The following column is part of a series. For more, go to Liberal Zionists Speak Out.
I have been a Zionist ever since the year of my bar mitzvah, 1948, when I sought out every possible piece of news (that was available in Johnstown, Pa.) about Israel's war of independence and covered my school notebooks with hand-drawn maps of the new state and its battlefields. But I never went to live in Israel. In 1957, right after we were married, my wife and I spent a summer there, thinking about aliyah, but we came back to the States for graduate school and soon had children and a life here in the U.S. We chose instead what Shlomo Avineri calls hatzi aliyah -- literally, "half-immigration" -- so that now, nearing the end of our lives, we have spent years in Israel, over some 40 visits and several sabbaticals, and we probably have more friends there than here. So what is this half-way Zionism?
It is first of all the emotion-laden belief of someone who grew up during World War Two that the Jews need a state, and that this need is so critical and so urgent that it overrides whatever injustices statehood has brought. We still have to oppose the injustices with all the resources we can muster, but we can't give up the State. So I participate vicariously in Israeli politics by supporting my social-democratic and peacenik friends. I want the state to be as good as it can be, but above all I want it to be.
My Zionism is also a universal statism. I think that everybody who needs a state should have one, not only the Jews but also the Armenians, the Kurds, the Tibetans, the South Sudanese -- and the Palestinians. The modern state is the only effective agency for physical protection, economic management and welfare provision. What the most oppressed and impoverished people in the world today most need is a state of their own, a decent state acting on their behalf. I feel some hostility, therefore, toward people who want to "transcend" the state -- and I am especially hostile toward those who insist that the transcendence has to begin with the Jews.
My Zionism is a secular nationalism. The Jewish people have a twofold character: We are a nation -- Am Yisrael, the people Israel -- and we are what Americans call a "community of faith." This is not a common combination; it is shaped by the peculiar history of the Jews. But statehood requires separation: the Jewish state should be an expression of the people, not of the faith (which many of our people don't share, at least not in its orthodox form). We know from our history that the world can get very nasty when religious faith and political power are joined. Zionism should empower citizens; it should deny power to all those who claim it on religious grounds; it should not empower zealots. State schools in Israel, it seems to me, can legitimately promote Jewishness -- in the same way that state schools in Norway promote Norwegianess -- but they can't promote Judaism. And of course minority groups, in Israel as in Norway, must have every opportunity to associate for the promotion of their own culture.
My hatzi aliyah obviously doesn't commit me to "the negation of the exile." Jewish history is too complicated to support the idea that it can have only one continuation in one place. There are many ways of being Jewish, and many places, given emancipation and democratic citizenship, where Jewish life can flourish. But we will flourish more securely, with greater self-respect, and with greater cultural depth, if we are connected not only to our diasporic states but also to a Jewish state. The Zionist project is central to Jewish life because it has led to the revival of the Hebrew language and the creation of a modern Hebrew culture -- novels, poems, plays and films of remarkable power -- and because it makes possible the enactment of what many of us have always imagined to be Jewish values: justice, above all.
This is a test that we shouldn't want to avoid: can this people, our people, stateless for almost 2,000 years, create a state that men and women around the world will look at and say, as in Deuteronomy 4:8, "And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous"?
Needless to say, we are not there yet, not even close. High ambition requires a long life, and Israel is a very young state.
Michael Walzer is a political philosopher and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is co-editor of Dissent, an intellectual magazine that he has been affiliated with since his years as an undergraduate at Brandeis University. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, including just and unjust wars, nationalism, ethnicity, economic justice, social criticism, radicalism, tolerance and political obligation, and is a contributing editor to the New Republic. To date, he has written 27 books and published more than 300 articles, essays and book reviews in Dissent, the New Republic, the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New York Times, Harpers, and many philosophical and political science journals. His most recent book is "In God's Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible" (Yale University Press).
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Israel has absorbed millions from post WW2 Europe, post Soviet Collapse and the hundreds of thousands of Jews ejected from other Middle Eastern Jews. Why didn't we hear the outrage of these ejected Middle Eastern Jews? These Jews were living in these Countries for generations and then they became Stateless?
And each Palestinian administration starting with Yassir Arafat has been very corrupt. So will the "new Government" be also corrupt?
Something things to think about?
I've read the article - agreed with some of it, disagreed with some, then went on to the comments.
Every now and then I find such a pile of comments, full of hate blame and ignorance. And everybody seem to know everything, have such a strong opinions on things which really - they obviously never spend too much thought and research on. The kind of opinions which ignore much of reality and fact, and to me seems more like a religious world view than a rational one.
