Furthering his ceaseless campaign to leave no Jewish victim of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy unexploited, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently proclaimed at a birthright “mega event” that “Israel is the only place you can proudly proclaim ‘I am a Jew.’” Clearly alluding to (if not outright hoping to exacerbate) the growing sense of insecurity that Jewish communities in France have reported over the past few years, Netanyahu has evidently assumed for himself the messianic role as the savior of world Jewry, enabling him to speak on behalf of those that would prefer no nationalist connection to the state of Israel or its professed monopoly of the Jewish patrimony. As an American Jew, I, likely similar to most non-Israeli Jews, reacted with scorn upon hearing Netanyahu’s exhortation that Jews will always feel ashamed of their identity outside of their “natural homeland.”
Save for a handful of fundamentalist states, Jews throughout the absolute majority of countries feel no of discomfort in proclaiming their identity either at home or abroad or engaging in its associated cultural practices through established institutions such as synagogues or Jewish day schools. On greater introspection, however, taking for granted the assertion that one can only be truly “proud to be a Jew” in the state of Israel ignores the underlying reality that Israel is actually the one place that any Jew with a social consciousness should feel more ashamed of his or her identity than any other country in the world. After all, in no other country besides Israel is Judaism the perennial justification for a decade’s long quest to suppress and uproot the culture and presence of millions of non-Jews. From this vantage point, the Charlie Hebdo massacre does not indicate that Jews can only find solace in the state of Israel, but rather that the land of Israel bears much of the responsibility for whatever antagonism that Jews around the world continue to face.
It goes without say that no Israeli leader or Zionist luminary possess the right to speak on behalf of world Jewry or dictate how individual Jews connect or relate to their country of origin. Conversely, it is equally apparent that few things have done more to jeopardize both the moral essence of Judaism and the loyalty of Jews to their natal states as the politicization of their religious identity and its transformation into a pseudo-ethnic race that prohibits millions of indigenous people from leading a dignified life. Indeed, only because of Israel can a Jew be menaced with the knowledge that his or her identity is the reason that over five million Palestinians continue to languish in refugee camps across the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Only because of Israel does a Jew have to cope with the fact that over 20 percent of the country’s population is deprived of an equal chance to prosper, integrate into society, or celebrate their cultural attachment to the land because they were not privileged enough to be born to parents hailing from the “chosen people.” And of course, only because of Israel is the Holocaust, one of the greatest human catastrophes in history, cynically manipulated for the purpose of conjuring up fear and instilling the most racist, xenophobic sentiments into the state’s citizens.
As the birthplace of the Jewish religion and the location where its most important modern day features and symbols came into being, the land of Israel should absolutely be an area where Jews from around the world, as both visitors or permanent residents, can bask in their cultural and linguistic heritage in tandem with all other religions and peoples native to the region. Yet as long as Israel represents a form of domination over others in the name of Judaism, no Jew should be comfortable in or proud of his or her identity. Netanyahu’s unique blend of self-righteous chauvinism at once belies the true nature of Judaism in the Holy Land as well as creates a false impression that Jews outside the boundaries of the state of Israel must feel inferior to their Israeli counterparts and insecure among the gentiles that they have lived with for decades, if not longer. Rather than looking for ways to promote dialogue and mutual understanding during tragic episodes such as Charlie Hebdo, Netanyahu would prefer espousing the same type of retrenchment and jingoism that produces individuals bent on purifying their society of all detractors. The Jewish staple of tikun olam, or improving the world, may have been appropriated by the Zionist establishment and its various hasbara mouthpieces long ago, but for those Jews who were raised on the true ideal of bettering the world around us and returning to our roots, there is no pride in being Jewish in the state of Israel.
Regarding the lengthy (and often heated) exchanges here about the problematic relations between Judaism and Zionism, this is the most articulate explication of the issue I have seen to date.
Money quote: “After all, in no other country besides Israel is Judaism the perennial justification for a decade’s long quest to suppress and uproot the culture and presence of millions of non-Jews.”
