This will make some people irrationally mad but: Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza.
We’ve left behind the naive days when we waged war solely and wholly in self-defense, with great concern and cunning strategy to decisively end wars with as little human, moral, economic cost as possible.
Rejecting the blood libels and insulating ourselves from the propaganda is insufficient in light of our public failure to meet our professed standards of conduct and policy in Gaza.
Correct assignment of moral agency and culpability to Hamas for instigating and doing their part to prolong the war is insufficient in the aftermath of what we, together, wrought in Gaza.
Even if the bombs were meant for the deserving, even if steps were often taken to protect the undeserving from the bombs, the net result has been thousands dead that should have lived and they too have a claim on our dream of Zion.
Zionism is about return.
Return to the nation.
Return to the land.
Return to the covenant.
Return to right relationship.
Now as we end this miserable war, we must return to our senses and show the world what it means to return to the right way.
What return to the unfinished dream of Zion, as a nation of individuals with agency and autonomy, truly looks like at home and on the world stage:
– a just and peaceful law-abiding society
– a symbiotic relationship with the land
– a common culture of beautiful holiness
– a sanctuary for all human beings, created in the divine image
And furthermore.
In the name of building the Zion of which we have dreamed for millenia – in the name of return – it is not enough that we bring about the rebuilding of and return to Beeri and Nir Oz.
We must do everything we can to rebuild and encourage the return of Gazans to their homes, their communities, their lives.
Yes, Gazans – those who have unfathomably suffered for the past two years as they scrambled for cover trapped between Hamas and the IDF, deserve to return home no less than any Israeli.
We must reckon with their loss at our hands, just as we must reckon with our own – and build Zion from the ruins of Beeri and Gaza together.
At this delicate and uncertain time, on the eve of the Hebrew anniversary of the attempted genocide that started this horrific war, when so much about the future remains unknown and opaque to us – I pray that the Creator of all hearts accept our prayers for a just peace, for an end to wicked injustice and cruel violence, for the remaining kidnapped hostages to be reunited with their families, for a rebuilt Gaza, and for a day when awareness of our common Creator fills the world like the waters of the ocean.