For anyone who tries to imagine a life of meaning amid inhumane circumstances, Jeff Halper is a hero. The Minnesota-born founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Halper has for decades now dedicated himself to Palestinian human rights, resisting the occupation by helping Palestinians try to defy Israeli power. Above, he drinks tea in a Palestinian friend's house that has been destroyed by settlers five times-- and that he has five times helped rebuild.
In West Jerusalem last week, Halper bought salami and rolls at a corner store and then walked me back to his house, whose crowded bookshelves and humble furnishings are a reminder that he has been both a rabbinical student and an academic and author. Over lunch, I asked him about the politics of the conflict. What is the answer?
"I go with the flow, except there is no flow today." Halper said that he personally favors the one-state solution but he is respectful of the fact that world consensus has long supported two states.
“It’s not hard to do actually. But you’d have to put massive pressure on Israel to do it. And that’s where I think we’re stuck. The United States cannot bring pressure because of the Congress, and that is the absolute necessary condition, pressure.
“But I will tell you my formula for peace. You say to Israel three things. Obama and the international community have to say it.
"One, We love you. Israelis love to hear that. That’s where Sadat succeeded. He hugged Golda [Meir] and the Israelis melted. They just melted.” That is why Israel yielded the Sinai so easily in the end after a lot of bluster. “Obama would come and speak at the Knesset, Abu Mazen would go to Yad Vashem.
“Two, we will guarantee your security. Israelis are not committed to the occupation for ideological reasons, most Israelis aren’t, but because they don’t trust Arabs. If you can allay their fears that withdrawal won’t lead to Sderot, then they will do it... There are security arrangements that could be found to satisfy the Israeli public.
“Three, you say the occupation’s over. Period. You’re out of every square inch… Maybe parts of Gush Etzion would be swapped, but we’re back to the 1967 borders. And the Jewish Quarter in a shared Jerusalem, not a divided Jerusalem. The only resource Jerusalem has is its religious symbolism, and you want to give all the stakeholders a feeling of ownership.
“If that scenario were followed, you’d have dancing in the streets of Tel Aviv. This is what Israelis want. They want security. They don’t want to see Palestinians. This is what Ehud Barak ran on in 1999, for Labor. ‘Us here, them there.’ That’s what Israelis want, and that’s what the two state solution would do."
And the likelihood of this coming to pass?
“Maybe 1-1/2 percent of Israelis are ideological settlers. But in the Knesset, the settlers have two or three parties. So this 1-1/2 percent controls the government. If you had a referendum on the two state solution the vast majority of Jews would agree. But this is so unlikely, that you go back to the one state solution. Which is equally unlikely.”
Of course Halper would be happy living in a democracy with Palestinians. I asked him why so many Israelis don't feel that way.
“There is a principle inculcated in Israelis and Jews from before 1948, by all politicians, newscasters, teachers, journalists, any official, and that is that the Arabs are our permanent enemies. And that’s it! And if you take that as an unchanging premise, then it doesn’t matter what is being done to Palestinians.They brought it on themselves.
“You can’t trust the Arabs. That makes everything else a non-issue… Yitzhak Shamir said, ‘The Jews are still the Jews, the Arabs are still the Arabs, and the sea is still the sea.’ Which means, it’s just the way it is, it’s nature. Arabs are what they are, and we are what we are, and nothing’s going to change that...."
But are Israelis even aware of the tapestry of suffering that is the occupation, and what this does to Palestinian lives?
“Israelis don’t care. Because they’re living the good life. Polls show that peace is the 8th issue in priority for Israelis. It’s like that cover ot Time magazine, Israel doesn't want peace. I’ve been saying that for years…. And the Israeli government thinks it’s sustainable, they think they can keep this going for another 40 years. They have no idea that we’re living on borrowed time.
“And Israel is not going to cooperate and is not going to negotiate in good faith. Because of the Congress. The only way to go to some kind of peace is by exerting pressure on Israel, which the U.S. could do easily, but the president can’t do. And Israel feels completely protected. The U.S. can’t do anything to Israel, and it won’t let anyone else do anything to Israel. We start building settlements, and it’s, ‘So what?’”
I said that the status quo will bring on violence. Halper said he doubts it.
