For many of us, these are days for deep reflection and soul-searching on the past year. How, we ask, as individuals and as a community can we better ourselves and the world?
Naturally, our focus turns in part to Israel and how events there impact us as a people.
My heart, along with many of yours no doubt, swelled with pride on hearing that among the Nobel Prize winners this year is an Israeli physicist, Daniel Shechtman -- another amazing accomplishment for a small country that has done so much to advance global learning.
My heart filled as well this past week -- but with concern -- over other, more deeply troubling news from Israel.
This past Sunday, a mosque in the Bedouin community of Tuba Zanghariya was damaged by arsonists believed to be settler extremists. It appears to have been another in a growing and frightening line of attacks that settlers have called their "price tag" campaign.
And last Friday, a group of Sheikh Jarrah activists -- including one of the "heroes" honored at J Street's National Conference last February, Sara Benninga -- was violently attacked by residents of the West Bank settlement of Anatot as she and other activists sought to protect the right of a Palestinian farmer to access land he owns within the settlement gates.
Twenty-six people were injured; several were taken to the hospital. The chilling violence -- verbal and physical -- of the settler mob against these nonviolent activists is captured on video here.
The level of thuggish violence originating on the West Bank continues to grow, in an atmosphere in which parliamentary actions and rabbinic statements are clouding the country's and our people's commitment to Jewish and democratic values.
As I contemplate the behavior of my people on the West Bank, I watch American politicians introduce Congressional resolutions calling for annexing "Judea and Samaria" and Presidential candidates standing proudly not with two-state activists fighting for justice and peace, but with settler leaders.
Where, I wonder, is the voice of our communal leadership here in the United States to set this right? Where are those who stand at the forefront of the fight for social justice, human rights and democracy on every other issue in this country and around the world?
Will rabbis across the United States this weekend raise these incidents with their congregations as they remind us to live up to the highest values of our people?
Or will the outrage in these sermons be reserved for the Palestinians who have approached the United Nations seeking their freedom and self-determination?
True, in our opinion, U.N. membership won't advance an actual two-state resolution to the conflict, but, let's be clear, applying for U.N. membership is not an act that delegitimizes the State of Israel.
In fact, the Palestinian application for membership based on the pre-1967 armistice lines implies acceptance of the state of Israel on the other side of that line.
As we reach the end of the days of fear and awe, I feel both those emotions deeply.
I fear for my community because of the barriers we have thrown up to open and honest discussion about what is happening in Israel and the occupied territory.
I fear for the United States, where our elected officials feel compelled by political pressure from my community to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority, when even Israel's security establishment and American neoconservatives warn that such a move serves the interests of Hamas and other extremists.
And, sadly, I most fear for Israel. I fear the failure to press unreservedly for a two-state solution. I fear for Israel's democratic values, and I fear for those bravely standing up there for basic human and civil rights.
I worry that in our silence, we are failing to help our Israeli brothers and sisters to see the looming disaster ahead.
The Jewish people wept for centuries over the loss of our land. We dreamt of the chance to redeem it. We risk again a future of tears and regret if we do not confront and challenge what is happening on the ground in Israel and on the West Bank.
The words of the prophet Isaiah will be read throughout our community on the coming days, his reflection on the meaning of fasting and atonement:
Is such the fast I desire
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the Lord is favorable?
No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock the fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
Is that message to be heard from our pulpits? Will it be welcome in the "Talk Israel" tents on our campuses? Will I be welcome to say these words in your local Jewish Community Center?
What better time to consider all this than these days of reflection?
Follow Jeremy Ben-Ami on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jstreetdotorg
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I understand (& sympathize with) your concern. I do not support your activity.
You ask: "Will I be welcome to say these words in your local Jewish Community Center?"
