in the suffocation chambers, to cover our faces with the ashes from the ovens and know that there is no redemption, no silver lining, no happy ending, no good and noble thing that emerged to give dignity to these deaths. There is only the terrible cycle, of victims becoming victimizers, the abused perpetuating abuse.
Noah went through a cowboy phase after watching Toy Story and then later he sawSpirit and got confused because he thought that the guys in the uniforms were the good guys.
“It depends on what side you’re on,” I told him. Because the cowboys were heroes, that is unless you were a Native American. Do you remember in Little House on the Prairie (the book, not the show)? Laura Ingalls and her family were driven from Indian Territory at the end leaving behind their pretty little house with the store-bought glass windows and I cried when I read that part. Only later did I understand that Laura and her family were white interlopers. I didn’t know what to do with that information. Weren’t they the good guys? And now I find myself saying the same thing, aren’t we the good guys?
I spent all day yesterday with a 1000-page coffee table book on the holocaust. Pictures and timelines and yellow textboxes detailing the atrocities at Auschwitz and the boatloads of Jews the U.S. turned away. I read this and I get a glimmer of understanding of what the promise of Israel was to a battered people. But juxtaposed against what’s happening now — it’s disheartening, to say the least.
I’m still struggling to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to determine my responsiblity as an American Jew. For now, I’ve decided that Noah will go to religious school this year but that we will be talking about this at home, too, and trying to figure it out together. Meanwhile, we’ll give our tzedakah to Seeds of Peace and pray that it will do some small measure of good.
i understand, it’s a complicated issue/situation, one that deserves time and passion. i’ve tried to study it but haven’t put a deserving amount of either in. some of the most helpful stuff i’ve found is on z net, but then again, everything is coming from one side or the other, impossible, i think, to help it.
good luck and share any helpful links okay?
Zionism has its roots way before the Holocaust. There are some great books out there. The best stuff, for me anyway, is a bit older and academic but still readable. Look for stuff by Sachar, Laquer, Shlomo Avineri, and Hertzberg (his The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader). All this will likely lead you to anti-Semitism and the roots of Zionism within Judaism. I also suggestion you look for a history of Kibbutz, a unique communal group that developed only in Palestine by Zionists. The original ideas behind their founding are extremely compelling.
To be pro-Israel doesn’t mean you have to be anti-Arab or Palestinian.
It may be true that you can be pro-Israel but not anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian. But I don’t think you can be in favor of the policies of the current Israeli government without being implicitly anti-Arab. Prime example: scientists in Israel are developing something called an “ethno-bomb” (this is substantiated, acknowledged fact, BTW, not speculation); it’s a biological weapon that uses infectious agents that are designed to only work on people with an Arab genome. It that’s not anti-Arab, I don’t know what is. Kind of sounds like “ethnic cleansing,” actually. Personally, I couldn’t agree more with Starhawk. But it’s not a conclusion that I came to easily, by any stretch.
There are many Israelis who have been working for peace, for a 2 state solution for 20 years now who are pro-Israel and not anti-Arab. Shalom Achshav/Peace Now is one such group. Such claims that such a position is not possible just keeps everyone polarized imho.
I wouldn’t call that so-called “ethno-bomb” to be acknowledged and undisputed. But the reasons why Sharon is PM of Israel are many and complex. I think many who voted for Sharon may also support the peace process.
I personally don’t think that Israelis could come up with such a device on ethical grounds. It’s repugnant on so many levels.
I was getting a little worked up when I wrote my earlier comment, and shouldn’t have overstated the certainty of my information. I really don’t remember how well-documented the ethno-bomb claim was, because it’s been quite a while since I read about it, though I found the documentation quite sufficient to find it quite believable (though I would have liked to dismiss it), or I wouldn’t have mentioned it. I will see if I can find where I read about it and what the source for the publication was that I got it out of. Certainly, it would seem unlikely that the Israeli government would openly acknowledge such a program, but who knows. If nothing else, the Israeli government’s weapons programs bear such a resemblance to that of the U.S. (when they’re not just getting their weapons from the U.S. directly) that I am no longer surprised (though I may be appalled) when I hear about them developing all kinds of creepy stuff.
This is not to say that I don’t think the source of my information was quite reliable and solid, and just because a government doesn’t openly admit to something certainly doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening. I guess that would make it that much more scary, if it was openly acknowledged, really openly, and no one cared.