"It's too sewn up. Israel is too much in control. Israeli soldiers are every ten feet in the West Bank... Israel is knocking off Palestinian leaders all the time." And the natural source of Palestinian leadership is all in Israeli jails, 12,000 Palestinians-- "I use the term warehousing"-- and Palestinian society is rife with collaborators, from the Palestinian Authority on down.
Where's the hope?
"I don't use the word hope, I use the word struggle. There's a struggle going on..."
The good news is that now it's globalized: the United States is becoming more and more isolated on this issue.
“I don’t think Americans appreciate how isolated they are internationally. This is now a global conflict, and so you have the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. The irresistible force is-- the EU can make things hard on Israel economically, and the whole Muslim world can be up in arms, and you have BDS, Turkey, isolating Israel, and the international community saying that this is too costly to accept forever. But then the immovable object is the U.S. Congress.”
What about the Arab dictatorships, aren’t they implicated in the arrangement?
“Mubarak and Asad have no support from their people on this, but they’re kept going because of the conflict. Syria once had a vibrant constitutional process. It got all messed up because of the occupation and the refugees. Nationalism, the right to return….
“This conflict is the bone in the throat of the world. It’s not the biggest thing, but it’s the most immediate thing, and it could kill you. You can’t deal with the cancer and the other diseases till you deal with the bone in your throat.
“And rather than [complain about] the repressiveness of the Arab countries, we should get rid of this occupation and I think you will see a whole new dynamic in the Middle East…. My allies, my brothers and sisters, are civil society groups in the Arab world. In Syria, they’re fighting the good fight. In Libya, in Tunisia, it’s not that easy in autocracies, but in all these societies, you have democratic liberal progressive people… It’s not us against them. The clash of civilizations is an essentialist argument, and it’s not true… Within a week of [an end to the conflict] that would all dissipate and there would be plans to develop this whole area.”
Finally I asked Halper about Zionism, the growing battle in the U.S. between non-Zionist and Zionist Jews. He laughed.
"Arguing about Zionism is like the battle in the United States 200 years ago between having a Hamiltonian democracy and a Jeffersonian democracy. Who cares any more? This is a a real country called Israel."
Then he told American Jews to bug out. He goes back to the States a lot, and talks to American Jews. "They don't care about Israel. If you actually tell them what is happening here [in rightwing Israeli politics], their eyes glaze over. It's not a real place to these people, it's there to meet their needs. They need this idealized Leon Uris Israel to maintain their identity. If they came here, they wouldn't like it.
"Well this is a real country. It's not some projection of what you want it to be, and it has a right to evolve and change.... [American Jews] can't have an Israel at peace because that doesn't do it for them. They need an Israel at war, so they can galvanize their sense of Jewishness around it..."
Lunch was over. Halper walked me down the hill and pointed me to the walkways leading to the Israel Museum.
This is brilliant. I had sensed Halper was an incredible guy as an activist, but he’s really wise in large scale political scientist’s sense.
Hats off to Jeff, a ‘struggler’ not a ‘hoper’.
His American sleeves rolled up to re-build Palestine.
anyone else notice how reasonable the Serbians got once money was cut off and then its restoration promised if it quit being racist/ethnicist/religiousist/whateverist. Those who control the U.S. government, if they wanted, could have peace very quickly if they turned the money tap off. It is easy. Make it illegal to send money to a state that is occupying land it does not hold sovereignty to. The EC got the Serbians to walk on two legs using money as a stick and carrot. The U.S. [if it wanted to] could do the same with apartheid South Africa err I mean “Arabs cannot vote” Israel.
Halper is one of my heroes. Why more American Jews don’t listen to him is beyond me.
Exactly. I couldn’t have put it better myself. This is essentially the crux of the problem here in the United States. America’s Jews have this myth, this image, of Israel to which they cling for it reaffirms their personal identities.
Since professor Jeff Halper seems to be “bookish” like Phil Weiss, does that mean that Jeff Halper’s people are Jews only, specifically Ashkenazi Jews?
I’m only joshing you, Phil. But, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. Somehow, you’ve now got me believing that the over-abundance of books in my humble abode are indicative of the fact that my people are one religious group or another.
please get with the program avi, my/your people demand that you bookmark your ashkenazi books with salami
What!? I thought it was pastrami! Or is this one of those sectarian differences we brought over from the old country – Salamers vs. Pastramers? The kosher-dill bookends still work though, right?
