Returning to MY BLOG

Hello to all
I've been away from this Blogsite for a few years. Nevertheless, I've continued sending letters with some opinions and thoughts to an extended e-mail list. A few friends have vigorously prodded me to return to the Blogsite and enter all of my previous letters to date. I have hesitatingly succumbed and will see how long I can hold out in a blog (which simply feels so much less personal than e-mail). For better or worse,I've inserted some past letters with their original e-mail date.

Why Do I Bother ??

Why am I so concerned? Why spend time writing and corresponding on issues regarding Palestinians and Israeli Arabs?



I receive many comments deploring the awful behavior of “some” of our Israeli settlers towards their Palestinian neighbors. Many responses lead me to believe that most of us humanistic Zionist Jews see this as a very small side-show which doesn’t really depict the general behavior towards the Palestinian Arabs by our Israeli people nor by our government and its policies. This is not so. The deplorable behavior of “some” of the settlers in the West Bank is supported either openly or tacitly by the overall great majority of West Bank settlers. The deplorable behavior is supported by large segments of our people, our Knesset and our coalition government. The deplorable behavior is an important element in the larger picture of the policies directed by those of our politicians and political parties who are creating the face of the future Israel.


Regardless of what we may be saying in the newspapers or in the U.N. or to foreign dignitaries, on ground zero we are pursuing policies meant to make life highly uncomfortable for Arabs in Israel and highly untenable for Palestinians. These are policies meant to arrive at a minimum of Arabs within the confines of the future Greater Israel.


I am woefully troubled on many levels.


First:
These are policies which are extending forever the enmity and violence between Jew and Arab. They promise a continuation of more and more killing. Killing promises a continuation of more and more enmity and violence. Enmity and violence promise a continuation of more killing. Killing promises a continuation of more and…………..


Second:
These are policies meant to scuttle the Two-State possibility (whether as separate States or as a Federation) and ensure the creation of Greater Israel between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. While present policies attempt to encourage Arabs to leave the confines of what will be Greater Israel, it is recognized that only a small minority will actually do so. In the course of that creation, we shall become some kind of bi-national entity with an eventual (near future) minority of Jews within what was the dream of a Jewish Homeland. The demographic answer by those engineering the Greater Israel policies is the reliance on most Arabs being residents without full citizenship rights, thereby anchoring us Jews as the Lords of the Land and perpetuating our large majority in the government. Laws leading to that effect are already being formulized and passed by our present government. These formulations would, for example, essentially require an oath of loyalty to Judaism of any Arab wanting to be a citizen in the land of his birth. These formulations would, for example, constrict radically the ability of human rights organizations to work within the confines of our country. These formulations are not the ranting of the “periphery”. They are being formulated today within the walls of our largely right-wing Knesset and with the support of most ministers in our largely right-wing coalition government. The process is in the works. We will move so much further from being a democratic society.


Third:
The changing face of Israel will no doubt have a long-term resounding affect on the Jews of the Diaspora. Time takes its toll and we forget that it was not the horror of the Holocaust that minimized overt anti-Semitism in our Western World. It was the new respect given to David against Goliath after our war of Independence and furthered even more after the 1956 Sinai Campaign. Since then Israel has fairly well remained the bulwark of world respect for the Chosen People. We buttressed that respect by creating a fairly democratic society within our highly complicated and non-democratic region. But events also take their toll and we are becoming so less David and so less democratic. Jews in the Diaspora, as in the past, won’t admit to seeing it coming, but the changing face of Israel will have its unfortunate affect on the changing security of world Jewry.


Fourth:
My grandchildren. I fear for their future. Certainly I fear for their safety in a national environment that lives from one war to the next with constant violent episodes filling the space in-between. But more than anything, I fear for the kind of Israel and the kind of Judaism that they will be growing into. “v’ahavta le’rei-acha kamocha” will be a very segregated phrase. “ki metziyon teitzei Tora” and “or lagoyim” will be empty phrases reminding us, perhaps, of another kind of Judaism belonging to those ancient prophets of ours who saw humility and humanity as a basis for Jewish nationhood. Power is important in our complicated region, but loosing our head over power also looses our soul. I want my grandchildren to grow into a powerful country, a humanistic society and a people with a soul. I write what I write, I say what I say, I go where I go because I’m looking for a way to preserve and rejuvenate that soul.


