This is part two of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Just a few days after I arrived at the Cape, as a rocket was lifting off nearby my apartment, the news of Yitzhak Shamir’s death crossed the wires. When a rocket lifts off, I hear the rumble in my apartment. It’s so loud, the apartment shakes. It’s feels like a minor earthquake, at least that’s the sensation as I hear it from others who live in earthquake zones.
At first, I experienced Shamir’s death as an afterthought. As in, is he still around? But in his prime Shamir was important. As Prime Minister of Israel in the late 1980s, early 1990s, Shamir sealed the deal against a Palestinian state. Under his leadership, the settlement explosion in Jerusalem and the West Bank continued. Then he ordered the crushing of the first Palestinian Uprising which was carried out courtesy of his cabinet minister and recently minted saint, Yitzhak Rabin. On crushing Palestinian aspirations, the right and left-wing of Israeli parties have always come together. Rhetoric differs. Actions are virtually identical.
Shamir was an early and controversial terrorist against the British in Mandate Palestine. At his order, executions were commonplace. His early career as a terrorist didn’t disqualify him from political leadership in the state of Israel. On the contrary, his terrorist credentials promoted it. Like the other Prime Ministers before and after him.
Who of the early Prime Ministers of Israel could have served if terrorism or ethnic cleansing disqualified them? This includes Rabin who was honest enough to admit his role in “removing” Palestinians from their homes to create a Jewish state. There is no use singling him out though. The whole pantheon of Israel’s heroes is involved. This answers the current question I’m often asked as to whether Jews can be ethnic cleansers. Since Jews have experienced similar horrors so often at other’s hands, it seems like a contradiction. Like the mezuzah on the door post?
As I say, in history practice trumps theory. In theory, Jews cannot be ethnic cleansers. In fact, we are. Can Jews participate in ethnic cleansing? The answer – “Yes.”
I remember Shamir vividly because I was often on the road during those years speaking on the Palestinian Uprising. For me the Uprising was our last possibility as Jews to forge an ethical future. Israel and Jews around the world faced a clarion call: “Stop oppressing the Palestinian people!” The Jewish response (at least from those in power): “Crush them! Teach the Arabs a lesson in the only way they know – through force.”
That was part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s eulogy of Shamir. His refrain, more or less: “The Arabs are as they are. Does this also mean: “The Jews are as they are?” How often this is said about Jews. Now we specialize in saying it about others. Curiously, we seem to have become what we say others are. We have become frozen into the image and reality of empire builders and enablers. Without admitting this to ourselves, of course. This is what Shamir was. What Netanyahu is. Is this our fate as Jews? Is this what our history boils down to?
Traveling during these years, I had the sense that this was our last chance to turn around. Today I am even more certain that the Uprising years were the last possibility. Shamir wanted to close that door shut, tighter than tight. He did.
Another memory during those Uprising years. Wherever I went to speak the most hostile groups, especially at universities, were progressive Jews. They also wanted to close the door shut, tighter than tight, on any Jewish dissent that was to the left of them.
This is a lesson we should ponder. The problem wasn’t only the identifiable ethnic cleansers of Palestinians. They knew what they had done and why. One might even admire their clarity while disagreeing with their policies. Shamir didn’t have a doubt in his mind that what he did was right.
If progressive Jews have second thoughts, they keep them to themselves. They want everyone else to keep it to themselves as well. Thus they are part of the problem. Progressive Jews fought against views that might have substantively addressed the Israel/Palestine issue. Examples abound from that time period. They were against: cutting off American aid to Israel; sending Witness for Peace delegations into the occupied territories; criticism of the Oslo Accords as too limited. What is now commonly held sometimes even by them, progressive Jews labeled anti-Semitic and self-hating.
The ethnic cleansing/permanent occupation facts on the ground left the station decades ago. So why, oh why, can’t progressive Jews admit it? My own sense is that they are so involved in American and Israeli empire, so deeply dependent on and benefitting from it, that like other Jews they are blind to what has already occurred to the Jewish ethical tradition. Instead, they invoke that tradition at every turn. Even against those Jews who believe that its very invocation covers over its violation.
I don’t exempt myself from this critique. How can I? Jews identity today is characterized by imperial sensibilities to such an extent that they are invisible to us. As in, who me? Us? No way.
Imperialism has penetrated so deeply into the core of what it means to be Jewish that calling them out provokes an intense reaction. It’s like a traumatic wound that cannot withstand the light of day. Like the idea that Jewish history has collapsed and that our post-Holocaust era is marked by atrocity, then – against us – and now – against others.
