Israel has a dilemma, and what can I do as an individual American
Jew to help? First of all, let’s look at some history to put things into
perspective. Although traditional Zionism has existed for 2,000 years since the
destruction of the Kingdom of Judea by Rome, Modern Zionism began in the 1880s
with the leadership of Theodore Herzl. The purpose of Herzlian Zionism was to
find a national home (not necessarily the Land of Israel/Palestine) for the
Jewish people in the face of anti-semitism in Europe (even in the “enlightened”
Western Europe). However for the Religious Zionists, who were a minority among
the early Zionists, only Eretz Yisroel would do. Anyway there was no other
country standing with open arms ready to share some land, even the ones with
large sparcely settled areas. So why not the ancestral home of the Jewish
people? Where else was there? Then came the Holocaust which created displaced
Jewish survivors. Again the open arms were limited, certainly not in Europe.
Then came the wars between the Jews and the Arabs. There were a number of wars,
but the two most significant were the 1948 war when the Arab League
(surrounding Arab countries, not Palestinians) invaded and 1967 when the
surrounding Arab countries again invaded. The result of 1948 was the
independence of the State of Israel with a Jewish majority. The result of 1967
was bringing the West Bank and Gaza (and temporarily Sinai) under Israeli
control. The winner in 1948 was Israel because it resulted in an independent
Israel with defined borders. Who won 1967? At the time it appeared to be
Israel, but was it really? Actually Jordan and Egypt got rid of headaches in
Gaza and the West Bank, and Israel inherited them. The Palestinians lost in
1948 because most of them were displaced when they moved out to make way for
the invading Arab armies and then could not go back in. Those who remained
became Israeli citizens and now make up 20% of the population of Israel. Jordanian
and Egyptian rule was replace by Israeli rule for the Palestinians in Gaza and
the West Bank in 1967.
Israel’s dilemma today is that Israel is stuck with an
occupation of the West Bank and a containment of a hostile sort of independent
Gaza strip on its border. In the 1990s things were looking up. Peace was made
with Egypt ending Israeli occupation of Sinai. The Palestinian
Authority under Arafat came into existence giving the Palestinians autonomy.
Some Palestinian Arabs became kindly disposed toward Israel (how many?) and
were looking forward to eventual complete independence. Most Israelis had a
similar view. Unfortunately hatred for Israel persisted for many Arabs, both
Palestinian and in the surrounding Arab countries, and elsewhere in the Moslem
world. Arafat would speak peace in English and hatred in Arabic internally.
Also there was a fringe group of radical Jewish zealots (both in Israel and the
Diaspora) who wanted ever growing settlements with the purpose of eventually
becoming the majority in the occupied lands.
When Ehud Barak offered Arafat the Clinton Barak Plan
which would have given the Palestinians an independent Palestinian state in the
West Bank, Gaza Strip, and part of Jerusalem, Arafat rejected it without any
further negotiation, and then commenced an Intifada with suicide bombers
against Israel. Apparently some (or most?) of Arafat’s people still could not
reconcile accepting the reality of Israel’s existence, and he was too chicken
to go against them (or maybe he himself could not accept it?). Some time later
Barak again tried to separate Israel from Palestine by forcing the closure of
settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrawing the Israeli army. The idea was to
test separation unilaterally in the part of Palestine that is farther from
Israel’s population center. The Palestinians in Gaza then elected a Hamas
government that did not accept the reality of Israel and proceeded to attack
Israel with rockets and commando raids. As a result, enough of the Israeli
public became disillusioned with the two state solution to elect a right wing
government and adopt a “who cares” attitude toward the settlements. This in
turn has hardened the Palestinian Arabs to a greater extent against Israel and
has further provided excuses for anti-Jewish hatred in the Moslem world (and
elsewhere). To further stir the soup centuries old internal hatreds among
Moslems between Sunnis and Shiites, between Iran and the Arab countries, between
secularists and fundamentalists, not to mention the most extreme Moslem
terrorists in Al Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, and many other copy-cat groups and
individuals who glorify murder in the name of religion. Interestingly, in the
middle of all this, a kind of under the table alliance has arisen between
Israel and the surrounding Arab countries (the same ones that invaded
Israel/Palestine in 1948 and then 1967). It is an alliance based on common
enemies, particularly Iran. However it is an alliance with governments, not
with the Arab people, and who knows how long those Arab governments will last
and how long they can be trusted?
So, Israel exists, Jews in Israel/Palestine exist, Arabs
in Israel/Palestine exist, and most are not going anywhere else. Most have no
other place to go and don’t want to go to that other place that does not exist.
Somehow the parties have to come to some kind of stable peaceful arrangement or
there will be continuous war. That was not Herzl’s dream. The Moslems must come
to terms with the fact that a nation exists in their midst with a majority
Jewish population that over the last 59 years has progressed economically,
scientifically, and culturally into a first world democracy while they have
stagnated during that time. On the other hand, the Jews of Israel (and the
Diaspora) have to accept the fact that 130+ years ago when we started modern
Zionism and chose our ancestral home after 2,000 years as the place for a new
Jewish country, we bought the place including the Palestinian Arabs, and
therefore we Jews share some responsibility towards them as well as ourselves.
So where do we (Jews, Moslems, Christians, Israelis,
Palestinians) go from here? Most of the Israeli people want, need, and deserve security,
real peace, freedom from rockets and terrorists in their own land in which they
have lived now for generations. There are religious fundamentalist Jewish
zealots who push for further settlement expansion because they think all of
Eretz Yisroel (the Land of Israel/Palestine) belongs to the Jews because they
claim it says so in the Bible. They are a minority in Israel (growing but still
a minority).
The Palestinians need and deserve respect, hope, a
reasonable level of self-determination, and the possibility of economic
advancement. The Israelis need and deserve peace (security), the ability to go
about their lives without fearing that terrorists will send rockets over the
border, set off bombs, or dig tunnels under the border to kill people.
We American Jews can donate money to causes that promote
efforts that will further peace. These efforts are occurring already, but need
to be nurtured. A great example is Hand in Hand, an organization that creates
schools in Israel that teach Jewish and Arab children together. Starting to
know each other early in life is key to making an inclusive strong Israel.
Another cause that I favor is Ben Gurion University of the Negev. The Negev
desert is the largest land mass in Israel and the key to Israel’s future. There
are many other worthy causes that support Israeli modernism and the inclusion
of modern thinking Israeli Arabs as well as Palestinians. There is hope. We
Jews in America can and should support that hope.
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