Jewish Peace Letter Vol. 43 No. 4 Published by the Jewish Peace Fellowship May 2014 Murray Polner Scaring Americans: A Tale Of Our National-Security State Lists, Some Lists, He Had Some Little Lists: Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover. plus Stefan Merken • Turmoil Around Us The Magnes Zionist • Loving Living in Israel Andrew Beale • Mapping Israel / Palestine Jim Sleeper • Untamed Jonathan Schell ISSN: 0197-9115 From Where I Sit Stefan Merken Turmoil Around Us here is plenty in the news to make us aware • As Boston prepared for its annual marathon race, remind- of the turmoil around us: ing us of last year’s bombings, someone left a backpack in the • A Palestinian professor, Mo- downtown area, presumably to fright- Thammed S. Dajani, took twenty-sev- en this year’s runners and spectators. en Palestinian university students to When the police blew up the back- Auschwitz a few weeks ago on a trip pack, they found a rice cooker, similar that was part of a project designed to to the one the bombers used last year to teach empathy and tolerance. When house their explosive — and confetti. he returned home, other Palestinians These events and numerous branded him a traitor, and the uni- others remind me that for the past versity at which he taught disowned seventy-three years the Jewish Peace the trip, leaving him to flee Jerusalem Fellowship has countered violence at in fear of his life. home and abroad as best we can, em- • A seventy-three-year-old white phasizing the Judaic spirit of loving ex-leader of the Carolina Knights of justice and peace. We have opposed the Ku Klux Klan killed three people wars, counseled those who in good Confetti: A weapon of terror? in Kansas City believing that he was conscience would not serve in the shooting at Jews in a Jewish community center and a Jewish military, and been fortunate to have included in our ranks home for the elderly. men and women of like mind. If you’d like to support the JPF, please consider a donation. We welcome any amount, Stefan Merken is chair of the Jewish Peace Fellowship. small as well as large. Y Yes! Here is my tax-deductible contribution to the Jewish Peace Fellowship! $25 / $36 / $50 / $100 / $250 / $500 / $1000 / Other $ ____ Enclosed is my check, payable to “Jewish Peace Fellowship” Phone: ______________________________________________ (Please provide your name and address below so that we may properly credit your contribution.) E-mail address: _____________________________________________ Name _____________________________________ Below, please clearly print the names and addresses, including e-mail, Address ___________________________________ of friends you think might be interested in supporting the aims of the Jewish Peace Fellowship. City / State / Zip ___________________________ Mail this slip and your contribution to: Jewish Peace Fellowship Y Box 271 Y Nyack, NY 10960-0271 2 • Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter May 2014 Jewish Peace Fellowship Israel The Magnes Zionist Why I (Still) Love Living in Israel recently wrote that living in Israel for Jews, Third, it’s hard to be a Jew here, really hard, and that’s especially those who have a steady income, is like flying part of what makes life interesting, especially for somebody business class, or like being in an airport club: “member- like me, who is a very Jewish Jew. Pace A. B. Yehoshua, I can’t Iship has its privileges.” That may have left the impression that think of any place in the world where it is harder to be a Jew this is the only reason I like being here. That’s not the case. than in Israel. Here’s an example: When I was growing up, I I cannot deny that despite all my misgivings about the used to listen to Christian fundamentalists on Sunday reli- State of Israel, its past, present, and immediate future, I like gion shows. As a privileged suburban Jewish liberal, I used being here. In fact, I really like being to think that Judaism was a more here. Here’s why: rational, more liberal religion than I like Israelis, and I don’t mean Christianity. I suffered from the just Israeli Jews. There is something same moral chauvinism that many about Israel that makes this place feel tribalists feel about their own tribe. like a small town. I would say shtetl, It’s only when I came to Israel and but that’s too Jewish. There is a nation- learned that whatever craziness gen- al character, an Israeliness, that, like tiles had, Jews also had it in spades, every Israeli, I both criticize and cele- and that whatever bigotry Southern brate. When traveling abroad I always (and Northern) whites had