Things are heating up in anticipation of the Presbyterian Church’s 220th general conference at the end of the month, at which the U.S. church will debate divesting from three companies that do business in the occupation. Two letters follow. The first is from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. It is a “letter in hope” that says that the conflict has hurt both sides. The second is a great response from Lynn Gottlieb. First the JCPA one:
Dear Friends,
We, the undersigned tens of thousands of American Jews and supporters of peace in the Middle East join 1300 rabbis from throughout our country to reach out in hope to our Presbyterian friends and neighbors. We have close relationships, deeply treasured and shaped over many years. We are partners on many social issues including fostering peace between Israelis and Palestinians. We ask you to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in rejecting the counterproductive proposal to selectively divest from certain companies whose products are used by Israel. We feel honored in our hope by the Methodist General Assembly which, after much forethought and debate, decided to oppose such divestment by a 2-1 margin.
These are our feelings. Any place in which a single human being suffers, we all suffer. We know that your concern for the Palestinian people, some of whom are your Christian sisters and brothers, comes from a deep commitment to the alleviation of human pain. There is suffering enough in the land of our common inheritance on both sides of the conflict. A just solution demands peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. We share goals of a just and lasting peace, an end to affliction, a two-state solution, and the protection of the dignity and security of all in the Holy Land. We must marshal our efforts together to bring about this peace.
We understand and respect your calling to invest in a morally responsible manner. A policy of divestment to pressure Israel, however, runs counter to these goals. Such a one-sided approach damages the relationship between Jews and Christians that has been nurtured for decades. It promotes a lopsided assessment of the causes of and solutions to the conflict, disregarding the complex history and geopolitics. Furthermore, it shamefully paints Israel as a pariah nation, solely responsible for frustrating peace.
For Jews, the use of economic leverages against the Jewish state is fraught with inescapable associations. They resonate in the Jewish consciousness with historic boycotts against Jewish companies and the State of Israel. They are experienced by Jews as part of a pattern of singling out Jews for attack. To determine and continue policies that knowingly tap into the deepest fears and pain of another is, in our tradition, a serious failure of relationship.
Divestment, and the specious Apartheid terminology that frequently accompanies it, polarizes people and communities so that the policy of divestment, and not peace, becomes the central issue. Divestment will undermine the ability of many Israelis to imagine peace. Decades of terrorism and rejection have left Israelis feeling threatened and isolated. Many of the major proponents of divestment do not support Israel’s right to exist – thus deepening this fear. Divestment as a policy is more likely to encourage those with more extreme aims than to foster reconciliation. Simply put, the bitter debate over divestment drowns out the real conversation about how to end the conflict.
At a time when politics in general have become so divisive, here and abroad, our efforts should be aimed toward reconciliation. Together and independently, Christians, Jews, and Muslims must give the parties to the conflict the confidence they need to move toward peace. There are many meaningful coexistence programs that are necessary to foster a generation of Israelis and Palestinians that will work and live side-by-side – moving past the teaching of hate and the resort to violence. As leaders of the Jewish and Protestant communities we need to deepen our understandings of the multiple narratives in the region.
We recognize the urgency of these efforts and the frustration on all sides with achieving our lofty goals. Our collective voices can play an instrumental role, working with the American government and others, to help Israeli, Palestinian, and other Middle Eastern leaders to prevent violence and attacks on civilians, support Palestinian state-building and economic development, promote positive investment opportunities, provide humanitarian aid through appropriate channels, protect existing agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and, most importantly, encourage a resumption of negotiations among the parties toward a two-state agreement that will help bring about peace, which is at the core of our traditions. We recommit to such efforts, independent of any other matter.
Yet quite honestly, were American Christian denominations to indict only Jews and Israel for the conflict with the Palestinians, they would justify the violence perpetrated against Israeli civilians – including children – as the unfortunate result of Israel’s unilateral guilt. In other words, Israeli victims would be responsible for their own suffering. Frankly, such a representation is anything but an expression of friendship and common purpose, and it would replace the closeness and comfort the Jewish community feels in existing relationships with distance, distrust, and disappointment.
The Scriptures that bind us reveal that G-d created all of us in the divine image – human dignity and equality is a core value of Jewish and Christian traditions. Further, our traditions call upon us to be peacemakers. In Hebrew, the word Shalom doesn’t just mean “peace” but wholeness and completeness. Peace comes about by our labors to complete the work of creation. We must work towards the day when every human is granted the dignity, security, and beneficence that is the promise of the created universe.
