Ever since the creation of the state of Israel, sections of the Jewish, Muslim and conservative Christian communities have taken bitterly partisan views of the now sixty year old Israel - Arab / Islamic conflict in the middle east. The rest of the world wants to see a just and equitable solution to the problem with an end to hostility and bloodshed. It is particularly difficult for members of the Jewish and Islamic communities to speak out loudly for fairness and compassion on this matter for fear of angering their respective co-religionists. The religious and nationalist propaganda on both sides cloud all debates. Emotions are raw and mutual suspicion rampant, making dialogue impossible. That is why the following extraordinary heartfelt plea from Warren Goldstein, chairman of the Department of History at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, comes as a breath of fresh air amidst the madness (the article is so sincere and well written that I am copying it in its entirety). Now, we would love to hear a similar call for sanity and humane clarity from the Islamic community. George Bush and his despicably divisive and belligerent administration can also learn a thing or two about decency from Mr. Goldstein.
Bravo, Professor Goldstein! A few more courageous voices of reason from all sides may some day break the endless vicious cycle.
Not in my name: Israel's bombs test limits of loyalty
Jews, non-Jews must reject reckless killing of civilians
HOW to begin — with Hezbollah rockets raining bits of death onto Haifa? Or with Israeli helicopters firing missiles into the minivan stuffed with Lebanese civilians following Israeli army instructions to evacuate their homes? Or with Palestinian suicide bombers pulling their switches at bus stops? Or with Israeli tanks occupying Ramallah, laying siege to Yasser Arafat? Or with Lebanese Phalangists massacring Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Chatila, or with 1973, or 1967, or 1956, or 1948 ... ?
Because any "beginning" must be arbitrary, we might as well begin here and now. I am a Jew, and I am an American.
The order does not matter. I am in anguish over both identities right now. What matters is that in my name, my country has been supporting — with armaments and its remaining diplomatic clout — the reckless killing of civilians whose only crime is to live in a country that cannot control its own fate. How supporting? By not exercising its immense influence over Israeli policy and weaponry.
What matters is that the country that considers itself a Jewish homeland has effectively declared Lebanon a free-fire zone and believes that if its military drops enough bombs on apartment buildings in Beirut (Hezbollah "strongholds") and empties enough southern Lebanese cities, it will destroy Hezbollah as a political and fighting force. The mass graves in Tyre are now burned into Lebanese consciousness, along with Sabra and Shatila.
What matters is that when I go to the Web site of Reform Judaism, I see a propaganda effort on behalf of the Israeli bombs.
"What can I and my congregation do now to help the people of Israel?" asks a headline.
The answer? "Now is the time to stand with Israel in solidarity."
I could, the Web site suggests, "post a 'We Stand With Israel' lawn sign and proudly fly an Israeli flag at your congregation." After all, "Israel is a home for every Reform Jew."
This is moral and religious nonsense.
And it is silencing Jews who know better, because the Israel propaganda machine works most effectively through Jewish organizations, where any hint that the lives of Lebanese children matter as much as the lives of Jewish children is treated as (1) a refusal to recognize the demands of realpolitik, (2) slippery-slope "moral equivalency" reasoning, or (3) treason.
Judaism has been reduced to political cheerleading, an international equivalent of what the American religious right has done to Christianity. Too many American Jews are putting their religion on the shelf while they take up the impoverished language of "strategy" and "tactics."
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah does not distinguish between Israeli and Lebanese children.
Let me be clear. No nation ought to have to live alongside well-armed, terrorist political entities committed to its destruction. I shed no tears for Hezbollah militants, whose murderous raid clearly invited the Israeli response and whose lack of respect for civilian lives knows no national or religious boundaries.
Nor do I shed tears for Hamas, the latest example of Palestinians' propensity for self-destructive choices. Some form of Israeli military response is completely understandable and justifiable.
That is why we need an international police force to patrol southern Lebanon, disarm Hezbollah and keep Israel in its borders.
Israel's far greater military power and its ability to inflict far greater harm — no jiggering the numbers can hide the fact that Lebanese civilians are dying at roughly 10 times the rate of Israelis — bring greater responsibility, no matter what the other guys do.
No religious or political tradition worthy of the name justifies burning children to death in the hope of taking out a rocket launcher. Doing everything possible to avoid killing civilians (using antipersonnel bombs fails the test) is not only the right thing to do, but makes long-term strategic sense, because fewer surviving children will grow up swearing vengeance.
Nor should the fact that the Israeli public seems unusually united in favor of the current offensive silence those of us who want the killing to stop now.
Most Americans supported the hopeless, pointless and reckless war in Vietnam — which killed far more civilians than soldiers of any kind — until its last years, but the war's critics were right from the beginning.
In that spirit, I hope Jews and non-Jews alike will reject the pall over debate about Israel and speak their minds, breaking through their fear of being labeled "self-hating" or "anti-Semitic" by so-called "friends of Israel."
Israel needs friends who support its security and tell the truth, not sycophants putting out lawn signs.
I wish Jewish congregations would direct as much energy as they have lately expended on the killing fields in Darfur toward the far easier task of getting their own government to make real peace in the Middle East by ceasing blanket support for the Israeli government and military.
In the meantime, what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calls a "new Middle East" is being baptized in the blood of civilians. Not on my watch."
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