in the run into Israelis, everywhere. There is past, some Jews also had it. a freshness, a newness to this place that Only in Israel did I realize that reflects some sort of innate optimism. my feelings of moral superiority Maybe some of that is Jewish, but it’s were misplaced. I learned that Ju- not just that. How can the Palestinians daism was a lot more than the lofty not be optimistic? They have survived sentiments of the Pentateuch with their ongoing Nakbah, and their com- Rabbi Hertz’s commentary (or any munity, and the world’s recognition of book written by Rabbi Jonathan its aspirations, is growing. Sacks), and that my people contin- $25 / $36 / $50 / $100 / $250 / $500 / $1000 / Other $ ____ Second, I have lived here for so ued to commit sins in the name of long that it has become home to me. “Jewish survival” or “Judaism” just Not so much as a Jew — as a Jew as folks from other religions did it home is where my community and (and that includes the religions of Abraham Yehoshua. “Pace A. B. Yehoshua, I shul are — but as somebody who be- nationalism and secularism). I sup- can’t think of any place in the world where it came an Israeli citizen many years pose I could have learned the same is harder to be a Jew than in Israel.” ago. It’s because Israel is home to me thing growing up in some neighbor- that I view Israelis as family, and I like family. Families get hoods in New York, but only in Israel did I meet those folks into arguments, but family is family. And when my family for the first time. screws up, it pains me, but it’s also my responsibility. Of course, that doesn’t sound like a reason to love Israel, no more than you love a persistent pain. Perhaps it’s better to The Magnes Zionist is the pseudonym of Charles say that I am grateful for the difficulties of being a Jew here Manekin, professor of philosophy at the University of because of its impact on my moral smugness. Maryland, who blogs at www.jeremiahhaber.com. There’s a final reason why I love Israel. I still have faith www.jewishpeacefellowship.org May 2014 Shalom: Jewish Peace Letter • 3 that it can become a decent, even inspiring, society, and I the first step in the process of repentance. A just society can say that because of my faith in humanity and my familiarity be built here, and that should be the primary task of Jews with Israelis. I can envision a truly liberal democracy, a state in the twenty-first century, especially those Jews for whom of all its citizens, where all Israelis learn about and celebrate Israel is a special place. It may take decades and generations, the two major national cultures and the many religious cul- but I believe it can come. tures here. I can envision an Israel that grows up, that admits So, yes, that is a dream, and I realize that for some of its responsibility for the ongoing Nakbah, that invites Pales- my coreligionists it is a nightmare, that they would rather tinians to build with Israeli Jews a just society, that tries to continue living according to the blessing of Esau — “by the make amends, an Israel that bears a special responsibility for sword” — for the sake of political power, privilege, domin- the welfare and the flourishing of the Palestinian people. ion, “Jewish pride.” It will always be easier for tribalists to live I have long thought and said that the Palestinians were like Simeon and Levi than like Jacob. the collateral damage, not the intended damage, of the Zi- But I still have faith that things can be different and that onist enterprise, and so Israelis, primarily Israeli Jews, have ultimately, whatever political arrangement, which means a collective and historical relationship towards the Palestin- little to me, these two peoples can flourish together. They are ians and their national aspirations. Hakarat ha-het — recog- certainly not going away. nizing the sin of responsibility for the ongoing Nakbah — is Anyway, that’s my dream, and I haven’t given up on it. Y Israel / Palestine Andrew Beale Where Map-Making Is a Form of Struggle ior Amihai didn’t grow up knowing the location long-held land claims can turn quickly into reality, stealing of the internationally recognized border between his property from people whose families have owned it for hun- native Israel and the West Bank. “It wasn’t until I was dreds of years. Maps have won land back too — altering the Ltwenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five-ish when it hit me route of Israel’s separation barrier, returning farmland to its that I don’t really understand what the Green Line is,” said original owners, giving communities their names back.