I thought it was kippers
Not everybody knows, but there’s an old jewish saying “tell me what type of salami you bookmark your books with and I’ll tell you who you are”. This salami tradition is one of the things that makes jewish public libraries more interesting than other libraries. You can read about this and much more in my new bestseller “Great Lies to Tell Grownups”, available at a discount if you mention your mondoweiss id.
People who live in Belgian houses shouldn’t throw frites ;-)
I sincerely hope that no one is inspired, let alone compeled by this comment thread to deface books with nitrates-and-grease laden food products. No matter how you slice it, books should be treated with respect. I keep mine under lox and key.
what about yr spiritual autobiography, is that under the kippers too or are you going to publish in yr lifetime, on mondo? the world awaits
“Exactly. I couldn’t have put it better myself. This is essentially the crux of the problem here in the United States. America’s Jews have this myth, this image, of Israel to which they cling for it reaffirms their personal identities.”
Now that sounds familiar.
What a remarkable, brave and compassionate individual. Sounds like his people are all oppressed people and applies that understanding and feeling towards the Palestinians
“What a remarkable, brave and compassionate individual”
And another one is gideon levy (here in a remarkable lecture at mcgill university): link to pulsemedia.org
pardon if this is a duplicate, but i tried to post this comment in the dershowitz article, but it didn’t come up for some reason.
Gideon Levy was on RT television tonight. He was most persuasive.
This is a wonderful rejoinder to the whataboutery often quoted with respect to violence in Sudan or Darfur and human rights abuses in China, North Korea.
“This conflict is the bone in the throat of the world. It’s not the biggest thing, but it’s the most immediate thing, and it could kill you. You can’t deal with the cancer and the other diseases till you deal with the bone in your throat.”
So what’s more important than getting that bone out? American Jewish identity?
“By the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and martyr, may God protect you from evils of the throat and from every other evil. Amen.”
Catholics used to have a “Blessing of the throat” day — sometime in Feb., iirc. Pious Catholics attended a brief service at which they stood or knelt before a priest who held crossed-candlesticks under each person’s throat while reciting the above prayer.
The story was that a young boy had a fish bone caught in his throat; St. Blaise aided the boy, dislodged the bone, the boy went away healthy and happy.
St. Blaise, intercessor for peace between Jews and Arabs?
The problem with prayer is that, while all prayers are of course answered, some are answered ‘no’.
Halper has his eyes wide open. He pinpoints the problem:
1. The US Congress
2. The complacency of Israelis
3. The blindness of US Jews
Except for the US Jewish fanatics, who come to Israel and make the place worse.
Is this mindset a subcategory of the persecution concept that Phil discussed in his “. . .Racism, Pt. 3″ essay?
Ed Shultz was in the news the other day, re his appearance at rally in DC. I’d never heard of him so I listened to a snippet — a very, very brief snippet — of one of his programs.
First thing I heard: “Politicians have to understand, everybody’s out to get you, so you have to get them first: hit ‘em first, and hard. . . .That’s the way we do things in Minnesota.”
That sounded like Phil’s “we are perpetually persecuted” scenario.
And like Israelis’ “the Arabs hate us because they are evil” scenario.
Same “autochthony?”
Contrast that mental construct with the logic West Point Capt. Paul Chappel l discusses in Will War Ever End? Chappell argues that violence and hatred are NOT inherent in human (or even animal) nature, and that men must be psychologically manipulated in order to induce them to fight and kill. by creating a deep sense of camaraderie among troops. West Pointers are taught this explicitly: that it is NOT their nature to be violent and to kill, that love for their comrades is the power that will trigger the ‘kill’ response when their comrade (or ‘homeland’) is threatened.
West Pointers are also taught that every other means other than violence and destruction should be used to relate to others in peaceful ways; West Pointers are trained to understand and use tools of diplomacy and cultural exchange.
My question is, if US taxpayers invest $400,000 in the education of a West Point grad, and if West Point graduates are trained in the arts of peace as well as of war, with war as the absolute last resort, why is US in such a warlike footing? why aren’t more West Pointers taking charge and waging peace rather than war?
sorry — I guess I got off on a tangent.
It’s something to think about, nevertheless.
“3. The blindness of US Jews”
chosen blindness. Way to hide. Act like you do not know.
The hypocrisy is blinding
4. The Arabs are permanent enemies of the Jews, and cannot be trusted.
what an awesome man. great interview phil.
