Wrestling with Yom Haatzma’ut
As humans, we live in complex realities where all the parts don’t fit neatly into one another. Reality is rarely as coherent as a jigsaw puzzle. As Jews, we wrestle with how our many identities – a feminist, person of color, queer, conservative, American, immigrant, and so many more – work (or don’t) with our Jewishness. Our Jewish identity is complex in itself; we are in a tradition rooted in an ancient covenant, but as modern Reform Jews, we are skeptical about covenant, about Torah, about God. Jews excel at handling complexity.
When it comes to Israel, we are called upon again to wrestle with complexity. This week is Israel’s 75th Yom Haatzma’ut or Independence Day, and this year we are challenged to hold pride and celebration with deep concern and fear about what sort of nation Israel will become in the next 75 years. At Temple Sinai, as Reform Jews, as people who believe in justice, we are particularly challenged these days due to the power of the Orthodox parties in the current governing coalition. We each land in different places when it comes to our relationship to Israel, but I think it is important to both celebrate Israel’s tremendous accomplishments while also acknowledging the more difficult, darker aspects of its policies and history.
To that end, this Shabbat morning, Torah Study will be a look at the Jewish texts that feed the Zionist narrative, and we will wrestle with their meaning and how they have been used to inspire and to oppress.
On Sunday, we’ll have brunch and consider when anti-Israel rhetoric crosses the line into antisemitism. After a small cooking class to improve the quality of our felafel and hummus at Temple Sinai, we will celebrate Israel’s 75th with a picnic, sing-along, and a tekes, or short ceremony. Bring chairs, a blanket, and any picnic foods you particularly love. We will be grilling hot dogs and veggie burgers, and sharing felafel, hummus, and baba ghanoush.
Personally, I am overwhelmed with pride at what the tiny nation of Israel has accomplished in 75 years, and I am profoundly grateful that of all the generations of Jews, I get to live now when there is an Israel. I have the privilege of visiting it regularly and living there for periods of my life. It is truly extraordinary that a beleaguered nation of traumatized immigrants from all over the Jewish world has managed to maintain a functioning and vibrant democracy, build first-world infrastructure, provide excellent nationalized health care, maintain some of the best universities in the world, particularly when it comes to the sciences and technology, and build a new Jewish culture from the ashes of pogroms, the Holocaust, and the violence and expulsion of Jews in Arab lands. These are things that we, as Jews, can be deeply proud of. Indeed, never have Jews had as much agency, power, and creativity as we do right now. As I have said many times, this is a golden age of Judaism, and much of that is due to the people of Israel, and what that half of the Jewish population has created.
At the same time, I am very worried about Israel’s slide toward religious nationalism, Jewish extremism, and dehumanizing views of Palestinians, particularly those living in Gaza and the West Bank. Far too many Palestinian civilians are killed in Israeli raids and retaliation for terrorist attacks on Israel. Far too many Israelis are killed by Palestinian terrorists, and countless more live in fear and must run to bomb shelters in the middle of the night. And the death toll of violent crimes between Palestinians continues to rise and little is being done to address it.
I am offended by the increasingly belligerent religious tone of the ultra-Orthodox, particularly in Jerusalem. Thirty years ago, they were part of the multicultural and ethnic mosaic that defined Jerusalem. On our last trip, it felt much more like Jerusalem was their turf and others were tolerated – for now. I am personally deeply angry that the political power of the ultra-Orthodox, gained through political extortion, is so often aimed most directly at Reform Jews and the LGBT community.
Like many of you, I am disgusted at the blatantly theocratic, racist, authoritarian, and homophobic language used with impunity by those at the highest levels of the current government. Decades of war and terrorism, and leaders on both sides that use the conflict for political advantage have led to a much greater tolerance of hate speech than was true when I first went to Israel in the 1980s. Also, American-style politics and social media have exacerbated this trend in Israel.
While given the constant threat of terrorism from Palestinian groups (and these include the elected leaders of Gaza, so calling them extremist doesn’t really fit), I am impressed by those working in Israel, Palestinian and Jewish Israelis, to build trust, work for peace, and try to find ways to end the conflict, I am also very aware of the suffering in the daily lives of Palestinians living under military occupation. I don’t believe that movements like Boycott, Divest and Sanction help lead to peace, because the responsibility for the current situation lies with both sides and particularly with the expansionist settler movement of Jews and the intransigence, violence, and celebration of terrorists in Palestinian leadership. Too often, Palestinian leaders are not held accountable for their part in the conflict. Just today in the New York Times, an article about the difficulties of Gazans to afford gifts for Eid at the end of Ramadan mentioned the Egyptian and Israeli blockade but said nothing about the role of Hamas in impoverishing Gazans or in creating the need for the blockade.
I am also inspired by the push-back by Israeli citizens to the efforts by the current administration to limit the power of the courts in protecting Palestinians, women, Reform Jews, and the LGBT community. Tim and I were there for several weeks of the recent protests, and I was deeply moved by the passion and commitment of the protesters, numbering now about 20% of Israel’s population, going out week after week to chant “Democracy.” The thousands of Hand Maids silently marching across the country has created an incredibly powerful feminist message. Yet, many Israelis– about 40% - strongly support Netanyahu and his coalition. What is needed is a rational compromise for the good of the group. So far, what we’ve seen is both sides using the protests for political gains and whipping up their voters with fear and disdain. Israel is as polarized as the US, if not more so, and several leaders have confessed they are afraid of a civil war.
It is striking how many parallels there are between the political climate in Israel and the one here in the US. There is a clear divide between those who believe that democracy means majority rule and whoever is in power should be able to do what their voters want, and those that believe that a democracy requires limits on the majority and strong protections of the rights of citizens and minorities. It is hard to resist making comparisons between what is happening there and here, but I think it is ultimately a mistake to do so. Israel’s situation is unique, with its own history and complexity, and we only further misunderstand by imposing our assumptions on that place. Israel’s problems are not like America’s, as Matti Friedman pointed out in his article in The Atlantic. Even my use of the term ‘racism’ is part of imposing an American paradigm on a place where the people on “both sides” have the same color skin. The best way to understand Israel and the Israel-Arab conflict is on its own terms, by visiting, by spending time with Jewish and Palestinian Israelis, by trying to understand the conflict as it is, not as it is portrayed by propagandists on both sides here in the US. That is why I am thrilled that we will have two delegations from Temple Sinai going on trips to Israel this year, one of “moms” on the Momentum Trip that Stacie Gabert is leading, and one on our congregational trip to Israel in October.
So, as we celebrate Israel’s 75th year of independence, let’s be deeply proud of what the people of Israel have accomplished, survival being first and foremost. But let’s also be honest in our concerns, even disgust at some of the actions and policies of the Israeli government, and of the Palestinian leaders. Those in power want more power, and sadly as in America, that has led to polarization, increasing violence, and exhaustion with the complex, messy business of political compromise and progress.
We do not need to choose a side; indeed, the sense of pressure to choose a side is a bit part of the problem, since we all want, as do the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, people, prosperity, and a better life for their kids. We are all created in the image of God and are so much more alike than different. Let’s not let politics and dogma rob us of that enduring truth.
I am wishing you a happy, complex Yom Haatzma’ut. I pray that Israel grows in wisdom, strength, and peace in the next 75 years, that it finally creates a constitution that protects the rights of all its citizens, and that when Israel is 150 (as the American Reform Movement is this year), we will see a time of peace, progress, and prosperity shared by Jews and Palestinians alike. We will not live to see it, but let’s pray that our children will.
Ken Y’hi Ratson.