We live in the Golden Age of Empire Judaism. Shall we hide ourselves from this knowledge? Traveling globally, it’s like a secret known all over the world block. The question is our own awakening. To know and speak what is already known. By others. By us.
Thanks for your perceptive observations Marc. In the same way that a segment of the American Jewish population seems to be stuck in a past where anti-semitism lurks around every corner, Israel seems to be regressing as well. The “security fence” reminds me of the city walls that were built in antiquity
They rejected partition, they wanted a Mongolian total war, they got it. It was a cleanse or be cleansed war, apologies for winning, and it still is. Between the Jewish tradition of being a “protected” minority and what you call “the Golden Age of Empire Judaism”, you choose the former, but the majority of Jews don’t. You talk about forging an ethical future, but we wouldn’t have a future to forge of any kind without our empire, ask the Bund.
Shamir called Bibi “an angel of destruction”.
Rafi
do you have any hobbies?
“It was a cleanse or be cleansed war, apologies for winning, and it still is.”
Really?
I think you just made the author’s point. Ever heard of the Geneva Conventions? What century are you living in?
yes, chinese box, and just think, “It was a cleanse or be cleansed war” right on the heels of the Nuremberg Trials, which outlawed such a thing, “and still is.”
In a less hypocritical world, a bunch of Israelis would be tried, and a few dozen US neocons too. Then hanged.
“They rejected partition”
That is convenient. So Israeli misconduct is excused if this claim is true.
In general, morality is based on the idea of a similar set of rules and standards applying to everyone. What exactly was the value of the property taken from the Palestinians in 1948? Is that a standard that everyone or anyone should accept?
“You talk about forging an ethical future, but we wouldn’t have a future to forge of any kind without our empire, ask the Bund.”…Rafi
Such, such, such as fool you are. You do not understand that the world’s tiny Jewish population has no future with Israel’s evil ‘Empire’. Your empire is totally based on America’s empire, not your own and you are foolish to think that will last forever.
You should pay attention to what Marc is telling you, that is the only way you will continue to exist…and even then it’s doubtful you will be entirely forgiven such evil hypocrisy.
It’s becoming more and more obvious no one can stop you from self destructing so I guess it’s a waste of our energy to keep warning you away from what you are doing.
Welcome Rafi. You appear new to Mondoweiss. When you say “they” do you mean Ben Gurion, Begin and Shamir?
They didn’t want to give their country to a cult of aliens. And they were right.
Shamir was an early and controversial terrorist against the British in Mandate Palestine. At his order, executions were commonplace.
Not cool.
For me the Uprising was our last possibility as Jews to forge an ethical future.
I think it still exists if they change.
We have become frozen into the image and reality of empire builders and enablers. Without admitting this to ourselves, of course.
Maybe you are wrong. What about the many people who equate empire with “Civilization”? Don’t they recognize this and like it?
Ancient Rome is considered “civilization”, yet its oppression of subject nations (like Judea) and people it outlawed (like Christians) was extremely brutal and uncivilized. So just because a group considers itself glad to serve empire and “civilization” doesn’t really mean it is ethical after all.
I admit that Jews have the capacity to be ethnic cleasnsers. They won’t shut me up, whether on here, or on Facebook, or in a Jewish neighborhood. They can’t pay me any amount to keep me quiet.
Not just jews.
“the Jewish ethical tradition”
I keep seeing this mentioned.
RoHa, where, in the Talmud? Not in Kant, nor in The Enlightenment.
I see people on this site mentioning it.
The Talmud is some 5200 pages long. How many pages of it, have you studied? But I think despite its richness the Talmud’s wisdoms are too interspersed with negative un-wisdoms to cite it as the source for Jewish social consciousness. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos are usually cited as the Jewish sources of Jewish social consciousness.
Have you read it all, fredman? The scrubbed English version available to all?
I agree with the wisdoms and “un-wisdoms.” And, how many angels are on the head of a pin is simply exercise in debate, not that that’s a bad thing. The bipolar world view re ethics in it, the double standard, is not highly praised today, at least in public. Koran has some similar problems.
Citizen- No, I haven’t read it all, but I’ve probably read 100 to 300 times as much as you. You think because you’ve read 3 pages worth of quotes of the evil stuff you can diss it. You can diss it, as in freedom of speech. But you can’t diss it, as in pretending to be knowledgeable, when in fact you ain’t.