Hasn’t every president since Hector was a pup expressed his love for Israel, toured Yad Vashem, guaranteed Israel’s security?
How’s it worked out so far?
Obama demanded an end to settlements.
How’d that work out?
I’ve got a mean streak in me a mile wide.
In my opinion, #1 & #2 enable Israelis and American Jews to perpetuate their intransigence. They can be smug and complacent because Mommy will love them unconditionally, and if Mommy ever threatens to dislodge them from the teat of psychological and financial overindulgence, they will bite, and hard.
I suggest that Jews will only develop into authentic, autonomous individuals and a community when Mommy finally says, “Sonnyboy, you are behaving very badly. I hate the way you are behaving. No more love or support or security for you until you grow up.”
What we have in the US is a Reign of Terror.
If you don’t say you love Israel, you lose your job, everything. Nothing is more likely to make people hate a thing than being forced to say you love it.
>> In my opinion, #1 & #2 enable Israelis and American Jews to perpetuate their intransigence.
Without full accountability for crimes committed – both in the past and in the present – coos to Israel about love and security remain a slap in the face for Palestinians.
For Jews to develop into “authentic, autonomous individuals” is fine, but why bother with a “community”. Aren’t the people they live among good enough for them?
this morning nothing on NPR’s Morning Edition about
Korans burnt in West Bank mosque attack
Douglas Hamilton
Beit Fajjar, West Bank— Reuters
Published Monday, Oct. 04, 2010 10:48AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Oct. 04, 2010 10:51AM EDT
Jewish settlers opposed to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians were accused of setting fire to a mosque in the West Bank on Monday, burning the Koran and scrawling threats in Hebrew on its walls.
“Mosques, we burn,” said a warning scribbled at the door of the smoke-smudged mosque of Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem on the day Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for cool heads to avert the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks.
link to theglobeandmail.com
Not a whisper. NPR and the rest of our MSM would be all over it if Palestinians had done the same to a Synagogue. All over it.
The BBC did cover this this morning.
think we will see this picture of the burnt Mosque on MSNBC this evening? Will NPR touch this?
link to allvoices.com
“Well this is a real country. It’s not some projection of what you want it to be, and it has a right to evolve and change…. ”
It’s not a real country. It has no history. It is a system of power based around an army, an economy, an insular language and an ideology.
But it does have a history, this fearsome story of false moral principles and mistaken theology put into action and when put into action sustained by violence inflicted every day and sometimes reaching very high peaks. That may not be enough to create a real country but it’s something very real in itself.
The remarks about Sadat are a bit sentimental. He was seen as someone with whom business could be done in circumstances where there was no fundamental clash of interests. I don’t know that love came into it very much on either side.
To say ‘this person is or is not Jewish, is or is not Israeli, is or is not a settler and therefore cannot be loved’ would be shocking: we’re all of the human race and it’s love that makes the human world go round. But I cannot see that it is right to make specially intense or demonstrative declarations of love and promises of protection towards Israel or Israelis specifically in response to their deeds and ideas, which are so mistaken and harmful. The people who deserve protection and sympathy, I don’t know about love, are not the Israelis but the Palestinians. I see that Mr.Halper has been directing sympathy and protection towards the Palestinians very practically but this is not what the West in general does – and the cry ‘Love Israel!’ reinforces a pattern of Western emotion that does not fit those famous facts on the ground.
Halper’s remark that this is the fishbone in the world’s throat is all too true but I can’t reconcile it with his strange comparison of the Zionist/anti-Zionist debate to obscure disputes of around 1800. Unless we’re being offered yet another version of the ’48 good, 67 bad’ theory which is clearly very attractive but is objectively untenable.
Unless we’re being offered yet another version of the ‘48 good, 67 bad’ theory which is clearly very attractive but is objectively untenable.
Absolutely not. Halper considers Israeli recognition of responsibility for the Nakba and the “absolute right” of Palestinian refugees to return a sine qua non for any viable peace plan.
Halper is absolutely right about that, too
It wouldn’t be very fitting for me to be dismissive of Halper, who’s really doing something, unlike moi, on the Palestinian ground. You clearly have knowledge of his work beyond what’s reported here. However if he’s committed to the ROR, a negation of Zionism, and is not making a radical distinction between 48 and 67, I can’t make sense of his comparison to the debate over Zionism among American Jewish people, which is surely absolutely vital, with a C18/19 debate over Federalism whose arguments few could now rehearse. He actually says ‘Who cares?’ You do and I do, for a start.
