I am Jewish...and an atheist. How can that be you may well ask? A recent Pew study pointed out that "cultural" Judaism has become a major thread in the American Jewish community. Many American Jews consider themselves to be Jewish but they're not so sure about the whole god thing and the narrow strictures of religious practice. I fall into that realm with the exception of the god thing about which I am sure: there is no such thing as god.
Part of what we are told is central to our culture as American Jews is unquestioning support for Israel. This support of Zionism is constantly reinforced by Jewish religious institutions and leaders. Politically, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has been granted virtual religious status within our community. In most circles, to question AIPAC is to question the very core of Judaism itself. Earlier this week, The New York Times published an article about highly observant Jews who are not Zionists. After reading that article, I was motivated to write today's post to my peripatetic blog.
As I noted, I am not an observant Jew. We still get together for Rosh Hashanah, to break the fast on Yom Kippur and celebrate Passover, but with the quasi exception of Passover, which is the Jewish celebration of freedom and a call to fight to end oppression, things I do not consider religious but rather ethical and moral, these are traditions and I celebrate them because those around me, who I love and respect, consider them to be important.
But back to Zionism. Mainstream Jewish-American thought believes in Israel right or wrong. On the other hand, these folks don't treat the United States the same way. Personally, I don't believe in any political entity right or wrong without adding the caveat added by Carl Schurz in 1872.
"My country right or wrong; if right to be kept right; and if wrong to be set right."
First, Israel is not my country. I am an American. I put what I believe to be the best interests of the United States ahead of those of any other country, including Israel. I understand the reasons for the creation of the State of Israel. After millennia of abuse and discrimination, the holocaust was the ultimate wake-up call to the world about the plight of the world's Jews. It would have been unrealistic to assume that holocaust survivors could simply return home and resume the lives they lived before Hitler. Their home communities were unwelcoming and awash in anti-semitism. Their homes had been destroyed or appropriated by others. It would have been far more practical for survivors to have gone to other welcoming countries, except there weren't any. The United States was just another nation among the world's loud chorus of countries that rationalized their anti-semitism and refused sanctuary. Jewish leaders wanted a state in their biblical homeland, and there really wasn't any organized nation-state in that area anyhow, so why not? And thus Israel, after much debate and controversy, was born, with President Harry Truman being the first world leader to direct his country, my country, to recognize the new nation.
The Arabs went ballistic. They didn't want all those Jews near them either. But they were largely a tribal culture whose nations were the fictions of European imperial powers, so who cared if they were unhappy? In the ensuing war, most countries didn't really care who won as long as they didn't have to get involved. When Israel won that war, the world largely shrugged and moved on.
In the decades since, the general antipathy toward Israel hasn't abated much. The United States has had the benefits of a strong ally in a deeply contentious part of the world first during the cold war and since then in an age where military action has diversified to non-state players like al qaeda, Hamas, etc. who oppose us. Of course, today, it is our very support of Israel that has been the greatest, but not the only, motivator of that opposition.
And so we find ourselves with a situation in the middle east that seems to have no possible solution. Our ally and beneficiary, Israel, opposes our policies and the current Israeli government has meddled in our internal political affairs both directly and through its mouthpieces, of which AIPAC is the loudest. That opposition is not coupled with any alternatives that might lead to resolution, only opposition. Israel says that the Palestinians are not acting as partners for peace. That is correct. I would add that Israel is not much of a partner for peace either. Many years ago, when I was in Israel, I was told that Israel conquers by settlement. Certainly that has been the methodology we have witnessed over recent decades. Of course when an American Jew opposes the incumbent government of Israel, he/she is berated for meddling in Israel's internal political affairs and often tarred as an opponent of the Jewish state.
The two state solution may not solve the conflict, but it is currently the only game in town. Israel has opposed that solution while presenting no alternative. Sometimes it has opposed it overtly and sometimes it has opposed it by undermining negotiations and buying time to build more and more settlements on disputed land. The late Ariel Sharon finally got it when he broke with Likud over the demographics of not reaching a two state solution. The only way to keep Israel as a Jewish homeland is to allow a Palestinian homeland to exist and slow the inevitable growth of the Palestinian population of Israel that will change the country to a majority Palestinian country. That all begs the question of the legitimacy of a nation state that is committed to keeping itself relatively ethnically pure. I'm not sure that such a nation can be either legitimate or democratic if it takes the steps that will be necessary to ensure Jewish control into the future.
Israel and the AIPAC crowd oppose American policy toward Iran. Again, they offer no alternative. We have long been told that the point of the network of sanctions against Iran has been to force them to the negotiating table. Well, it has worked, they have come to the table and they have made the kinds of commitments that the rest of the world has wanted. Will they live up to those commitments? I don't know and I'm not optimistic. Do we have to give the process time to play itself out? Yes we do. There is no other alternative available. What do Israel and my fellow American Jews propose? Military action? More dead and wounded American soldiers, Israeli soldiers and civilians and Iranian soldiers and civilians are not the solutions that make sense to me.
I support Israel, but only if it pursues policies that have some possibility of success and that don't undercut the United States. There is no question that Israel is a dynamic democracy, even if AIPAC and company want us to believe that there is monolithic support for the incumbent government. But it's repression of Palestinians, refusal to negotiate a workable peace agreement and opposition to the United States make it harder and harder for me to support it.
One more observation, and then you may bombard me with your comments. Any American Jew who equates the religious right wing's support for Israel with acceptance of American Judaism is delusional. The fundamentalist vision of "the end of days" requires that all Jews be back in Israel before Jesus can return to earth and judgment day begin. So they love Israel, and they love you too as long as you make aliyah, i.e. move to Israel. If you stay here, you are just an obstacle and they are no less anti-semitic than any other anti-semites.
