Jewish Peace Letter
Vol. 43 No. 2 Published by the Jewish Peace Fellowship March 2014
Murray Polner on the trial of the “Oak Ridge Three”: Our National Security State Stefan Merken Many Paths to Peace Lawrence Wittner Suckers for War Noam Sheizaf Ari Shavit’s Partial History Robi Damelin A Chain of Change
ISSN: 0197-9115 From Where I Sit
Stefan Merken Many Are the Paths to Peace
hen President Obama took office in 2008, nuclear war moved them to put their bodies where their reli- like many others I was filled with hope that the gious faith led them. Not everyone can break the law, but there wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would come to a are many forms of protest available to those who believe war Wspeedy conclusion and we could remove all or most of our is not the way. troops. The Iraq war has wound down (finally), but the Afghan This led me to reexamine what I have been doing. Am conflict continues. I know there I active enough? Am I doing are promises of a reduction of all that I can do? By continu- our troops in the coming year, ing the work of the JPF, Mur- but the war just drags on. ray Polner, Adam Simms and I now wonder where our I at least keep the flame of JPF young people are and why we alive. By publishing Shalom have heard so few protests and keeping our members and about our recent wars. I would readers informed, we are doing ask the identical question of something. I am sure you also older people as well. When the do worthy works of justice and Vietnam War was raging, and peace. needlessly cost more than fif- When I lived in Los Ange- ty-eight thousand US soldiers les, I was invited to Long Beach killed, many more wounded, to speak before an audience of and several million Asian dead, Where Have All the Activists Gone? Protesting the Viet- elderly members of the Fel- my generation hit the streets to nam War in Washington, D.C., April 24, 1971. lowship of Reconciliation who protest loud and clear. But with resided at a retirement home. I no draft at the present time — thank goodness — and with was met by a handful of members, some in wheelchairs, some no threat to the young and their parents who don’t want them not, but all anxious to hear my words. After telling them what to take part in more wars, the American public in general has the FOR was doing both locally and internationally, they asked been almost silent. me what they could do. I thought a minute and said: Go out on Why? the sidewalk nearest the nursing home and protest injustice. Perhaps there is little to gain from becoming involved in Make signs and stand or sit and let your voices be heard and the peace or antiwar movement now when wars seems so dis- your bodies seen. They took my advice and did exactly that. tant. Without actually seeing coffins returned home to griev- Several months later I received a message from someone ing families or badly maimed veterans struggling to regain who had been in the audience. They had gone out to the nearby their lives, we say little. And that is the opposite of what we corner with signs and protested for a couple of hours. Some should be doing. This Administration, as all Administrations, younger people had seen their protest and also wanted to be- needs to hear our voices protesting war. come involved and help. So the younger ones pushed the older In this issue of Shalom you will read a moving article protesters up another block to a very busy street and they all about Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje- protested weekly on that corner. The news media picked it up Obed — all peace activists who trespassed on the grounds and the protest grew. The smallest of deeds can blossom into of a nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and cut something much larger. through three fences in the pre-dawn hours to reach a $548 We’d love to hear from you! So sit down and write a million storage bunker holding the nation’s primary supply of short note telling us what you’re doing. We’re at JPF@forusa. bomb-grade uranium. The spirit to avoid war and especially org. We will try to include your actions in a future issue of Shalom. You may just give ideas to others about what can be Stefan Merken is chair of the Jewish Peace Fellowship. done. Y
2 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship Swords & Plowshares
Murray Polner Our National Security State
ews that Sister Megan Rice, an eighty-four- alone the American public, would merit some serious atten- year-old nun, and two army veterans, Michael Wal- tion from the mass media. But no one was murdered or even li, sixty-five, and Greg Boertje-Obed, fifty-eight, wounded by a hail of bullets from vigilant guards. No one was Nhave received prison sentences for challenging — no, for captured and beaten. No one resisted arrest. The trio did what
Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed displaying Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s “Reaching Critical Will” banner. daring to protest — America’s long love affair with nuclear they did and surrendered, willing and eager to explain. weapons has drawn little or no media interest. Sister Megan The New York Times’s William J. Broad did have a sub- received a thirty-five-month sentence, and the two men six- stantial piece about Sister Megan Rice, “The Nun Who Broke ty-two months each. Into the Nuclear Sanctum,” but that was back on August 12, What was their crime? Cutting a hole in a barbed wire 2012, after the break-in. The last time I’m aware of any inter- fence at one of the ultra-secret national security sites at Oak est on the Times’s part was October 31, 2012, when an article Ridge, Tennessee, on July 28, 2012, and then crossing over discussed the failure of the site’s security, where, incredibly, into prohibited ground, hammering on the Highly Enriched no one at the facility shouted, “Halt, who goes there?” at the Uranium Material Facility and spray painting some “biblical trespassers. Since then, silence. graffiti,” leaving behind Isaiah’s subversive aphorism about In any event, the trio was tried and found guilty in fed- beating swords into plowshares. eral court in Knoxville and fined $52,053 — which the gov- You would think that the break-in at the highly secretive, ernment will obviously