MHughes,
Halper cares deeply, and shows it every day. I think he was referring to often-sterile discussions of labels. His point of departure is human rights and equality. He also has two hats, as both activist and political analyst. Sometimes he describes situations he would like to change, although he cannot help but recognise their existence. If you’d like to get a better idea of his approach, most of his articles are available online, although I think they’re a bit scattered.
Too bad the average American has no clue about this fishbone sticking in the world’s throat. Foreign affairs are foreign to them. The most they might bring to register is Arabs are Muslims and Muslims aren’t “like us” or worse, they want to kill Christians. Persia is that little crackpot hitler, and France–is kinda gay. The Jews and the Arabs have been fighting forever. That’s it. On the domestic front, jobs, jobs, jobs; otherwise they feel their country is being taken over by those with horrible values, but they never heard of AIPAC. “What? A pack of what? You a Michigan fan? How about those Bears?” No bone stuck anywhere they can see.
So JH left Minnesota to exercise his “birthright” and then found out to his dismay that his fellow exercisers of the same birthright were not so nice.
So instead of turning around and heading back to MN, he made it his life work to help the world understand these not-sot-nice people and warns us that they’re so powerful, we had better not mess with their psychoses and advocate for a single state.
Halper is little more than (yet) another tedious left gatekeeper who barely disguises his unerring efforts to preserve the exclusive tribal nature of the Zionist entity with a lousy committee to end home demolitions and a standup comedian persona.
lvig,
Is this dismissal of Halper based solely on this interview, or have you read anything by Halper or followed the activities of the ICAHD over the years?
No, he’s not. As well as acting on the ground, he gives talks, educating people about what he does, illustrating the point that he’s not only someone who engages in direct action, but who takes the time to explain those direct actions.
Your comment is rather strange.
lvig,
Watch this interview with Halper in Seattle last May. It’s an hour long, but turn it on and have it play in the background. He can answer your concerns better than someone commenting back to you. Even the first five minutes will answer you:
link to pulsemedia.org
I admire what Jeff Halper is doing with his ICAHD outfit . Deep down however he is a Zionist from the Labor humanist tradition. The kibbutzes used to have them. I went with him on a tour of the Jerusalem suburb of ‘Anata a few years ago and he was very informative about the nearby settlement of “Pisgat Ze’ev” “but there was one thing about his behavior that struck me. The minibus we were in had a Palestinian driver and Halper addressed him in Hebrew. Hebrew is not the language of the Palestinians. It’s the language of the conqueror. The language difference drives everything. It is the fundamental reason why Israeli Jews don’t understand Palestinians.
His autobiography is called “an Israeli in Palestine”. I always thought it should be called “ a Jew in Palestine” . What is “Israeli” if not 100% Jewish ?
I put Halper in the same class as Uri Avnery. Very worthy but still part of the conquering people.
When it all falls apart for Israel , people will look back at people like Halper and say he was right but today the machine is in far deeper and far more dangerous than his analysis.
For real impressive Israelis I tend towards Zochrot .
link to zochrot.org
These are the ones doing the heavy lifting. The work has barely started.
I admire what Jeff Halper is doing with his ICAHD outfit . Deep down however he is a Zionist from the Labor humanist tradition… I put Halper in the same class as Uri Avnery.
Labour Zionists (like Avnery) don’t favour a one-man-one-vote 1ss or support BDS or the ROR of Palestinian refugees. I’ve been following both of them for years (and have participated in protests and other activities sponsored by both groups – Gush Shalom and ICAHD), and there is absolutely no comparison.
Zochrot is fantastic, but Halper is fighting the same fight – Avnery is not.
In its 2006 annual report, Zochrot declared a total income of 280,000 euros and listed the Mennonite Central Committee, Kerkinactie, ICCO, Cimade, CCFD, EPER/HEKS, Broederlijk Delen, Oxfam Solidarity Belgium, Misereor, Medico International, and Zivik as contributors. (From Wiki)
Shmuel
Have you read his autobiography? On page 225 he states clearly that a binational state is a non-starter. “It would be totally opposed by the Israeli Jewish population”. As if that is the final determinant. They already have a binational solution that they vote for in every election and they love it. It’s called apartheid.
