I’m keenly aware of the valued existence of friends and colleagues from both sides of this conflict in my feed, and think it’s worth mentioning that as Yale and SF are both international communities I have been seeing a barrage of information, links, images, and heartfelt commentary on both sides of the issue. I am undergoing a process of educating myself. I am still open! Whether or not I agree with your standpoint I’m grateful for the opportunity to discuss it and study it in the best Jewish tradition of dialogue! The attached is one article I promised to read. It’s interesting, and at least one other friend found it useful and convincing. After doing a bit of research into the author, a very public American Jewish atheist pundit, I think I have to demur (sorry, those who disagree!). I promise to retain an open mind about it if someone can point me towards evidence suggesting the contrary, but I do think this guy is a conservative hardliner masquerading as a moderate. I think I’m more in line with this take on Harris: theguardian/commentisfree/2013/apr/03/sam-harris-muslim-animus Accordingly I’m not entirely convinced about certain points in his article, though I find myself surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) aligned with Harris’s ideas about separation of church and state. I’m not sure how this fits into the idea of a Jewish state, and whether it’s just super-sad to think that part of the Jewish experience IS constant diaspora and resettling and reframing. I’m exhausted and don’t have much time to address the many points in the article, but I’ll address a few that stand out for me. 1. The idea that Israel is truly open to practitioners of other religions strikes me as disingenuous. I’m talking about this quote from the Harris article: “Israel is actually less religious than the U.S., and it guarantees freedom of religion to its citizens. Israel is not a theocracy, and one could easily argue that its Jewish identity is more cultural than religious.” Certainly it guarantees freedom of religion to its Jewish citizens. Jews enjoy structural privilege in Israel. The idea that this privilege is remedial and a direct response to centuries of persecution is interesting but doesn’t satisfy me fully when it comes to displacing another people. The law of return for Jews make Israel kind of an “opt-in” state in a way which justifies many diaspora Jews commenting on its policies, and the fact that Jewish identity and religiosity in general are unlinked in many ways is interesting and means that as a non-practicing Jew (a Buddhist) of Jewish heritage, I am welcome to “return” to Israel, where I have never been. 2. America has no right to “judge” Israel. Historically America tends to inflict instant and massive casualty on opposing forces without much regard for civilian life, certainly less than Israel has shown — Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bizarre and misdirected war in Afghanista. As an American citizen, I have absolutely no right to comment on the wars and policies of other countries. As a human, and as, bizarrely, a de facto “citizen” of Israel (an “olah”, I guess), I do… Should the ways in which Israel IS unavoidably a religious state make it accountable to a degree not expected of other powerful nations? That’s an open question, but the degree to which Israel’s actions reflect on Judaism as a religion is not a topic Harris is willing to entertain, though he’s willing to apply this somewhat appalling logic to the political actions of extremist Islamicist groups. Harris has stated that Islam is particularly prone to extremism and violence and that the Qur’an itself is flawed as a religious document, even boring, and mostly devoted to imprecations against the infidel except for a few nominally useful passages about being a good person (I can try to find the quote I’m paraphrasing here if anyone cares). Well, I challenge you to produce an unflawed religious document (!). Even Harris admits this. “Let me remind you that parts of Hebrew Bible—books like Leviticus and Exodus and Deuteronomy—are the most repellent, the most sickeningly unethical documents to be found in any religion. They’re worse than the Koran. They’re worse than any part of the New Testament. But the truth is, most Jews recognize this and don’t take these texts seriously.” Well, how does that differ from typical practitioners of Islam, who, like Christians in the modern world, pick and choose the best of their religion as they see it, to be the best people they can be in the world? I think that stating that Islam is more flawed than Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism boils down to little more than bigotry and is based on frustrations directly related to this conflict. The simple and painful fact is that any faith can be twisted to support aims political and unworthy. There are Xtian extremists, (yes) even Buddhist extremists. So. I can’t judge Israel, really, as an American citizen. But Harris should not presume to judge Islam. 3. No, I don’t care for Hamas. How could I? Hamas’s charter is explicitly non-peaceful and opposed to “warmongering Jews”. I actually have trouble reading the charter, because I’m already feeling nauseous and it’s so opposed to peace. It’s very difficult to sort out what’s true when you hear that Hamas uses children to dig tunnels that cave in and trap them: tabletmag/scroll/180400/hamas-killed-160-palestinian-children-to-build-terror-tunnels. Rhetoric is being deployed so forcefully that I don’t know how anyone who isn’t on the ground can be sure. This horror came up in my feed surrounded by these three equally horrible links: reuters/article/2013/06/20/us-palestinian-israel-children-idUSBRE95J0FR20130620 rabble.ca/news/2014/07/eight-reasons-why-israel-under-rocket-attack washingtonpost/posteverything/wp/2014/07/30/the-awful-decisions-ive-made-to-protect-my-palestinian-children-from-this-war/ 4. I keep hearing the phrase “giving ground”. I’m reminded of a story that my (very Southern and white) mother used to tell about my (Jewish) father. And it’s not a heart-warming tale. They were young and very poor in New York, and my mother had a set of oil paints and brushes that she treasured. One day an attractive young lady came by the house and admired the oil paints. My father gifted them to her, although they were not his. Due to their poverty, this made it impossible for my mother to create her preferred type of art for years. This “gifting” is something that flashes through my mind whenever I think about the UN “giving” Israel to the Jews — the people who lived there were understandably not on board. So the situation was flawed from the start. After the fighting Israel had much more than the initial UN “bequest”. So why not stop there? Well, we all know how the situation escalated out of control. But ultimately, if this is just about the land, not about any religious conflict or intolerance at all, but about ownership of the land, this is ownership by conquest. Can healthy civilizations be founded on conquest? Well, let’s hope so, because that describes most if not all current nations. And the victors write the history. In some sense, if this is about conquest, Israel has already won, and Hamas’s resistance is token, and about who gets to write the history. People are opposed to Hamas because its doomed resistance seems to expose its citizens to violence. But no one likes an American who stands down. An American is expected to fight to the last. In that context, is it possible for Jews to reach out to Palestinians? And now I shall wax a little poetical, I’m sorry. Here I go: O my people, my argumentative and political and passionate people — my sad and homeless and forgetful people — please let’s just learn to listen. There is nothing worse than not listening. I’m so grateful to be a part of this strange tradition of political people who value research and disputation and art and even (despite conservative elements) feminism. . . this eclectic assemblage of misfits and outcasts. I think this really is the turning point. I dislike Harris’s narrative but I like one thing about it that I see as part of a Jewish tradition – an almost manic self-questioning and constant reframing. I hope this tradition will translate to openness. And that’s all I’ve got. I value the people in my feed who are going through this in more intimate and personal ways. I’m sorry this is happening to you. I’m preparing for Worldcon and won’t have much time to comment or participate, but it’s impossible NOT to comment given the things I’m seeing in my feed. Love to everyone on the ground.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 05:10:20 +0000
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