Israel: Seeking Perspective

Yom Kippur 5763
Rabbi Joseph R. Black
Congregation Albert, Albuquerque, NM

My thanks to Rabbi Barnett Brickner for collaborating with me on this sermon.

My Dear Friends,

As most of you know, last March, I traveled to Israel to take part in the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. My original plans had been that, once the convention was over, I would be joined in Jerusalem by an interfaith group made up of individuals from Congregation Albert, the Jewish Federation of Greater Albuquerque and Yad B’Yad – a group of committed Christian Zionists. Unfortunately, the week of the convention was one of the bloodiest of this Intifada. Within the scope of just a few days there were several devastating suicide bombs that exploded within 3 blocks of the hotel where we were to have stayed. In the wake of this violence, I made the painful decision to cancel our trip just one day before the group was scheduled to leave Albuquerque.

Upon my return, I said the following at Shabbat services:

Over the years I have delivered many sermons about Israel – by far this is one of the most difficult and painful that I can remember.

I feel this way – not only because of the fact that I was supposed to be in Jerusalem on this Shabbat….. I feel this way, not only because of the recent suicide bombings by Palestinian terrorists ….

No, the main reason I feel this way is that, in the past, when I have spoken about Israel, no matter how bad the situation seemed, I have always been able to find some words of hope, of comfort – on this Shabbat, these words are very hard to find, indeed.

The fact is that for everyone in Israel today, going to a restaurant, to the mall or even to school has the potential to become life threatening. The stories of families who, in an instant, have lost loved ones have become common. Our brothers and sisters living in Israel are in pain. They are depressed, seeking comfort and confused. It is like no other time.

AS American Jews, as Chovevei Tzion -- Lovers of Zion—we, too are in pain and confused – although our confusion pales with the troubles of our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael. Where Israelis need stability, assurances and normalcy, the American Jewish community needs perspective.

• We need perspective to remove ourselves from the vindictiveness of the discourse that has revolved around the current war.
• We need perspective to help us realize that, while Israel is fighting for her very survival, she also has a responsibility to guard against losing her soul.
• We need perspective to allow ourselves to listen to all sides of the complicated and lethal quagmire in which the Government of Israel finds itself entangled with the Palestinian Authority – while at the same time, not allowing ourselves to fall victim to the concept of “moral relativity” which equates suicide murderers with Israeli soldiers .
• We need perspective to help explain the complexities of the current crisis not in terms of media sound bites – but, rather, in a comprehensive and educated analysis of the past, present and future prospects for peace between Israel and her Neighbors

My friends, over the last few months I have been concerned about the fact that we, in the mainstream American Jewish community have been guilty of reducing a very serious discussion about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict to the lowest common denominator. We’ve split the issue between us and them, right and wrong, Rightist and Leftists, and somehow, somewhere along the way, in our fear for Israel’s safety and survival, in our zeal for defending the Jewish State, we have lost the ability to discuss issues openly or intelligently.

In a recent commentary, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Reform Jewish Movement wrote the following:

“With Israel living in the shadow of war, with terror erupting every day, with casualties mounting on both sides of the conflict, one might hope that this is the time for Jews on both sides of the political divide to overcome their natural inclinations and do what Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur ask us to do: to look within and engage in serious and searching moral accounting.”

In order to do this we need to begin with an admission that both sides have transgressed. So Rabbi Yoffie adds to the list of our “Al chets” this year:

He writes the following liturgy for Jews on the left side of the political spectrum:

For the Sins that we have committed by being the ones who make excuses for Arab terror and blaming Israel for the sins of others:
For the Sins that we have committed by being the ones……

• Who perfunctorily condemned suicide bombings, but immediately shifted the blame to Israel by talking of Israeli occupation;
• Who tend to suggest, at least by implication, that the terror is somehow Israel's fault;
• Who describe terrorism as a last resort of desperate people who have no other options; ignoring the fact that there are always other options.
• Who claim to love Israel but magnify her sins and minimize her virtues,
• Who patronize Palestinians by not holding them to the same moral standards to which all peoples at all times must be held.
• Who are always ready to believe the worst of Israel, even when her soldiers stand accused of massacres that they never committed;
• Who when confronted with the propaganda with which they have been infected and that they have spread through their slander, justify their own credulity and silence by saying, "what Israel did was bad enough."

And, perhaps worst of all,

For the Sins that we have committed by being the ones…..

• Who never muster the outrage that systemic killing of Israeli citizens deserves, that our moral credibility requires, and that the values of Torah and the civilized world demand.

