Find
it hard to comprehend how a father could say this?Welcome
to hell on earth.
Anyone
who wades into the Israeli-Palestinian morass must do so with a great trepidation
and humility.I have often scratched
my head wondering what Yasser Arafat or Ariel Sharon could be thinking
as they continue policies that seem like mutual self-destruction.My
courage to try to say something useful about this topic came after being
inspired by the words of Rabbi Michael Lerner.Lerner
spoke to a workshop I attended at General Assembly about the Tikkun peace
initiative.As I listened to Lerner,
I realized my silence on this issue from the pulpit makes me complicit
in the suffering and oppression countenanced by our President’s inconsistent
Middle East policy.
So
today I rise to speak of what I have studied and learned.Today
I stand before you ready to advocate for a path to peace through understanding.
One
of the first things we need to understand is why people are willing to
become suicide bombers.We, in the
west, have been told that these suicide bombers are religious fanatics.Many
are not.One can only understand
what might make someone a suicide bomber by visiting the territories occupied
by Israel.
The
words of Israeli peace activist,Uri
Averny, can open our minds and hearts:
So
what makes them do these things?…
The reason can be summed up in one word: rage. … An ordinary Israeli, who
has never been in the Palestinian territories, cannot even imagine the
reasons for this rage…
Homes
are demolished. A merchant, lawyer, ordinary craftsman, respected in his
community, turns overnight into a “homeless,” he and his children and grandchildren.
Each one of them a potential suicide bomber.
Fruit
trees are being uprooted in their thousands. For the officer, it’s just
a tree, an obstacle. For the owners, it’s the blood of his heart, the heritage
of his forefathers, years of toil, the livelihood of his family. Each one
of them a potential suicide bomber.
On
a hill between the villages a gang of thugs has put up an “outpost.” The
army arrives to defend them. When the villagers come to till their fields,
they are shot at. They are forbidden to work in all fields and groves within
a one or two kilometer range, so that the security of the outpost will
not be endangered. The peasants see from afar, with longing eyes, how their
fruit is rotting on the trees, how their fields are being covered by thorns
and thistles waist high, while their children have nothing to eat. Each
one of them a potential suicide bomber.
…Beyond
these are the families living on the fringes of hunger, suffering from
severe malnutrition. Fathers who cannot bring food to their children feel
despair. Each one of them a potential suicide bomber.
I
quote Averny at length because of the vividness of his writing.It
is one thing to know that the Palestinians suffer terribly.It
is another to understand the details and begin to be touched by that pain.It
is pain that is over 100 years old born with the Zionist dream of freedom.
One
cannot begin to comprehend the difficulties in the region without also
understanding the two thousand plus years of suffering of the Jews.Again,
knowing that the Jews have been oppressed is quite different than becoming
familiar with the details and betrayals.
Jews
were largely tolerated in the Arab world, even in Palestine, until the
migrations that began after the pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe in
the late 1800’s.In the Arab world
they were second-class citizens to be sure, but not singled out as a people
for oppression and attack.The root
of cruel Jewish oppression has always found its home in the minds of European
Christians.
These
vicious roots go back to the institutionalization of the Catholic Church
by the Roman Emperor Constantine into what became the Holy Roman Empire
in the fourth Century. Jewish-Christian marriages were forbidden by the
Church.Jewish property rights were
restricted.In many areas, Jews were
expelled as Christ killers.This
anti-Semitic hatred hardened into massive slayings during the Crusades.
The
virulent reemergence of anti-Semitism in the Nineteenth century suggested
to the Jews several courses of action.The
spread of nationalism encouraged some Jews to believe in a state solution
they called Zionism.Another group
felt the solution was to assimilate fully into the culture and lose their
unique Jewish identity.The ultra-orthodox
rejected assimilation and Zionism, further turning toward isolationism.The
Internationalists felt the solution was to abandon national and religious
identities and identify in solidarity with others of their same class.
