This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
The hunt continues for the missing Israeli teenagers. The roundup of Palestinians also continues. More than 150 Palestinians have already been taken by Israel’s military. Have they, too, been kidnapped?
Interesting that the Israelis taken were on their way back from settlements where they study at yeshivas. I haven’t had a chance to look at the various course catalogs but I assume the yeshivas don’t specialize in interfaith dialogue. I doubt these yeshivas have majors in the Abrahamic faith traditions or cutting-edge programs in interfaith relations.
Yeshivas in the West Bank aren’t into Martin Buber.
The religion of the occupiers is always an imperialist one. Can it be any different for Judaism when its practitioners occupy another people?
The West Bank, and especially Hebron, is once again cordoned off and invaded by the Israeli military. In the situation of occupation, Jews traveling into and out of the West Bank are committing political acts.
This doesn’t mean that kidnapping is the civilized way of registering grievances. However, since the war against Palestinians is so devastating and ongoing, the weapons used by the weak cannot be dictated by the powerful.
Like suicide bombing, kidnapping is the weapon of the weak. One doesn’t have to condone such actions to understand this reality.
Israel isn’t a civilized occupier. In the way it acts toward Palestinians, Israel isn’t civilized at all.
Israel kidnaps Palestinians on a regular basis – including Palestinian government officials. For Israel, it is exercising a self-evident right. To dominate another people?
Secretary of State John Kerry is up in arms: How dare they! Yet the American record of invasion and yes – kidnapping – isn’t one to fall back on.
This is where we are as the Presbyterian debate on divestment begins. It’s an important moment but against this darkening military backdrop everyone knows important symbolism sometimes carries very little bite.
Perhaps the Presbyterians ought to be kidnapped. Someone should take hold of their minds and (portfolio) wallets. The largesse of their portfolio and their capitalist timidity to dole out anything but a pittance is a scandal.
Alms in the name of Jesus?
This is where we are. We have been here for decades. Stuck – with dire consequences.
just thought i’d mention cnn had an interesting lede http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/16/world/meast/west-bank-jewish-teens-missing/
there’s still no confirmation a kidnapping occurred. and now fatah is saying they have the kids.
The largesse of their portfolio and their capitalist timidity to dole out anything but a pittance is a scandal. Alms in the name of Jesus?
I sympathize with you, Marc, however I don’t know how the PCUSA fund works. People donate into the fund, but is it the fund for running the PCUSA’s expenses, or is it just an investment fund like hundreds of thousands of others in America that any member of the public, or any Presbyterian can invest in?
The PCUSA does have charity portfolios specifically dedicated to humanitarian causes. They have one for helping people in the Middle East. Those portfolios do not return money to the benefactors.
Should the church be allowed to have an investment fund? I think so. A portion of it can go to charities and the rest could be put in socially conscious businesses, like cooperatives. If that were done, its return would not be as high, but it would still be worth it.
So Mondowiess’ resident Jewish apologist Marc Ellis has been called upon to cobble together some more ambiguous pseudo-sympathetic words about these innocent teenagers whom he is now willing to say have been kidnapped when before they were merely ‘missing’.
I had posted elsewhere on MW (refer
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/06/think-didnt-invade.html/comment-page-1#comment-673734)
about this event and at that stage there had not been a word said about this sordid affair.
Can someone tell me that what I have said in my post is not validated by this disgusting cartoon that appeared on Fatah’s Facebook page
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/06/15/mahmoud-abbass-fatah-celebrates-teen-kidnappings-with-hateful-cartoons/fatah-kids/
And while Israel searched for the abducted teens, Palestinian Authority Chief’s Wife, Amina Abbas, apparently underwent treatment at Tel Aviv Hospital. This illustrates a fundamental difference in the morality on both sides of the conflict – there are those who hand out candy when they kidnap children, and there are those who provide medical care for family members of their enemy.
Regarding the speculations about what occurred or did not occur: Allan Sherman once sang, “good advice costs nothing and it’s worth the price.” In this case speculations cost nothing and they’re worth the price.
Fact: the day after the facts will be known: 1. There will be no apologies from those who speculated falsely. And 2. the hardcore will still disbelieve the facts as presented at that time.
Another fact: Michael Oren and the others in their reaction to the murder of the two Palestinian youths on Nakba day set the bar real low. Speculation by someone who was once an ambassador and now works as a CNN consultant certainly ought to be up to a certain level of responsibility and it was not, so therefore the denizens of this comments section are permitted to be as irresponsible as Oren.
I read Amos Harel in Haaretz and I depend on his writing and he writes about Hamas in Hebron. The failure to ask for ransom proves nothing. Those who kidnapped are intent on causing anguish and in not getting captured. I trust Amos Harel’s speculations rather than the amateurs in the MW comments section.
There is no rule of law in the West Bank. If a kidnapping had occurred in Israel, closure of a city and mass arrests would not be allowed by Israeli law, but because there is military law imposed on the Palestinians, therefore mass arrests and closures are “expected”. Until one state or two states it would be preferable to apply Israeli law to the west bank, so that the west bank Palestinians would have the same protection under the law as Israelis do, but this will not soon be the fact and most people here would be opposed to cosmetic changes to the occupation, anything less than full liberation and so a more lawful occupation that includes one law, civil law, for all the residents will be opposed by the MW comments section.
This might sounds a bit far fetched but this is Israel we are dealing with.
What,s the bets these three are waiting for the order to accompany IDF thugs, (either altogether or separately”)on their raids and will be rescued by the brave soldiers from some poor unsuspecting and innocent Palestinian home/homes.
The perfect end to a perfect crime.
The only problem is how to formulate the case against the “accused”who claims he was no where near the illegal squats .Not too worry, a few carefully placed fingerprints and some backup lies from the so called “kid-nappy,s”and case closed.Oh , I forgot to add, a few beatings and a measure of torture to enhance the chances of a confession.
Walla.
More of Israel,s commitment being to most moral and a beacon of light to the rest of we Jew haters.