Regardless of your politics, for those of us who support the existence of the Jewish State of Israel, watching events on the world stage in the past week has been tantamount to helplessly watching your own child get bullied on the school yard.
The efforts of the Palestinian Authority to have the UN recognize the yet to be born, State of Palestine, is a reflection of the failure of leadership in both, Ramallah and Jerusalem. Seeking the UN’s blessings for something that can only come about through a very difficult process that will require courage and significant sacrifices on both sides, is like demanding that your doctor provide you with a painless surgical procedure without anesthesia. It just ain’t gonna happen.
Right-wing Zionists are blaming the Palestinians for refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish State and having never made any significant constructive peaceful gestures towards an embattled Israel that simply wants to survive in peace. Progressive Zionists are quite sure that too many Israelis, most especially members of the current government, are intentionally avoiding making peace with the Palestinians. Radical religious extremists on both sides are always ready to give their lives to the belief that God is on their side and the disputed lands belongs solely to “their” tribe.
A classic story from the Book of Exodus is worthy of consideration at this difficult moment in Israel’s history. A vengeful Pharaoh and his blood-thirsty army pin the unarmed, recently liberated slaves against the Sea of Reeds. The children of Israel are ready to lynch their leader, Moses, for bringing them out of bondage, only to die in the desert. In a moment of anguish and fear, the greatest prophet in Jewish history prays to God to rescue his trapped people. How does God respond? “Why do you cry out to me? Go forward!” (Exodus 14:15)
Tradition has it, that the moment one brave soul by the name of Nachshon actually stepped into the Sea, it split creating a dry path for Children of Israel. No story better highlights what has become the classical Jewish response to thousands of years of adversity: Don’t stop to complain; come up with a solution, even if that solution defies reason.
I fell upon a Nachshon response for Israel’s current political dilemma. It comes from Rabbi Donniel Hartman, PhD., President of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
In the same spirit as God telling Moses to stop praying and just go forward, Dr. Hartman says this moment in history demands that Israeli leadership stop pointing fingers and do what Jewish people have always done: figure out how to go forward. This moment requires decisive, courageous, creative and ethical leadership from Israel.
Hartman’s strongest condemnation is not for one cause or position on either side, it’s against those who would have us believe this is an impossible, intractable stalemate for which there is no solution.
As a progressive Zionist, I have long found myself deeply frustrated by the lack of bold leadership in the current Israeli government. Too many Israelis and Palestinians are quite sure that the conflict is black and white; one side is right, the other is wrong. As is usually the case, the truth lies in the gray-matter, somewhere in between. And neither side wants to take responsibility for the stalemate. President Obama has been roundly condemned by conservative supporters of Israel for calling attention to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s incessant use of populist sloganeering in lieu of daring diplomatic leadership.
I doubt that there are too many people who would ever describe Donniel Hartman as being a radical when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So it is refreshing to hear such a respected commentator and centrist demand emboldened leadership in response to Palestinian efforts to attain statehood.
The full text of Rabbi Hartman’s remarks can be found using this link.
This final paragraph of his inspiring essay sums up his key points”
Uncertainty, however, is no excuse for passivity, but the impetus for action. To recognize this is to recognize that while many things are the same, many are not. While our enemies may not have changed, we have. It is time to stop counting all the injustices, enumerating all that which is unfair, telling over and again to anyone who can hear that it is not our fault. It is time for us to take responsibility for our destiny, a destiny not necessarily defined by that which is forced upon us but which will reflect who we want to be. It is time to bring to an end the defeatist mourning for and incessant talking about what should have and could have been. It is time to stop the self-defeating and paralyzing fear and reconnect to the reality of Israel and the gift of sovereignty and to claim our rightful place at the negotiating table – the place of the leader.
Maybe its time for another Nachshon to move the cornered nation of Israel forward.
Wait, you realize Israel is made up of a punch of Polish, Russians, and Americans who want to create a tiered society based on religious affiliation, right? *They* are the ones who invaded and displaced a population that has been there for thousands of years, out of racism. Ben-Gurion, one of the intellectual founders of the Zionist movement, openly admired the Anglo conquest of North America and thought Zionists would have to be equally as brutal to their own “natives” (the Arab Christian, Jews, and Muslims).
Not to mention the Israelis have 1) been the provokers of violence from the beginning 2) openly gained support from the UK and then the US for the sole reason of destabilizing the “arab spring” of post-WW2 anti-colonial movements in the middle east (which had the support of the USSR, and wanted to establish an Arab federation of secular, left wing progressive states which used oil wealth to fund social programs)
Israel is an inherently racist, bigoted concept. No single religious group has the right to claim sole control of a government, let alone a bunch of foreigners invading some people’s territory! This is absurd. Defending Israel is tantamount to defending all land thefts, colonization efforts, and racist apartheid states.
The only just solution is a single, secular state which grants equal rights to all people, European or Arab in descent. To suggest anything else is to support lebensraum.
But they haven’t stolen all the land yet, and they still have so many Palestinians to kill…
Thank you Ricardo for serving as a “show and tell” example of simple provincial people who can’t help but turn very complicated situations into simplified, emotional tribal trite: “We’re right, they are wrong.” Unfortunately, the truth is never that simple. BTW, would you like a list of the tens of thousands of Jews and non-Jews who have been murdered by terrorist and suicide bombers in the cause of “Palestine?” Nobody has clean hands; most especially hate ridden people like you.