|
Facebook Meets the Flotilla By Rabbi Daniel
Gordis
An old high school friend, who's taken great exception to a couple of my
most recent Jerusalem Post columns, has been telling me of late on my
Facebook page how out of touch with American Jewry I am. He let loose
again today. Here's what he had to say:
Hey Danny....yet again a misguided Israeli political and military
mission with regard to Gaza that American Jewry will be asked to stand
by and support. All over the news Israel will be referred to as "the
Jewish State" as worldwide condemnation will pour in. As a Jew I will be
on the defensive despite the fact that I have no vote and no say in
whatever the politicians in Israel decide. Again, you will no doubt ask
for solidarity by Jewish folk worldwide and we will answer for Israeli
decision-making. I love Israel as my religious base, but the policies do
not reflect my peace loving values. I support Israel with bonds and
donations and visits, but the thriving American Jewish experience is
independent of it.
OK, there's a lot there, and most of it I won't respond to now. But
this is one of those moments when I don't think we have the luxury of
writing a column over days, printing it out and editing it, sleeping on
it and editing it again. Too much is happening, and people are too
hurting and too confused for something not to be said.
To be sure, there's much more that we don't know than we do. We'll
learn a lot in the days and weeks to come. But we do know that this was
a tragic day and an excruciatingly painful one in Israel. At the fruit
market, and at the dry cleaners, I asked people working there how they
were, and all I got was a sigh. And then, "Yom kasheh. A tough day.
They're going to eat us alive."
They will, indeed, eat us alive. It's taken a full day for the Israeli
government to say anything coherent at all, riots are breaking out in
Israeli Arab towns, Israelis in Istanbul have been warned by the Foreign
Ministry not to leave their hotel rooms, and the international community
is raining down condemnation.
But I jump to conclusions very different than those of my high school
friend, and I responded to him in language very close to this:
David - we couldn't disagree more strongly. Israel's actions were
"misguided"? Let's take that first. Were there tragic outcomes?
Obviously. But "misguided"? Gaza is under the malicious and cynical rule
of a terror organization sworn on Israel's destruction, that is holding
an Israeli soldier captive in contravention of all international
treaties, and that oppresses its own population while even Palestinian
witnesses there acknowledge that there is no food shortage. Given Hamas'
military objectives, Israel would be crazy not to check what's going
in. But Israel had already pledged to pass on any humanitarian goods
after they were inspected, and told the boats the same thing. So, no, I
don't think that the idea of stopping the boats was misguided.
What we know is that on five of the ships, the commandos (among them
friends of our kids, by the way) boarded the boats, and there was no
resistance and no fighting.
On one boat, however, the first soldiers to land on the boat were
attacked with metal rods and knives. There's video of it. It's playing
all over Israeli and all over the internet. In some cases, soldiers'
weapons were stolen and used against them. One was stabbed, apparently
in the abdomen. Another was tossed from a desk and trampled when he
landed. There were a handful of commandos there, and 600 "peace
activists." On Israeli news tonight, the soldiers on helicopters taking
them to the hospital were interviewed. They descended the ropes, they
said, planning to talk the "activists" into going to Ashdod. Their
weapons were not in their hands, but strapped to their backs. "We went
into war," one in his 30's said bitterly tonight, "and all we had were
toys." They were beaten, trampled, shot (yes, there were bullet
injuries) but only after forty minutes of combat did they resort to live
five. They were going to get lynched if they didn't fight back, they
said.
Was I there? No. Do I know what really happened? No. But do I trust
these kids and their officers? Yes, I do.
As for "peace activists," David, how much do you know about the IHH?
It's a terror support group, supported by Turkey (among others) and it
was ent to provoke. If they just wanted the goods to get to Gaza, they
could have agreed to transfer them to an Israeli ship, or to unload them
in Ashdod, as the Navy personnel asked them to. But they didn't want
that. They just wanted to break the blockade. Why? For food? Even a
few Palestinian journalists with some guts are reporting that there's no
humanitarian food crisis in Gaza. No, it wasn't about food. They want
the blockade broken so that after that, non-humanitarian items (read
weapons) could brought in. Why should Israel allow that? So that they
can be better armed the next time we have to send our kids into Gaza?