I'm not expecting you to know anything about the regional details, but what I do expect is that you'll ask yourself a simple question - WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER SIDE. That, of course, assuming you're not in it for just hating us, which is a phenomenon that sadly exist.
Just playing devil's advocate here, but the first part of your statement ironically contradicts the last part.
Israel is a pluralistic society which is about 25% Arab/Druze/other non-Jewish citizens. While I'm not sure why Jews would want to live in a Palestinian state, why is it considered by most in the international community perfectly okay for the Palestinians to want a state free of any Jews while it's not okay for Israel, already with a significant number of Arab citizens, not to want to absorb millions of Palestinians who demand a full "right of return?"
The insistence on the "right" to "return" millions of "co-nationals" NOT to the "Palestinian state", but to ANOTHER state is ridiculous. It proves only one thing: the absence of a true "Palestinian" national sentiment & aspiration (other than the aspiration to destroy the Jewish State). Israel made peace with Egypt -- but it did NOT demand that the Jews who fled & were exiled from Egypt (and their descendants) be allowed to "return" to Egypt. That thought never occurred to the Israeli negotiators. It would never occur to any REAL people, endowed with national identity and aspirations.
1) Everybody should remember that there are (at least) two sides to this conflict, and they both should negotiate and come to a middle ground, whatever nature the arguments have.
This is the real world where religion is still a big part of people lives (way more for the palestinians I might add) and you wont solve anything by patronizing and say that these things are meaningless. (and I'm saying this even though I'm an atheist and think exactly like you do)
2) There are legitimate security concerns. The palestinians have not yet demonstrated governance over their own people and many are still in a war state with Israel. Most of those do not intend to stop this the day some paper gets signed, by their own words (and worse - they are even funded by outsiders to do so)
The history is long, but as of today - the thing is that the people you call "the palestinian nation" are not as united as you think, and certainly many cant seem to agree yet on real peace with the state of Israel, for a myriad of reasons (political, religious and outside influence).
There's an economic dependence of the palestinians in Israel and we have a security dependence on them - Any unilateral move could make things actually worse (certainly for us, and also for them), and we've even seen that happening in Gaza after the withdrawal in 2005, when the infamous blockade started to mitigate the security problems that surfaced (i.e. thousands of rockets and mortars fired into Israel among other things).
Also note that as of 2010 71% of israelies support the two state solution as opposed to 57% of the palestinians, which for me demonstrates who really wants the separation more.
Somehow through world politics and some regional forces the situation seem to be, as awkward as it may sound, the most "stable" situation for now.
So yes - I can be proud of my country both because of the tremendous achievements and also because I don't see there's a real move it can do to actually solve the situation by itself.
My hope is that once our conflict will decline in importance to OTHERS, both sides could step down from their high horses and make real, lasting peace.
This is not happening- "your conflict" has gone on way too long, and it is effecting the rest of the World- especially including your best friend - the USA.
,[AKA your only friend?}
"Somehow through world politics and some regional forces the situation seem to be, as awkward as it may sound, the most "stable" situation for now."
Awkward indeed- and I am sad to hear that so many Israelis believe that this is the best that they can do.......
A famous Jew once said ,"26What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you understand it?” 27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength and with all your mind.’(Deuteronomy 6:5) And, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ ”
28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do that, and you will live.”.
Are you listening?
Lets try to live for a second in your imaginary world, where the US gains nothing from supporting us and we're really just totally dependant on you. Really just a small possible scenerio:
* Say we didnt have your weapons, and we wouldnt get some elsewhere (we had french weapons before the US once mind you, and we developed stuff on our own) we would be literally wiped out. Not "forced to make peace", its not the way things seem work with our neighbours. I'm talking at least hundreds of thousands dead (you should recall that its opposed to less than 100,000 in total for both throughout all our wars), and a real good question of what happens to the rest.
* Then say there was no Israel. The Arab regimes and some others wouldn't be able to point their finger at us, as they did all these years (to this day, though it seem that excuse has finally eroded), and you'll have much "unrest". That means civil wars like lebanon had and like syria has now.
* What about oil? Sad to say but the aweful arab regimes in the area give some stability and keeps the internal arab and islamic conflicts contained, which in turn keep the oil price relatively low. This prevents other conflicts in the world as well.
So yeah, I can imagine this "peace" pretty
There are Jews-only country clubs? Where?
In my community we have country clubs which are MOSTLY Jewish, but they certainly do accept and have non-Jewish members. The local Jewish Community Center has loads of non-Jewish members who like the facilities and location. There's a huge difference between facilities/institutions built by the community predominantly for that community and those which are made exclusively so.
A case of good Israeli bad Palestinian? Or good Palestinian bad Israeli. Not really! Good human good, bad human bad.