What can be done?
1. Speak up!! Where ? anywhere, everywhere.
2. Don’t be apathetic or lazy……find ways to be active.
3. O.K., not every day…once a week??…..once a month ??


I’m worried about my grandchildren. I know you worry about yours.
True, we may only cause a small crack, but in our lifetime we have seen small cracks suddenly collapse an entire structure. Ours is not to measure the crack, but to be in it.

The Chickens Next Door

Incredibly, I only learned today (thank you Haaretz Newspaper) about the inequality between chickens in the Galilee.


A few kilometers from my Kibbutz, Gesher Haziv, and situated right on top of the mountain range bordering Lebanon, is the Arab Beduin village of Aramshe. We have a long history of good relations with Aramshe, though mainly by way of men from the village coming to work in Gesher Haziv. But a veteran member of ours (deceased) was also proclaimed by the village council of Aramshe as their Honarary Muchtar (Headman), after being involved in many years of municipal aid to the village.


As part of a national desire to spread our population from the center of the country to the north and also help people stay in the north (e.g. Galilee), our Ministry of Agriculture has been subsidizing chicken farmers in our area for a goodly number of years (details of which are irrelevant at the moment). Aramshe has not been included in the list of Moshavim and Kibbutzim who receive these government subsidies. Why are they not on the list ?? Well….actually….because they are not on the list. Therefore they aren’t on the list, as are no other Arab agricultural villages on the list, and that’s the reason they aren’t on the list. (Get it !!?? That’s the answer villagers were receiving for a number of years.) Evidently, in 2008 an NGO, the Adala Legal Center for Arabs, filed a petition complaining discrimination and demanding equality. Well, what do you know!! Our State answered that the discriminatory criteria are certainly improper and unworthy, promised to change criteria, and increase the subsidies to include Arab villages in the area. It’s never too late to right a continuing wrong. But promises and reality don’t necessarily converge. Two and a half years later (and a change of governments) the chicken farmers of Aramshe are still waiting.


OK. Our Aramshe chicken farmers live in a village which wasn’t privileged enough to be on the list of chicken subsidized villages. But wait…..Ya’ara is one of our neighboring moshavim, Ya’ara is an interesting phenomenon. It was founded in 1950 on the ruins of the Arab village El-Samania which was destroyed in 1948. It was then populated by North African Jews together with displaced Arab Beduins from other points in the Galilee, the first such mixed village (perhaps the only one in the Galil, but I’m not sure). Well, luckily Ya’ara is on the chicken subsidy list. Unluckily, only Jewish chickens in Ya’ara receive subsidies. Arab chickens receive “bubkes”. Why? Ya’ara is on the list. Can discrimination be so blatant in my own back yard ??


We take pride in our democracy. It remains one of our main PR claims towards the Western World. And, yes, our Israeli Arabs can vote, but they are not equal. They are discriminated in land property rights, in job opportunities, in government budgets for education and infrastructure, and in a variety of ways little known to most of us, like chicken subsidies. Israeli Arabs are 20% of our country. The discrimination is producing a time bomb whose fuse will shorten with time.


But maybe I’m wrong. People are equal. It’s the chickens who aren’t.

BIL’IN 7.2010 - SAVED BY HALF AN ONION

I had never been to the town of Bil’in. For more than 5 years Bil’in has been in the news. When we began building the Fence-Wall around the West Bank our army left about 1,700 dunams of agricultural land belonging to the town’s farmers on the Israeli side of the fence. We engineered similar “annexations” to a long list of Palestinian towns, but Bil’in became a central focus in the protest battle and the legal battle for the return of land. Palestinians from the town and its surroundings came every Friday after prayers to confront and attempt to disrupt the building of the Fence. A few Israelis (very few) and a few “internationals” would join the local protesters. Young people from the town would throw stones at the soldiers, Soldiers would shoot back with rubber bullets, tear-gas and stun grenades. Many protesters were seriously injured by the rubber bullets and by direct hits by grenades. During the last couple of years, rubber bullets were banned, grenades continued. Last year a local youth was killed by the direct hit of a grenade. A couple of months ago, a young woman from overseas lost her eye to a grenade. Meanwhile the legal battle continued, and in 2007 our High Court ordered the army to move the fence. In a landmark decision the Court rebuked our army for falsely using “defense calculations” as an excuse for the location of the Fence, while in reality it located the fence with a desire to give settlements on our Israeli side more land for expansion. It took our army three years and a number of additional court rebukes to at last, in 2010, begin to move the Fence. In it’s new location 700 dunams were returned to the farmers, but 1,000 still remain on our Israeli side. The Friday protests and the legal battles, therefore, continue.

