I woke up on Tuesday in Boston to the terrible news from Jerusalem. The latest escalation in the cycle of incitement and violence: the terrorist murder of four Israelis praying Shacharit in synagogue in a peaceful Orthodox neighborhood, and of the Druze policeman who tried to rescue them. The manner of attack was shocking in itself and I am haunted by the photos from the scene.
We’ve been talking for a while about the disintegration of what comity there was between Jews and Arabs in Israel. From soccer games in the north to expropriation and vengeance in the heart of East Jerusalem, many question whether there is a road of return to the concept of a shared society. Israelis from all backgrounds – Jewish and Arab alike – are increasingly fearful for their personal safety.
Since the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers last June and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager, we have known that what we are seeing is not just casual violence. Individual attacks on Jews may be just that, very few commentators are (yet) suggesting an organized intifada. Organized violence against Palestinians by extremist Jews is also not evident.
But after a summer of mobs roaming Jerusalem calling for “Death to Arabs” and the most vitriolic, incendiary incitement, some by Israeli politicians in the governing coalition calling for apartheid and some by Palestinian leaders and groups calling for murder, it is necessary to see the current situation as structural, not random.
Innocent Jews and Arabs are now paying the price for the growth of unbridled ultra-nationalism, racism and incitement, and religious extremism in Israel. Increasingly heavy-handed behavior by police towards Arabs is now held out as the answer, rather than as a spur to further violence. The threat to deprive Arab citizens of their citizenship if they non-violently oppose a state that seems to marginalize them more, year by year, will only exacerbate this crisis. Corrupting Israeli democracy and values to the reprehensible conduct of its worst enemies will not protect one Israeli citizen.
When Israeli leaders do behave responsibly — maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount, bringing charges against criminal behavior by police or standing up against racism, as President Rivlin has done –they are harshly attacked by the anti-democratic minority. And although Palestinian Authority President Abbas has decried this week’s attack, other Palestinians have celebrated the death of four older men praying quietly in a synagogue.
The New Israel Fund works in Israel and does not fund civil society in the territories. And so we focus on what we ourselves can do. We think that the continuing trend of appeasing Israel’s extreme right, including expropriating land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, endangers Israelis and Palestinians alike. We are investing in initiatives that will specifically attempt to help Israelis change that dynamic, empower those who are fighting the extremist narrative and its many mouthpieces and funders, and strengthen commitment to the core values of liberal democracy. This is necessary to return Israel to the vision of its founders.
President Rivlin recently stated that “the time has come to admit that Israel is a sick society, with an illness that demands treatment.” NIF is dedicated to supporting Israelis who are working for that cure. We will continue to support those calling for equity and justice in East Jerusalem and those chronicling the human rights situation in the West Bank. We will continue our role as the first and largest private funder of organizations dedicated to a truly shared society inside Israel. And we call on supporters of Israel worldwide to join with us in holding Israel to the standards it once set for itself: to be both a homeland for the Jewish people and also a liberal democracy that offers complete equality to all of its citizens.
Meanwhile, wherever you are, however you pray or whether you don’t, please join me in yearning for the peace of Jerusalem.
Thank you Daniel for saying it so clearly and for your steadfast leadership.
Yes: equity and justice!
Disagree with your proscribed goal for ISRAEL. I am not a Far-right zealot, but a humble believer in what has transpired in the past, be it Biblical, Political, Geographical , Societal, or any other measure of where Mankind has come from and where WE may be headed.
False borders, as you suggest, have NO Place in our Actions to achieve Peace ,Prosperity, or Well being on this Earth. There is NO such thing as “Settlers”, Green Lines, Expropriation of Lands that have Legal and Historical Rights and Deeded to the Jewish Nation.
I frequently disagree with many of your positions, But I whole heartily commend you for “Death of Innocence” column. But how are we now able to convince the voters of Israel that their future peace and security is dependant upon their removing the extreme right wing instigators from their veto position in their government’s coalition?
I think some NIF folks may secretly understand that Palestinian politics and radical Islam precludes any chance of a two state solution, but such a position has been stigmatized as either right wing or racist, so the safest thing to do is to play up the Israeli right wing as a bogey man. The Israeli right may be problematic in some ways, but it is not the driver of this conflict.
“And although Palestinian Authority President Abbas has decried this week’s attack, other Palestinians have celebrated the death of four older men praying quietly in a synagogue.”
This is disgraceful by Sokatch. Either he is unaware of Abbas and the PA’s double game with condemning one thing in English and praising it in Arabic, or he ignores it. Either way, it’s unacceptable for someone of his stature.
