Do we have a monopoly on suffering still?
- KurdishMedia.com - By Benjamin Kweskin
- 13/11/2009 00:00:00
I hope I don’t leave any words off of this list: Naive, delusional, traitor, self-hating, anti-Semitic, communist, socialist, assimilationist, secular, brain-washed, fifth column. Did I get all of them? These are some examples of insults that have been leveled against me for speaking my mind about my faith and my politics. I do not claim to speak for anyone other than myself, and for that matter many on the left will probably disagree with me as well.
Many extremist Jews claim that leftists support groups that “incite violence.” This includes the International Solidarity Movement, B’Tselem, Shalom/Achshav/Salaam al-An/Peace Now, and Machsom Watch. Indeed in some extremist circles Jewish academics from the US and Israel have been singled out, and called anti-Semitic. Imagine if flamboyant homosexuals starting insulting non-flamboyant homosexuals, and called them “homophobes.” Though leftists are accused of supporting violence, extremists have committed and incited, some even against their fellow Jews” (Rabbi Meir Kahane, Yona Avrushmi, Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir, Elhanan Natan-Zada, Yaakov Teitel, and now a rabbi in Yitzhar settlement/colony said it’s permissible to kill Gentiles if they oppose Israel — even babies).
The Zionist State has two options: accepting Palestinians into a Binational state, an anathema to Zionism and to most Israelis, or, ending the military occupation along with the mass expulsion of significant portion of settlers, thus forging a two state solution. Regardless, time is not on the side of Israel.
As a non-Israeli Jew from the Southern US, let me clearly state that I have not grown up knowing what Israelis know; Thank God, I have not experienced friends dying in terrorist attacks or in war, or feeling threatened by hostile, neighboring counties. For these reasons, many Jews and Gentiles feel I have no right to speak about such matters because I am not Israeli and that I should not criticize or oppose key institutions and policy decisions that actually have potential to affect me and those that I care about.
If Jewish Americans are able to blindly support Israel, than I am entitled to criticize its policies — especially since the State of Israel claims to “speak for the Jewish people.” I didn’t give them the right. Since my tax dollars are assisting the occupation against Palestinians, I am entitled to my opinion, because I stand in opposition to it.
To be a member of the Jewish left is to be in the minority in most circles. To be in this minority is to live in a Jewish world where most of your fellow Jews are so outright defensive and reactionary when it comes to Israel though most are unfamiliar with even the most basic knowledge. Many are unable to hold objective discussions about the conflict; many more refuse to engage in such “academic exercises,” and religious Jews will naturally refer to the Torah and other Judaic literature in attempts to try to sway misguided opinions seemingly incongruent to “Torah values.”
Many of these extremist Jews are ultimately self-righteous (a mask for their insecurities and fears) and do not see their patronizing, condescending, and sometimes even racism toward anyone who disagrees with what they perceive to be Zionism. Recently, after an Israeli tourist bus got into an accident between ‘Amman and al-Batra (Petra), an injured Israeli woman commented to the press, “They [Jordanians] were like us — in the good sense of the word.”
In the Jewish world “experts on the conflict” are paraded from synagogues to JCC’s and schools. As long as they are sufficiently pro-Israel, “pundits,” “analysts,” and “experts” are provided a pulpit to discuss issues ranging from their “expertise” on Iran, the Arab world, and the Jewish State, despite the fact they often do not hold legitimate credentials —many of these cheerleaders (some of whom don’t even speak Hebrew let alone Arabic or Farsi) have the chutzpah to compare Hitler to Arafat and Ahmadinejad, claim al-Qaeda is the same thing as Hamas and Hizbullah, and that essentially all Arabs (and Muslims) are alike, from Morocco to Indonesia!
Unfortunately, even in some extremist and moderate circles, the Jewish Judge Richard Goldstone is viewed as an anti-Semite. Indeed the current “leader of the Jewish world” Binyamin Netanyahu is reported as saying the Jews in Obama’s cabinet are “self-hating.” I wonder if President Obama saw the poster of him dressed in a Palestinian kaffiyeh, or the one with a Hitleresque moustache that were plastered all throughout West Bank settlements?