never collect since in all probability a presumably well-protected Y-12 National Security Complex at nun, a house painter and an unemployed activist do not usu- the Oak Ridge nuclear facility, their subsequent federal trial in ally generate much financial gain from a personal portfolio Knoxville, why they did it yet failed to convince the jury, let of stocks and bonds. What they accomplished wasn’t much, just shutting Murray Polner, Shalom’s co-editor wrote, with Jim down some Oak Ridge activities for two weeks. But they also O’Grady, Disarmed and Dangerous, a dual biography of reminded the guardians of the nuclear site that apparently Daniel and Philip Berrigan. anyone — even people bent on doing real damage — could www.jewishpeacefellowship.org March 2014 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 3 just saunter in and possibly do as they pleased. So here’s U.S. attorney told the jury that nuclear deterrence was vital another question for our national media, print and online: for our defense, but few outside of that Knoxville courtroom What are we paying those private security companies for? seemed interested in asking why. It’s as if the Berrigan brothers, Dan and Phil, suddenly But what if we have a nuclear accident, or just anoth- returned for a second act. It was Phil’s quixotic brainstorm, er Petrov Incident? Remember that? In 1983, Soviet Army which he called the Plowshares movement and which re- Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov saw a missile heading jected our endless, unaccountable government-sponsored for Moscow on his radar screen and, soon after, four more violence. Some one hundred men and women during the US missiles approaching. But he didn’t report it because he Eighties and Nineties hammered on and spray-painted MX was smart enough to suspect a computer glitch. Had he re- missiles, Trident submarines, B-52 bombers and components ported his radar’s reading and had his bosses retaliated with of the strategic nuclear triad, sending some to prison. their nukes, most of us would no longer be among the living. Phil Berrigan once spoke about how hard it was to get There have been other near-misses, some reported, some not. fellow Americans interested in what they were saying. “Even You’ll need a Freedom of Information request to find out. sympathizers thought Plowshares actions look ridiculous Given the frightened and confused reactions in our nuclear now, a sermon to the converted, ignored by the government age, anything can happen. and the media, the public no longer listening.” Of course During the trial, the judge said he hadn’t found the defen- he was right. All the same, he and his friends left a gift to dants “contrite.” Kathy Boylan, a longtime peace worker, testi- anti-nuke radicals like Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and fied in their behalf, even alluding to the Holocaust. She quoted Greg Boertje-Obed who would never lose their faith, how- Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, ever naive it may sound to most, in the power and majesty of peace and nonviolence activist, opponent of conscription, all nonviolence, much like that old revolutionary, Isaiah. wars, and a faithful Catholic who may yet wind up beatified by Back to Oak Ridge If obsolete cameras and barbed wire the Church, saying, “If we wouldn’t put people in gas cham- fences could not keep three older people out of the Y-12 Na- bers, why would we fling gas chambers at them?” tional Security Complex, why shouldn’t independent investi- “Michael,” Boylan told the court, referring to Walli, “is gative journalists still left in the Obama era of Espionage Act trying to save lives. Your life.” And then turning toward the violations ask about all those pricey weapons? Against whom prosecutor, she said, “Your life. All our lives.” are they supposed to be used? At the trial, the prosecuting Anyone interested? Y
A Letter from Joyce Bressler The Community of Living Traditions
hen I worked at the Jewish Peace Fellow- org/multifaith-community.) Wship’s office and at the Fellowship of Reconciliation One exciting program of the center is our summer institute (FOR) from 1987-2008, I had the opportunity to collaborate with for young adults 19-29. Our fifth annual “Farm the Land Grow the Stony Point Conference Center, an affiliate of the FOR. the Spirit,” is a free multifaith peace, justice and earth-care pro- The conference center, operated by the Presbyterian gram. We seek young Jews, Christians and Muslims grounded in Church, began the Community of Living Traditions (CLT) their faiths, concerned about the state of the planet and excited in 2008. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb was instrumental in creating about social activism in a multireligious context. This year our and developing this residential program of Jews, Christians summer institute runs from June 2 through August 10, encom- and Muslims, along with Rabia Harris of the Muslim Peace passing the holidays of Shavuot, Pentecost and Ramadan. Fellowship, and Rick and Kitty Ufford Chase, co-directors of As part of the leadership team I am seeking Jewish young the center. I became part of the community in August 2013. adults who are interested in applying for this amazing opportu- People of all ages come for short or longer periods of time, nity. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; responses are three months to a year or longer, where much has been learned given within two weeks. If you or someone you know is inter- from the “practice of hospitality, engaging faith, and cultivat- ested, please go to the Web site — www.stonypointcenter.org/ ing nonviolence and justice.” Sometimes cultural and religious SummerInstitute — for more details and to apply. Or contact me differences can cause conflict, but we can also grow and be- at [email protected]. come better advocates for peace from this experience. (For The Stony Point Center is in Stony Point, New York, about more information about CLT, please go to: stonypointcenter. forty miles from New York City, and sits on a thirty-two-acre campus that includes almost an acre of farmland and three Joyce Bressler is the former administrative coordi- greenhouses, which last season produced three tons of vegetables nator of the Jewish Peace Fellowship. for our dining hall. Y