Abbas’ condemnation also included incitement, as he again repeated the lie that Israel threatens the al-Aqsa mosque.
Sokatch, WTF is wrong with you??
In my dreams, however naive, I see a national conference or maybe many small ones brokered by NIF and other like-minded groups with Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel and those in the West Bank talking together. The topic would be “Where Do We Go From Here?: Ending Incitement and Violence.” As some Israeli leader once said, you don’t make peace with your friends, you make peace with your enemies. I’m greatful for the work of NIF, a force for sanity in Israel. What input can NIF have in this situation?
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-I… but this child knows so much better that he can decorate his rant by puffing out his chest and saying “WTF is wrong with you??”
I am afraid Sokatch’s analysis is correct, which is why most of my financial support to Israel is through NIF.
The objective is today as it has always been: survival. The signature element of today’s MidEast, Asian, and African reality is affirmation of tribal identity. Be it Ibo or one or another Sudanese tribe or Kurd or Allawi or Myanmari, all want affirmation of self and respect of own identity. As do the Jews, returned to Israel. The Falasteenians want the same, with disregard they are as yet not a true tribe, let alone a nation, with a self definition traced to no earlier than WWI. All these tribal identity aspirations are creating bloody strife everywhere. All are legitimized by their own self-esteem. Can there be a living together? I suspect there cannot, except for very small minorities, very ideologically driven.
Without attempting to solve the worldwide problems of this ilk, is there a solution to the specific Israel-Falasteen problem? YES, but I suspect the NIF won’t like it: Separation, not Unification. The PA is being steadily recognized as a State by more and more nations. Once it passes an arbitrary number it becomes fait accompli. The rest is negotiations over details between two equal entities. Knowing the MidEast, it will not be free of bloodshed. But at least there will be internal pressure to achieve an end to the strife. Note that if the Falasteenians agree to being a State, all demands to “Return” will also be subject to negotiations between two equal entities, as would be the fates of the multiplicity of Jewish settlements in areas demanded by the Falasteenian leaders, to be solely their own. At the very least all this means that the stalled talks will need to get going again.
I strongly advise to constantly see the bigger picture, not get caught in the emotions of the moment. Especially in a period of Arab-Islam turmoil that pits a medieval delusional and murderous group of bullies claiming the mantle of ‘Halifate, against Tribes in both the former Syria and Iraq.
It’s not about me puffing out my chest. I am expressing the kind of moral outrage expressed by many other people upset at pro-Israel people who turn a blind eye to what Israel is facing and who focus exclusively on Israeli bad apples.
Most of the people in my life — family and friends — all consider themselves liberals, they all support liberal causes in Israel yet they also understand Israel doesn’t have anything close to a partner to end the occupation/conflict. Sokatch is mistaken to draw a false equivalence between Israeli and Palestinian societies.
This isn’t defending whatever right-wing Israeli politicians do, and it isn’t condemning all Palestinians. But it’s time to show the Palestinians tough love. It’s enough deflection with “right-wing” and “settlers” and “AIPAC” and “Sheldon Adelson”. Only by focusing on what drives the conflict can we help end it.
The Israeli right-wing is not a bogeyman, it is a threat to democracy. Will Israel be a democracy or a theocracy? It can only be one or the other.
As for your criticism of Sokatch, I think he made it clear that the NIF’s portfolio is Israel, and that is where they try to influence behavior.
Of course it’s a bogeyman. There’s a consensus, mainstream Israel that has elected governments to trade land for peace, which has been rebuffed time after time. The Israeli right never got in the way of those rejections.
We should combat anti-Arab agitation and incitement and violence on the Israeli right, but to say the Israeli right is turning Israel into a theocracy is baseless. What laws has its leaders proposed would turn Israel into a theocracy?
The right (e.g., Avigdor Lieberman) has attempted to stifle free speech, and people with opposing views are characterized as terrorists. I’ll grant you that the only voices that matter are those that live in Israel. And I would no sooner abrogate the right’s free speech than the left’s free speech.
But as a supporter of Israel, I find the slide to the right even more disturbing in Israel that in the USA (where I find it plenty disturbing).
Your comments about Lieberman are bullshit. How has he attempted to stifle free speech?
Daniel. I think we are operating under two different concepts of exchanging views. While I would guess that you are more plugged in to this issue than I am, I refuse to continue a discussion that seems to reflect the fundamental problem in politics today. No tolerance, no give and take. And I am not interested in your crude characterizations.
I hope for a strong Democracy in Israel, and peace for the Israeli’s and the Palestinians.
You’re right. I was excessive with my expletive. If you’d give me another chance, I’d appreciate it. I’m not saying this with any sarcasm. I would like to engage on this issue.
