Gaza-Israel follow-up

February 10, 2009 • written by Dan Perlman ('10)/Eastside Global Commentary Editor  
Filed under Global Commentary

Let me begin by saying that this whole experience has taught me a very valuable lesson in journalism (among other things), and I’m growing a great deal from it. Much better to have this occur now, when I am learning on a school newspaper. Many readers don’t seem to be satisfied with the apology, but an apology has been given-for the tone of the first article. Not for the views expressed on the conflict in Gaza.

I think it needs to be established first of all that readers must understand that in the Global Commentary section, we aim to provide commentary on world happenings, and do not provide purely informational reporting. This section replaces last year’s World Issues section; this year, international issues are to be dealt with solely from the perspective of East students’ opinions on various issues. Articles in this section are by definition required to give an opinion.

As far as replies to that article, some address my views on Cherry Hill’s role in this conflict, while others address the conflict in Gaza and Israel. There actually appears to be a degree of confusion as to how Cherry Hill even relates to the conflict. I will clarify how our community and the country as a whole relate to Israel.

The connection which the United States has to the State of Israel, first of all, is controversially strong-in terms of money, and in terms of political and military cooperation. The US is generally agreed to be Israel’s most powerful ally. Directly relevant to this latest conflict are some key facts: the US provides billions of dollars to Israel annually, including military aid in the form of advanced weaponry and weapons systems. In 2008 the US government provided $2.42 billion in direct tax aid to Israel (source: United States House of Representatives). It is paramount to note that Israel’s aid is not dealt with in the same way as other countries’ is. The money given to Israel is given in full early in the fiscal year. These are not loans to be repaid. Also, while the Department of Defense is supposed to review foreign military aid, it does not review aid to Israel. In short, Israel is consistently receiving staggering quantities of American money.

How has this relationship developed? The Zionist lobby (Zionist meaning politically advocating the perpetuation of the Israeli state, a position defended in greatest numbers in America by Evangelical Christian groups) is immensely strong. Groups like AIPAC, the American-Israel Political Action Committee, for example, are national organizations which hold hefty political clout, and heavily influence policymakers.

Affiliated organizations such as CAMERA take a media-focused approach to promoting a right-wing Zionist agenda. In all, organizations like these move around millions of dollars annually, and publish prolific amounts of propaganda-videos, writings, pamphlets, etc. This influence in American government and media is immensely powerful. To quote former President Jimmy Carter: “”For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts…because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee [AIPAC] and the absence of any significant contrary voices. It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians.” The power of these lobbying groups has created this relationship. The status quo political process more or less allows for this. After all, lobbying is legal (as of now), and although there have been some questions over illicit activities carried out by these groups, such as their passing classified US intelligence over to the Israeli government, again it is nothing which isn’t normal in Washington, and which many lobbying groups have done. The results of this successful campaign are appalling-and so have the methods which are being used.  The modern right-wing Zionist movement, behind groups like AIPAC, takes a strange stance toward their own goals. In the thought process of 20th century Zionism, the Israeli state was meant for the protection of the Jewish people, who in that century suffered terribly in other countries. Keep in mind that the State of Israel was founded in 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the horrors it brought for Jews (not that it didn’t bring horrors to all). Today, that world is gone. Today, those who lived through that time are leaving us. Today the world is a different place, the economy, the political structures, the technology, and most importantly the people. And so now Zionism is a strange creature. The notion came through-a state was created in the Holy Land for Jews and by Jews, and since then many have sought refuge within its borders. (Although, dramatically, the Israeli government does not distinguish on paper between a refugee and a willing immigrant to Israel, because in its mind both are refugees from all the horrors of the gentile world-even if they are making a choice based more on preference than preserving their own life.) So…now what? What happens to such a movement, when the far-fetched goal is actually reached-what is Zionism today, now that we Jews have a place to go? Today Zionist groups are not fighting to save me from the myriad oppressions I am facing because I don’t live in an ethnic state (maybe because here in America they don’t actually exist). Today the ideology has evolved into a kind of absolutist support of any policy or action adopted or carried out by the State of Israel-it is less about specific policies or actions than the State itself. The idea of a modern political state as an absolute good is an absurdly dangerous fallacy. The 20^th century should have shown the world-my fellow Jews especially-what blind adherence to a state can produce. States are meant to serve citizens, but to Zionists today, the Israeli state is the total embodiment of the Jewish people around the world, and all Jews are meant to serve it. And so, as the former President has said, Israel cannot be questioned. And so, it is only a matter of time-in this case, potentially a very short one-before history takes the unquestioned State down the dark path which any State left unchallenged by its constituents has always gone.

Take a look at the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. It is an organization whose guiding statement claims: “The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 ‘to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.’ Now the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency, ADL fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects civil rights for all.” The ADL also deigns to deem opposition to Israeli state actions as a form of bigotry; they are turning political opposition into a form of racism. They keeping a running tab on their website of “anti-Israel” groups-many of which are specifically Jewish groups, obviously not out to secure the “defamation of the Jewish people”-which they classify as varyingly extremist, racist, or bigoted/biased. For example, it classifies Jews Against The Occupation, a New York City-based coalition of Jews who oppose the actions the State of Israel takes in regards to the Palestinian territories, including the establishment of exclusive Jewish-only settlements within the Palestinian territories, military actions, and the blockade on supplies and energy in Gaza, as a group which “stridently argues that Israel is unilaterally responsible for the violence in the Middle East conflict” and which “supports more radical pro-Palestinian groups, including Al-Awda, ANSWER, and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, which all back Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians.” So it comes about that even Jews ourselves, whom the Zionist right claim to defend, are not above being disregarded as “extremist” and slapped with a label of “terrorist” should be try to voice dissent. The ADL likes to boast about “anti-bias training” for government and media personnel, in which this closed-mindedness is forwarded. Through these actions, the distinction between the Jewish people-half of whom do not even live in Israel, or have even visited Israel-and that state in the Middle East is being blurred. When dissent means racism, the implications should be clear enough to anyone.     

