BroadSnark

Renee at Womanist Musings recently posted a blog about a repugnant incident of antisemitism at a Florida middle school.  In her post, she said:

to deny the right of a Jewish home state, is certainly a desire to reduce the possibility of any form of power and or security

I took issue with that statement, as did a couple other people after me.  Other commenters thought we inappropriately derailed the discussion from talk about antisemitism to talk about Israel.

I can understand where they are coming from.  It may seem like I sidetracked the post.  But, with all due respect, this is a sidetrack that needs to happen.  It needs to happen often.  And it’s something I don’t do nearly enough.

Israel was never of much interest to me.  I never felt an attachment to Israel.  Quite the opposite in fact.  I always swore I would never go there.  I never got over being a kid and watching Palestinians not much older than myself standing up against Israeli tanks.  But except for the letters I sent to Regan and Begin when I was nine, I never made an effort to have my voice heard on the subject.

As I got older, my commitment to human rights grew, but I didn’t pay any special attention to Israel.  To me, the Jews who paid special attention to Israel were the ones who were busy worrying about helping “their own.”  I didn’t join Jewish organizations or Israel-focused organizations, I joined Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.  Besides, by the time I was beginning political consciousness, Bill Clinton was president.  Things had calmed down a bit in Israel.  It looked like things might be getting better.

Clearly, things did not get better.  They got much, much worse.  For me, Lebanon was the turning point.  It was time for me to start paying more attention.

There are powerful Zionists in the United States (both Jewish and evangelical) who want to equate Israel and Judaism.  As long as Israel = Jews, criticism of the Israeli government is antisemitism.  As long as Israel = Jews, real discussion about our continued financial, military, and political support of Israel remains a sacred cow.  As long as Israel = Jews there is no room to question the idea of Zionism itself.

And I do question Zionism.  How can someone who grew up in the United States not question it?  How can I embrace the separation of church and state, knowing how important it is to my rights, and support the idea of a state based on Judaism (or any other religion)?

How can I embrace the civil rights movement and yet support the idea of a state based on two kinds of citizenship, one for Arabs and one for Jews?  How can I fight for the rights of immigrants to the United States, but accept a state that prevents people with deep, generational ties to Israel/Palestine from returning to it?  How can I stand against the privileges that come with an accident of birth here in the U.S., but embrace those kinds of privileges somewhere else?

It isn’t possible.

Americans need to be talking about those contradictions.  And in order for that to happen, American Jews need to be challenging the idea that Israel = Jew.   We need to do it loudly and often, even if it means derailing a few conversations.