I strongly agree with this:
“As the birthplace of the Jewish religion and the location where its most important modern day features and symbols came into being, the land of Israel should absolutely be an area where Jews from around the world, as both visitors or permanent residents, can bask in their cultural and linguistic heritage in tandem with all other religions and peoples native to the region.”
The main problem facing the Jewish religious establishment in 2015: how to disentangle Judaism from Zionism. Once that mission is accomplished, many of Israel’s problems could be fixed and the I/P conflict could be resolved.
On the entanglement of Judaism with Zionism:
“Bennett: ‘The day is near that the Jewish Home party will lead Israel'” https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16399-bennett-the-day-is-near-that-the-jewish-home-party-will-lead-israel
Naftali Bennett: “We love the land of Israel, we love the people of Israel, we love the Torah of Israel – and we’re proud of it.”
When will the leaders of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism begin pushing back against these ideas forcefully and effectively? Perhaps too late to avert a catastrophe.
As a rule, I never advise religions how to manage their affairs — that is their business. But religious Zionism now influences American politics in ways that are impossible for Americans to ignore.
I have never met a Jew that was not proud to be a Jew, but I have never met an Israeli Jew.
They still have mass conscription 7 decades later. Something failed. The model is broken, even if they frankensteined Hebrew.
“They still have mass conscription
Mass conscription? Is it really mass? They draft everybody, regardless of race religion creed or genre preference?
Well, that’s good, all that healthy teamwork between different Israelis should be healthy. Maybe there are some advantages to a fair, universal, mass conscription. I wouldn’t know.
Pride is not appropriate . Shame would be better
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.603454
“A year ago, with another wave of hate crimes in the background, I visited a high school in Jerusalem. There were students there who declared they hated all the Arabs, that they did not want to see Arabs anywhere — “Not in the street, not in the mall, not on the light rail” — alongside others who offered a more complex message. Research and surveys in the last 20 years show that the strength of the first group has grown steadily, while the second group is shrinking and going silent. Hatred has become a major component in the personal and group identity of our youth. It is present all the time, and sometimes, in some places and depending on the events, it also rears its head toward immigrants and leftists.
Then a month ago, in honor of Jerusalem Day, dozens of students banged on doors in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City while crying out, “Destroy the seed of Amalek,” “The Temple will be rebuilt, the mosque burned,” “Mohammed is dead,” and “Death to Arabs.” ”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-peace-conference/1.601122
“Almost every Israeli in the last 47 years has done military service in the territories. Almost all of them have had to do things that go against human decency and morality – often not for the sake of Israel’s security at large, but to protect some isolated outpost of settlers. If indeed Israel were to reach peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world, most Israelis would have to live with the painful realization that most of what Israel has done to the Palestinians was unnecessary; that Israel could have ended the occupation a long time ago; and that the energies and resources invested in the West Bank’s colonization could have been invested in Israel’s flourishing instead.
This idea is too difficult to bear, and the regret would be unendurable. It is, therefore, psychologically imperative to create a narrative that explains why the occupation was inevitable; why Israel had no choice but to hang onto the West Bank; why all the sacrifice in human lives, moral turpitude and political isolation were necessary for Israel’s survival.
Israel’s right-wing politicians instinctively know they need to reassert daily that the occupation is a military and moral necessity. This is why they keep explaining why a Palestinian state is an existential threat to Israel, and why Israel’s left has been selling empty illusions for decades. Of course, their case has been strengthened enormously by the second intifada and the shelling of southern Israel. But the constant fanning of fear not only serves Israel’s right politically. It also provides Israelis with a justification not only for the status quo, but for the expropriation, oppression and humiliation of Palestinians that Israelis have participated in for the last 47 years, to preserve the occupation.
All of this is all-too-human. Only a few have the human strength of Moreh’s interviewees to look into the camera and say: “We did terrible things, and most of them could have been avoided if only the political leadership had realized that the occupation is Israel’s catastrophe.” Most Israelis, like most humans, need a narrative that justifies Israel’s actions as inevitable. ”
or bitterness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7BCwekvNbs