One of the pleasures of going camping is hanging out with my friend
Bill (pseudonym), a writer who's as
critical of Israel as I am. Years ago he told me about his visits to
Israel/Palestine and his disgust over the second-class citizenship of
Arabs, and he challenged me to write about these things because I'm
Jewish. I trust Bill's judgment; he's one reason this site exists. When
we go camping, our other friends indulge us the Palestinian
conversation, but they mock us too.
Bill and another friend picked me up in
East Fishkill to drive upstate the other day and over five hours, the issue came up a
little. For Bill, Palestine is a litmus test of political
values. But when he told me about various discussions he'd had over since Gaza with New York associates, not many people are passing the litmus test. I asked
him specifically about three of his friends whom I know, A, who's
prominent, B, who's well-connected, and C, our friend "Jim," a stylish
writer who we'd be seeing in the woods. I said, What do they say on the
issue?
Well, A said to him, Gosh, I'm surprised you're so passionate
about this question, but what's the point, it's a waste of time, all
the powers are against you! It's unrealistic. You won't get anywhere in
this country on Israel. B was slightly more encouraging. A few years
ago he used to say to Bill, Hey, it's just like the Indians, what are you
going to do about it? But lately B seems to have gotten educated. He
likes Tony Karon's blog! As for C,
Jim, who we'd soon be seeing, Bill said, "You know he isn't
that well-informed. He just says, 'Arafat should have taken that deal,
at Camp David.'"
We stopped for lunch at a nice place in
Albany–Jack's–and over clam chowder we talked about the two-state
solution. Bill challenged me: How can you believe in that? The inherent problem
here is the Zionist idea of democracy. It's no democracy. 20 percent of Israel is Arab, and what if you get two states and in 20 years that 20 percent becomes 40 percent?
"Then what? It'll just be the same situation as the occupied territories
all over again. They have to accept the idea of democracy."
I put
up a little bit of a fight. I said the idea is if you give
Palestinians a state then it ends the violence and the hatred, and maybe
Israel reforms itself. It learns to treat Arabs with respect. In '67
and in '93 there were real moods of Israeli acceptance of the other.
You want to try and find that mood again. Then partition doesn't mean
as much and people begin to cooperate with one another. Just end the
violence.
Bill shrugged, unconvinced. "I'm an American.
I'm not going to be for a Jewish democracy. It's not democracy. Why
should we be for that? Let's have one state of its citizens. I know, I
don't know all the history. I just know what I saw when I went over
there. And it's wrong. Do I have to know all the history?"
"No," I
said. "You know enough. It is wrong." I reflected that Ali Abunimah
has said that a former South African leader said, The two-state solution is really
apartheid, it's what we tried to get!
Bill talked about a new plan for a tunnel between the West Bank and Gaza.
So the Palestinians can whoosh the 30 miles in darkness. It sounds
awful. Yes, and who will control the gates at either end, in Israeli
territory?And imagine the Israelis knocking off 5000 of them in an
eyeblink.
Later we were hiking through the woods in the dusk and then in the hut, and I found
that I was demoralized about the conversation. I've hurt my
journalism career over this issue– a lot of people who used to give me
work won't touch it– and I'm a lot more outspoken than my friend. He's more
worldly and engaged with New York life than I am, and I recognized from his three
interactions that Sane people don't go near this issue. I reflected
that John Mearsheimer is a realist, but he wasn't realistic about doing
this issue; he was moral. If he was realistic he would have shut up.
Bill's wife tells him to be quiet about the issue at dinner parties where
there are Jewish guests. Most of them get uncomfortable over
challenges to the legitimacy of Israel. I guess we all learn that lesson. Or should.
The issue only came up once in the group. We'd come back from a long hike and were cleaning the hut
on Thursday afternoon and having a drink when Bill had a
one-state/two-state conversation with another writer, and Jim piped up, who thinks Arafat should have taken the deal. Jim's very
amusing.
"You guys soft of have a little anti-Zionist club here,
don't you. Have you come up with a salute?"
I said, "Why don't you
think of one for us, Dave?"
"You ought to have a salute. And a uniform. What about an armband? I think you need a patch. Like a patch with a little lightning bolt on it?"
I
had to laugh. I don't care. New York culture is shot through with
Zionism. It's a dominant influence. Everyone works with Jews, a lot of
people have Jewish bosses. People get to make those jokes. I let them run
off.
Bill and I drove back downstate together through the dark. I told
him about being demoralized. He is for Boycott and divestment at the institution he works
in but
it's not like he's public the way I am. I urged him to be more
public about it. He said he was going to be speaking out more, explaining to people that this is the principal injustice in which American society is
now implicated.
I talked about history. I told him some of my thoughts about slavery and the
formation of the Republican Party in opposition to it, and when we crossed the Hudson, I told him about a historic spot near me in the highlands, called Wiccopee Pass.
He said, "It's got to drive the Indians crazy that we have all their names on things, and they're ours now. Then we sing 'This land is my land.'"
I asked him what he would tell the Israeli who says, You did the same thing with the Indians.
"I'd say, you're right. But we wiped them out 150 years ago. You
didn't wipe out the Arabs. And you couldn't do that nowadays. Things
change. You could never get away with that, for a good reason. History
moves forward."
And I agreed.
(Phil Weiss)