The
horror of the Holocaust convinced many Jews that anti-Semitism could never
be removed from the world and a national solution was the only answer.Key
to that decision was the sense of betrayal the Jews felt during the war.Labor
unions ignored and turned against the Jews vowing their allegiance to blood
and soil.No one bombed the tracks
leading to the concentration camps.Jewish
refugees were rejected and returned to certain death. Even now, Jews look
to Israel as their only assurance that they can escape persecution in a
Jew hating world.The deeper one
looks at betrayal after betrayal in Jewish history, the harder it is to
escape this conclusion.
Zionism
began seventy years before the Holocaust as Jews began buying land in Palestine.As
they did, they brought Industrial Age capitalist ideas to what was a feudal
Islamic state.Few who lived in Palestine
actually owned their own land.Many
were tenant farmers whose family had lived on the same land for many generations.Sure,
the land changed owners but that only meant the rent went to a new landlord.When
the first Jews arrived believing they could occupy the land they bought
and convert it into kibbutz settlements, conflict quickly followed, just
as it had in Europe during the enclosure period.With
each wave of European violence against Jews, more of them opted to go to
Israel creating an increasing flood of uninvited refugees.
Because
these refugees were European, and the British had gained control of these
territories after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Palestinians identified
Zionism with colonialism.The cunning
British used the Jews as a wedge to help establish colonial rule through
divide and conquer techniques.Jews
running for their lives meeting Palestinian resistance and retaliation
fell easily into this role.
An
oppressed Palestinian region and an oppressed religious minority were thus
set on a collision course and have never reconciled their differences.It
would take another couple of sermons to outline, in detail, the harm each
side has done to the other intentionally and unintentionally in the last
hundred years.Each has seen its
survival threatened and felt backed up against the wall, ready to fight
and die.Each has committed atrocities
against the other.Each act of hatred
has only inspired an increase in hatred.
This
is a particularly dark time in this conflict due to the failure of the
Oslo accords.In 1993, there was
hope that maybe it was time for the hate to begin to come to an end.Jews
and Palestinians allowed a glimmer of hope to emerge that a two state solution
could be accomplished and a healing process could begin.As
the tenth anniversary of that accord has now passed, that hope is gone,
and with it an incredible demoralization of the Israelis.The
vision of creating freedom for the Jews has come, increasingly, at the
cost of removing the freedom of the Palestinians.
This
hopelessness of finding a solution has enabled Sharon, backed by minority
extremists, to rule like a ruthless dictator as the Knesset rolls over
on its back like a dog.His actions
and policies speak of a relentless drive to subjugate the Palestinians
as a powerless underclass to be gradually eliminated or harmlessly quarantined
in walled Native American-style reservation ghettos.Israel
is paying a high moral price for this policy in the eyes of the world …
and in the hearts of its own nation.
In
a searing editorial, Avraham Burg, Speaker of Israel's Knesset from 1999
to 2003 wrote, "We live in a thunderously failed reality."
The
Zionist revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an
ethical leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli
nation today rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of
oppression and injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is
already on our doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last
Zionist generation. There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be
a different sort, strange and ugly.
There
is time to change course, but not much. What is needed is a new vision
of a just society and the political will to implement it. Nor is this merely
an internal Israeli affair. Diaspora Jews for whom Israel is a central
pillar of their identity must pay heed and speak out. If the pillar collapses,
the upper floors will come crashing down…
…
the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements,
run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their
citizens and to their enemies. A state lacking justice cannot survive.
More and more Israelis are coming to understand this as they ask their
children where they expect to live in 25 years. Children who are honest
admit, to their parents' shock, that they do not know. The countdown to
the end of Israeli society has begun.(http://www.world-crisis.com/regions/
Palestine/burg_1.htm 8-31-03 Translated
by J.J. Goldberg)
Burg’s
words are a sober wake up call for all concerned.It
is the age-old story of the oppressed turning into oppressors, the beaten
child turning into the child beater.Perhaps
the Jews will be different, many have thought, because their religion calls
them to a higher standard, a standard of forgiveness, reconciliation and
atonement that begins after the celebration of the Jewish New Year, Rosh
Hashanah, culminating in Yom Kippur which will be celebrated Monday.