And unlike Christianity that limits the world to come to people who are saved by their belief in Jesus, the Talmud grants the world to come to all good people. So there are pluses and minuses in all the top 3 monotheistic religions.
I think the enlightenment is the cat’s meow and it is the way forward, if indeed we head forward. but to ignore the social consciousness of the prophets and focus on the ugly Talmud and therefore there ain’t nothing in that Jewish book and the Jewish practice that added to human consciousness is ignorant and biased.
Thank you so much for your writing and your voice here at Mondoweiss, Marc. I deeply appreciate it.
I do believe that the Jewish Federation must be held accountable. This is becoming increasingly obvious, as they associate with the likes of Pamela Gellar these days. But how long have they promoted the blue boxes of the Jewish National Fund? How long has the Israeli Consulate been meeting with the Jewish National Fund, with AIPAC, and with the Jewish Federation?
Another question I do find myself pondering more these days, particularly living in Philadelphia, is the resilience of white supremacy in United States (which I see as synonymous with W.Jones idea of “civilization”), as manifested in our support of the state of Israel, the prison-industrial and military-industrial complexes, and the genocide of the indigenous people of America.
RE: “That was part of Benjamin Netanyahu’s eulogy of Shamir. His refrain, more or less: The Arabs are as they are. . .” ~ Marc Ellis
MY COMMENT: Like father, like son!
SEE: “The Dilemmas of Israeli Power”, by Roger Cohen, New York Times Op-Ed, 2/13/12
ENTIRE OP-ED – link to nytimes.com
* P.S. Bibi Netanyahu is a racist!
Bibi Netanyahu’s father is a racist!
Bibi Netanyahu’s son is a racist!
SEE – “Bibi’s Father’s Answer to the ‘Arab Problem’: Hang’ Em in the Town Square”, By Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 4/04/09
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to richardsilverstein.com
AND SEE: “Netanyahu Family’s Racist History: Like Father, Like Son”, By Richard Silverstein, 07/12/11
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to richardsilverstein.com
P.P.S. AS TO ISRAELI RACISM MORE GENERALLY. . .
. . . SEE: “Board member of MEMRI– beneficiary of State Department grant– seems to approve racist claptrap”, By Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, 8/15/11
SOURCE – link to mondoweiss.net
AND SEE: “Anti-African Hysteria Sweeps Israel”, by Uri Avnery, Counterpunch, 6/15/12
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to counterpunch.org
AND SEE: “MK Danny Danon: Latest in Racist Legislative Fashion” ~ by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 12/05/11
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to richardsilverstein.com
AND SEE: “On racism, Foreign Ministry worried about image, not reality”, by Yossi Gurvitz, +972 Magazine, 6/13/12
Diplomats warn that reports of Israeli attitudes and acts towards refugees may harm Israel’s image, ignoring the acts themselves.
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to 972mag.com
AND SEE: “Ilan Pappé: the boycott will work, an Israeli perspective” ~ Ceasefire Magazine, 6/16/12
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to ceasefiremagazine.co.uk
AND SEE: “Academic claims Israeli school textbooks contain bias” ~ By Harriet Sherwood, guardian.co.uk, 8/07/11
Nurit Peled-Elhanan of Hebrew University says textbooks depict Palestinians as ‘terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers’
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to guardian.co.uk
• VIDEO of interview with Peled-Elhanan (08:48) – link to youtube.com
P.P.P.S. ALSO SEE: Is Change possible in Israel? (VIDEO, 07:49) – link to youtube.com
Prof. Haim Bresheeth tries to answer this question – why can some Israelis change, and support the Palestinian cause, but change seems elusive in Israel? Should we wait and hope for such change?
I agree when you write: “Progressive Jews fought against views that might have substantively addressed the Israel/Palestine issue… They were against… sending Witness for Peace delegations into the occupied territories”.
The organization “Witness for Peace” says on their website that they focus on Latin America, so I think you don’t mean that. Instead, it seems to me that you mean the Ecumenical Accompaniment program, which describes itself as “A Christian Witness for Peace in Israel and PA”, or that you mean Jewish Witnesses for Peace.
In any case, it seems that sending Witness for Peace delegations is important- obviously if someone is being mistreated, then having witnesses there makes mistreatment less likely. And if mistreatment is reduced, then there is a cycle of lowering mistreatment, since the opposite is true: a cycle of increasing mistreatment. It seems that with increased efforts at peace, one side helping the other can lead to reconciliation.
Therefore, if witnesses for peace are being banned from the main area in conflict, then it seems that it also hurts views that would have substantially addressed the conflict, as you say.