If the 2 state solution doesn’t work out “only one other option remains : a regional confederation”. Sorry, that is no different to what Avnery says.
And what is his position on the right of a Palestinian from anywhere to turn up and settle in Israel? As in what he did. For me what grates is his status as a Yank , a sympa one but still a Yank, who can migrate to Israel and call himself an Israeli while 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon and 1.5 million in Gaza are not allowed to do so. And people from Hebron desperate for work get shot trying to enter Jerusalem.
His position on the RoR is on page 217. Repatriation , resettlement and compensation. No different to what Olmert used to talk about.
His autobiography on the back cover starts “without dismissing Israel’s legitimacy”. I see Seham’s today in Palestine posts and what shines through is the hatred – where is the legitimacy? Where was the legitimacy in British India in 1946?
So for me he wants it all. A Zionist Israel and some sort of justice for the Palestinians that will keep them in an inferior position to Jews like him who really own the place. And anyone in LA or Brooklyn who fancies a change of scenery.
Israel chose to gamble everything in 1967. The process is still playing out . We can only say it is unsustainable and cannot say what the eventual consequences will be. I doubt Halper’s vision of a decent Zionism will survive. Decency is not part of the DNA of the ideology.
seafoid,
I haven’t read his book, but have read many of his articles and spoken to him in person. In this article, for example, he blames Israeli “facts on the ground” for the death of the 2ss, as opposed to Israeli druthers, and states that:
His position on ROR is stated in another article, “Framing Principles and Elements: If the Obama Administration Truly Seeks a Breakthrough on the Israel-Palestine Conflict,” Dec. 2008, (commenting on the proposals by Scowcroft and Brezinski):
In other words, he sees technical difficulties in carrying out the ROR (as do many Palestinians, expressed in the PLO position on the subject), but sees recognition of the “absolute right” of return as non-negotiable.
Halper arrived in Israel as a Zionist, and took Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return. When he realised what’s what, he could have picked up and left (as I did), but he chose to remain and fight for justice for Palestinians – using his privileged status as a colonist for the benefit of Palestinians. He is by far the braver and more useful man.
I won’t bore everybody with more quotes, but he talks about Israel’s “permanence”, as something that cannot be undone. That doesn’t stop him however, from advocating an end to Israeli “control”.
I really think you have misjudged him (perhaps due to the confusion between his assessments and his aspirations).
The formatting didn’t come through.
“No right of return into Israel, but compensation and agreements with Arab states for the granting of citizenship” is part of the Scowcroft-Brezinski proposal, with which he disagrees.
If Halper was fluent in Arabic or the driver fluent in English, the choice of Hebrew would have negative political implications. But if Hebrew happened to be the only language they shared, to imply political connotations from its use is narrow minded.
Technically speaking, Israel has two official languages, Hebrew and Arabic. The fact that most Jewish Israelis do not speak Arabic but most non-Jewish Arabic speaking Israelis also speak Hebrew does in fact have political connotations and indicates where the power lies in Israel. To insist that it does NOT have any such implications is narrow minded.
Like most others here, I have tremendous respect and admiration for Jeff Halper. It is difficult to find fault with such a brilliant, committed man, but I’ll give it a try.
Halper said that he personally favors the one-state solution but he is respectful of the fact that world consensus has long supported two states.
I too personally favor the 1ss but would not be too respectful of any world consensus on the issue. I certainly would defer to the wishes of the Palestinians regarding their own fate – if they truly prefer a 2ss to a 1ss. But what if they don’t? World consensus should not be imposed on the Palestinians any more than my opinion. My guess is that Palestinians would be in favor of any solution that is more likely to quickly end Israel’s military rule over them.
But this is just a relatively minor theoretical quibble, since neither solution is imminent. Halper is truly a wonderful man, and surely does not deserve the disrespect he received from lvig and to a lesser extent seafoid, both ably answered by Shmuel.
“[American Jews] can’t have an Israel at peace because that doesn’t do it for them. They need an Israel at war, so they can galvanize their sense of Jewishness around it…”
As I have repeatedly said, Israel is the spiritual center of Zionism, however, the center of Zionist power is the US. American Zionist Jews have much more influence over Israeli actions than commonly recognized, and have a huge stake in what happens to Zionist Israel, the symbolic justification of Zionist organization and power seeking. If it wasn’t for American Zionist Jews, there might not be a Jewish state. Also, without continued American Jewish Zionist support, Israel would likely behave quite differently, possibly becoming an integral part of the Middle East rather than a Eurocentric extension of the US Empire located in the Middle East. Likewise, without a Zionist Jewish state, organized American Jewry would lose it’s unifying ideological symbol. How this would effect the Jewish sense of “people hood” is difficult to say.