I came to Bil’in out of some kind of desire to join in supportive solidarity with the town, their protest and their legal battle. Support needs to be based on more than talking and writing. It needs a minimum of participation. But also I came to see, to observe, to feel and to comment.

After Friday prayers were over and the mosque’s muezzin silenced the town’s loudspeaker, the procession began. About 150 marchers, mostly local Palestinians, perhaps 30 or so “internationals” (summer vacation, I was told), and about ten Israelis (half of them belonging to the Israeli branch of “Anarchists Against the Wall”). The procession left the center of town and reached its western edge. From here there will be another kilometer or so to the Fence. On Fridays our army announces this area to be a “closed military area for the day”, making it illegal for anyone to enter. Any protest gathering becomes illegal and accounts for what follows.

Our procession left the edge of town towards the Fence. Half way there I stopped. From here on, I thought, I’ll watch and photograph (with 100-X zoom) from afar. I had no intention of entering the “battle zone”. I saw the procession reach the Fence. I heard the discharges of grenades. I saw the entire procession beginning to run back in my direction. They reached me and I kept filming them running past me. Suddenly I was left in the rear of the fleeing crowd. I didn’t imagine they would be pursued this far.

My lungs have seen better days. One lung still has a bit of oomph to it. The other won’t ever again see a decent day. I can walk on a flat stretch of ground. Downhill is pretty good also. But uphill my pace is somewhere between a turtle and a snail, with a bunch of long pauses in-between.

Tear-gas affects eyes and breathing….. Eyes smart, sting terribly and have a problem staying open. Breathing becomes difficult. You gasp for air, choke, stop breathing and perhaps collapse…….not appetizing for people with defective lungs. But I had no previous plans of being even close to the line of fire. I had stopped following the line of protesters on a rise half-way between the edge of town and the fence.

I turned around and looked in the direction of the fleeing procession. It was uphill, all uphill. I began my turtle pace upwards. My goal was reaching the edge of the village, that invisible border considered legal for congregating protestors. Suddenly I heard more bursting discharges. Two smoke grenades fell ahead of me and a few others to my right. A breeze was blowing from my right and in front of me was a cloud of smoke. In the field to my left I saw vague outlines of running soldiers. I took a number of slow steps forward through the slightly transparent cloud of tear-gas. Ahead of me I saw a foreign photographer (with gas mask) filming my slow advance. My eyes were smarting and I needed to close them while taking quick peek-a-boos making sure I was still aimed in the right direction, uphill. My breathing became difficult and I was choking. I knew what I needed to try. I paused inside the gas-cloud and took out my Large-Half-Onion.

Earlier in the day I had given a ride to a young woman (graduate of Jewish Reform School Leo Beck in Haifa). She too, unaffiliated to any organization, wanted to participate in sympathy with the town’s grievance about the Fence. On our way to Bil’in she handed me a half an onion and told me she heard this should help breathing when attacked by tear-gas grenades. I had experienced previous encounters with tear-gas grenades……….in the army during some training exercise…….and in our Israeli town of Um-El-Fachem when extremist settlers from the West Bank came to march thru the Israeli Arab town in a provocative gesture meant to show them who owns their land. These were not pleasant tear-gas experiences. But in neither case do I remember hearing about the benefits of the onion.

I paused inside the gas-cloud and took out my Large-Half-Onion. I pressed the onion to my nose and mouth and breathed….and breathed….not easy……but much better. I continued my snail pace through the cloud of smoke, didn’t rush (I can’t), stopped for a number of pauses, and continued pressing my dear onion for my dear breath. Slowly but surely, my onion brought me safely beyond that cloud of gas. I could now rest and swallow some cleaner air.

