Jewish identity is fluid. It adopted Zionism, now it must drop Zionism, Robert Cohen writes. “The longer we cling to the fiction of two-states and the belief that Zionism is not merely an ideology but a part of our faith and identity, the longer it will take to bring anything approaching peace with justice to the land.”
The movement for Israel Palestine should be built around a very simple program. Equal rights. A principle Jews honor in the west. If you say that Zionism is a “noble and integral part of Judaism”, then, I can’t work with you. If you can’t acknowledge that Israel/Palestine is an asymmetrical conflict in which one side has power, and a state apparatus, and a standing army, and is maintaining an illegal occupation with the backing of the world’s super power, you’re in denial.
The Church around the world has failed the Palestinian church. Year after year of soft solidarity has failed to improve Palestinian conditions. No calling out of who has the power, who remains silent. Solidarity must become stronger, and church groups must be willing to fall out with Jewish friends.
Following the deadly attack in Manchester, England, Donald Trump used “terrorism” to avoid confronting the complicated, compromised and messy reality in which we live, especially in the Middle East. For Trump, in all the speeches he made this week in the region, terror appeared to be the only cause of the problem, and its defeat would be sure to bring peace. Robert Cohen writes, “Trump’s narrative lacked understanding, substance, and integrity. And that went for terror in Manchester as well as the Middle East.”
Once again, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has shown itself to be a bully when it comes to interfaith dialogue on Israel/Palestine. This time its victim is the Church of Scotland. It’s all depressingly predictable and immensely tiresome for anyone who cares about justice in the Holy Land and indeed the future of Jewish-Christian relations in the U.K. Later this month (20-26 May) the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly will consider a new report advising the Church on how to mark this year’s Balfour Declaration centenary. Balfour was a member of the Church of Scotland and the Church has a long association with the Holy Land through schools, projects supporting Christian Palestinians and partnerships with organizations promoting justice and reconciliation.
Robert Cohen recommends adding a recent UN report on Israeli practices of “apartheid” into the family Haggadah, writing, “Passover is the most popular and well observed of all Jewish festivals. This year’s eight day celebration of redemption, liberation and religious and political freedom begins on Monday 10th April. But long ago our uncritical commitment to the project of Jewish nationalism began to undermine it. So much so, that Passover today has become little more than an annual act of communal hypocrisy. And in this year of bitter anniversaries (Balfour, the UN partition plan, the Occupation of the West Bank, the siege of Gaza) we’ll be taking that hypocrisy to depressingly new heights.”
Donald Trump is terrifying but there’s one big upside. Thanks to his extremism, a long-delayed reckoning is coming on Israel/Palestine. Boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) will take off as never before.
Jewish national self-determination (also known as Zionism) is an unshakable right and today an indivisible part of Jewish identity. You question it at your peril. Despite all that, Robert Cohen is chucking it in. You can have it back he says. He doesn’t need it.
Let’s call out the absurd arguments by the Jewish diaspora against boycotting Israeli settlement project. Everywhere else in the world, genuine democracy appears to strengthen national stability, but in Israel it’s presented as the worse possible thing that could happen.
Israel has changed what it means to be Jewish. And the moral indifference of western Jewish leaders to Israel’s occupation is changing the public’s perception of Jews and leading to a growth of attitudes that Jewish organizations wrongly call anti-Semitism.