As for Halper’s comments on Jewish need for love from their victims, and guarantees of security from the relatively defenseless Palestinians, I agree with Psychopathic god. To put it charitably, Halper seems to have an excessively Israel centered, Jew centered perspective. In view of the power disparity and abuse disparity, I suggest that it would be more appropriate for the entire Israeli leadership to beg forgiveness from the Palestinians. Of course, that won’t happen. Likewise, US Imperial elites are at least as unlikely to acknowledge their horrendous crimes.
Keith, I think you and PsychoGod misinterpret Halper. I don’t see him believing that Israelis are entitled to deferential respect. He sees Israeli intransigence as the stumbling block to a solution, as do you. He suggests that to make the Israelis move, you offer them two carrots – we love you and will guarantee your security – and one stick – the occupation is over. Psycho is right that the fawning repetition of points one and two has gotten nowhere, but Halper’s recipe is to “put massive pressure on Israel” by dictating point 3, while softening the blow with 1 and 2. To me, he is saying “treat the Israelis like children” rather than “show Israelis the love they deserve.” And to say that a guy who devotes his life to protecting a defenseless population from a highly-advanced military machine has “an excessively Israel centered, Jew centered perspective” is a bit unfair. This is not a man who enjoys his ethno-religious privileges, or even one who rejects them from afar like myself; he’s put his body and soul into his passion for Palestinian freedom, and in an unpatronizing manner.
DAVID SAMEL- While I completely agree that Jeff Halper is a wonderful, dedicated human rights activist, I don’t think we should be blind to human bias. Just because I admire him doesn’t mean that I have to agree with him on everything. Human beings are subject to bias based upon a number of factors, group identification being a significant one. I am only somewhat aware of Halper’s positions, and this is just one interview, however, based upon his first two suggested steps to peace, he seems to have a strong Jewish/Israeli identification which is coloring his opinions. His first suggestion about the US President and Palestinian leadership assuring Israeli Jews of our love was offensive, totally insensitive to the Palestinian perspective. Further, his reading of Sadat and Sinai was way off base. Israel only agreed to the Sinai withdrawal after the 1973 war with Egypt, the details mostly concluded prior to Sadat’s symbolic gesture. As for point two, does he mean to imply that what the US has been doing so far isn’t enough? Jeez, give me a break. I see no useful purpose in pandering to cultivated paranoia; we should be disengaging, not providing additional guarantees. If Israel wants real security, they need to make peace with their neighbors rather than continue to be a highly militarized warfare state adjunct of Empire. Am I
misreading Halper? With all due respect to Halper and to you, I am simply taking him at his word and applying a literal interpretation.
Halper isn’t dropping white phosphorous onto kids, he isn’t a settler, and he does want some sort of fairly just resolution that treats the Palestinians as human beings with human rights.
And he is trying to something about it.
That puts him in the camp of the goodies, even if you don’t agree with everything he says.
Halper made Camera’s hit list
link to camera.org
link to camera.org
I think the brilliant, warrior for peace and justice, Jeff Halper is behind the curve here. Of course, Israel is a fact and the old battles of the American Council for Judaism are meaningless today; that’s why it is essentially defunct.
Also true that there is a mainstream American Jewish attitude that will brand Israelis as traitors if they do not hew to the American Jewish line on Israel. (I’ve witnessed that behavior, in public).
However, Jeff missed Phil’s point. The is a growing left movement in Jewish America. In some ways, it is more promising than the remains of the Israeli Left.
Unlike Israelis who have the real Israel, many American Jews know they cannot hold on to the received picture of Israel. Young American Jews are largely turned off Israel-centered Judaism. And, WADR, Leon Uris only exists for people of Jeff’s generation.
And since self-identifying Jews have a relationship to Israel and Israel is in the news, the choice is either to back Israel to the hilt or to come our attacking Israel. That’s what the new anti-Zionists are.
If Jeff want Congress to change he should reach out to young Jewish Americans on his next visit Stateside. And leave Exodus at home.