BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: As the US tries again to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, American Jews are speaking in unusually diverse voices about what Israel should do. Generally, older Orthodox Jews are strongly opposed to anything they think might weaken Israel’s security. But more and more younger, less religious American Jews are publicly critical of some of the policies of the Israeli government. Betty Rollin listened to the full range of opinions.
BETTY ROLLIN: This year’s New York Salute to Israel parade honored the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv. Unsurprisingly, the spectators included many fervent supporters of Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I just went and I was in love with it. The people are amazing, the spirituality and everything about it, you can’t find it anywhere else.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I think it’s important for my kids to know their tradition, their history, and for them to grow up with that love of Israel that my parents instilled in me and I would pass it on to them.
Rabbi Avi Weiss |
Rabbi AVI WEISS (Hebrew Institute of Riverdale): The history of the Jewish people is wed to the land of Israel. The Bible talks about a special mission that the Jewish people have, and whenever it talks about the covenant, which is our contract with God, it talks about children, people, and land, and from the very beginning that land as defined is the land of Israel. That’s where Abraham and Sarah walked.
ROLLIN: Rabbi Avi Weiss, an Orthodox rabbi in Riverdale, New York, has strong personal ties to Israel. Two of his children live there with their children. He travels there often, and Weiss’s spiritual connection to Israel runs deep.
Rabbi WEISS: As wonderful as I feel in America, in Israel I feel like I’m spiritually flying. I can’t explain it. It’s like asking someone why they’re in love.
ROLLIN: Many American Jews are very moved by the concept of Israel. What’s behind that?
Professor STEVEN COHEN (Hebrew Union College): In part, they are reacting to Israel as a response to the Holocaust. For years, Jews have suffered from persecution. That persecution never reaches the height that it did in the destruction of six million Jews in Europe, and American Jews are very aware of that narrative from ashes to the glorious, miraculous state of Israel and that really cements the American-Jewish relationship with Israel.
ROLLIN: Whereas American Jews overwhelmingly support the state of Israel, there is more and more criticism of its policies, even on the part of some rabbis. Rabbi Michael Paley is a scholar in residence at the UJA Federation in New York. Although a strong supporter of Israel, Rabbi Paley is troubled by its treatment of the Palestinians.
“American Jews are very aware of that narrative from ashes to the glorious, miraculous state of Israel, and that really cements the American-Jewish relationship with Israel.” |
Rabbi MICHAEL PALEY: We’re now in control of other people, and sometimes we’ve been too aggressive. Sometimes we haven’t listened to their rights. Sometimes we’ve blotted out their voices. Sometimes they made us blot out their voices.
ROLLIN: Philip Weiss is a nonreligious American Jew who writes a blog that is very critical of Israel.
PHILIP WEISS: Israel is pursuing disastrous policies on its own that, as a Jew, I have to stand up and say this goes against all my training as an American. This goes against the civil rights struggle in which I took a part. This goes against the Vietnam War struggle in which I took a part, and so I’m going to stand up as a Jew, as a proud Jew, and denounce these policies and say you have to find a new path.
Israel came out of a movement that responded to horrific conditions for Jews in Europe. Those conditions don’t exist anymore, and that is why this summoning the Holocaust—which is what the Jewish leadership is reduced to again and again in order to maintain support for Israel in the American Jewish population—that has run its course.
ROLLIN: Abby Bellows is a young Jewish American who is sympathetic with the Jewish need for a homeland, but she also has reservations.
ABBY BELLOWS (Community Organizer): I feel complex in my feelings towards Israel. My grandmother escaped from Germany, and a lot of our family was killed there. So I get the need for a Jewish state from that kind of visceral level, and I recognize that anti-Semitism still exists in the world. But at the same time I feel that there’s something fundamentally tense for me about having a state that by definition gives preference to one group over others, because my Jewish values taught me about egalitarianism, and I feel like they are not being represented necessarily in the policies of Israel.
A lot of my friends are into progressive Israel activism. But I have a lot of other friends who just feel really alienated from the state. I’m a community organizer, and a lot of left-Jews really don’t connect or are embarrassed by Israel or feel really alienated.