I think throwing stones at soldiers by the Fence is counter-productive. So, too, is the use of tear-gas and stun grenades by the soldiers. Neither we Israelis nor the Palestinians have learned the use of power through passive means. Both are entrenched in the belief that good results come through the proper abuse of violence. I think both are wrong. The Palestinian youths throwing stones would be more effective in the Israeli public eye and media if they lay down their stones, lay down their bodies next to the Fence (gas masks in hand), and stayed there day in and day out, not Only On Friday. We (few) Israelis would be more effective if we held our protest on our side of the Bil’in Fence with public rallies and demonstrations which bring many more Israelis than the few who are willing to find the round-about long route and army checkpoints in order to reach Bil’in through the West Bank. Our Army would look much better both to us and through the eye of the foreign camera if it knew better restraint and understanding for the plight of the local farmers. Our Government would be a better one if it showed more Jewish Humanity to the “stranger living in our midst”, and/or to the one living next door. Theft of private (occupied) lands (and with no compensation), even when proclaimed legal by government decree, is still theft.

Gilad Shalit and a Woman Called Ooma

Sent  24.June.2010

Dear friends and acquaintances,
A few observations re: some recent activity……………

Gilad Shalit is an Israeli soldier captured by the Hamas and held for 4 years concealed somewhere in Gaza with no possibility of contact with family or Red Cross. This morning Iris and I (and Marcia Greenfeld) joined a few thousand other Israelis in a march from Gilad Shalit’s home in Hilla all the way to Jerusalem via Nahariya during the first day of the 12 day march in support of securing Gilad’s release. Along the way Iris and I were interviewed by some TV network who asked me why I was there and whether I thought the march would do any good. I told them that I’m there in order to help keep the affair of Gilad Shalit alive in the public eye as one more issue screaming to our government that its policies towards Gaza, Hamas, and the Palestinians in general are so deeply flawed and not working.

Let me digress a bit (bear with me, and we’ll get back to Shalit)….…….

A few days earlier, with a very small group, I visited Ooma’s home in the Palestinian town of Burin not far from Shchem (Nablus). The town of Burin with its population of almost 3,000 sits on a low hill between two very hostile Jewish settlements. The settlement of Yitzhar sits on a higher hilltop to the south, and the settlement of B’racha sits on a higher hilltop to the north. Ooma is a mother of a few young children. She and her husband and a set of grandparents live in a house on the periphery of Burin right below the overlooking hilltop of Yitzhar. Ooma’s house has windows with bars….but not only. Each window is also covered with a sturdy meshed net as protection against the stones thrown at them on many occasions, but mainly at night, by both youngsters and adults from the settlement of Yitzhar. A few years ago Ooma’s family still had a herd of goats and sheep. The goats were set on fire (!!) while grazing on the side of the hill close to home. Later Yitzhar settlers came and led away all of their 40 sheep. While this was happening they had time to call the police who came and saw the sheep being led away. They asked Ooma’s husband for papers of ownership. There are none. Sheep have been in the family for generations. Ooma’s husband asked them to use the true and tried Palestinian method of identification: allow the sheep to freely make their Pavlovian way to their memorized home. This was unacceptable to our Israeli police who never asked for papers of ownership from the Yitzhar sheep-robbers. The sheep kept being led up the hill to their new home in Yitzhar. The goat and sheep pens outside of Ooma’s house remain empty. Ooma is also a “Video Volunteer” for the NGO B’tzelem. She received a video camera to record whatever she can of violent excesses by the settlers of Yitzhar. Outside of Ooma’s home, facing the hilltop of Yitzhar is the family olive grove. Some time ago Ooma managed to film Yitzhar settlers setting fire with bales of hay to a section of the grove and smashing trees and branches in another section. Her film went via B’tzelem to the proper authorities. No settler was ever taken into custody for questioning. The settlers of Yitzhar and B’racha have a well known and recognized policy. It’s called a “Price Tag”. If the police or army attempts to pressure them as a result of their actions, an immediate additional “Price Tag” is paid by the local Palestinian towns, especially Burin and Hawarra. Cars are set aflame, rocks are thrown, people are injured, homes are graffitied ….all by settlers bearing legal rifles. Ooma’s family has been living this life for thirty years, since first Yitzhar graced their hilltop. The settlers of Yitzhar are radical orthodox Jews who see the use of violence as a proper method of letting the Palestinians know who are the lords of the land, and as a way of pressuring the local populace to begin accepting the need to leave. We, the Israeli public and our various governments have allowed Ooma and her family to live like this for thirty years.

This brings me back to our soldier Gilad Shalit……..