I believe this is the wrong question. JStreet's message is being heard. So are the "messages" of Peace Now, B'Tselem and several other organizations. In fact, the "hearing" these organizations are getting is disproportionate, given the number of Jews/Israelis they represent. This is because Jews criticizing Jews is more newsworthy than Jews praising Jews.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with all this "soul-searching", quite the opposite -- I would normally support it. Jews are very good at soul-searching, it's one of your best national characteristics. But here's the thing: I see no "soul-searching" on the other side. Where are the Palestinian Arabs criticizing Abbas for not negotiating, for failing "to press unreservedly for a two-state solution"? Where is the P-Street or the A-Street? Nowhere. The Jewish peace activists criticize Israel. The Arab peace activists criticize... Israel. You demand that Netanyahu freezes settlements & accepts A PRIORI the 1967 lines. Fine. But where are the Palestinian Arabs demanding from Abbas the other side of the equation -- renouncing "the right of return"?
Therein lies the basic injustice. To which your activity contributes -- despite the fact that your good intentions are beyond doubt.
Time to give some back
Atonement is the expiation or reparation given for an injury or wrong. There is no sense of atonement this Yom Kippur by the current hard-line, right-wing government of Israel. The violation of human rights continues unabated as does the illegal blockade of essential supplies to half a million Muslim families in Gaza. Here there is no light only the darkness of oppression by a brutalizing occupation.
I doubt that God is blind.
If you look at a map of 1947-48, and of the relative FEW Jewish towns or
settlements, then the vast area it was given by the UN [ basically the
controlling US and Truman ], it made no sense and was completely unfair.
That does not mean we can go back to the 48 lines, but realistic and relatively
mild border changes can bring peace. It does not seem those who rule Israel
really want that, they'd rather take more land.
“How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?”, this was Friedman’s response as reported in the Forward:
“The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle),” Friedman wrote in response to the question posed by Moment Magazine for its “Ask the Rabbis” feature.
Friedman argued that if Israel followed this wisdom, there would be “no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war.”
“I don’t believe in Western morality,” he wrote. “Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disastrous morality of human invention.”
Finally Oren said that Jews " of course " deserve a homeland.
Colbert asked if so do the Palestianians ?
Oren looked shocked, that an American on TV would dare ask
such a question of Him no less.....but he quickly sensed that
the educated audience was with Colbert and finally, quietly agreed....
Mr.Ben-Ami, you are a good man, and a good Jew. Peace is a five letter word.
Why does J Street support the Arab colonial empire?
Is that progressive?
The suffering of the indigenous non-Arab peoples of the Middle-East and North Africa such as Copts, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Nubians is not of J Street concern? Why?
Are they less human beings than the Arab colonizers and imperialists to whom J Street is trying to please and appease at the expense of the non-Arab natives of the region?
How immoral is this!
Mideast Me$$.......those that do have to literally fear verbal or worse
attack from the JDL or similar....
According to the prominent and well informed Russian analyst Artem Pizdobolov Klimpt's money order was not exercised on time by BOA and was canceled. The emergency fund was approved by Putin during his last visit to the Moscow steering committee in charge of all covert operation located in the surreptitious country club in the village of Raspezdiaevo 5 miles to the east of the city Hindu cemetery.
1. Israel is in danger of being pushed into the sea by Iran
2. It is co-operating in the establishment of a Palestinian state
3. Its illegal settlements are supported by Jews worldwide
4. Although a secular state, it claims the land to be God given
5. It does not employ torture on any of its 7000 political prisoners
6. Its political system is not corrupt & its judiciary is independent
7. Its military and police operate under international law
8. It does not use chemical weapons against civilians
9. It has no disproportionate influence either in congress or senate
10. There is no secret stockpile of weapons of mass destruction
11. It has signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty
12. It wants an equitable peace and believes in human rights
13. Its policy of state-sponsored assassination is legitimate
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the palestinians have tried every avenue, but have met political roadblocks in each case.
if you want the terror to stop, end the land grab.
take some concrete steps to that end, instead of using talks as a delaying action while you continue to steal land.
that jews lived in the area 2000 thousands years ago is no justification for this theft..
in fact the area back then was as it is now, a mixture of different peoples, jews were not the only people living in that region.
if a holiday is needed, to employ a little introspection, by all means use it.
"with all due respect" why do some people feel that if they preface their comment with this phrase they can say anything?