There have been and will be many, many articles and postings on the current battle between Hamas and Israel. Few will be more poignant than an article in the Christian Science Monitor by Sara Roy, a researcher at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a Jew. Here is an excerpt.
And what will happen to Jews as a people whether we live in Israel or not? Why have we been unable to accept the fundamental humanity of Palestinians and include them within our moral boundaries? Rather, we reject any human connection with the people we are oppressing. Ultimately, our goal is to tribalize pain, narrowing the scope of human suffering to ourselves alone.
Our rejection of "the other" will undo us. We must incorporate Palestinians and other Arab peoples into the Jewish understanding of history, because they are a part of that history. We must question our own narrative and the one we have given others, rather than continue to cherish beliefs and sentiments that betray the Jewish ethical tradition.
Jewish intellectuals oppose racism, repression, and injustice almost everywhere in the world and yet it is still unacceptable – indeed, for some, it's an act of heresy – to oppose it when Israel is the oppressor. This double standard must end.
Israel's victories are pyrrhic and reveal the limits of Israeli power and our own limitations as a people: our inability to live a life without barriers. Are these the boundaries of our rebirth after the Holocaust?
1 comment:
There's no doubt world opinion is swinging away from Israel, just as it did from the US after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Unfortunately, it appears likely Obama will continue the Bush administration's unflinching support of the Israeli government, which can only further aggravate the Middle East situation generally.
Sadly, the contempt expressed by many religious Jews in Israel towards the Palestinians, displays an egotistical, (certainly NOT God-given) right to treat non-Jews as a sub-species.
Sara Roy asks what will happen to Jews as people? She should read the Torah. It tells us what happened to the Jewish people when they last turned their faces from their God. Should they expect matters to be any different this time?
Post a Comment