What help can be expected by thousands of us marching from Hilla to Jerusalem?? Should we really release 1450 prisoners, many with murdered Israelis in their resumes, in exchange for one soldier?? (something unheard of in the history of prisoner exchanges…..except in Israel.) Without releasing all those prisoners how can we face Gilad’s parents and the parents of other young soldiers who we send out to defend us with a promise of always being there for them?? Yet how can we face the parents or wives or children of murdered Israelis by releasing their murderers??...and, perhaps, the real issue is what is best in the long run for our problematic country as a whole?? No, I can’t comfort myself with clear answers. I tend to hope that we are strong enough and will be wise enough to create policies which will inhibit a return to violence and terrorism by those we release. But my confidence is awfully hesitant. Of some things, though, I am certain. As long as Ooma and her family in the town of Burin live the way they do with the Yizhar hilltop overlooking their home; as long as there are so many other Oomas and their families throughout the occupied territories; as long as there are so many settlements like Yitzhar with violence so transparent or even subtly hidden under the guise of “fringe elements”; as long as all of that continues, we will have more Gilad Shalits and we will have many more prisoners with which to make (or not make) exchange deals.

aaron

And the Siege of Gaza Continues

Sent 13.June.2010

And the siege of Gaza continues:
It's difficult to follow events without commentating.

I read in yesterday’s newspaper that following the world condemnation of Israel as a result of the Marmarac tragedy, we (Israel) will now allow some more items, such as cinnamon, instant coffee and some herbs, to enter Gaza. Perhaps this announcement symbolizes the type of idiotic siege we have executed on the population of Gaza. The list of allowable items is short. We contend justifiably that we are in a state of violent hostility with the Hamas (and certainly they are with us). Even when they assert an acceptance of a Two-State agreement between us and the Palestinian Authority, they hedge and call this is a very temporary arrangement - until they take over all the Zionist held Lands. Perhaps we have a justifiable right to see to it that weapons of all sorts do not end up in the arsenal of those who wish to destroy us. Right ?? But wait a minute…… Instant coffee?? Cinnamon ??

The possibilities of a sea embargo on weapons of all kind are many and varied. We could have justified it to some sympathetic nations who could have been involved in participating with us in an embargo which pinpoints weapons of every kind. But….We didn’t want anyone’s participation. Anyways, would anyone agree to join us in an embargo of coffee and cinnamon ???

An embargo on cement and building materials was justified by us as a way of frustrating the ability of Hamas to build bunkers that would make it easier for them to resist any attack, while they fire rockets on Israel. Meanwhile, rebuilding destroyed homes from our last invasion remains greatly hindered for lack of building materials. Of course, we could have asked for some type of international supervision on the use of building material, but we did not. After all…who can we trust ?? And still, what have cinnamon and instant coffee got to do with building materials ??

As a result of a siege that put instant coffee and cinnamon on a comparable level with weapons and building material for Hamas bunkers, we will now be depicted as capitulating to the voice of a hypocritical and sanctimonious world opinion rather than to the voice of reason, morality, and just plain better long-term world politics.

We didn’t want anyone’s participation in how we handle the siege. We don’t trust anyone. They’re all against us. This seems to be a basic element of our policy decisions. But is it true and should it pervade our strategic thinking ??

Policies based wholly or partly on the principle of “the whole world is against us anyways”, is wrong politics, self-fulfilling, counter-productive, and also simply a deviation of the truth. We have strategic allies at a given moment. We have countries who do their best to support us for whatever (!!) reasons (e.g. Poland and Germany) We have a friend like the United States (its not like family, but it is a friend), we have friends in many Western countries who would stand up for us if we gave them a chance and behaved in a way that would enhance those friendships rather than put them in an untenable position.

A defensive siege of the Hamas ?? For that we even have allies in the Middle East among our closest neighbors. The Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi governments, and most certainly the Palestinian Authority supported the weapons siege of Gaza, and even building materials. But….we allowed our solo policy, our distrust of any other participation, our interpretation of how to execute the siege, and our solo tragic bungling out at sea, to bring it all down to instant coffee and cinnamon, and to the inability of our supporters in the siege to raise their voice.

There will be more humanitarian boats to break the siege. But now, even if each boat were filled with known terrorists, or loaded with a shipment of rockets, Israel will still be the violent aggressor. Unless………..Israel can still convince allies and friends to enter a joint agreement for a supervised defensive blockade……It’s a bit late, but perhaps they’ll agree…….at least we and the world will be aware that we tried…..maybe.

aaron

Leftist comments to Leftist Friend

Sent  9.June.2010

Dear Friends,

During this past week, as a result of the Marmarac Boat fiasco and tragedy, my 9th Workshop group has had a somewhat feverish interchange of mail. Much of it has been between my friend M-----, a very Active and true peace activist, and others who have cast doubt on her loyalties and intentions.