After the letter was circulated by Rachel Eryn Kalish, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb responded:
Dear Eryn,
I appreciate your peace-making work, but I cannot sign this letter opposing PCUSA’s effort to make selective divestment official church policy. I have written many statements detailing my support for selective divestment and BDS. You can find them on the JVP and F.O.R. websites.
Eryn, your letter, like the letter signed by 1200 rabbis, is deeply flawed in its rationale. Palestinians and not Jews are the targets of systematic violence by Israel. This is what your letter fails to grasp or acknowledge: the systematic violence of Israel’s military occupation is driving the conflict.
It is naive to think that any serious struggle against systematic state violence and military occupation can be won by instituting co-existence projects alone. First of all, such projects are limited by the structural problems that occupation imposes on the entire population of Palestine such as the lack of freedom of movement, the inability to export and the system of permits to name a few. Secondly, people who are victims of systematic violence have the right to determine their own methods of resistance. Gandhian methods of conflict transformation embrace both noncooperation and constructive peace building. Palestinians are engaged in both, as are Presbyterians in relationship to the conflict. Selective divestment is a form of noncooperation that targets the system of occupation. Palestinians have chosen this method of nonviolent struggle. It’s a no brainer.
Most Jews and Christians are not willing to go to Palestine to personally resist Israeli policies of land confiscation, home demolition, destruction of trees and property, military invasion, denial of freedom of movement, administrative detention or the arrest of children through nonviolent protest. Most Jews and Christians do not travel to Israel to work for an end to the blockade of Gaza and are not shot when they try to harvest their wheat or fish in the sea. Gazans have 6 hours of electricity a day which means there is virtually no refridgeration. Are you suggesting that humanitarian aid is a solution to Israel’s policy of occupation? Occupation is a form of structural violence. One side has access to water, the other side does not due to occupation policy. If you advocate a project to dig wells, for instance, you will be severely limited by the inability of Palestinians to dig a deep enough well to access water, even if you pay for the pump. This is what selective divestment addresses: the structural violence of occupation. Selective divestment places pressure on companies doing business with Israel to advocate for change or stop doing business.
As someone who lived through the Civil Rights Movement in America, I learned that it was noncooperation in the form of direct action, such as the Montgomery bus boycott, that provided the real push for change. White people who rode the Freedom Bus, joined in voter registration, walked for desegregation and joined the African American community in jail helped end the violent system of legalized segregation. One only has to read the letter MLK wrote to dissenting clergy while he sat in the Birmingham jail to understand this point. At the time, working for peace and justice meant that white people who wanted to be allies to the effort of ending segregation had to be willing to sit in jail. Struggling together in this way was an authentic act of love. Today, supporting selective divestment is an act of love and faith and hope. It is not an act that offends me or makes me feel unjustly targeted as a Jew. The opposite. Selective divestment is a form of nonviolent direct action that is aligned with my values as a person committed to Jewish nonviolence and the way I understand my tradition. One should not profit from anything produced through violent means. If your retirement fund is made fatter because you have money invested in Caterpillar, you should divest. Not to do so is violating Jewish law. Why can’t you invest in peace and divest in violence at the same time?
Those of us in the Jewish community who believe in co-existence respectfully disagree with the idea that selective divestment is harmful to Jewish Christian relationships. My experience is totally different. The divestment work Jews, Muslims and Christians do together across religious, cultural and racial boundaries has strengthened our relationships, not weakened them. I applaud the PCUSA in their effort to institute a policy of selective divestment.
May we love each other on the way toward ending occupation and establishing good relations. I pray that a sustainable peace comes quickly in our day.
Respectfully,
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb
“For Jews, the use of economic leverages against the Jewish state is fraught with inescapable associations. They resonate in the Jewish consciousness with historic boycotts against Jewish companies and the State of Israel.”
And that is why at every step of the way the sociopathic leaders of Zionism have used the unspeakable historic suffering of the Jewish people as a cover to further their oppression of the Palestinians. I heard that same Spiel 12 years ago in London. “Please don’t boycott Israel. It will remind us of the 30s” . And what followed? Defensive Shield, the war in Lebanon, Cast Lead, white phosphorous, the sige of Gaza, 2 flotillas, Furkun Dogan, Tom Hurndall, Juliano Mer Khamis, Rachel Corrie .