ROLLIN: Professor Steven Cohen has studied the wide range of opinions American Jews have on Israel. He found that non-Orthodox Jews over 65 are far more committed to Israel than those under 35.
Prof. COHEN: In large part that’s because younger people are more likely to marry non-Jews, and it’s the result of that marriage that their attachment to Israel is lower than older people. Among non-Orthodox Jews, most young Jews marry non-Jews.
ROLLIN: And many non-Orthodox young Jews feel they can fully express their Judaism in America without reference to Israel. In contrast . . .
Prof. COHEN: . . . Orthodox Jews, as opposed to everybody else, have become more attached to Israel: more travel to Israel, more study in Israel, more settlement in Israel. They are more conservative, some say hawkish, about Israel’s conflict with its Arab neighbors, and their approach to Middle East politics will come to more and more influence the way American Jews relate to that part of the world.
Professor Steven Cohen |
ROLLIN: The Orthodox, among others, are greatly concerned that the two-state solution, which Obama favors, would result in a loss of land — and security.
Rabbi WEISS: We withdrew from Lebanon, and what happened was suddenly the rockets came in. We withdrew from Gush Kativ, from Gaza, and the rockets came into Sderot, and I have great fears at this point if we are going to withdraw from the West Bank, from Samaria and Judea, then Tel Aviv is right there in the line. I desperately want to live in peace with Palestinians. Rabin used to say you have to make peace with your enemy—which you can only make peace with an enemy who wants to make peace with you. Having Gaza which is controlled by Hamas, by terrorists, or withdrawing from the West Bank, which could then be taken over by Hamas or Hezbollah, that’s not good for Israel and it’s not good for America.
ROLLIN: However American Jews feel about Israel, the important thing, according to both sides, is that they feel.
Prof. COHEN: Criticism of Israel indicates engagement with Israel. American Jews should be worried when their children stop criticizing Israel.
ROLLIN: The question is whether the growing criticism in America will affect US policy toward the state of Israel.
For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Betty Rollin in New York.
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It concerns me when two, seemingly knowledgeable Jews like Stephen Cohen and Phillip Weiss imply that Jews’ only connection with Israel is via Holocaust remembrance. Shame on them! Study up and realize that Jews connection with this land goes back thousands of years. Peace with those whose primary initiative is to wipe my people off the map? I don’t see that happening, though it is a nice fantasy. Historically, they have little integrity. As for Americans who are ready to chuck Israel, please study up on how closely connected Israel’s technology is connected with our own national security. many people are naive, refusing to acknowledge how those people who hate us are ready to ride the coattails of our struggle and building of the infrastructure of the nation of Israel, from irrigation to high tech industry. Look around: There are several Arab nations surrounding Israel. Explain why they are not enough.
If there is no Master race. Then there is NO chosen people, and the “Right” of Jews to live in Israel, is no greater than the right of Palestinians to live in Palestine.
Israel as place, embodies the loftiest ideals of humankind.Unfortunately her neighbours in the Arab world,except for Egypt & Jordan, scream for her destruction. (The thoughtful person might do well to wonder why ). Her dilemma is to survive, without losing her moral standards.How easy it is to play the role of the sanctimonious ‘Moral Guide,’ far from the theatre of the conflict! Guide Israel with constructive advice by all means , but if you identify yourself with the people of Israel,the history of Israel & the collective wisdom of Israel, speak less about her , do more for her ,study more about her and do all that with Ahavat Yisrael, Love of Israel….THE KEY TO OUR CONTINUED SURVIVAL.
Someone actually picked “Charles de Gaulle” as their nom de plume? LOL
Weiss’ comments are strange. He is non-religious, obviously feels Israel, much less Jews in general, has no significant threats, does not live in Israel (yest speaks as if he does) and castes the Palestinians as morally equivalent to disenfranchised African-Americans. The history and facts do not support that view. The UN vote was opposed by all Palestinians, prior to that they collaborated with the Nazi regime, and they participated in terrorism long before there was a state of Israel. So the moral equivalence is not fact based. Maybe if they stopped allowing their “government” to lob missiles into civilian cities in Israel we could consider their viewpoint more benevolently.
