By Rabbi Avi Winokur
I am a dove. I’m a New Israel Fund kind of a guy, a Friend of Meretz (the dovish/left-wing Israeli political party) kind of guy. And I’m no fan of Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon.
I believe in a two-state solution, and that Israel’s current borders ought to be close to the 1967 borders. I also have grave doubts about the security fence Israel is building.
Yet last month, I went to the counterdemonstrations here in Philadelphia in favor of Israeli policy, and against those demonstrating against Israel’s security fence.
I never pictured myself demonstrating in favor of Sharon. So why did I do it?
It’s simple: The anti-fence folks are infected by anti-Israelism. More and more, those who critique specific Israeli policies have morphed into those who critique Israel’s very existence and demonize Israel while idealizing the Palestinians. Among many non-Jewish liberals (many of them my friends), this virulent virus has taken hold like the plague.
When we liberal Jews critique Israel, we always assume that it was understood that a major responsibility for the Middle East conflict was in the hands of Israel’s neighbors.
Indeed, it was so obvious, it hardly seemed worth mentioning.
It turns out we were dead wrong. A substantial majority of our liberal non-Jewish friends believe that Israel is this aggressive, militaristic racist state, and that the lion’s share of the responsibility for the conflict is Israel’s.
At churches around town, Arab Christians speak of being evicted by rabid Zionists in 1948 and made into refugees. Jewish responses with differing views are denied a forum. The equation of Israel with South Africa is common.
When Israel proclaimed its independence in 1948 and accepted the U.N. partition of Palestine she was attacked by her Arab neighbors. As a direct result of those attacks, the Palestinian refugees were created.
Time to wake up
Yet the majority of Israel’s critics do not accept that the Arabs are responsible for the creation of Palestinian refugees. Arab rejectionism and intransigence is whitewashed and ignored by Israel’s liberal critics; and Israel, now strong enough to defend itself, is seen as the aggressor. Unfortunately, for many of our critics, the only way Israel can prove it is not the aggressor is to lose a war.
Even when we liberal Jews agree with liberal non-Jews in our criticism of Israel, our agendas and underlying assumptions are so different that we can no longer support public criticism of Israel. We cannot simply sit out these events because we are unhappy with Sharon or with some Israeli policies.
Far too many of Israel’s liberal critics today believe that a Zionist state is by its nature imperialistic and racist. When we demonstrate alongside Israel’s critics, those are the people with whom we are linking arms. Their influence must be countered.
It’s time for American Jewish liberals to wake up. While those on the right assume that such a wake-up call means that I (and others like me) have finally understood that they are right, that is not the direction I’m going. We must hold on to our values.
But given the climate of virulent anti-Israelism, we need to stand beside Israel. We need to engage in a concerted attempt to counter the Palestinian and Arab propaganda among our non-Jewish friends.
We must be willing to split from Jewish liberals who remain willing to stand with non-Jewish critics of Israeli policies, even when we share those criticisms. It means calling to account those who whitewash the barbarism and terrorism of the Palestinians.
Finally, it means treating the Palestinians as a mature polity responsible for their fate, and not to allow them to excuse every horrific terrorist act by a reference to “the humiliation inflicted” by “Israeli aggressors.”
Israel’s Arab neighbors have fought wars of aggression against Israel and lost. Let them take responsibility for the consequences.
Let the Muslim world stop scapegoating Israel and America for problems that its own backward societies created. Liberals should not become enablers conspiring to help Arabs and Muslims avoid serious self-criticism.
The Arab and Muslim world needs to build stronger societies. From that position of internal strength, they will find it surprisingly easy to make peace with Israel.
Rabbi Avi Winokur is spiritual leader of the Society Hill Synagogue in Philadelphia. This column originally appeared in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
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