Palestine

Some Controversial Opinions

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A controversial opinion: As long as I can call this country Yisrael in Hebrew, I don’t mind if you call it Falastin in Arabic. Who cares what we call it in English. Call it Israel, call it Palestine, just don’t call it Canaan. 🤦

A controversialer opinion: The national anthem is an alternative version of a nice poem set to an Ashkenazi tune that forces us to mispronounce almost every word. And it speaks only of a Jewish soul where it should at least be speaking of a Hebrew soul, if not the soul of every child of Adam. If we want to get Zionistic about it: The goal is ultimately to build a place of prayer for all people (which of course requires a truly just society, which of course requires safety for Israel, etc). Surely we can sing a song that reflects that goal?

Even controversialer opinion: We’re eventually going to need to draft everyone who lives here (I’ve rethought my position on the draft). Everyone. And personally, I’m okay with an Islamic or Christian prime minister… so long as we have a constitution that limits the power of the government and its institutions over the citizenry, and a strong separation between the domain of the current parliament and the domain of the Torah. In order for Zionism to succeed, it needs to grow beyond the reductive vision of state-sponsored identity and into its own as a fully expressed Torah-infused society, which can not be threatened by a popular leader’s personal opinions or practices. Our society must escape the shadow of its great men.

The controversialest opinion: Political parties should be banned in government.

Thoughts on the Present – and the Future

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Two thoughts for you as the early ground operations are underway in the Gaza strip, after three weeks of continuous airstrikes against military targets embedded in a densely populated civilian area.

Two thoughts. One about the present and one about the future.

Right now I see so many friends and influencers calling for a ceasefire.

Every time I read another call for a ceasefire, my heart leaps – yes, that’s what I want too, an end to all this death, my God yes just stop it now.

Every time.

I don’t want revenge and I don’t want blood – my heart wants peace, now. My heart calls for a ceasefire.

And then my brain kicks in.

A ceasefire? my brain asks, With whom?

The group that broke the last fifteen ceasefires? Most recently with an on-brand genocidal pogrom?

What would they do with another ceasefire? Another genocidal pogrom?

My heart wants a ceasefire but my brain can’t quite make the pieces fit. What is the basis for the ceasefire?

Have the hostages been returned? Have the rockets stopped? Has Hamas renounced genocide?

My brain has questions my heart can’t answer.

Now for tomorrow.

We will win this war.

Hamas will be gone, as a political and militant entity. A new security regime will prevail in the Gaza strip, as the Israeli politburo puts it.

The day will come when we can safely end the siege of Gaza – and we should.

The day will come when we will have the choice to recognize a free and independent Gaza – and we should.

Yes, right now we need to take out Hamas, and yes (due to the political corner into which we’ve painted ourselves) the only effective means to do that right now is with war.

But for over a decade we’ve basically bombed the sh*t out of 2 million Gazans, the majority of whom never supported Hamas.

For decades more we’ve treated Palestinians within our state (let alone the West Bank) as less than citizens deserve.

The day will come when it’s time to give Palestinians a New Deal – and we should.

We need to focus on the present but we can’t lose sight of the future.

“But Israel”

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I am so tired of seeing “But Israel” in comments.

But Israel doesn’t go in and shoot everyone in sight.

But Israel doesn’t make videos celebrating kidnapping children.

There is no comparison between Israel and Hamas, or between the fighters for one side and the fighters for the other.

One day all (remaining) Palestinians will be free and we’ll live side by side as fully equal citizens with all the rights.

But it’s clear that Hamas will have to be fully eliminated first.

Any hope of Hamas leading Gazans to freedom ended yesterday.

A free Palestine will come but it will be built on the smoking ruins of Hamas.”