To get back to Cherry Hill for a moment: our population, especially we in the Jewish population, being affluent, cosmopolitan, and educated, this place is a breeding ground for political power. Today’s Zionism has taken firm root here, entrenching itself firmly in our synagogues and community centers (it really does need an institution to take root-this is nothing grassroots in any way). Notice the one reader who commented that being Jewish means innately being pro-Israel. That evinces definitively the extent to which the link between State and Identity which has been created by the Orwellian discourse of today’s Zionist groups. In our Hebrew schools and in our homes, we the Jewish youth of Cherry Hill have been taught that we are the future of the State of Israel-because we are part of it. No! No, we are not. Nobody on Earth belongs to any government or institution, no State, in such a way. Being born into the Jewish faith does not mean that one has to support every invasion, every war, every political killing-it does not mean that one must support anything! Why has the choice been made for us-and accepted? Why do my peers sit so idly by and allow a racially-based, right-wing political movement hijack our community, and our own home? “Hamas is evil while Israel is good!” That is binary thinking; Us vs. Them, Good vs. The Enemy. It is the root of the bloodshed which occurs over there; it is also the root of colonialism and slavery. It facilitated the Holocaust! German Us versus Jewish Them! Now we are Us, and Palestinians are Them. It is all too easy to think that because A) Israel is a liberalized, democratic modern state, and B) organizations like Hamas which garner a fair degree of support among Palestinians espouse an anti-modern ideology, then C) it is fine for the IDF to rampage through homes and communities, for Israel to be unquestionable, for war and exploitation to continue. It isn’t.

There are many issues in the area of Israel and Palestine which are not at all addressed with at least any shred of pretence of serious critical thought by the community. None of my classmates want to think about the blockade on Gaza which has been draining the people there of food, medicine, and energy. Nobody wants to consider the fact that an invasion just took place in which the IDF used white phosphorous on refugee camps, in which 1,380 Palestinians have been killed (not including those dying of lack of medical treatment-which considering the fact that the Israeli blockade left hospitals starved of power, food, and medicine, is bound to be high), a staggering death toll including 431 were children and 112 were women. 5,380 Palestinians were wounded, of which 1,872 are children and 800 are women. In the same invasion, three Israeli men have been killed by rocket fire, and 183 injured (genders/ages not given), while 11 Israeli soldiers were killed and 340 wounded during ground operations (source: United Nations office for Coordination of Humanitarian affairs report, figures as of 31 January 2009). Unconsidered is the fact that the richest 20% of Israelis control half the country’s wealth (source: World Bank). There are myriad issues to be examined, which are not in this community, in that region of the world. Palestinians are poverty-stricken, underfed, overworked, repressed, miserable. Many Israelis aren’t far off. Homophobia and sexism run rampant. There is government corruption, military corruption. Peaceful demonstrations have been met by violence-for example, in 2003, an IDF soldier ran over an American college student, Rachel Corrie, with a bulldozer, killing her. Police and soldiers have used rubber bullets and live ammunition and tear gas to break up peaceful demonstrations, and have caused serious, permanent injuries and death to peace activists. Limor Goldstein was at a protest in which he had been marching peacefully, only to be shot in the head with a rubber-coated metal bullet at close range. The bullet penetrated his brain and caused damage which will last a lifetime

The list could go on forever-especially in this past conflict. As with every state on Earth, there are atrocities which pile up against the State of Israel. But in communities like ours, it is not supposed to be questioned. In communities like ours, the State is good, and any consideration of a transgression is at most passing and dismissive. We have been taught how not to think. Yet private donations to the State of Israel continue to flow out of American communities like ours, and support for these lobbying groups-most of all, for any atrocity committed by the State of Israel-is steady. Mark Slouka of Harper’s Magazine just recently summarized this kind of dilemma of mass behavior very well: “I’ve talked to enough [people in America] to know that many are decent people, and that decency is not enough. Witches are put to the stake by decent people. Ignorance trumps decency any day of the week.” And so in Cherry Hill people will believe whatever propaganda is thrown at them, and won’t even consider it as such. In our synagogues it is “pro-Israel.” I have gone through a Hebrew school system which does not teach critical thought, or hardly even religious thought, but political loyalty. From each and every teacher, hardly anything except Israel Good, Israel Good, Israel Good, and this is not to say that it would be correct to say Israel Bad, Israel Bad. Any kind of mindless parroting is wrong, obviously. But even if that takes place on “the other side”-as people accuse Hamas of using the same techniques-it is far from correct to carry it out here. The net result is that an environment is created for myself and my peers which shuns critical thinking, which neglects rational consideration of anything political or social, and follows one thing and one thing only: that white and blue flag. My peers will, for the most part, grow up to become influential people, with a degree of money and power. If this mindset is carried with them, then what follows can only be destructive.

What should be done? Palestinians should organize themselves in unity with Israeli workers, and with migrant workers in Israel. Organized religion and nationalism should be abandoned as sources of political ideals. Whatever can be done to ease the plight and work towards understanding and liberation, that is what should be done. Seeing as the treaties and agreements of the past years have led to just about naught, and the current political processes have done little but perpetuate blood-soaked madness, it would seem that what Palestinians and Israelis need is one big social movement. A movement which is based on what is in need today, and not what the ghosts of last century thought they wanted. What is needed is a sweeping social change, the abolishment of closed-minded ideologies, and the re-establishment of each and every person’s life-not some great State power, and the death it brings-as the good which we work to protect.