Also, clearly, disaffiliated Jews, in lifestyle, practice and belief do not reflect authentic Jewish opinion and are self-serving. How do people who disavow a serious and committed life to the Jewish people in general (however defined)and in fact, get to opine on what committed Jews should do, believe or defend?
And finally, there has always been Jewish criticism of Israeli policy from before the state and since – just read the Jewish newspapers here and in Israel. To even imply that ONLY now is the criticism relevant is to be dishonest. That left wing, other directed and non-Jewish ideas dominate among such “criticizers” should be held suspect. Israel’s needs, problems and solutions will not be helped by allusions to US civil rights movements, poverty-induced illusions of terrorism, liberal mania ideas and “can’t we just be friends”. We have to understand how entrenched anti-semitism is in the Islamic world, in the Left leaning-secular world, in parts of the current Christian world and even in disassociated Jews works. I do not say this with ignorance.
Do any of these Jewish critics of Israel understand that there are 56 ISLAMIC STATES that are accepted by the world community and the United Nations. Why do they complain about one tiny Jewish nation the size of New Jersey, re-founded on our ancestral land, taken from us by one invader after the other. For 1900 years, the nations of the world told us to get out and go back where we came from. Now we go back and they tell us we have no right to our own nation.
Jew hate is alive and well in the nations of the world and the demonization of Israel is part and parcel of that Jew Hate. Israel has every right to exist as a Jewish nation. When we regained our nation in 1948, it was specifically as the homeland of the Jewish people. It was sanctioned under irrevocable international laws from the San Remo Agreement, The League of Nations and The United Nations. Suddenly, 64 years later, with tremendous pressure from Muslim nations loaded with Oil that have engaged in 1400 years of persecuting Jews, and European nations that have been persecuting Jews for 1900 years, we are being condemned for doing building a successful nation after we were attacked by Arab armies in 1948. 1956, 1967, 1973 and after 12 years of continuous rocket fire from Gaza.. STOP BUYING INTO THE JEW HATING NARRATIVE. IT IS A LIE. THE WORLD HAS MURDERED US FOR TWO MILLENNIUM AND WE DESERVE THE RECOMPENSE OF OUR OWN INDEPENDENT JEWISH NATION OF ISRAEL.
I also suggest you open a history book. When Israel was promised the return of our ancestral lands in 1948 to re-establish the state of Israel, the land was taken from the Ottoman Empire that oppressed the Middle East for centuries and butchered the Armenians by the millions. At the same time, the British and the French established the modern nations of Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Where are the cries to return those lands to their inhabitants. Where is the compensation for the 900,000 Jews that were forced to leave their homes, property and businesses throughout the Arab world in 1948. While five generations of Arabs who left Israel in 1948 languish in camps because no Arab nation will give them citizenship, the Nation of Israel gave succor to the hundreds of those of Jews deported from their centuries old homes in Arab counties.The Arabs refuse to re-settle the now 5 million refugees because they prefer to use them, by their own admission, as a weapon to bash Israel.
The relentless attack on Israel, especially by the so-called secular American Jews, is based on a false narrative of lies and denial. You are being manipulated by the same people who were happy to send your grandparents to the gas chambers. The world will never accept the Jewish people and selling out Israel will not buy you a free pass when they come for Jews the next time. The only hope for the Jewish people is a strong, independent Jewish nation of Israel.If you think I.m speaking lies, try walking down the street in Cairo or Istanbul or Baghdad wearing a Kippah and see how long you live. Or for that matter, try walking down the streets in Paris or Malmo wearing a Kippah and see how long you live. Try walking down the street in any Muslim nation wearing a Christian cross and see how long it takes before you are attacked by a mob.
This is not about Israel. The world is on the brink of a final clash of civilizations between the free nations of the world and Islam. It will be a battle to the death. Which side are you on?
AM YISRAEL CHAI.