4 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship Buyers’ Remorse
Lawrence S. Wittner When Will They Ever Learn? The American people and support for war
hen it comes to war, the American public gust 1968, support for the war had fallen to thirty-five per- is remarkably fickle. cent, and by May 1971 it had dropped to twenty-eight percent. The responses of Americans to the Iraq and Of all America’s wars over the past century, only World WAfghanistan wars provide telling examples. In 2003, ac- War II has retained mass public approval. And this was a cording to opinion polls, seventy-two percent of Americans very unusual war, one involving a devastating military attack thought going to war in Iraq was the right decision. By early upon American soil, fiendish foes determined to conquer 2013, support for that decision had de- and enslave the world, and a clear-cut, to- clined to forty-one percent. Similarly, in tal victory. October 2001, when US military action In almost all cases, though, Ameri- began in Afghanistan, it was backed by cans turned against wars they once sup- ninety percent of the American public. ported. How should one explain this pat- By December 2013, public approval of the tern of disillusionment? Afghanistan war had dropped to only sev- The major reason appears to be the enteen percent. immense cost of war — in lives and re- In fact, this collapse of public sup- sources. During the Korean and Vietnam port for once-popular wars is a long-term wars, as body bags and crippled veterans phenomenon. Although World War I pre- began coming back to the United States in ceded public opinion polling, observers large numbers, public support for the wars reported considerable enthusiasm for US dwindled considerably. Although the Af- entry into that conflict in April 1917. But, To paraphrase W. C. Fields: Can’t ghanistan and Iraq wars produced fewer after the war, enthusiasm melted away. Americans get an even break from American casualties, the economic costs In 1937, when pollsters asked Americans being suckered into new wars? have been immense. Two recent schol- whether the United States should partici- arly studies have estimated that these two pate in another war like the World War, ninety-five percent wars will ultimately cost American taxpayers from $4 tril- of the respondents said “no.” lion to $6 trillion. As a result, most of the US government’s And so it went. When President Truman dispatched US spending no longer goes for education, health care, parks, troops to Korea in June 1950, seventy-eight percent of Ameri- and infrastructure, but to cover the costs of war. It is hardly cans polled expressed their approval. By February 1952, ac- surprising that many Americans have turned sour on these cording to polls, fifty percent of Americans believed that US conflicts. entry into the Korean War had been a mistake. The same But if the heavy burden of wars has disillusioned many phenomenon occurred in connection with the Vietnam War. Americans, why are they so easily suckered into supporting In August 1965, when Americans were asked if the US gov- new ones? ernment had made “a mistake in sending troops to fight in A key reason seems to be that that powerful opinion- Vietnam,” sixty-one percent of them said “no.” But by Au- molding institutions — the mass communications media, government, political parties, and even education — are Dr. Lawrence Wittner (http://lawrenceswittner. controlled, more or less, by what President Eisenhower called com) is professor of history emeritus at the State Univer- “the military-industrial complex.” And, at the outset of a sity of New York/Albany. His latest book is a satirical novel conflict, these institutions are usually capable of getting flags about university corporatization, What’s Going On at waving, bands playing, and crowds cheering for war. UAardvark? But it is also true that much of the American public is www.jewishpeacefellowship.org March 2014 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 5 very gullible and, at least initially, quite ready to rally ,round flag at the beginning of a war and, then, gradually, become the flag. Certainly, many Americans are very nationalistic fed up with the conflict. and resonate to super-patriotic appeals. A mainstay of US And so a cyclical process ensues. Benjamin Franklin rec- political rhetoric is the sacrosanct claim that America is “the ognized it as early as the eighteenth century, when he penned greatest nation in the world” — a very useful motivator of US a short poem for A Pocket Almanack For the Year 1744: military action against other countries. And this heady brew War begets Poverty, is topped off with considerable reverence for guns and US Poverty Peace; soldiers. (“Let’s hear the applause for Our Heroes!”) Peace makes Riches flow, Of course there is also an important American peace (Fate ne’er doth cease.) constituency, which has formed long-term peace organiza- Riches produce Pride, tions, including Peace Action, Physicians for Social Respon- Pride is War’s Ground; sibility, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Women’s Inter- War begets Poverty &c. national League for Peace and Freedom, and other antiwar The World goes round. groups. This constituency, often driven by moral and politi- There would certainly be less disillusionment, as well cal ideals, provides the key force behind the opposition to as a great savings in lives and resources, if more Americans US wars in their early stages. But it is counterbalanced by recognized the terrible costs of war before they rushed to em- staunch military enthusiasts, ready to applaud wars to the brace it. But a clearer understanding of war and its conse- last surviving American. The shifting force in US public quences will probably be necessary to convince Americans opinion is the large number of people who rally ‘round the to break out of the cycle in which they seem trapped. Y
Quote / Unquote One person alone was brought forth at the time of creation in order to teach us that one who destroys a single human soul is regarded as the destroyer of the whole world, while one who preserves a single human soul is regarded as the preserver of the whole world.
