Phil,
Daniel Levy, Dan Fleshler, myself and many others do reconcile
commitments to progressive values and Jewish concerns. They are no more
contradictory than for people who are activists for women, gay rights,
African Americans, Latinos, etc. It’s not hard for us to be Zionists
and progressives, but you just can’t accept that. I don’t think it’s
productive to argue one set of values against another; we are all
entitled to make choices based on things that matter to us, so long as
we don’t harm others. I feel totally correct in my efforts at arguing
for a peaceful two state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.
against the long term. I’m in favor of solutions for the long haul,
although I certainly do see the possible of evolution (e.g., the
possibility of regional trade unions or even confederations in the
distant future). You also seem to understand that two states is the
preferred and rational resolution to the conflict. If two states do not
emerge soon, it’s hard to see any kind of solution. Although the rights
of Arab citizens of Israel
— equal in law but not in fact — should be advanced to full equality,
the Jewish people have a historic need for a state — a sovereign safe
haven that could defend Jews from persecution. Sadly, as we see in the
matter of Iran’s overt hostility and its headlong effort to obtain
nuclear status, even Israel’s existence is not an absolute guarantee of
Jewish security. But the Arab Middle East has an especially poor track
record in accommodating or even tolerating minorities.
live in freedom and equality with other Americans. But this was not
always the case. When I was growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, Ivy League
universities and just about all medical schools had quotas against
admitting “too many” Jews. Before that, from 1924 on, Jews could not
freely immigrate to the US; this was true of other non-WASP populations
as well, as quotas favored Northern and Western Europe over Southern and Eastern Europe, not to mention Asia and Africa.
trapped under Nazi occupation. They were explicitly targeted and hunted
down as Jews, and most were murdered. The “civilized world” did
precious little to safeguard or rescue Jewish lives. The US was
particularly bad in this; many historians have noted how the US State
Dept. instructed immigration officials to make it difficult for Jews to
obtain legal immigration visas. My parents were refugees from Poland
who managed by share luck and pluck to obtain immigration visas in the
spring of 1941, despite the overt hostility of the consular officials
they dealt with. They happened to have embarked from Yugoslavia,
days before the Nazi invasion of that country; if they had had the
misfortune of still being in Poland at that time, they would not have
gotten out.
succeeded in making it to Palestine during the 1930s, even though
Palestine was not yet free of British rule.
that these people’s lives were saved. But (understandably) they were
not welcomed by the growing nationlaist movement of Palestinian Arabs,
led by the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, an open ally of Hitler.
alongside our fellow Americans. But if this “Golden Land” as the
Yiddish saying goes, remains so for Jews, it will be an exception in
the long, sad sweep of Jewish history. Spain, Poland and Germany were all at one time lands where Jews lived in peace and prosperity.
Hi Ralph,
I generally find your view too roseate and in the past. I can’t disagree with your descriptions of Europe and the U.S. in the past. They are factual. My difference involves issues like “short-term” when we are talking about generations of Palestinians who have gotten it in the teeth again and again since ’48 and have seen their lands evaporate.
Yes, my father faced quotas as a student in N.Y. I have faced none. You seem to regard this as a brief oasis in time. I don’t have your Holocaust background, and maybe that is why I think this is the bold future, the American freedom I’ve savored. I think that war is over.
The key issue for me is trying to extend the minority rights we Jews here enjoy to minorities in Israel and in the occupied territories. It is The fundamental hypocrisy of the American Zionist experience; and it never happens. Again and again I have observed Jewish organizations overlook the humanity of the Palestinians and Lebanese in ’06. Only worrying about Jewish “blood.” Sometimes, yes, they use that word too. Though it is absolutely true that progressive Zionists have spoken up for Arabs, and good for you, they get rolled by the big organizations, and then they lie still for it. Even now Levy’s J Street won’t oppose AIPAC, it is working with AIPAC in a sense. Though I accept that AIPAC is talking territorial compromise (But is it talking fairness? I doubt it).
So my beef with you is that you regard Jewish persecution as eternal and long-term, and this Palestinian persecution as short-term. I don’t think it’s short-term. It’s ongoing and seems to me an absolute reflection of the way Zionism has worked its way out.
I would have been a Communist back when Trotsky was a communist, I would have been a Zionist when Walter Benjamin and Arendt were Zionist. I have that fervor for the persecuted in me and that Jewish luftmensch love of visionary ideas; I would have risen with those causes.
I would have abandoned Communism in the 40s or 50s (egad) and I would certainly have abandoned Zionism by now had I ever embraced it. It’s not just about a liberation struggle anymore. It’s on behalf of a military power that scares its neighbors and gets scared back in the Middle East, and on behalf of the richest American subgroup, us, Jews. I don’t require liberation. I would never seek refuge in Israel and neither would many Israelis, who are seeking foreign passports. Zionism has worked out to be expansionist and militarist and at dagger points with its neighbors forever. A central element of Zionism is dual loyalty; it’s built in. It required Weizmann’s advocacy to Balfour in ’17; and lately it has required the Israel lobby and Endless Passes from the Superpower to do whatever Israel pleases. It’s a dead end. Zionism has worked out this way, with Arabs having second-class citizenship. I do think it’s hard to reconcile progressivism with Zionism. They seem at odds. Progress is moving toward diversity, Zionism is about forms of cultural conservatism, including perhaps honorable forms of that, the desire to preserve the Jewish people. Anxiety about Jewish numbers/assimilation propels Zionism, as fears of persecution propelled it in days gone by.
I really think Jews have to get past Zionism and embrace modern ideas of diversity. Whether one state or two state, I want the Jewish state to show greater respect for Arabs’ humanity. I believe Jews have superior feelings toward others, I grew up with this and am struggling with it still. And Alterman is guilty of it, not quoting any Arabs in his piece, it’s a form of arrogance…
Back to you.
Oh. P.S. David Bloom of Adalah-NY adds this: “22,000 Israelis have died in Israel’s wars & attacks since independence. The most Jews have been victims of violent anti-Semitism outside Israel
in that time was the bombing of the community center in Argentina. What sense does it make, if one’s objective is survival of the Jews, to put them all in one spot so someone can nuke em all at once?” And of course there are all the Israelis seeking foreign passports…