Thx
Daniel. I accept your sincerity about engaging. For now, I think it best that we agree to disagree.
A not so short story: When I visited Israel (April 2011), I was so impressed with what I saw, and the unbelievable progress that Israeli society had brought forth. But as a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, I was concerned with how Israel could remain a democracy and swallow large masses of Arabs for which the Jewish character of the state would be, at best, irrelevant. Our tour guide served as my “everyman,” and when I discussed issues such as the outsized influence of the religious right on the rules and regulations affecting Israeli’s, and when I expressed my left leaning ideas, he made it very clear to me that survival was everything, and anything else was just noise. I found this very sobering, and of course his family is on the line, not mine. So I learned something very useful.
But it still did not satisfy my concern that Israel could lose it’s essential, democratic principles.
Then we (four of us) had a chance, arranged by our tour guide, to visit the West Bank. Our guide took us to a control point, and on the other side we met an American educated (at least for graduate school) man in his early thirties. He could tell that Churches were not our priority. He asked if we would be interested in entering a refugee camp near Bethlehem. We agreed and we entered a camp (I am embarrassed that I don’t remember the name of the camp since this was a significant part of an incredible two weeks in Israel). It appeared to me as a warm weather slum. Not horrible, but garbage strewn around, kids roaming. We went to a building that was in very good shape. It was a cultural center run by a PhD scientist who decided he could not stand by and watch children view themselves as nothing but victims. They learned dance, singing and other cultural enterprises. He said, “I wanted to be able to look in the eyes of my own children when they asked me, ‘What have you done?'”
While in the camp, our Palestinian guide pointed to a hill top that his community wanted to utilize. The Israeli authorities indicated that the space must remain a green space. He viscerally showed his frustration and anger as he noted that the green space was turned into a Jewish development.
After we left the camp, we asked our Palestinian guide why, after all these years, the people in this camp had not been integrated into the wider Arab community. He didn’t have a satisfactory answer. I assumed it was to keep victimization alive.
I think it is true that most everyone on either side of the conflict wants a life for their family; but I am afraid that the most extreme on each side control the agenda. Without doubt I support Israel, but I don’t dismiss the needs of the Palestinians who have not been well served by their leaders. We should understand, better than most, what it means to be demeaned, discarded, treated without respect or dignity, deprived of rights.
Peace
H Shamir’s analysis is right on, as far as I can see. Navigating the emotions of the moment are hard. I hate the men who killed those people praying in that synagogue. I would be willing to drive the bulldozer that knocks down their houses and turns their families into refugees. But I don’t believe I could kill people that way. That type of violence is a social pathology one must defend against. There’s nothing there to talk about. There is hatred on both sides, it’s only natural. But the conflict between Israel and Palestine has so tentacles that reach much further than I hear acknowledged, including in D Sokatch’s article. There are legions of Muslims in the world, including people in positions of power and influence like Iran’s Khameini and Turkey’s Erdogan that are actively promoting a religious conflict between Jews and Muslims because they believe time and numerical advantage are on ‘their’ side. There are Jews doing the same, but nowhere near the number, and most importantly, with far less influence. They don’t have the numbers. I hope and pray that the USA continues to stand with Israel. No other country whose presence matters to that conflict ever will. Pursuing peace in this conflict is like playing a chess game where both sides need to win to move on. But there are elephants that keeps kicking at the players and knocking over the board. Peaceniks refuse to see the elephants. That’s pretending.
And now four days later from the NYT:
“Since its founding in 1948, Israel’s very existence and promise — fully embraced by the United States and the world of nations — has been based on the ideal of democracy for all of its people.
Its Declaration of Independence, which provides the guiding principles for the state, makes clear that the country was established as a homeland for the Jews and guarantees “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
That is why it is heartbreaking to see the Israeli cabinet approve a contentious bill that would officially define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, reserving “national rights” only for Jews.”
Don’t tell me about the Israeli right not getting in the way. The Israeli right never misses an opportunity to get in the way of piece. Israeli rightwinger Baruch Goldstein murdered Muslim 29 worshipers and wounded more than 125 more at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Israeli rightwinger Yigal Amir murdered Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Israeli rightwinger Yona Avrushmi threw a grenade into a Peace Now rally, killing Emil Grunzweig and injuring nine others, including then future Speaker of the Knesset Avraham Burg and then-future Finance Minister Yuval Steinetz. Yes, the Israeli right is getting in the way of peace, every time they destroy a Palestinian olive grove, every time they deny a housing permit to a Palestinian family who has owned the land for centuries, and every time they accuse peace activists of disloyalty.