Plagued from the beginning by the religious Zionist absolute
unquestioning assumption that the land currently occupied by both Arabs
and Jews was directly given to the Jewish people by God, Israel has
always had to struggle with the duality at the core of its identity,
dividing the population into many different factions. The religious,
maybe messianic, zeal which determines that almost anything is
acceptable in the taking of the land has finally brought us to the point
where the very next step takes the region maybe beyond the possibility
of the two-state solution. Israel now must decide between democratic
values, which would demand equal protection of the rights of all
residents, and the apparent the convergence of religious values and
politics that seems to be driving the new U.S. administration.
Imagine
how devastating it must be to Arabs in Palestine that they don’t even
get to vote about such decisive steps! Their fate is being decided by
leaders of nations who seem too often to know or care nothing of their
daily reality and their recent history. U.S. President Donald Trump and
British Prime Minister Theresa May seem more concerned with settling
issues between Palestine and Israel according to their own benefit at
home, leaving Palestinians as simply chess pieces to be used and moved
around the board as they deem best.
Although Prime Minister May
has offered some assurances that Britain still believes Israeli
settlements in Palestinian lands are illegal, to distance the UK from
Europe and the previous US administration for her own purposes is a
dangerous and disrespectful course on which to embark. It disrespects
all those Britons who actually care deeply about the Palestinian people,
and are aware of Britain’s very checkered past in taking on the role of
overseer. Let us hope that seeing the jubilant reaction in the far
right corridors of power has been enough to convince Mrs. May that she
needs a more considered approach.
And President Trump? Initial
thoughts that emerged from his own mouth in early days of his
presidential campaign seemed to indicate that he was ready to bring his
purportedly powerful experience in making deals to the arena of
Israeli/Palestinian relations. Yet, Trump’s statement that he intends to
move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem has led Israel to believe that he
will totally support its extreme right wing agenda. The president should
stick to his strengths; he is not the elected representative of either
Israelis or Palestinians, and simply caving in to the opinions of people
motivated by religious conviction will not help any quest to do well by
the world.
The people of Israel have other concerns to address,
maybe most prominently that of their own identity. Who are they? Who do
they want to be in 30 years or so?
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has required, as one of his major conditions for a
deal, that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Is this a
religious identity? The most religious people in Israel would be the
ultra-Orthodox, in the sense that they consider themselves to be the
only ones following the laws of the covenant made thousands of years ago
with their God. But they have actually deeply compromised their own
status, since as a result of them joining the governing coalition in
order to gain power, their own children are moving towards a more
secular form of Judaism.
Religious exemption from the Israel
Defense Forces has been a point of strong contention with the rest of
Israel, as well as support of the spiritual lifestyle which requires
young men to study Torah instead of acquiring a more secular education
and entering gainful employment. But in choosing to rely on Netanyahu’s
benevolence rather than on the power of their God in supporting these
goals, the ultra-Orthodox find themselves compromised. Their own
children see them bowing to secular power, and thus themselves are
choosing in unprecedented numbers to join the IDF and abandon the
spiritual path.
The perspective of religious Zionists and
revisionist Jews has allowed for the violence that was an integral part
of the founding of Israel to continue today. Palestinians have suffered
under this religious zeal, and we are led now to ask, What is the plan
for the six million or so Arabs who will be living within the boundaries
of a Jewish state? Naftali Bennett, for example, seems to expect them
somehow to evaporate and disappear.
Israel has almost become
simply another secular country relying on military power more than on
spiritual power, and thus one is left asking the question, What is a
Jewish state? In accepting the values and the support of outside powers
rather than tackling the actual issue of making peace themselves, Israel
has essentially eradicated its own agenda of establishing a Jewish
state.
At this point, the only way to turn this around may be for
the parties in the governing coalition to truly sit down and enter a
phase of deep soul-searching as to who they are and where they want to
go. Most are happily embarking on the final stages of adopting a path
which will leave the Palestinians homeless and stateless, occupied by a
foreign body. Everyone should know that this cannot last as a stable
reality, with the prospect of morphing into a single state in 30 years
or so, with almost equal Jewish and Arab populations. In the meantime,
life in the Middle East will be filled with hostility and conflict.
Netanyahu seems so focused on today’s reality and on holding on to power
that he doesn’t care. Do all the parties in the ruling coalition feel
the same way?
Annexation of the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, a
determining step in extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank,
would appear to be the end of realistic opportunity for the two-state
solution to retain viability. Opposing this annexation seems to be the
only path that can assure Israel’s existence as a Jewish state—as
something other than just another secular democratic state.
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