Jewish Moral Bipolarity
WHY I AM IN WASHINGTON TODAY
PROTESTING APARTHEID IN PALESTINE
INTRODUCTION: ”JEWISH MORAL BIPOLARITY”
I am an American Jew who suffers from a unique congenital and cultural condition common to his people. I call it “Jewish moral bipolarity.” Since this disorder is spiritual and moral rather than psychological and behavioral, there is no medication for its cure, or control, other than truth.
I believe this moral bipolarity afflicts tens of thousands of other Jews in this country, in Israel and around the world.
What exactly do I mean by “Jewish moral bipolarity?”
TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS
I mean this: my life has been a constant collision between two hostile value systems: Liberalism and Zionism. Let me explain.
I grew up in a secular post-Holocaust Jewish home where I had instilled in me a fierce belief in universal justice and the Brotherhood of Man as the best preventatives of future war and genocide. In connection with these sacred concepts, I was taught to resist nationalism, bigotry, religious fanaticism and ethnic supremacy in any and every form—but always and only with non-violence.
At the same time, I was encouraged to overlook or rationalize violent acts committed by the state of Israel that were clear expressions of nationalism, racism and colonialism. Jewish foreign policy was exempted from condemnation, even criticism, solely on the basis of Israel’s unquestionable right to exist. And it didn’t matter what price the country ultimately paid in terms of its own moral legitimacy. This reckless, supercilious disregard for its own legitimacy in the eyes of others is the tragedy of modern Israel.
After 40 years of apartheid against Palestine, it is becoming appallingly apparent that Israel is rapidly squandering its little remaining moral legitimacy. For its own sake, it must abandon its apartheid policies in Palestine.
“JEWISH MORAL BIPOLARITY” IN ACTION
When I grew up, I felt Israel was just, generous reparation from a guilty world for the Holocaust. It never dawned on me until 1967 that from an Arab perspective, Israel could be viewed as an ex-nihilo state imposed upon the Middle East by the West—for crimes against the Jewish people in which it had not participated.
From then on, the idea of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine became a riddle that could only be solved—existentially—by Israel’s demonstrable determination to win the good will and trust of its Arab neighbors. As an ex-nihilo state, one understandably perceived as a foe, Israel had to quickly become a friend.
I am in Washington today because just the opposite has happened. Israel is justifiably perceived as a proxy of the United States in its imperialist ambitions in the Middle East.
This perception first dawned on me in 1967 when “Jewish moral bipolarity” erupted into open conflict with my family. In April of that year, I marched with my family’s proud blessing to protest the war in Vietnam. Yet the next month, my father and I almost came to blows because of my equally staunch opposition to Israel’s lightning-swift land grab of Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
How, I wondered then, could liberal Jews have such divided, hypocritical and deeply bi-polar responses to equally immoral wars in Vietnam and the Middle East?
How, I wonder today, can liberal Jews have such divided, hypocritical and deeply bi-polar responses to equally immoral occupations of Iraq and Palestine?
LINKAGE: THE ONLY CURE TO “JEWISH MORAL BIPOLARITY”
I am in Washington today to protest this lethal paradox. I am here as both a Jew of conscience and an indignant American taxpayer who pays for the jet fighters Israel uses to bomb Gaza and the bulldozers it uses to demolish Palestinian homes (both those of Muslims and Christians) and crush peace activists like Rachel Corrie. I want my government to know that I do not authorize the continued gifting of $3 billion a year to Israel for armaments in a mythical, self-serving war against terror.
And, finally, I want my countrymen to know that since the blood of Palestine is as much on our hands as Israel’s, then its fate is as much in our hands as Israel’s. I am in Washington today to ask my government to save Israel from itself by saving Palestine from Israel.
PROTESTING APARTHEID IN PALESTINE
INTRODUCTION: ”JEWISH MORAL BIPOLARITY”
I am an American Jew who suffers from a unique congenital and cultural condition common to his people. I call it “Jewish moral bipolarity.” Since this disorder is spiritual and moral rather than psychological and behavioral, there is no medication for its cure, or control, other than truth.
I believe this moral bipolarity afflicts tens of thousands of other Jews in this country, in Israel and around the world.
What exactly do I mean by “Jewish moral bipolarity?”
TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS
I mean this: my life has been a constant collision between two hostile value systems: Liberalism and Zionism. Let me explain.
I grew up in a secular post-Holocaust Jewish home where I had instilled in me a fierce belief in universal justice and the Brotherhood of Man as the best preventatives of future war and genocide. In connection with these sacred concepts, I was taught to resist nationalism, bigotry, religious fanaticism and ethnic supremacy in any and every form—but always and only with non-violence.
At the same time, I was encouraged to overlook or rationalize violent acts committed by the state of Israel that were clear expressions of nationalism, racism and colonialism. Jewish foreign policy was exempted from condemnation, even criticism, solely on the basis of Israel’s unquestionable right to exist. And it didn’t matter what price the country ultimately paid in terms of its own moral legitimacy. This reckless, supercilious disregard for its own legitimacy in the eyes of others is the tragedy of modern Israel.
After 40 years of apartheid against Palestine, it is becoming appallingly apparent that Israel is rapidly squandering its little remaining moral legitimacy. For its own sake, it must abandon its apartheid policies in Palestine.
“JEWISH MORAL BIPOLARITY” IN ACTION
When I grew up, I felt Israel was just, generous reparation from a guilty world for the Holocaust. It never dawned on me until 1967 that from an Arab perspective, Israel could be viewed as an ex-nihilo state imposed upon the Middle East by the West—for crimes against the Jewish people in which it had not participated.
From then on, the idea of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine became a riddle that could only be solved—existentially—by Israel’s demonstrable determination to win the good will and trust of its Arab neighbors. As an ex-nihilo state, one understandably perceived as a foe, Israel had to quickly become a friend.
I am in Washington today because just the opposite has happened. Israel is justifiably perceived as a proxy of the United States in its imperialist ambitions in the Middle East.
This perception first dawned on me in 1967 when “Jewish moral bipolarity” erupted into open conflict with my family. In April of that year, I marched with my family’s proud blessing to protest the war in Vietnam. Yet the next month, my father and I almost came to blows because of my equally staunch opposition to Israel’s lightning-swift land grab of Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
How, I wondered then, could liberal Jews have such divided, hypocritical and deeply bi-polar responses to equally immoral wars in Vietnam and the Middle East?
How, I wonder today, can liberal Jews have such divided, hypocritical and deeply bi-polar responses to equally immoral occupations of Iraq and Palestine?
LINKAGE: THE ONLY CURE TO “JEWISH MORAL BIPOLARITY”
I am in Washington today to protest this lethal paradox. I am here as both a Jew of conscience and an indignant American taxpayer who pays for the jet fighters Israel uses to bomb Gaza and the bulldozers it uses to demolish Palestinian homes (both those of Muslims and Christians) and crush peace activists like Rachel Corrie. I want my government to know that I do not authorize the continued gifting of $3 billion a year to Israel for armaments in a mythical, self-serving war against terror.
And, finally, I want my countrymen to know that since the blood of Palestine is as much on our hands as Israel’s, then its fate is as much in our hands as Israel’s. I am in Washington today to ask my government to save Israel from itself by saving Palestine from Israel.
posted by David Federman @ 3:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home