Mishnah Sanhedrin IV. 5
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6 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship Neo-Zionism
Noam Sheizaf Partial History Ari Shavit’s ‘My Promised Land’
new book by Haaretz journalist Ari Shavit Yet the identity of Shavit’s interviewees reveals the limits won rare compliments in recent weeks from the liber- of his analysis. All the book’s heroes, save for a few — and al Jewish elite in the United States. A couple of promi- there are, as I said, dozens of them — are Ashkenazi men. Anent Jewish writers — Leon Wieseltier and Thomas Friedman The handful of exceptions highlights the similarity between — praised the book on the pages of The New York Times; The all the rest: a couple of Mizrahi Jews (from Muslim-majority New Yorker’s editor held a party for the book and its author at countries of the Middle East) are interviewed on the Mizrahi his home; Bloomberg’s Jeffrey problem and the Mizrahi expe- Goldberg handed the Natan rience; two or three Arabs are Prize to Shavit, and more. quoted in the chapters dealing The seventeen chapters of with the Palestinian problem, My Promised Land: The Tri- and women are almost com- umph and Tragedy of Israel pletely absent from the book. (Random House) re-narrate the Even 2011’s social protest — a story of Zionist and Israeli his- unique historical event in the tory, while investigating what Israeli mainstream because Shavit recognizes as an existen- its most important leaders tial crisis from which the nation were women — is examined is suffering. The first half of the through the eyes of (male) book travels along the familiar Itzik Shmuli, who found him- Zionist path: the first waves of self in the leadership circle due Jewish immigration to Pales- to his role as chairman of the tine, the Arab revolt, the 1948 national student union. Shmu- war, etc. The second, more po- li never played a major part in lemical part, focuses on social the events, and the remarks forces and political develop- that Shavit is able to extract $25 / $36 / $50 / $100 / $250 / $500 / $1000 / Other $ ____ ments. from him are among of the Throughout the book, Sha- dullest in the entire book. vit explores and analyzes social Find the Missing Mizrahis: Iraqi Jews in a transit camp In a world that celebrates and historical developments awaiting emigration to Israel, circa 1950. diversity, Shavit’s decision to through the eyes of dozens of narrow his story to the Ashke- Zionist Jews and Israelis. Most of them were interviewed by nazi-male experience is more telling than any of his observa- the author; some are historical figures. It is a wise choice that tions. The ghettoization of all other voices — the fact that a highlights Shavit’s greatest quality as a journalist: he is a pa- woman can’t discuss the Palestinian story or that a Palestinian tient and focused interviewer. is never asked about the Mizrahi experience or that a Mizrahi doesn’t analyze the economy, and so on — constructs Shavit’s Noam Sheizaf is an Israeli journalist and editor who story more than any other choice he makes. Every social or has written for Maariv, Haaretz, Yedioth Ahronoth and political group remains the object of the the same view: de- +972mag.com, an Israeli online magazine (www.972mag. prived of an existence that stretches beyond the role it plays in com). He served four and a half years in the Israel Defense the Ashkenazi elite’s drama. Needless to say, Shavit identifies Forces. himself with this elite.