Michael
Lerner told us at the workshop in Boston during General Assembly that he
believes, given the current state of the situation, neither the Israelis
nor the Palestinians can put themselves back on the path to peace.They
must be led to it by one nation with the power to accomplish that goal:
the United States in alliance with the United Nations.We
are the only world power that can have persuasive influence over Israel,
especially if the powerful American Jewish community decides it is in their
interest to do this.The solution
to the crisis is in American hands.
While
the exact details of making peace in the region are difficult and complex,
the framework is clear.Both Israelis
and Palestinians must have the security and the autonomy to control their
own lands.The Palestinian refugees
must be resettled and compensated for their losses.Some
Israelis in the Gaza and the West Bank must also be resettled and compensated
for their losses.Access to water
must be resolved fairly.An international
authority must control shared territory, particularly in Jerusalem.This
framework will not bring peace but can end the violence.
The
real peace can be won through funding and supporting American, Israeli
and Palestinian peace organizations.We
don't read about them in the newspaper, sadly, but there are a number of
Middle East peace organizations doing great work to pave the way for peace,
even as I speak.I believe if Palestinian
parents begin to see hope for their children to get a good education and
meaningful employment, they will stop sending their children to the bomb
makers.The radical fringes only
gain strength when the majority feels hopeless and helpless.The
most effective way to end the violence is through offering the Palestinian
youth more options for meaning than death.Given
the opportunity for meaningful work, health, security, and raising a family,
they will choose life.
The
path to this peace will come through a willingness to understand the situation
of the other.Palestinians need
to understand the suffering of the Jews and the Jews need to understand
the suffering they have caused the Palestinians.This
understanding is not to establish who is at fault.Both
are at fault.This understanding
is to open each person's armored heart and drain out the poison each has
used to demonize the other.Both
Israelis and Palestinians are human beings, deserving of love and respect.
The
Israeli Palestinian conflict can be overcome if there is the international
will, particularly by the United States.Creating
that will requires Americans to begin to understand the situation better.I've
shared just a few illustrations hoping to expand your thinking about the
region.Given the critical nature
of this conflict in world affairs, we all need to know more about it.I’ve
learned a great deal in the last few weeks and I thought I was well informed!I'm
exploring bringing in some experts and having an adult education class
or a community forum with Jewish and Palestinian perspectives.If
you are interested in helping to organize this, please let me know.
What
no one can argue is the unjustness of the status quo.However
formulated, someday there must be some kind of viable Palestinian state
alongside Israel.We are the ones
who can help make that happen.The
heart and soul of Israel is at stake in finding the answer.
As
Yom Kippur approaches, I’d like to close with a prayer for Israel. This
prayer is excerpted from one written by Rabbis for Human Rights for the
fiftieth anniversary of Israeli independence:
Sovereign
of the Universe, accept in lovingkindness and with favor our prayers for
the State of Israel, her government and all who dwell within her boundaries
and under her authority.Reopen our
eyes and our hearts to the wonder of Israel and strengthen our faith in
Your power to work redemption in every human soul…
Grant
those entrusted with guiding Israel’s destiny the courage, wisdom and strength
to do Your Will.Guide them in the
paths of peace and give them insight to see Your Image in every human being…
Spread
Your blessings over the Land.May
justice and human rights abound for all her inhabitants.Guide
them “To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”…
Implant tolerance and mutual respect in every heart… Spread over Israel
and all the world Your shelter of peace, and may the vision of Your prophet
soon be fulfilled: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more.”
Copyright
© 2003 by the Rev. Samuel A.
Trumbore. All rights reserved.