As for "being on the defensive," you "will be on the defensive" only
because you totally don't get it. For if you did get it, you wouldn't
feel that way. There's only one country anywhere on the planet about
which there's a conversation about whether it has a right to exist. Do
you ever think about why that is? What, the fate of the Palestinians is
worse than that of aborigines in Australia? Or people in the Congo, or
Rwanda? Why all the attention on Israel? Do you really not get it?
You think that New Zealand just coincidentally decided this week to make
kosher slaughtering illegal? You think it's really about humanitarian
commitments? Come on.
No, David, you really don't have to defend Israel. No one's asking you
to. We know that it's too late to expect many Americans like you to
assume we're right before you assume we're wrong. As we look out at
Jews across the world, we're just assessing who gets Jewish history, and
who's so thoroughly intellectually assimilated that they're actually
embarrassed that that Jews don't have to continue to be victims. I'm
horrified by what happened on the ship, and I'll be shocked if after all
is in, we find that Israel made no mistakes. (This was pretty clearly
an intelligence failure, at the very minimum, sending those soldiers
into something for which they had not at all been prepared or armed.)
But if that had been my kid on the ship, and he'd gone in to prevent the
blockade from being broken, but had no intention of fighting, and had
then been attacked, I'd want him to defend himself. No matter what.
I'd want him to come home whole, because that's part of the new Jewish
reality that this country is supposed to make possible.
The loss of life is tragic. So are the injuries to soldiers, including
serious head wounds. But most tragic of all is that the world is so
willing to be blinded to what's really going on here.
At the end of this excruciating day in Israel, at least given what I
know at this moment, I'm saddened but not apologetic. I'm not surprised
by most of the world's reactions. But I haven't lost sight of who
provoked this, and why they did that. But you're a very smart guy. Why
have you?
Using “Prepared Scripts” After Gaza Flortilla seizure perpetuates
hateful Rhetoric by Danniel Hartman
As I and the rest of Israeli society awakened this morning we heard the
tragic news that our attempt to stop the flotilla to Gaza ended with
extensive loss of life. I don’t know the facts, and I imagine it will
take some time until the details surrounding the events are clarified.
However, Israeli airwaves are already filled both with Monday morning
quarterbacks who are certain that if only the opinion they had failed to
put forth in advance was listened to, the outcome would have been
better, and with those justifying the action as a legitimate expression
of self defense in the face of enemies masquerading as peace activists.
At the same time the international community and press are already
filled with almost unanimous condemnation of the "murder," "massacre,"
and "disproportionate force" used by Israeli commandos during the
operation. Whether the commandos were fired upon, beaten, or stabbed is
completely irrelevant to them.
It is as if each side's spokesperson had their press releases and
opinions prepared in advance, and each was simply waiting for the
curtain to rise and the takeover to occur for their predetermined
assessment of the facts to be promulgated.
As an Israeli and Jew who yearns for peace, for an end to bloodshed and
hostilities, and who believes that the Israeli army must and in most
cases does act in accordance with the highest standards of moral
behavior, I am deeply saddened not only by the loss of life, but by the
hateful rhetoric which will ensure that such loss of life will continue,
by the rhetoric which will ensure that we will continuously politicize,
radicalize, and insulate ourselves from each other, and from a rhetoric
that guarantees the perpetuation of mutual vilification.
If it turns out that excessive force was used unjustly and without
provocation, we Israelis need to take responsibility. One's moral
standards are not a badge of honor to be worn, but a criterion of
aspiration in whose light one must constantly evaluate and criticize
one's behavior if necessary.
If on the other hand it turns out that the "peace activists" wantonly
endangered the lives of Israelis and used excessive force in their
"political demonstration," it will be time for honest representatives to
stand up and take responsibility for their moral failures.
Belonging to an armed force or to the peace camp neither condemns one by
definition as an immoral being nor conversely grants one blanket
immunity, given the proclaimed nobility guiding one's actions.
Unfortunately, as always, it seems never to be about the facts; every
side will spin a narrative which will ensure the perpetuation of the
untenable status quo.
It is time for all those of decency to declare, "Enough." It is time to
begin a new conversation, one in which legitimate acts of self defense
on Israel's part are no longer labeled automatically as acts of
aggression and war crimes. Nor should attempts to better the plight of
Palestinians, including those affiliated with Hamas, be labeled by
definition as anti-Israeli and political. People of decency can
disagree. Decent people can make mistakes. It is only, however, if we
recognize that decency can be found on both sides that a different
future will become possible.
|