www.jewishpeacefellowship.org March 2014 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 7 It’s a long book, perhaps too long, and Shavit’s overly dra- much like the ultra-Orthodox, failed to cherish democratic matic prose doesn’t make things easier. At its weakest moment, values, and so on. Together, all those groups turned the na- My Promised Land feels like a hundred-thousand-word op-ed tion into “a political circus,” one that prevents Israel from con- (“What we all face is the threefold Israel question: Why Israel? fronting the existential threats it faces in a hostile region, and What is Israel? Will Israel?”). But there are also powerful parts, so on. written with real passion and confidence. Such is the story of Shavit’s observations are disputable. He makes life easy the rise and fall of the Shas Party’s Aryeh Deri — a tale which for himself by searching the roots of the settlements project every follower of Israel’s press knows well, but Shavit still man- with its most radical, messianic of activists. Yet by now, most ages to tell in a way that feels new and exciting. historical research refers to the settlements as a state-run, The chapter on the 1948 war also stands out from the rest state-initiated project, which was carried out mostly by the of the book, both in style and message. Shavit follows a unit of government bureaucracy and supported by the mainstream, Israeli soldiers that murders, loots and steals the property of even when the same mainstream rejected Gush Emunim. Palestinians. He then narrates the expulsion of Lydda in detail, Contrary to what Shavit implies, antidemocratic legisla- including the horrific massacre of men, women and children tion of recent years didn’t come from the Orthodox parties but who found refuge in the city’s small mosque. Shavit’s attempt from Kadima and the Likud, the two centrist parties. (Shavit to bring the Nakbah (“the Catastrophe”; the 1948 exodus of praised Ariel Sharon and called for him to break from Likud Palestinians from Mandatory Palestine) out of post-Zionist and establish a new centrist party, but he was disappoint- writing and into Zionist history is the most original theme ed with Kadima pretty early on. The new generation of Russian in the book. My Promised Land also excels in other moments immigrants actually assimilated more rapidly than any wave of great violence — the Holocaust, the Arab Revolt — and at of immigrants that preceded it; Avigdor Lieberman’s rise in times, it feels that there is a side to Shavit that is fascinated popularity is with veteran Israeli Jews, not Russians). Shavit’s with power in and of itself. rants against the left are so abstract — what does “not build- This, no doubt, is part of the book’s appeal. The intellec- ing anything” refer to? — that it’s hard to extract any meaning tualization of violence — and ultimately, murder – is a central from them. theme with elites in the US and Israel, due to the inherent con- In the same way, Shavit condemns the destruction of Sep- tradiction between their values and the massive implementa- hardi culture by Zionism but sees Arab culture as dark and tion of military force they often pursue. The specific genre of primitive, without recognizing that those are two sides of the war-crime confessions is nicknamed “shooting and crying” in same coin. The rejection of the Arab culture is the destruction Israel, and traces of it are all over the book. That shouldn’t, of the Arab-Jewish world; it was not “a mistake” but rather however, be mistaken for a moral debate, since like others be- an inherent feature of the project. And while going to great fore him, Shavit avoids any serious discussion on questions of lengths to describe the challenge posed to Israel by its Pales- responsibility and accountability. tinian citizens, Shavit doesn’t allow any space in his writing In fact, the confessions sometimes serve as a justification for non-Jewish Israeliness; he rejects the Palestinians long be- for more violence. According to Shavit’s rationale, since the fore they can reject him. In short, what Shavit refuses to recog- Palestinians will never forget or forgive the Nakbah, Israel is nize is that all those groups don’t want to play a role written by destined to fight them again and again. Indeed Shavit, who others; they want their share in power, they want their identity refers to himself as a peacenik, has become an advocate of war recognized, and they want their stories heard, and not just in in recent decades. He supported military campaigns that were reference to the “problem” they pose. well within the Israeli consensus, such as Operation Defen- Ultimately, arguing with Shavit would be missing the es- sive Shield (2002) and Cast Lead (2008), but also ideas which sence of the book. My Promised Land is a conservative mani- were met with considerable opposition: the disastrous ground fest that fits well into the current wave of Zionist romanticism invasion into Lebanon in 2006 and a military strike on Iran’s that Israel is experiencing. It is not the Zionism of the 1940s nuclear facilities. or 1950s — there are no second rounds in history — but neo- Whereas the first part of the book is written in an admir- Zionism. I believe this neo-Zionism (or Israeli neoconserva- ing tone that idolizes the success of the Zionist elite in state- tism) to be the most influential ideological force of the recent building and nation-building projects, in the later chapters decade. Shavit is much more critical of his interviewees, occasionally It is a theory which is not exactly left and not exactly right, even bitter. The settlers are “zealots,” “mad,” suffering from an approach that seeks to respond to post-Zionist trends of the “tribal psychology” and a “bizarre ideology.” The left is “stuck Nineties, that sees the multicultural nature of Israeli society as a in adolescence,” “never built [anything],” lacks love, “is all threat, that seeks to renew Ben-Gurion’s melting pot and views about negation.” The Sephardic Jews (“Oriental Israelis,” Sha- the conflict with the Palestinians as a zero-sum game that can’t vit calls them) “are not aware” that Israel saved them from “a really be solved. It doesn’t support the settlements but it prefers to life of misery and backwardness in an Arab Middle East.” Tel form political pacts with the Israeli right and not the left. Other Aviv’s partygoers don’t care for the dying soldiers in the Leba- prominent neoconservatives are journalists Ben Dror-Yemini, non War; the Russian immigrants felt superior to Israelis, and Gadi Taub and Irit Linor (like Shavit, all three had their roots