For anyone interested, I bring here M-----’s latest respond (and, afterwards, my own letter which I then forwarded to her):

(M-----'s letter to our Workshop group):
Dear -------- [9th Workshoper who wrote to M----]


I guess we have a fundamental disagreement here. And that is about who (or, more precisely, to my mind, what) our enemy is. One thing that I've come to believe, based on my experience over the years, is that the enemies that are most important to deal with are not people but systems (governments, political ideologies, militaries, and the like). I do know what side I'm on. I try to take the side against oppression (be it of Jews or Blacks or Aboriginal peoples in North America, or of Palestinians in Israel and the territories it controls; Tibetans, Fulan Gong, etc.) and for as much justice as possible. This doesn't make an enemy, for instance, of my mainland Chinese friend who tells me how right his government is in their treatment of the last two, and how stories of abuse of the FG are probably fabricated . . . Nor does it make enemies of Palestinians who may or may not have voted for Hamas (not my favourite party) or who might prefer a single democratic state to the regional confederation I favour--or, of course, of workshoppers or others who seem to me to be overly mistrustful of people whom I have mostly found to be both trusting and trust-worthy.


I too believe that the survival of the Jewish people is of fundamental importance. But I do not accept the argument that the Jewish people are in danger of being obliterated. The evolution of an ethnocentric "Jewish state" called Israel into another sort of entity, whether a distinct part of a confederation or a less distinct component of a single state does not mean the obliteration of the people of that state, which, I contend, is the important thing, and not the state in and of itself.


To me, peace is also not an end in itself. Peace without a reasonable measure of justice and equitable relations between both "sides" (in a political sense) is not, in my view, worthy of the name, nor is it sustainable--as we know from history. I apologize if my words seem to you to be venomous and hate-filled. They are not intended to be either, although I do get a bit hot under the collar when folks start calling me names for sharing reports and opinion pieces, from Israeli and first-hand witness sources, of a different view than theirs. Exasperation is my overwhelming feeling--certainly not hatred!


I don't think the "integrity and forthrightness" you speak of having admired in me has somehow morphed into "mauvais foi" (which I'm assuming translates as 'bad faith') and suspect motives. I see myself as being pretty consistent--and I hope true to the memory of my dad,who walked the picket lines of other unions that he agreed with (e.g., longshoremen and daycare teachers) when his own (municipal employees) wasn't allowed to strike and supported the IPP even when accused by a friend who worked for the FBI of being a card-carrying Communist (which he wasn't, incidentally, though many of his other friends were). I was taught, in my largely secular home, and in my Conservative sunday school, that human and civil rights were something that Jews fought for side-by-side with those to whom they were being denied. When the U.S. acted in a way he found reprehensible, he spoke out; I try to do so vis-a-vis both of my countries of citizenship, Canada and Israel--having returned my U.S. passport in 1969 along with a statement explaining my disgust, first at the VietNam war, and then (the straw that broke this particular camel's back) its going ahead with (what turned out to be only the first set) underground atomic tests in the Amchitka Islands, ignoring the predictions (thankfully eroneous) of many scientists that this could result in tidal waves along the West Coast of both Canada and the US (not sure about Mexico).

…….. I don't think I'm saying anything now very different than I was back in 1986 (Israelis and Palestinians working to end their common enemy: the occupation),………. But I realize …… what has changed is that since then, I actually lived in Jerusalem for seven years, during most of the first intifada and the first two years after the signing of the Oslo Accords, and have visited eight times since then--and I've seen Israel's "mauvais foi" in action . . . .in perpetuating and strengthening this "enemy"--the occupation, and becoming increasingly oppressive in its policies and actions. It sickens me to think about it, because, as someone pointed out, this is family. I'm an only child, but if I had brothers, I think this is how I'd feel if my brothers and sisters were mistreating my cousins. We're so close in so many ways; we need to smarten up before we destroy each other. But (and this is the bit you can't forgive me for, I suspect) I place the primary responsibility on the stronger party; the country with a recognized and governable land base and a well-equipped military . . .


