On Sunday I participated in a panel on the Goldstone Report at Busboys and Poets in Washington. We had a big crowd, 60, and Andy Shallal of the bookstore asked Jews to raise their hands, and Arabs– about 15 and 15– then joked, The rest of you don’t matter. In fact, the glory of the event was the diversity. A very mixed and optimistic coalition was gathered here: Catholics, Presbyterians, American realist types, all concerned with human rights in Palestine.
I made an appeal at the end of the discussion for this community to be mindful of the great Israelis who are joining this conversation. I spoke ethnocentrically, as a Jew concerned about Jewish life.
It is fascinating to me that it is Jews who, by and large, are trailing on these issues because of the profound messianism that has ravished Jewish communal life in the last 40 years. The Gaza conflict is the doorway out of this messianic relationship with a thug; but it seems to involve a lot of handwringing for Jews– which other people can help us through. I noticed that the crowd went particularly silent when Phyllis Bennis said that Jews had projected onto Palestinians their rage at the Nazis. Avraham Burg made a similar statement two years back: we forgave the Nazis too quickly. Later Bennis told me,
“I first thought about this when I saw a one-woman play ostensibly about ‘showing both sides’ where she talked about how Israelis, when asked to deal with Palestinians, see jackbooted Nazis. And I asked her why, then, didn’t she ask Israelis to ‘listen to the humanity…’ of the real people who ACTUALLY attacked them, the Nazis? Why only demand of Israelis that they ‘listen to the humanity’ of Palestinians who were NOT responsible for the Holocaust? When Palestinians are asked to ‘listen to the humanity’ of the people who are ACTUALLY responsible for losing their homes, family, country…”
Huh. All I would add to this for now is that All people like to feel good about their political activism. And the way for young Jews and Israelis to feel good about engaging on this issue is to honor Palestinian human rights. There’s no other way forward than that baseline understanding; and of course, Palestinians are the experts on those conditions. Though yes, it’s great if you want to work “Jewishly” on these issues…
The other lesson I got from the event was the sense from Laila El-Haddad’s comments that the youth of Gaza Youth Breaks Out are just part of Gazan society; it’s a diverse society, despite all caricature. Later a friend and I sat talking, neither of us a radical, but admiring of the radicals who are engaged on this issue; and we agreed that the incredible diversity of the coalition is what is making this issue rock right now. I believe a similar universalism is at work in Egypt right now… So… join us!
