Obviously, the Israeli
election was a disaster for Jews everywhere who favor making peace with the
Palestinians. But as much as we lost, and lost badly, we should also learn to
say three words. We were right.
We were right when we said
that Har Homa, the East Jerusalem neighborhood, was built there to block a
Palestinian state. We were right when we said
that settlements were bleeding Israel’s economy dry, far more than official
statistics let on, while the Jewish state shredded its social safety net. We were right when we said
that Benjamin Netanyahu never really wanted a two-state solution.
We were right when we said
that he and his allies do not regard Arab citizens as equal, and play on
Israeli fear, racism, and hatred. We were right when we said
that the right is made not of hawks, but of ostriches, their heads in the sand, ignoring demographic and
political realities, and running counter to Israel’s own intelligence services
— all in the name of extreme nationalism.
For all these assertions,
we and our allies in Israel were pilloried by the Supposed Jewish Mainstream ,
or SJM as I’ll refer to them, that numerical minority of the Jewish community
represented by the flag-waving nationalists at the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee, the boards of most federations and the donor lists of many
(most?) synagogues. They said we were naive, stupid, anti-Israel, anti-Jewish.
But in the waning hours of
the 2015 election, Prime Minister Netanyahu expressly validated all but one of
these assertions — with disclosures from the World Zionist Organization confirming
the other assertion about the economics of settlement growth. Of course, as with
everything Netanyahu says, it’s best not to believe him too much. Just as his
Iran speech was intended, as Paul Krugman aptly put it, to wag the dog away
from economic issues and toward security ones, so, too, his barrage of
far-right statements was aimed more at gaining votes for his party than at
anything else. By opposing a Palestinian state, denying the citizenship of Arab
Israelis and bragging about settlements, Netanyahu made it easier for voters
for the far-right Jewish Home to choose his party instead.
But he still said all those
things, and they cannot be unsaid. This changes the American
Jewish reality.
First, the SJM can no
longer pretend that it is supporting peace by supporting Revisionist Zionism, a
movement that was co-founded by Netanyahu’s father and that for 75 years has consistently
rejected peace with Arabs and insists on Jewish dominance by force. We were
right, SJM: Your guy is a liar. His strategy, other than to win elections, is
exactly what we have said it is: consolidate Greater Israel, settle in for a
long occupation, shift the focus elsewhere and fight endless skirmishes, like
last summer’s adventure in Gaza.
So, SJM — and my friends
who claim to be pro-peace but still go to AIPAC conferences — you now have to
choose. It’s one or the other. Either you support a revisionist regime that is
racist and rejectionist (and re-elected with enormous influxes of Adelson cash), or you support the Zionist dream of Herzl and
Ben-Gurion. It’s time to choose.
And to my friends in the
pro-peace camp, it’s time to take off the gloves. Or, if you prefer an
androcentric metaphor, it’s time to man up and grow a pair. Conveniently, J Street’s
conference comes just a few days after the election, in Washington, D.C. To
them, I say, enough of the policy of coexistence with the SJM, AIPAC and
nationalistic partisans. You can’t coexist unilaterally, after all, and the SJM
has never returned the favor. [It won’t let you into its undemocratic, self-congratulatory,
money-wasting “Presidents Council.” It won’t let Hillel’s president enter the
Walter E. Washington Convention Center when you’re there. They think you’re treyf.
So start acting like it.
Make it clear: You reject
Revisionist Zionism, and those who support it have spent too long in the
Disney-like Israel of Taglit-Birthright Israel and not enough time in
international geopolitical reality.
Make it clear: You want the
Obama administration to pressure Israel.
And make it clear that
Revisionist Zionism is morally and politically wrong. Sure, it feels good to
wave Israeli flags and reflect on the Zionist miracle. Nationalism, patriotism
and ethnocentrism often feel good. They express a basic human desire to be part
of a group. But that doesn’t make it
right, or smart, to do so. Wave too many flags and you’re going to hit each
other in the head — which is what the SJM has done.
Because just as we were
right about Netanyahu, we are right about one other thing: Israel’s greatest
patriots are threatening Israel’s existence.
In the name of catering to
a base that is part racist, part deluded, part terrified and part messianic,
revisionists are creating a pariah state. Like their American friends in the Tea Party,
they are deluded by patriotism. Their hearts have gotten the better of their
minds.
We were right about the
right’s intentions; Netanyahu has proved that.
And we are right that his
Israel will become a pariah state. Alas, time will prove that too.
+ The second comes from Churches for Middle East Peace and tells of the challenge currently facing those in Gaza who need to rebuild their homes after last summer's war. What is at stake is simple: those whose homes have been destroyed need shelter. There is a way to do this even with Israel's impositions on supplies and equipment. You can act to help. Please read the whole article here - and response as you can from your heart: : http://action.cmep.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19822
Thank you for your love and consideration.
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