8 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship in the Israeli left ), MK Elazar Stern and Finance Minister Yair most important columnist in America, the editor of the most Lapid. Even a phenomenon like the ultra-right group Im Tirzu important magazine, the head of the most important Jewish needs to be understood in the context of Zionist Romanticism, organization, the most important literary critic and the most and not (purely) as a right-wing element. important Jewish journalist. Apart from certain nuances, what separates Shavit from Th ese people oft en feel like they are the same person. Like these other writers and politicians is that he doesn’t attempt to many of Shavit’s heroes, they are powerful Ashkenazi Jewish hide his elitism. In fact he embraces it, and by doing so reveals men. Th eir feelings of identifi cation with Israel were built on the degree to which Zionist Romanticism has to do with the the myths from the early decades, which Shavit revisits. Th eir maintenance of power; with insiders and outsiders. more intimate encounters with the country, however, were in My Promised Land is a book for the Zionist “one percent,” the 1980s and 1990s, and they bear the mark of the rise of the not so much in terms of money but political power and cul- second and third Israel, and the rapid decline of the old elites. tural assets. (Th e gossip entry in an Israeli newspaper for the Much like Shavit, these Jews feel a certain anxiety from book launch party at The New Yorker editor’s home stated that the voices coming out of Israel. Th ey don’t recognize “their Is- “an aerial convoy of [Shavit’s] wealthy good friends from Israel rael” and they don’t understand or even know the settlers, the arrived,” then listed the names of Israeli billionaires, a high- ultra-Orthodox, the Sephardi or the Palestinians. (One of the society attorney, a journalist known for her adoration of Is- least explored topics in Israeli-Jewish American relations is the rael’s tycoons, and more.) Shavit’s own journalistic career is political eff ect of the ethnic identity of the American commu- one of extreme proximity to power. He supported Netanyahu nity on those relations.) in the late 1990s, then aligned with Ehud Barak, then became Shavit provides his readers with an appealing explanation closer to the Sharon family (Shavit gave a personal testimony for the crisis, and while there is something unpleasant with in favor of Omri Sharon just before the young Sharon, who an elite that scolds minorities for not playing their part in the took the fall for his father, was sent to prison), then Barak fulfi llment of the Zionist dream (or fantasy), the comfort the again. In Barak’s service, Shavit tried to politically assassinate book can provide to many readers is beyond denial. Will it Tzipi Livni ahead of the 2009 general elections, and traces of give them a better understanding of the real people living in Barak and Bibi’s resentment for Meir Dagan, former head of Israel/Palestine, their needs, their hopes and their dreams? I Mossad, runs through the Iran chapter. am not all that certain. Y One can also try and make sense of the praise from lib- eral Jewish-American intellectuals, who welcomed the book. — Originally published in +972 magazine (www.7mag. My Promised Land was lavished with endorsements from the com) and reprinted with the author’s permission.
Wrestling With Your Conscience: A Guide for Jewish Draft Registrants and Conscientious Objectors Features the most recent Selective Service regulations, plus articles on Can a Jew Be a CO?; the Jewish Pursuit of Peace; Judaism and War; Registration at 18; What if the Draft is Reinstated? Israeli Refusers; What the JPF can do for you, and much more. $7.00 plus $2.00 for postage; 5 or more books, $5.00 each plus $5 for postage Order from the JPF Offi ce (see below for address)
Jewish Peace Letter
Published by the Jewish Peace Fellowship • Box 271 • Nyack, N.Y. 10960 • (845) 358-4601 H P Rabbi Philip J. Bentley • C Stefan Merken • V P Rabbi Leonard Beerman E Murray Polner & Adam Simms • Contributing Editors Lawrence S. Wittner, Patrick Henry, E. James Lieberman
Established in 141 E-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web: http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org Signed articles are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily refl ect the views of the JPF. www.jewishpeacefellowship.org March 2014 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 9 Aftermath
Robi Damelin A Chain of Change A personal story from the Parents Circle Families Forum
