One of the goals of J Street in its campaign against extremist settlers and the
Hebron Fund is to cause a divide in Jewish culture. Itâs very frontal of J Street, and must
be celebrated. Theyâre calling out the settlers and their American supporters and trying to isolate them
culturally and politically, so as to bring about the late, great two-state
solution.
A few weeks ago, Adalah held a demonstration outside the Hebron Fund fundraiser in New York, a protest I
guess J Street will be joining next year, and Aaron Levitt refused to shake hands
with a Chabadnik who was at the fundraiser, because in Levitt's view, the guy regarded Palestinians as mere flesh but was willing to shake the hand of a
Jew because Jews are chosen. I published Levitt's view of the matter, and subsequently Richard Witty attacked me and Levitt, saying I hadnât even talked
to the Chabadnik about his feelings, just imputed them to him. (I think Richard was right about that…)
Myself, I'll shake hands with anyone. Pretty much always have (ever since
the time a relative of mine refused to shake hands with my grandfather because
he had been broken my mother's family; I found that self-righteous). And yet I have to honor Levitt's choice. He and Adalah are trying to isolate the Hebron guys just as much
as J Street
is, in their own way.
Here's what Lincoln said about shaking hands, in a big speech on slavery in 1854.
[You southerners] have among you a
sneaking individual of the class of native tyrants known as the "slave-dealer." … You despise him utterly. You do not recognize him as
a friend, or even as an honest man. Your children must not play with his; they
may rollick freely with the little negroes, but not with the slave-dealer's
children.
If you are obliged to deal with
him, you try to get through the job without so much as touching him. It is
common with you to join hands with the men you meet, but with the
slave-dealer you avoid the ceremonyâinstinctively shrinking from the snaky
contact. If he grows rich and retires from business, you still remember him,
and still keep up the ban of non-intercourse upon him and his family. Now why
is this? You do not so treat the man who deals in corn, cotton, or tobacco
As for the analogy of the Hebron settlers to slave-dealers, I know, it's not perfect. But it will serve. The continued dispossession of the Palestinians and denial of their rights is also wrong.