The “People of the Book,” the “Light unto the Nations,” the “Chosen People” have become obsessed with anti-Semitism, with victimization, with self-righteous myths ([Israel] is a land without a people for a people without a land…). For many, Palestinians have become the modern Nazis. Perhaps it’s simply because there is a picture of Haj Amin al-Husseini sitting with Adolf Hitler, so therefore all Palestinians became Nazi sympathizers. We Ashkenazim, of whom three generations ago persecuted our Sephardi and Mizrahi brothers for their “primitiveness and backwardness” have now “allowed” for them to feel that the Holocaust is part of their narrative too (as if there were one singular Jewish historical and social narrative), for what are we Jews if we are neither suffering nor speaking of suffering? We Ashkenazim don’t even know Sephardi or Mizrahi history! We don’t even learn about our presence in the Middle East, so how can we possibly claim to understand non-Jewish Arabs?! No, they don’t speak Yiddish, either. We grew up learning about Kristalnacht, Concentration Camps, and the S.S. St. Louis, but we never heard of ma’abarot or the Israeli Black Panthers.
Israelis in general are socialized to be self righteousness while at the same time playing the victim. For them, life is dog-eat-dog. There is a notion of bravado, machismo, and false confidence that has become attached to the socially engineered Israeli and their ‘culture,’ which has grafted from nations from Germany to Morocco to Yemen (this is not to solely implicate Israel, for many countries have done similar things). Indeed the “national dish,” falafel and hommos, is not Israeli in origin -- if anything it is Lebanese. “Israeli music” is not Israeli, either, as much as I enjoy listening to it. Musika Mizrahit originates with melodies from Turkey, Greece, North Africa and the Levant. In fact, certain “Israeli” Hebrew words are actually Arabic and have “become” Israeli. What is interesting is that Palestinian-Israelis, Druze, and Palestinians speak even better Hebrew than most of us in the Diaspora.
Yes, Israelis are often victims of brutal and illegitimate terrorist acts, yet they are also victims from themselves in a different way— they are their own worst enemy. It is difficult to justify the perpetual State of Emergency in 2009 compared to 1949. This law is obsolete and anachronistic. All their neighboring counties have either signed peace treaties, or are too weak to legitimately fight it.
While it is true that Hezbollah and Hamas receive assistance from the Islamic Republic in Tehran, the weapons and resources Israel receives from the US (since 1967) is superior to whatever weapons the two non-state actors/freedom fighters/militants/terrorists have. What is ironic is that the Islamic Republic used to receive weapons from Israel even after the Shah was overthrown. Even more ironic is that the State of Israel gave weapons and funds to the “Afghan Arabs” during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 (Brzezinski called it the “Soviet’s Vietnam”). Pro-Israel activists and many Israelis ultimately think that criticism of Israel is parallel to anti-Semitism: in other words, to criticize it to be an anti-Semite, while in some cases, criticisms are anti-Semitic. In some cases, anti-Semites support or make peace with Israel (Anwar el-Sadat, Pat Robertson, British MP Nick Griffin, etc.).
Since 2001 thousands of Palestinian projectiles have caused damage to property, personal injury to dozens, and have killed approximately 25 Israelis (some of them second class Palestinian Israelis and Palestinian civilians in Ghaza). From the al Aqsa Intifada through its largely quiet ending in 2005, Palestinians managed to kill around 1,000 Israelis (some victims were also Palestinians). Palestinians suffered six times as many casualties since 2000. After Israel decided to bombard and later invade Ghaza in late 2008-early 2009, most of the world was left speechless and aghast. Many pro-Israel supporters and Israelis thought the IDF did not do enough, claiming the army was “restrained” and that Israel has a right to defend itself. Over 1,000 Palestinians lay dead in less than a month, mostly civilians! That was not restraint, it was a massacre.
The world has become even more polarized since the so-called Goldstone Report and we in the peace camp in the Jewish world are still being intimidated to choose sides: If I am pro-Israel does that mean I am anti-Arab? If I am pro-Palestinian, am I anti-Semitic? These are false and fallacious choices.