came to Israel from South Africa in 1967. I came want to go to jail I’ll support you, but are you going to make as a volunteer after the Six-Day War, thinking I’d be here a difference if you go to jail?” Because basically, if he were for about six months. I really wanted to leave South Af- sent to jail, when he got out they’d put him somewhere else Irica because I’d been active in the anti-apartheid movement [in the Occupied Territories). It’s a never-ending story. If it and it was getting very pressured and ugly. I actually wanted would have created a huge noise then maybe that would have to live in the United States. Then I came here and I’ve had this been the right choice; but you can also go [to your military sort of love-hate relationship with this country ever since. I post] and lead by example, by treating people around you went to a Hebrew language with respect. program, got married and I saw the scars in both of had two kids, worked for my children after serving in The Jerusalem Post, and then the military, from having to with immigrants to help be in the first intifada. They them find employment. Af- grew up in a home that never ter I got divorced I came to made any fuss over one’s creed live in Tel Aviv. or color; we just liked people. I brought up my chil- All through this army service dren, David and Eran, in a that was what happened all very tolerant and loving lib- the time [debating whether to eral way. It was kind of like a serve in the Territories], and triangle, the three of us. Da- then this group was formed vid went to the Thelma Yell- of officers that did not want in School of the Arts because to serve in the Occupied Ter- he was a very gifted musi- ritories and David joined and David (left) and Eran during Eran’s time in the army cian. Of his whole class, he went to all the demonstrations. was probably the only one who went into the army. I was re- He was also part of the peace movement. ally surprised when he chose that, but I think you can’t take After the army David went to Tel Aviv University and responsibility for somebody else’s life, even if it is your child. studied philosophy and psychology, and then started to Even in his regular army service David was torn because do his master’s degree in philosophy of education. He was he didn’t want to serve in the Occupied Territories. He be- teaching philosophy at a premilitary program for potential came an officer and was called to go to Hebron. He was in a social leaders and he was also teaching at Tel Aviv University. terrible quandary and came to me and said, “What the hell Then he got called up formiluim , reserve duty, and the whole am I going to do? I don’t want to be there.” I said, “If you issue came up again. He didn’t want to go; if he went, he didn’t want to serve in the Occupied Territories. If he didn’t go, he’d be letting his soldiers down. What kind of example The Parents Circle-Families Forum is a joint Pal- is it for these kids who were going to be inducted into the estinian-Israeli organization of over six hundred families, army in two months? If he went, he would treat anybody, all of whom have lost a close family member as a result of the any Palestinian, with respect, and so would his soldiers by prolonged conflict, and who have shown that reconciliation his example. between individuals and nations is possible. Robi Dame- I said, “Maybe you are setting a good example [by refus- lin’s story was edited from an interview with Just Vision. ing to go],” and he said, “I can’t let my soldiers down, and if I
10 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship don’t go, someone else will and will do terrible things.” I keep However, as more time went by, I wanted to work some- telling everybody that there isn’t really any black-and-white. where to make a difference. It was the beginning of under- David went to his reserve service and I was filled with a standing how not to be patronizing, a really easy trap to fall terrible premonition. He called me on that Saturday and said, into in this kind of work: “I know what’s best for the Pales- “I have done everything to protect us. You know I love my tinians, let me tell them what to do.” It took me time to un- life, but this is a terrible place, I feel like a sitting duck.” He derstand, to look at the differences in temperament, in cul- never shared that kind of stuff ture, in all these things, to be with me, ever. My kids never much less judgmental than I’d told me what they were doing always been. I think David was in the army. They always told a much more tolerant person me ridiculous stories thinking than I am, or a less judgmental that I was going believe them. person. I learned a lot of lessons The next morning I got up very from him, and the pain created early and ran to work hours be- a space in me that was less ego- fore I had to be there. I didn’t centric, that I know what’s best want to be at home, I had a very for everybody. restless feeling. David was killed on March David was killed by a 3, 2002. In October 2004, the sniper, along with nine other sniper who killed David was people. They were at a check- caught. It was a huge step for point, a political checkpoint, me. That was really the test: do near Ofra. Two days after he I actually mean what I’m saying was killed the checkpoint was or am I just saying it because...? pulled down. I suppose all of That was the test of whether my life I spoke about coexis- Robi Damelin I really have integrity in the tence and tolerance. That must be ingrained in me because work I’m doing. Do I really mean what I’m saying when I one of the first things I said is, “You may not kill anybody talk about reconciliation? in the name of my child.” I suppose that’s quite unusual, an I wrote a letter to the family of the sniper who killed unexpected reaction to that kind of news. David. It took me about four months to make the decision, It is impossible to describe what it is to lose a child. Your and many sleepless nights and a lot of searching inside my- whole life is totally changed forever. It’s not that I’m not the self about whether this is what I really mean. I finally wrote same person I was. I’m the same person with a lot of pain. the letter, which two of the Palestinians from our group de- Wherever I go, I carry this with me. You try to run away at livered to the family. They promised to write me a letter. It the beginning, but you can’t. I went overseas. I went to India, will take time; these things take time. I’m waiting. It could I came back again, but it just goes with you wherever you go. take five years. They will deliver the letter that I wrote to I had a public relations office and I was working with -Na their son who is in jail. So in my own personal development, tional Geographic and the History Channel and had clients I this was the big milestone for me, Robi Damelin. When my