“Simply put, the bitter debate over divestment drowns out the real conversation about how to end the conflict.”
Obama gave the answer. The window has been closed. The conflict has ended and the Palestinians have been declared Untermenschen.
really, seafoid, what’s the death and displacment of palestinians compared to the unsettling psychological associations dreamt up by someone living in manhattan? have you no sense of proportion?
I was gonna comment, but Seafoid and marc b. have said it all. cheers.
EXACTLY.
Sorry to shout, but I’m so damn tired of “shoot and whine.”
“Don’t remind us we’re oppressing people, it offends our sensibilities!”
It’s nauseating. Abusing the Holocaust as a shield for crimes against humanity… there are no words for that kind of depravity.
“”For Jews, the use of economic leverages against the Jewish state is fraught with inescapable associations. They resonate in the Jewish consciousness with historic boycotts against Jewish companies and the State of Israel. They are experienced by Jews as part of a pattern of singling out Jews for attack. To determine and continue policies that knowingly tap into the deepest fears and pain of another is, in our tradition, a serious failure of relationship.”‘
Save the bull s*** boys……..we’ve heard this victimhood whine a million times used in a million different excuses.
It’s worn out.
People are choosing to believe their own eyes.
And good for Gottlieb.
“Save the bull s*** boys”
Yes. I read this and I wonder, do they use this lame “we are always victims” crap because 1) it’s worked in the past because of misplaced guilt, 2) they really are world-class wusses or 3) they think the rest of us are stupid? Or is it a combination of the three?
The reply by Gottlieb was superb. The systematic nature of the evil is what defines the occupation. The system is designed by Jews and run by Jews for Jews and is also kosher lemehadrin.
And that’s why it is so toxic for Judaism. It is only because people do not know about or even worse, do not WANT to know about it that it continues. Judaism is like a family where the beloved uncle who is such a feature at the annual family gathering, about whom the older relatives speak with such pride in their voices, is actually a child molester. But nobody wants to make a fuss. And they are kids nobody cares about anyway, mostly from Camden NJ.
“Judaism is like a family where the beloved uncle who is such a feature at the annual family gathering, about whom the older relatives speak with such pride in their voices, is actually a child molester. But nobody wants to make a fuss. And they are kids nobody cares about anyway, mostly from Camden NJ.”
That’s a vicious simile (literally and figuratively), but your point is taken. It’s horrible, really, to think about the things that are rationalized for the sake of Israel’s “right to exist.”
The JCPA letter says, “… were American Christian denominations to indict only Jews and Israel for the conflict with the Palestinians, they would justify the violence perpetrated against Israeli civilians – including children – as the unfortunate result of Israel’s unilateral guilt.”
We indict the ones who are guilty. We indict the Israeli Jewish supporters of this Apartheid, their American enablers, and Zionists in general for all the violence perpetrated against Palestinians by Israel. We will not be kept from speaking out against oppression of the Palestinians by Zionist propaganda organizations that try to claim that Jews, rather than Palestinians, are the victims in this conflict.
Yes it was and then I was reminded that this was a debate about something so trivial that it is utterly meaningless.
I won’t wven comment in the first letter because of it’s pateny a surdirt. My question is to Gottlieb and how he expects boycott only of the settlements to yield any outcome other than a symbolic one? As was mentioned I another thread criticizing Beinardt’s argument, the economy of the settlements are so emerged with Israel proper, that any such boycott is inconsequential.
I can’t help but feel that people like Gottlieb are still taking on the role of gatekeepers.
Woody,
I think it’s a combination of the three. lol
Woody, stupid, uneducated, and also willfully ignorant. Why shouldn’t the average American be as easily manipulated by his or her government and media than any other people? Well, yes, tradition of free press, democracy, and now we have the internet as a way to go beyond mainstream news propaganda too. Seems the answer to your question is a combination of half literally below average in brain power, and half willfully ignorant.
“we need to deepen our understandings of the multiple narratives in the region” .
Multiple narratives my ass.
Israel is doing a great evil to the Palestinians and there is no other narrative.
There was no positive spin to what the Pharoah did back in the day, unless they have changed those Jewish holidays since last night.
Yes, seafoid, the American mainstream news media, literary and Art circles, and Hollywood and our Congress has really been so helpful in deepening the average American’s understanding of the multiple narratives in the region. I noticed that the former ABC top executive, David Westin, a shabbas goy if there ever was one, in his book Exit Interview, distinguished for young budding journalists that there is normalcy versus personal bias–he’s an aging white shoe lawyer, yet still does not see that “normalcy” is not to be conflated with objectivity, whether in thepast or present.
“divestment from occupation ‘taps into our deepest fears’”
The occupation is evil. It will bring a civil war to Judaism, most likely.
And standing up to it should be the job of every Jewish Mensch.
Of course the other reading is that “Our deepest fears” involve waking up one morning and realising that the goys have figured out that Zionism is a crock of sh@t and that as a consequence the bots can go and diplomatically and economically fend for themselves for a change.
@ Seafoid:
“The occupation is evil. It will bring a civil war to Judaism, most likely.
And standing up to it should be the job of every Jewish Mensch.”
Absolutely right. Just today Avraham Burg published a large article in a Dutch daily concluding BDS is an obligation for every Jew to help prevent Israel from going down in multiple ways. And yes — civil war is one of them.
Also appeared in English in The Independent: Avraham Burg: Even I – an Israeli – think settlement goods are not kosher:
Dutch version in Trouw is here: Actie tegen ‘Made in Israel’-etiket is juist in het belang van Israël. (But there’s no need to read it in Dutch if you’ve read it in English. The Dutch version just says the same things. Unless you’re interested in reading the comments under the Dutch version.)
Burg’s piece has also appeared in French in Le monde: Oui à un “made in Israel” n’incluant pas les colonies. (Interesting that Le monde calls the Occupied Territories “colonies”.) Again, Le monde has comments below the article.
I guess “colonies” in Le monde refers to the settlements. Still, it’s an interesting choice of words.
“Of course the other reading is that “Our deepest fears” involve waking up one morning and realising that the goys have figured out that Zionism is a crock of sh@t”…seafoid
LOL…I think we’ve already figured that out…..now we’re trying to figure a way to get rid of the sh@t.
When I read the first letter, my immediate response was “Hey, I thought Witty was banned!”
I thought it sounded exactly like that also Koshiro!
In particular it was the florid use of motherhood statements, a favourite Witty tactic…
Otherwise if was just plain old lies (hasbara) and emotional blackmail.
Rabbi Gottleib’s response letter was great.
“Divestment will undermine the ability of many Israelis to imagine peace.”
They’ve had 65 years to imagine. Time’s up.
“To determine and continue policies that knowingly tap into the deepest fears and pain of another is, in our tradition, a serious failure of relationship.”
See a shrink for your fears. What you did to the Palestinians was worse, according to your ‘tradition’.
“To determine and continue policies that knowingly tap into the deepest fears and pain of another is, in our tradition, a serious failure of relationship.”
-JCPA
So, Presbyterians and Jews should pretend that they agree that Israel has God on its side so that they can continue to enjoy their “close relationships, deeply treasured and shaped over many years.”? This is insulting and patronizing to the Presbyterians.
Far from fostering “close relationships”, the effort spent on asking Presbyterians to abandon a principled stand for justice in deference to the wishes of Zionists claiming to speak for the Jewish people is a good way to sour those close relationships.
“My experience is totally different. The divestment work Jews, Muslims and Christians do together across religious, cultural and racial boundaries has strengthened our relationships, not weakened them.”
Rabbi Gottlieb
Rabbi Gottlieb got it right. Inter faith collaboration on social justice issues strengthens bonds of trust, compassion and love beween people of different faiths -a truly transcendent bond.
Well said, Rabbi Gottlieb! Very powerful advocacy. I hope Rabbi Gottlieb sent a version of this to the Presbys.
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb’s response is excellent.
The letter drafted by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs illustrates how shallow their understanding is of what is really taking place in the Israeli occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
Or, perhaps they do know very well what is taking place, but choose to feign naivete.
Either way, I’m glad that the good rabbi has taken the time to do what is right.
That first, Dear Friends letter with the violins in the background had me convinced for a few seconds, my god their good at manipulation.