I don’t seek an equal amount of dead Israelis for me to be content (I was asked this cynically once); I seek equality and justice in the sense that an Israeli death is equal to a Palestinian. Is self-determination only acceptable to Jews? “But the Arabs have other states, they should go to Jordan!” Palestinians cannot and will not become integrated into Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian society — because they are Palestinian and their national identity is tied to the very same land Jews claim as their own. The Arabs of Palestine have been there since the Islamic conquest; 1,300 years of continued presence allows that they are indigenous, just as Jews are indigenous to the land.
When explaining to people that I have Arab and Muslim friends and have had an overwhelmingly positive experiences with them, these attempts at putting a human face to the conflict are belittled and ridiculed as being “exceptions to the rule,” alarming me that I “should be safe,” as if all 350 million Arabs carry knives in their back pockets waiting for me to turn around so they can stab a Jew. Even rabbis and other learned men have warned me of the dangers of such relationships, claiming, “They all want you dead, anyway.” You can almost hear in the background an imam or sheikh imploring his congregants that “most Jews are bad and there are only few exceptions to this rule.” Of course there are Arabs who want me dead — their hatred is disgusting and wrong. Unfortunately, there are settlers and soldiers who kill innocent Palestinians for no reason, and this is disgusting as well.
When examples are evidenced that Israel is a less than perfect place (like everywhere else on earth) these right wing apologists will refer to the genocide in Rwanda, the atrocities in Congo and Darfur, crying, “Why are you not focusing on those issues instead?” By trying to change the focus of the discussion, by trying to divert the issue, by trying to whitewash Israel’s crimes with supposed “worse crimes” does not solve anything. We as Jews regardless of our views should be concerned with Israel’s problems, air “our” dirty laundry, just as we otherwise encourage other nations and the world body to do something about the aforementioned problems.
Undeniably, Israel is a militaristic, Ethnocratic State whose government thrives on all levels of political and social instability. Put differently, the IDF is an army with a state. Peace is not a primary goal; the goal is to maximize the geographical borders of historical Palestine and to expropriate Palestinian resources. It is an expansionist, exclusionary state that ultimately desires an Arabrein nation. The status quo is sufficient for Israel, and that is why the “peace process” is mostly a process about negotiations, not about peace.
As Jews have cried and prayed for equality and national self-realization for 2,000 years, we must now allow Palestinians this same right. Undeniably Jews have had a legitimate, historical, and biblical presence in/around Palestine that predates the Arab conquest; but the Jews of yore were not called Israelis, nor did they peddle Dead Sea products at mall kiosks. There were also Amorites, Edomites, Philistines, and others living in the same area. No, I am not calling for the expulsion of Jews from the West Bank/Judea and Samaria. I am calling on 1. The military and civilian occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to end. 2. Jews living in Occupied Territory to either become Palestinian citizens and pay Palestinian taxes (or become duel Israeli-Palestinian citizens), and leave the areas that have been expropriated from Palestinians or provide monetary compensation at least to Palestinians and Israelis. 3. Any refusal of Jews leaving these homes would elicit a large fine and/or jail time, as would Palestinian attacks on Jews. 4. Jews would be granted freedom of movement in the territories as would Palestinians and holy sites for all religions would be maintained by both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
In return, Palestinians must forget the idea of “Greater Palestine.” Palestinian-Israelis will have the option of becoming citizens of a future Palestinian State as well. The newly formed government will have to go over and beyond in combating terrorism against Israeli citizens, military, and moderate Palestinians. Rejectionist groups like the PFLP and Islamic Jihad will have to give up their weapons. Hamas will have to accept the 1967 borders without ambiguity, accepting this is the will of the majority of Palestinians. A demilitarized country with Israel controlling the borders, the air, and the economy is unacceptable. A Palestinian state will have to be feasible as well as sustainable, or else it really is not much of a state.
Benjamin Kweskin received Masters in International and Middle East Studies from the University of Denver in 2008, and a BS in Political Science from Appalachian State University in 2005.
- KurdishMedia.com - By Benjamin Kweskin
- 13/11/2009 00:00:00