And for Jews on the right Rabbi Yoffie suggest the following liturgy:

For the Sins that we have committed by encouraging hatred, ignoring the pain of the Palestinians, and compromising our most fundamental values as Jews.
For the Sins that we have committed by being the ones……

• Who joined in the booing of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz , a true friend of Israel, when he made a reference to the suffering of the Palestinian people at a rally in Washington;
• Who remained silent, and satisfied, when a prominent Jewish leader suggested executing the families of suicide bombers as a means of ending the attacks;
• Who said nothing when Israel's Cabinet attempted to designate areas of the Jewish state as "Arab free" zones
• Who rejected desperation as an excuse for Arab terror but accepted it as an explanation for Jewish extremism;
• Who forget that without dignity for the Palestinians there can be no dignity for Israelis, and that without peace for the Palestinians there can be no peace for Israel,
• Who forget to preserve the humanity the Palestinians who live under Israeli control, and ignored their suffering
• And, who forget that even now -- indeed, especially now – that Jews must sympathize not only with their own people but also with the stranger, the Other .

- Adopted from an article by entitled Rabbi Eric Yoffie “For Our Sins” in Tikkun –Sept/Oct 2002 p. 65

Such is the perspective we need!

We need perspective! We are angry. We are afraid. And yet, we cannot allow our fear and our anger to distort our lucidity. While we must support Israel during her time of crisis—we cannot allow our love for Israel to blind us to her flaws. We have the right and, indeed the responsibility to speak out – to raise our voices of care and concern when we see policies and programs being pursued that challenge the social, spiritual and political principles upon which the Jewish state was founded 54 years ago. Most importantly, if we in the mainstream Jewish community are silent in the face of ethically challenging policies and pronouncements by the current Government of Israel, then we have abdicated our ability and our responsibility to speak clearly. We have opened a dangerous doorway of respectability to the fringe elements on the far-left of the Jewish community to raise a voice that they call prophetic - but I call irresponsible and self-destructive.

Seeking perspective does not, I repeat does NOT imply objectivity. It is impossible for me to speak of the State of Israel without first expressing my love and loyalty. I am a Jew and I am a Zionist. It is impossible to speak of one without the other. I can no more be objective about Israel than I can about my own children. Of course we care about the hardship and suffering of all people. As Jews we are rachmanim bnei rachmanim - compassionate people, the children of compassionate people. Jews have been disproportionately active in all of the noble causes of human progress and rights. We already understand that if we are to be agents for peace in the Middle East a consequence of that will be the improvement of the conditions of the Palestinians.

But let us not be confused. As worthy as that goal may be -- and that is a worthy goal for Jews -- it is not our job alone! It is ultimately the responsibility of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and their Arab brothers and sisters. When peace comes, we will join hands with our Palestinian brothers and sisters and help in the re-building – but until that day our primary job is to care for the people of Israel and for the safety and welfare of the State of Israel.

On Yom Kippur we are our most reflective selves. We speak of recording and considering all our past deeds. We ask ourselves. “What have we learned, from what we’ve done over the last year?”

At the end of this month it will be two years since the outbreak of the second Intifada. And so we ask, as we look back, “What have we learned?”

We’ve learned that we need to sort out the issues. We need to look at all of the issues from all sides.

What are these issues, then?

(NOTE: Much of the material below was distilled from a speech by Rabbi Amiel Hirsch, Executive Director, ARZA/World Union of Progressive Judaism delivered at the UAHC Board of Trustees meeting – 6/9/02)

From the perspective of those on the right:

• We’ve learned that it is now clear that the concept of Greater Israel championed by the Religious Right is not viable.. The notion that Israel could control and govern all of the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is fantasy at best – suicide at worst.

Polls show that most Israelis would pick up and leave most of the West Bank tomorrow, unilaterally, if that would bring greater security. Even Prime Minister Sharon, the architect of the settlement policy and past advocate of the position that Jordan is Palestine, has proclaimed his willingness to agree to a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

• We have learned that a demographic time bomb is poised to explode within the Jewish state. Unless Israel leaves the territories, within a decade Jews will be in the minority of those living between the Jordan and the Sea. It is not possible to sustain over time the Jewish and democratic character of Israel when Jews will become an increasingly smaller minority within the land.
• We have learned that military force alone cannot solve everything. While Israel has the right and responsibility to defend herself – even if that means eliminating sources of terror before they are unleashed on the general population -- without negotiation and visionary leadership, the military cannot bring peace by itself.

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And what lessons have those on the left learned in these last two years?

• The first lesson is that if the concept of a Greater Israel is no longer viable for the right, then neither is the concept of a smaller Israel with open borders very realistic for those on the left. Those of us who supported the peace process, who backed Oslo, were convinced that territory was no longer important in modern warfare. We believed the rhetoric when they asked us: “What good is a border in the age of ballistic missiles?”

We now know the answer. Had Arafat accepted Barak’s generous offer at Camp David, today there would be Palestinian snipers overlooking downtown Jerusalem. It turns out that strategic depth is still an important concept.

• If the Right has learned of the futility of settlements everywhere, then the Left has learned that the Palestinian definition of settlements includes what is considered to be neighborhoods of Jerusalem and suburbs of Tel Aviv.

