On the heels of J Street’s Second National Conference, there have been a series
of predictable – but still saddening – verbal and written attacks from the
Right.
Given these attacks, it would be reasonable to ask: Why did 500
students – a great number of whom, like us, grew up in youth movements, Jewish
summer camps, are active in our Hillels and hang Israeli flags on our dorm room
walls – travel to Washington to participate? Here’s why: because we’re tired of
the relationship we were told we had to have with Israel. And we’re forging a
new one.
This is how the old way works: The Israeli government acts, and
the institutions of the American Jewish community support that action. Never
mind that the action may undermine Israel’s long-term interests . Never mind
that the actions may in some cases go against the stated policy of the American
administration. Never mind that many Israelis oppose the actions. Never mind any
moral or political objection that American Jews may have.
Those Jews who
are committed to Israel but disturbed by actions inconsistent with their values
are told that they simply do not understand the political realities, that they
are naïve.
If they continue to voice dissent, they are branded
“delegitimizers” and even “anti-Israel.”
This type of relationship is
unsustainable, unreasonable and un-Jewish.
Judaism is a religion of
openness, discussion and dissent. On almost all political and social issues,
Jews hold a wide range of opinions and engage in vigorous debate. Yet when it
comes to Israel, for too long all have been encouraged to subscribe to one
vision and to ignore anything that might contradict it. This relationship more
closely resembles that of a fan club than a loving family. What Israel really
needs from American Jews is not admirers, but brothers and sisters.
Uri
Zaki, director of the US office of B’Tselem, told the conference that it is
vital to “differentiate between unconditional support and unconditional love,
the kind of love that exists within a family. When a loved one is engaged in
action that is self-destructive,” the appropriate response is
“intervention.”
We love Israel unconditionally. We have a moral
commitment to a national home in which Jews can determine our own political
destiny.
We have a religious and cultural connection to that home. We do
not, however, support Israel’s policies unconditionally. That is not true
love.
SO WHERE is intervention needed? We are disturbed by emerging
antidemocratic trends in Israeli governmental bodies, and by the entrenchment of
the occupation in the territories.
These are trends we know to be
contrary to the wishes of the majority of both the Israeli people and the
American Jewish community.
In many cases, these are consequences of a
terrible fear that the Jewish character of the state could slip away. These
fears breed the false choice of “Jewishness” over democracy. We refuse to
recognize this as a compulsory choice: It is not only possible but necessary to
be both patriotic and democratic, to protect the security of the state and its
Jewish character while honoring the rights of all peoples.
At the J
Street conference, we began to enact this vision. We listened to speakers,
connected to and argued with one another, and refused to settle for easy answers
that denied either Israel’s democratic aspirations or its Jewish character and
security. Almost 500 students came together to declare that pro-Israel can and
must mean pro-democracy and pro-equality – our Jewish values, and the future of
the Jewish homeland compel us to stand for the just and equal treatment of
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and against the occupation of the West Bank and
the blockade of Gaza.
Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel never
let America forget its failings and never acquiesced to injustice, yet they
remained deeply committed to the nation’s highest ideals and to achieving
America’s promise. The fact that these great people criticized their country did
not make them any less “pro-America.”
On the contrary, the stories they
told of possibility and progress outline a vision of the very best
America.
Similarly, we believe that our Jewish love for and faith in
Israel requires us to fight for democracy and for our vision of what it can
be.
At the conference, several Israeli activists in the Sheikh Jarrah
solidarity movement told us they believe “that a true commitment to Israel can
only be demonstrated through an unequivocal demand that it live up to its
founding values of freedom and equality.”
Only when we follow our
convictions and our ideals as Americans and as Jews do we do a real service to
Israel.
Only then are we, in the very best sense,
pro-Israel.
Jesse Rothman is founder and president of J Street U
Carleton. Logan Bayroff is founder and president of the J Street U affiliate at
the University of Pennsylvania.