Below are a string of amazing and taboo ideas I have plucked from a paper by Israeli Ofra Yeshua-Lyth, formerly a journalist, that attacks Zionist "dogma" on demographic issues and the Jewish state, and that was presented at this summer's Haifa conference on the right of return and for a secular democratic state in Palestine:
[In Israel a] deep nostalgic commitment to the preservation of "thousand years old Jewish existence" is… led by an educated, sophisticated and prosperous elite which considers the present mess the country is in a necessary unpleasantness which comes with the need, the privilege and the duty to preserve the sacred "Jewish Majority" in a
political territorial entity. [Hey, that nostalgia is held by the Jewish elite in the U.S., too, and it's even more nostalgic for them 'cause most have only seen Jerusalem in coffee table books]
This commitment leads to a legal system that blatantly accords
positive discrimination to Jews at the expense of non-Jews by the state
of Israel…
…there is no way round the understanding, that the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is basically a religious conflict. This,
incidentally, is something Israeli secular Jews find very hard to
accept. [Yes, we always hear it's a dispute over land]
The Israeli Jewish state in its present formation is doomed to be
forever haunted by a self-afflicted demographic phobia. Jewish
demographic inferiority is built into the Jewish Orthodox teaching….
The Two States Solution – which is non-viable anyway – is at most a
program for the creation of two very unpleasant, mutually hostile,
political entities.
Presently, only one state exists in the area between the Jordan
River and the Sea, in the area Jews call Israel and Arabs know as
Palestine. Surely the most efficient, effective way to improve life for
the millions who live in this area goes through reforming and
correcting this state, opening it up to all the inhabitants under its
military and sovereign control. [radical, huh; in the west we call this democracy]
Secular, liberal, Israeli Jews should be the first to be interested
in a paradigm shift away from the present politics of confrontational
religious ideology. [Americans too!]…
Unfortunately it seems almost impossible to even open for discussion
the super-taboo of preserving a "Jewish State" at all cost. The
"secularity" of Israeli Jews is peculiarly limited and stops short at
important rituals which are part of the self-segregating Jewish
mechanisms:
[And American Jews are equally invested in this very religious claim, even as they mock and seek to isolate Christians who inject their mumbojumbo into American politics]
–Most secular Israeli Jews condemn mixed marriages.
[Yeshua-Lyth isn't hysterical about assimilation]
…Leading cultural icons produce artistically worthy anti-nationalistic, anti-militaristic works but stay loyal to the basic Zionist ideology supporting a "Jewish State" and opposing the idea of secular democracy (e.g. …novels by David Grossman and Amos Oz). [a wonderful piece of hypocrisy]..
Open discussions on the subject of "A State for All its Citizens", or of giving up the Zionist model in favor of a democratic and secular one is presently not an option in the Israeli Jewish society. The media and the political system are effectively blocking such ideas…. [and I thought it was just our media!]…
Tell an Israeli Jew that "a Jewish State has turned out to be a bad idea for the Jews" and chances are he or she would nod and accept this as a cliché… [Now ask the Palestinians the same question, hon]
One should also bear in mind that in the history of Zionism, the
present mode of "Jewish State" with special privileges to Jews at the
expense of others had not always been the only one. Very different
models were considered feasible and worthy…
One political entity is the only true solution if one wishes to see peaceful civil existence between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. The way to establish this One State must go through a deep reform of the present political entity controlling this area, which is the state of Israel.
[And a deep reform of American Jewry, which is invested in the religiosity of a place most of them have never been to]…
Turning Israel into a secular and democratic state is a first step towards offering equal rights and civil equality to all those who live in the areas under Israeli rule. Correcting historical wrongs and returning rights of residency and ownership to the former inhabitants should take place within the new political entity that should belong to all its citizens.
This is the sort of paper that can blow a young Jew's mind, back here in the States. Pass it around! And speaking of paradigm shifts and non-shifts, here is today's piece on Livni in the New York Times where the reporter neutrally speaks of Israel's efforts to rid itself of its demographic demons so as "to preserve Israel as a Jewish democratic state." Is that an honorable discourse? Tell me why? Oh it's hard to make arrangements with yourself… (Thanks to Chris Varley for the tip.)
