Haaretz runs Glenn Altschuler's fair review, in the sense of giving the author lots of space, of Marc Ellis's new book, Judaism does not equal Israel (alongside the new Einstein book on his opposition to religious nationalism):
Ellis insists that the equation of Israeli and
Palestinians "sins" and "rights" distorts "the historical reality." In
1948, he claims, the Israelis were the aggressors, but it is they who
now hold a monopoly on power. To restore their precious ethical
traditions, "Israelis and their Jewish enablers in America" must
confess their sins against the Palestinian people. He hopes, as well,
for an admission that the two-state solution "is a fraud." Ellis
advocates one state (with Arabs and Jews living together), and the
return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and villages in pre-1967
Israel.
Acknowledging that Israel is not likely "to reverse its
expansionist course," Ellis ends with mourning – and a warning. No
state, he writes, apocalyptically, can exercise power over others
indefinitely. As the day of reckoning nears, the children of Israel
"will encounter such hollowness at the core of Jewish identity that
their distance from things Jewish will increase until, incrementally,
the core disappears" and Jewish affiliation dwindles "to the point of
no return."
Mourning can be a sign of hope, in which God returns or doesn't,
Ellis emphasizes, rather abstractly. And "too late can be right on time
– when the time is right." For now, though, he?s a self-proclaimed
prophet in exile. His book is often over the top, but Ellis's concerns
about the ethical obligations of the State of Israel are, at times,
worth listening to, even by those with a powerful urge to doubt,
dismiss or destroy him