Member organizations of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs include the Jewish Labor Committee and Jewish War Veterans. If the Council is a mouthpiece of Jewish neocons does this mean that the Jewish Labor Committee opposes Occupy Wall Street. Does this mean the Jewish War Veterans support springing Israel’s spy, Jonathan Pollard, from prison? Or is the Council a rubber stamp to be used at will by the Israel Lobby.
So a man walks down the street when he witnesses a rape scene unfolding. As it turns out, the rapist is his brother. When bystanders attempt to intervene (and by God, they are not even attempting to stop the rape but just tap the rapist on the shoulder and tell him that what he’s doing is not so nice), the man pleads with them to listen to both sides and to encourage the rapist and the rape victim to overcome their differences. He reminds them that the situation is complex and they may be hurting the rapist’s feelings if they tell him that raping is not such a nice thing to do. Moreover, he tells them that trying to stop the rape would hurt his own feelings and their great friendship. That they are intervening just because the rapist is Jewish….etc.etc.etc.
That letter is another case of turning the Palestinian human rights struggle into hand-wringing over the feelings of Jews; making it about the oppressor rather than the oppressed, while obfuscating the actual power relation by exploiting WWII-era victimhood that is completely unrelated to Palestinians. (WWII has really become the go-to reference for justifying all kinds of warmongering crap.)
There’s also the call for reconciliation on the oppressor’s terms — first we learn to get along, and then maybe we can fix your problem, which means that Palestinians have to assent to the current situation before even hoping for an improvement. This is just an extension of the Israeli practice of demanding that Palestinians meet certain conditions before negotiating — the onus is on the Palestinians to make themselves presentable for Israel to consider not shooting/bulldozing/expropriating them.
It’s good that the response first starts by knocking down that obfuscation: Palestinians and not Jews are the targets of systematic violence by Israel. This is what your letter fails to grasp or acknowledge: the systematic violence of Israel’s military occupation is driving the conflict. Only afterwards does it go to the we-can-work-together part, which isn’t a bad thing but doesn’t address the reconciliation nonsense by itself, and can even play into it. This isn’t about some kind of awkward cohabitation between Jews and Muslims where they need to learn how to live together. In fact that will only become the issue to work through in a single state, so the JCPA should start supporting the 1SS any time now (hohoho!)
Can anyone help but be inspired by Israel Defense Forces? With over six decades of defending the Jewish People (and all lovers of liberty) behind them, they have proven themselves over and over again to be one of the finest and most moral fighting forces in history.
link to judaicawebstore.com
Dear Les:
The Jewish War Veterans of the USA are in favor of springing Jonathan Pollard from prison. Check this out.
Pollard did more damage to this country than any other spy, including the Rosenbergs and should have been wasted 25 years ago!! What was good for the Rosenbergs, should be also good for Pollard.
Why waste millions of taxpayer dollars feeding him, supply a confy cell and all other benefits. He deserved not one, but a thousand deaths.
“Yet quite honestly, were American Christian denominations to indict only Jews and Israel for the conflict with the Palestinians, they would justify the violence perpetrated against Israeli civilians – including children – as the unfortunate result of Israel’s unilateral guilt. In other words, Israeli victims would be responsible for their own suffering. ”
This is a strange argument for a group supposedly opposed to terrorism to make. So if someone does blame Side A for the conflict, it would “justify” violence against Side A’s civilians? I think they are, without realizing it, describing the mentality of Israel supporters who blame the Palestinians and therefore justify atrocities like the Gaza War.
I am impressed by the fact that the letter against selective divestment approaches actual incoherence. We will see more of that kind of Orwellian doubletalk.
As I have been saying for some time, and continue to say, the situation regarding Israel and its proxies is not about politics, or even of geopolitics. It is about pathology. Until we have a moral psychology that can grapple with the problem of evil, the madness will continue to accelerate.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs sounds like a snake and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb like a mensch.
We need a million american jews like Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and the battle is already decided.
However, where are those who remember the Holocaust with its terror and their decendents? Do they not see that now jews do exactly the same? Mobs on the streets attacking those who look different, rabbies telling their people not to rent to arabs, israelis arming thenselves with nuclear weapons for “defense”. Defense against whom? Besides, nuclear weapons cannot be used defensively, they are used to kill large number of people in a great distance, mostly civilians. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki with no military importance.