"the Jews need a state"
Some seem to have created one and dropped themselves and others right in it.
"it overrides whatever injustices"
The preface for Adolf's book Meinem Wahnsinn?
"I want the state to be as good as it can be"
Then it must be inclusive not exclusive.
"The modern state is the only effective agency for physical protection, economic management and welfare provision."
Not a physical state, a mental one.
"I feel some hostility, therefore, toward people who want to "transcend" the state"
If god had meant us to fly, he'd have given us the brains to achieve that.
"The Jewish people have a twofold character:"
That's just one of an indeterminate number of unique opinions held by us individuals.
"Zionism should empower citizens"
Is that an infinitely renewable source of sustainable energy?
"it should not empower zealots"
Henceforth identified by indelible pen.
"There are many ways of being Jewish"
But only one truth. Pity no human would know it if they fell over it.
"justice, above all."
Whatever passes for each faith’s Amen, to that.
"And what nation is there so great, that"
building on the bones of the dispossessed shall render it immortal?
"High ambition requires a long life"
and an ideology with answers on how to achieve it.Now available…
I could negate each one of your points one by one easily but I dont want to be tedious, so I'll just choose a few at random:
"I want the state to be as good as it can be"
Then it must be inclusive not exclusive.
* rubbish. take a look at every nation state in the world. the US of A is an exception, not the rule, and even countries of that sort are not really much more inclusive than Israel.
"The modern state is the only effective agency for physical protection, economic management and welfare provision."
Not a physical state, a mental one.
* I call shananigans again - besides the pure physical protection (army, police) there's other types of safety nets like social security and medicare. So there really is a physical protection.
"Zionism should empower citizens"
Is that an infinitely renewable source of sustainable energy?
* if that meant to be some kind of reductio ad absurdum, you sir have failed to make a point. (and miserabley at that I might add)
There are many ways of being Jewish"
But only one truth. Pity no human would know it if they fell over it.
* There's an old proverb in hebrew which roughtly translates to "the disqualifier disqualifies his own disqualities" ("ha-posel bemumo posel" if u'r interested). Essentially it means people project and see their own faults in others. I strongly suggest you'll ponder that for a while specifically concerning this remark
As it became obvious that Arabs will not militarily defeat Israel, it became obvious to Arabs that Israel must return the lands the Arabs abandoned and that Israel must also be placed in permanent jeopardy so long as it exists. Peace for Israel must only be the peace of the grave.
If you believe that Israel can afford to trust its neighbors to agree to a peace and then keep it, you are a fool. Arab culture is far too murderous for anyone to trust it. I challenge any of you to prove me wrong.
More like for choosing that particular chunk of real estate upon which to do so.
In a novel written several years ago, one of the characters says "The Jews need a place where it's safe for a Jew to be a Jew".
You don't have to be in disagreement with that sentiment to think that the spot they chose doesn't lend itself very well to that goal.
"Most cultures have a piece of land to call their own."
And then the Europeans show up...
"Even the Palestinians have land..."
But they used to have a lot more...
the palesteniens never had land, although they were offerd to recive land many tims, and refused, again, and again, and again;
1937- the arabs refused to recive 83% of mandatoric palestine.
1947- the arabs refused to recive 50% of the land.
1948- the arabs were left in controle of 23% of the land, and were not allowed, by other arab states, to create a palestenien state.
2000- the palesteniens were offerd 95% percent of the west bank and gaza- and refused
2008- the palesteniens were offerd 100% of the west bank and gaza, joint controle over the old city of jerusalem, and the return of 150,000 refugees in to the state of israel... the palesteniens never reacted to this offer....
Really? Then what is this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpP7cLLJqk&feature=related
You Ess Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!!!!!!!! You got it !!
And, how do you figure that the Russians and the Chinese {??} do not have ""a long long history as human beings."?
You don't seem to know much about the situation in the first place, Israel is not "vanishing", in fact- the whole goal of the occupation has been expansion of territory.
As to why the idea came up in the first place: When it did come up, (in the 1880's) most Jews were living as de jure second class subjects, or were being socially ostracized from mainstream societies (with the bigotry increasing), or were being massacred, in most countries where they lived. This was not the result of choice by the Jews-- where modernist abandonment and rejection of the tradition were most common, the social rejection was also the harshest.
Zionism was one of around five or six solutions that were in contention at the time (another was escaping to the US, and other free places). You can say it was the wrong solution by your values, (and of course that how it has been pusued is wrong), but there is still a material and urgent reason why it happened. It didn't just spontaneously pop up to frivolously satisfy some selfish fantasies.
The sooner we realize that we are all one people the better off we will be and there are many countries that offer this (perhaps imperfect, but it is there).