Even the most generous Israeli peace proposal will annex some West Bank territory and many settlements and neighborhoods built on land beyond the Green Line. The left must come to realize the final borders of any peace proposal will not and cannot reflect the pre-1967 borders

• If the right has learned that ultimately there will have to be a political process leading to a political solution, then the left has learned that simply to engage in a political process does not necessarily bring progress. The left has learned that if the process itself is not sound; if there have been fundamental errors in assumptions, then the process might cause more harm than good. The mistakes and flawed assumptions of Oslo have brought disaster on Palestinians and Israelis alike.
   
• The left has also had to accept the fact that, at least in some cases, force is necessary. And it’s uncomfortable. We put great faith in reason. We had assumed that even our adversary was reasonable. We were wrong.

Let us remember that the notion that military action never solved anything is patently false. There have been times in history when it was necessary to fight. Military action saved the West and the remnants of the Jewish people from fascism. Military action, or at least the threat of it, saved the West from Communism. A strong Israel Defense Forces has saved the Jews of Israel from 1948 to this day.

• We realize now that one of the biggest mistakes of Oslo was in underestimating the strategic dangers of terrorism. We heard over and over again from our heroes; we heard ourselves say to each other repeatedly that as bad as terrorism is, it does not constitute an existential threat to Israel. Armies pose an existential threat. Terrorists are only a nuisance. What we realize now is that Terrorism certainly does pose an existential threat. As we are learning in our own nation, in an age of fundamentalist extremism, all it takes is one fanatic with access to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons to destroy hundreds of thousands of lives.
   
• We have also underestimated the moral repugnance of terrorism and the corrosive effect that it has on the will of people to resist evil.
   

As Rabbi Amiel Hirsch, Director of ARZA/World Union recently wrote:

It is a distressing sign of the slide into moral confusion that there are many good people in this country and in Europe who fail to acknowledge, or willfully ignore the fundamental moral distinction that girds the entire system of criminal jurisprudence between deliberate killing - otherwise called murder - and unintentional killing. And if we are morally confused we will not win the war on terror. And to lose the war on terror is to live in a world described by Thomas Hobbs: “A world of war of everyone against everyone. Where there is continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

- Rabbi Amiel Hirsch, Address to the National board of the UAHC - June, 2002

And what damage has this fascination with terror done to the moral fiber of Palestinian society? They have become a culture steeped in blood. Children who play with mock suicide belts around their waists are educated to hate. Israeli intelligence reported, “every single school [they] went into in Jenin, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Qualqilya, or Tulkarem was plastered with posters of the glorification of the martyrs.” This is not heroism. This is child abuse!

• We have learned, despite all of our hopes, that Yassir Arafat was ….. is and apparently will remain a terrorist. We were mistaken in our assessment of Arafat. I think I know why. We wanted to believe in the redeeming power of change. We do believe that people and nations can change. We believe that even our enemy can change. But not everybody is capable of changing. Arafat never changed. We see that now.
• We have learned that anti-Semitism is still a potent poison that thrives throughout the capitals of Europe, the markets of the Middle East and on our own college campuses here in the United States. We have seen the resurrection of medieval mythologies about Jewish conspiracies and shylock-like portrayals in the press and in the most enlightened circles around the globe. We have seen synagogues fire-bombed and ugly mobs galvanized by hate-speech. We have seen millions in the Arab world who believe the obscenity that September 11th was a plot that was carried out by Jews in order to create sympathy for Israel. When and where will it end?
• Finally, we’ve learned in the face of all of these threats that there is no greater task we face than the promotion of Jewish solidarity. We need to go to Israel, and if we cannot go then we need to give. I am so very proud of the fact that our Board of Trustees highlighted the Jewish Federation of Greater Albuquerque’s Israel Emergency Fund in our Yom Kippur Appeal this year. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, some of which were beyond our control, we were unable to reschedule our community solidarity trip to Israel for this year. But we will soon be planning our next mission.
• Travel to Israel – support our students who wish to study there.

In addition to going to Israel, we need to find ways of bringing Israel to us. We need to bring Israeli culture, music, dance, art, to our community. We need to stay active and involved. We need to look for ways to make contributions. We need to educate ourselves. To this end, we are designating Sunday, October 6th - three weeks from yesterday -- as a day when our congregation will participate in a nation-wide “teach in” on Israel. You will be receiving more information about this shortly, but I want you to remember that date.

My friends, this afternoon we will read the story of Jonah. Jonah is not an easy text to understand. Why did our Rabbis chose this particular text to be the last one that is read on Yom Kippur? The answer that is usually given is that the book of Jonah is a story of how Teshuvah works. Jonah, after much prodding, preached God’s word’s to the Ninevites – and they listened. They did Teshuvah.

But I think that there is another lesson in this story. Jonah has to face the facts. He tried to run away from his prophetic responsibility. He was unable to do so. Unlike Jonah we’re not running away from the realities of the current situation in Israel. We just don’t know how to respond. We need to sort things out for ourselves. As American Jews, as Zionists, we have the ability and the responsibility to make a difference through our support, our concern and our love. Now is the time for us to focus on the painful and difficult lessons of the past two years. Now is the time for us to find perspective. Now is the time to work for peace – true peace.

It is never too late.

L’shanah Tovah.