Palestinians, the conflict, and the shared future.
Compounded controversial opinion:
I don’t think the State of Israel should recognize the legitimacy of Roman or Islamic conquest and colonization, in resolving the conflict with Palestinians. I think we should accept everyone who lives here as citizens of our state but I think that land claims made by individual families in the diaspora should be evaluated according to the above principle, similar to the evaluation of candidates for aliyya.
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Apparently there is a movie that shows people what life is like under military administration in the Yehuda and Shomron, and it’s got some people upset.
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Sorry not sorry guys
We’re going to have to come up with a better response than “how dare you film me at my worst”
All I’m asking for is
One state
In charge of protecting the land and the people
Offering education, healthcare, and stability
From the river to the sea
Equal citizenship and equal rights
A civil parliament that respects the people
One state
Two official languages
Three names
ישראל
فلسطين
The Land of Peace ™️
Raids on bookshops like The Educational Bookstore have no place in a free country or a civilized democracy. Especially not when unilaterally conducted by law enforcers on their own judgement/agenda without a court order.
Selling books, even ones I don’t like, is not disorderly conduct. Promoting Palestinian nationalism, even if I disagree with it, is not a crime.
A prominent Palestinian activist referred to “nihilistic Jihadi ideology” and described it as “the worst motivational ethos in history.”
I find that to be a bold claim. I’d like to know more about what he had in mind with that statement, but in the absence of further elaboration I’m left with its face value.
What do we make of it?
A late night conversation with a FB friend from Bethlehem turned to Zionism. “I don’t know much about Zionism,” he said. “Could you explain it to me? I hear some people say it’s bad, some people say it’s good.”
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So at a quarter to one in the morning, I gave it a shot:
“Zionism started with the prophets preaching to the priests and princes of the kingdoms of yehuda and yisrael, before the destruction of both kingdoms by foreign colonizers. The prophets protested the inhumanity of human beings and the alienation of God and the needs of justice and sanctity. Zion, which started out as the neighborhood of Silwan, became a synonym for the ideal society in line with Allah’s will.
When the grandchildren of the exilees from Yehuda returned to the land, the prophets spoke again of a future reconciliation between men and between humanity and the Creator – along with the rebuilding of the destroyed sanctuary. This was the next phase of Zionism, the rebuilding of material and spiritual society after reckoning with its prior loss.
After Yehuda and Shomeron were destroyed again by foreign colonizers, Zionism became a dream in exile. It meant both the return to the land and the building of a new society. After the expulsion of the Jewish people from Spain in the 1492, Jewish people began organizing to buy back property in the land from the colonizers at the time, to rebuild the cities that had been neglected and to make new cities for the diaspora Jewish people to join the people of the land. This popular Zionist movement continued for centuries until a big wave was started by Herzl, who translated Zionism into the language of a state; inspired by him, people left the antisemitic messes of Europe, North Africa, and the Levant, and began moving to the land in masses to become simple farmers and tradesmen. One great rabbi in particular, Avraham Yitshak Kook, tried to unite all the people, from the communities that had always been here and the newcomers, around the great dream of Zion, the reality of a heavenly society on earth. He passed on to his world before the founding of the state though.
Then came 1948, and a war started by neighboring states that uprooted many Palestinians, and left half of Jerusalem under Israeli control while putting the West Bank under Jordanian control.
Then came 1967, and a war that brought the West Bank and its Palestinians – and the rest of Jerusalem – under Israeli control. Rabbi Kook’s son and his students saw this as a sign for a new phase of Zionism, based on state control of land conquered in war.
Now it is decades later and it is clear to all that the successful reclamation of east Jerusalem and the west bank from the Jordanian army was not a sign from God to keep using the powers of the state to control civilian populations but a reminder that even when our vision is clouded and our faith is narrowed, by the stresses of the furnace of history, the Creator is still with us, protecting us, and calling us to build a better society – together. Calling us all to remember our ancestors and their ways, to let go of foreign shackles, and come together again in a covenant of peace. It is up to us to answer that call.
That is Zionism. Whether it is good or bad is up to you to decide.”
His verdict:
“I see it has a good vision.”
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.
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.
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.”