So I guess we'll agree to disagree, hopefully not as "enemies."
Sincerely,
Maxine

(My letter to M----- after reading her response to a letter from another of my Workshoppers.) :

Dear M-----,

We agree on so many things, that often I find it unnecessary to add to your comments. In the larger picture, I too know which side you’re on, and am proud to stand beside you as we “take the side against oppression”. I have certainly envied you at your ability to spend so much time actively in the pursuit against oppression. My own involvement, whether in the West Bank or with Israeli Arabs or with “writing about”, have unfortunately been all too marginal to the needs of work and family. I wish I had done so much more. I shall continue to genuinely salute you even as I point out some of my disagreements with you once we descend from the “big picture” to the nitty-gritty of what we are striving for.

You are so right in stating that “the enemies that are most important to deal with are not people but systems - governments, political ideologies, militaries, and the like.” (I probably would have added religious establishments at the top of that list….). Such being the case, here in Israel we need to fight and oppose the actions and policies of our government, its political ideologies, and its cooperation with religious messianism. Likewise, we need to convince the “people” that our opposition is justified. Up to this point I think we are in complete agreement. But you seem to find it more difficult accepting the fact that Israel has enemies who are “real” and are actually intent on its demise, and that these enemies are fairly well entrenched within the Palestinian community and the Middle east community as a whole. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran are all symbolic of that which is possible within our Middle East and which also has inroads into the Palestinian community. I try not to read too much of what my own country says that “they” say about us. I try to be attuned (in English) to what they say in the Arab and world media. Unfortunately, peace and mutual understandings are not their message. And each, to its own people, applies also a zealous system of oppression. This means that there is much need to also fight the policies and actions of these governments, political ideologies, and extremist religious regimes. And, above all, this is not a separate issue. It is closely intertwined within our Arab/Israeli conflict and to the alternatives we offer while being opposed to the policies and actions of our own government.

However, a really deep chasm separates our individual understanding of the future we seek regarding the State of Israel. You write:

“I too believe that the survival of the Jewish people is of fundamental importance. But I do not accept the argument that the Jewish people are in danger of being obliterated. The evolution of an ethnocentric "Jewish state" called Israel into another sort of entity, whether a distinct part of a confederation or a less distinct component of a single state does not mean the obliteration of the people of that state, which, I contend, is the important thing, and not the state in and of itself.”

Your ability to see us as some “less distinct component of a single state” - is notably a statement accepting the demise of Israel and placing ourselves as an (eventual) minority within a Palestinian State surrounded by the fundamentalist ideologies within the Middle East, ideologies which are slowly enveloping a greater part of the Middle East. One of our fights with the Israeli government is the fact that its policies are destroying the Two-State resolution and bringing us exactly to the future which you are offering.

In the 1920’s I may have joined the Brit-Shalom movement in Palestine, a movement seeking a one-state entity of the kind you envision. In the first half of the 1920’s the British actually tried to push the setting up of a joint government with a great Arab majority. The Palestinian powers-to-be wanted neither Brit-Shalom nor the British proposals. Since then much water has flooded and crippled the bridge. Perhaps with two separate states (or even an equal confederation of states) we will eventually learn to accept and respect each other.

Today a one state solution will be a Jewish State with a totally undemocratic approach to 40% of its population (and eventually to the majority of its population), with a continuation of violence from both sides. Down the Road it will be a country with an Arab Majority either being oppressed or taking over and oppressing. No, as you write, this “does not mean the obliteration of the people”, the Jewish people, but it will mean the obliteration of a Jewish homeland. It is amazing how quickly the generations forget that the strength and security of the Jewish people in the lands of the Diaspora are umbilically tied to the existence of Israel as a Jewish homeland. (a very imperfect homeland, but that’s why we continue our opposition to those terrible imperfections.)

A few days prior to the Marmarac fiasco and tragedy an acquaintance/friend of mine working in B’tzelem sent me mail asking what my opinion was about cooperating with other NGO’s outside of Israel who are grouped loosely as “BDS” (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). Should we join them directly in their struggles regarding the Palestinians? My answer to her is below. It may be relevant to what we are both writing about.

I find myself in a reverse role to that which I am accustomed to. I am a constant critic of my government’s actions and policies towards the Palestinians as people, towards a political settlement thru two-States, and towards the Arab citizen’s of Israel. At times, though (like now), I need to proclaim that within the need to decide between black and white we cannot be blind to the grey between them.

I look forward to our meeting once more, next time you are in Israel.
Stay well and active,