feted with food and wine. I participated in all the good things in son’s killer was caught, I didn’t feel anything — certainly not life, as well as in coexistence projects with Palestinian-Israeli citi- satisfaction, except maybe satisfaction that he can’t do it to zens. I wasn’t particularly politically involved. It was much more anybody else. There is no sense in revenge and I have never on a social level: animal welfare, children, coexistence projects. I looked for that. always did a lot of volunteer work, and I put a lot into those kinds These past years have been an incredible experience for of things. It’s always been a part of who I am. me. I’ve learned such a lot for my own personal growth, apart But my work began to lose all joy for me. My priorities from the work I’m doing, which is almost the reason I get changed completely. To sit in a meeting and decide whether up in the morning. It’s something I feel almost duty-bound a wine should be marketed in one way or another became to- to be doing. It’s not a favor that I’m doing for anyone else, tally irrelevant to me. I couldn’t bear it. I was just very lucky. but almost a personal mission. I know this works. I believe I had wonderful women working with me in the office, and removing the stigma from each side and getting to know the they really ran the office for me for a year until I decided I person on the other side allows for a removal of fear, and couldn’t bear it anymore, and I closed the office. a way to understand that a long-term reconciliation process Yitzhak Frankenthal had come to speak to me. He was is possible. That’s also based on my background as a former the founder of the Bereaved Families Forum. I wasn’t sure South African, seeing the miracle of South Africa and how that was the path I wanted to take, but I went to a seminar. that all happened and that it was actually possible. There were a lot of Israelis and Palestinians in the group, but On David’s grave there is a quotation by Khalil Gibran I didn’t really feel convinced yet. that says, “The whole earth is my birthplace and all humans www.jewishpeacefellowship.org March 2014 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 11 are my brothers.” Aft er your son was captured, I spent many sleepless nights thinking about what to do. Should I ignore the whole Th e letter: thing, or will I be true to my integrity and to the work that Th is for me is one of the most diffi cult letters I will ever I am doing and try to fi nd a way for closure and reconcilia- have to write. My name is Robi Damelin, I am the mother of tion? Th is is not easy for anyone and I am just an ordinary David, who was killed by your son. I know he did not kill Da- person, not a saint. I have now come to the conclusion that I vid because he was David. If he had known David, he could would like to try to fi nd a way to reconcile. Maybe this is dif- never have done such a thing. David was twenty-eight years fi cult for you to understand or believe, but I know that in my old. He was a student at Tel-Aviv University doing his mas- heart it is the only path that I can choose, for if what I say is ters in the philosophy of education. David was part of the what I mean, it is the only way. peace movement and did not want to serve in the Occupied I understand that your son is considered a hero by many Territories. He had a compassion for all people and under- of the Palestinian people. He is considered to be a freedom stood the suff ering of the Palestinians. He treated all around fi ghter, fi ghting for justice and for an independent viable him with dignity. David was part of the movement of offi cers Palestinian state. But I also feel that if he understood that who did not want to serve in the Occupied Territories, but taking the life of another may not be the way and that if he nevertheless for many reasons he went to serve when he was understood the consequences of his act, he could see that a called to the reserves. nonviolent solution is the only way for both nations to live What makes our children do what they do? … I cannot together in peace. describe to you the pain I feel since his death and the pain of Our lives as two nations are so intertwined, each of us his brother and girlfriend, and all who knew and loved him. will have to give up on our dreams for the future of the chil- All my life I have spent working for causes of coexis- dren who are our responsibility. tence, both in South Africa and here. Aft er David was killed I give this letter to people I love and trust to deliver. Th ey I started to look for a way to prevent other families, both Is- will tell you of the work we are doing, and perhaps create in raeli and Palestinian, from suff ering this dreadful loss. I was your hearts some hope for the future. I do not know what looking for a way to stop the cycle of violence. Nothing for your reaction will be. It is a risk for me, but I believe that you me is more sacred than human life, no revenge or hatred can will understand, as it comes from the most honest part of ever bring my child back. Aft er a year, I closed my offi ce and me. I hope that you will show the letter to your son, and that joined the Parents Circle–Families Forum. We are a group of maybe in the future we can meet. Israeli and Palestinian families who have all lost an immedi- Let us put an end to the killing and look for a way ate family member in the confl ict. We are looking for ways through mutual understanding and empathy to live a nor- to create a dialogue with a long-term vision of reconciliation. mal life, free of violence. Y
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Illustrations: 1 & • Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom/www.wilpfi nternational.org. 2 • Leena Krohn/ Wikimedia Commons. • Via www.hollywoodpalmscinema.com. 7 • Wikimedia Commons. 10 • Via Via www.theparent- scircle.com. 11 • Via www.justvision.org.
12 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter March 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship