The following video appeared on a friend’s Facebook page. I have watched it several times. Watch it for yourself.
I know what this video is supposed to do. It’s aimed at Jews in the Diaspora, and is meant to give them a sense of pride that these days is either strained or absent. It is meant to portray Israel as a highly ethical place, full of brainy people working to cure disease, make people’s lives better—in short, to save the world.
But I think it’s ineffective. I find the facts in it interesting and I agree that Israelis have made remarkable progress in the fields of science, technology, and medicine. But it saddens me at the same time. Jews have always contributed significantly to these fields (and dozens of others). Why should that be a reason to like them, or Israel? Of course, for most people on this planet, it isn’t. Equally remarkable is how ethical the Israeli army is (sometimes too ethical, in fact), especially compared to Israel’s enemies. How would a video of Israeli soldiers walking back to Israel from Operation Cast Lead play among Diaspora Jews (or anyone else)? Not so well, I think.
I find increasingly that the slogans to “support” Israel trouble me too. What other country in the world needs to be “supported”? Does Turkey need people’s support? Does Bulgaria? Does anyone talk of supporting the Congo? Why do people talk this way? Because Israel is the only country in the world whose existence is daily called into question, and whose disapproval ratings justify in people’s minds talk of its illegitimacy. China does some pretty nefarious things; does anyone talk of supporting or not supporting China? Is China’s right to exist called into question because of its human rights record, executions of political prisoners, or use of heavy metals in manufacturing children’s toys?
I understand people’s hesitation to talk of liking or disliking Israel; it sounds too much like saying you like or dislike Jews. And there’s good reason for that: for most people, it IS saying you like or dislike Jews. (And these days, I really don’t know which is worse.)
I would like to see a world in which people resign themselves to the facts, i.e. that Israel exists (just as America exists, Italy exists, Libya exists, and you and I exist). I would like to see a world in which Israel would be accepted in the family of nations even if its scientists weren’t smarter, its army wasn’t more ethical, and its citizens no more productive and normal than those of any other country. I would love for the countries of the world to see Israel as just another country, but of course a country that would view us that way…just doesn’t exist.
I tire of hearing of the pro-Israel rallies, the pro-Israel lobby, pro-Israel politicians, pro-Israel films (such as “The Case for Israel” making the rounds now), and “support Israel” buying campaigns. I know Diaspora Jews are doing their best to contribute to Israel’s economy, bolster its public relations, and show us they love us from afar. But I sometimes wonder if they are busying themselves with these activities because they think it makes an impression on the rest of the world, or because they are trying to persuade themselves that Israel is worth supporting.
From where I stand, Israel is all right. It may make mistakes, have crooked politicians, or look incredibly backward sometimes. But I think it’s doing a great job under incredible pressure: pressure, I would add, under which no one else lives. I don’t have to prove to anyone that it has a right to be. It’s my home, it’s a good place, and it’s not going anywhere.
Diaspora Jews, take note. Israel exists. It’s here. And it’s here for you—no one else. Love it if you will. Come live here if you will. But don’t worry what everyone else thinks. The world doesn’t like the Jews—or Israel, now—any more than it ever did. But it would be nice if the Jews at least liked themselves.
Shimshonit 
Agreed, agreed, agreed!! It’s true… no one questions whether or not America should exist, despite the fact, btw, that the American Indians *were* there first… Nor does anyone question the existence of countries like Lebanon… places that have not been around that long as independent countries!
I also didn’t find the video very inspiring..
On the other hand, I came across this list http://www.whatwarzone.com/2009/04/you-wanted-ityou-got-it-61-more-things.html
And it made me very excited to live in Israel… Don’t ask. But it did. :)
~ Rachel
Thanks for the link, Rachel. Benji Lovett’s list has some great stuff on it, and not the kind of thing one normally reads.
Shimshonit,
Very provocative.
My mother and I have often commented on the idiocy of Israel’s requesting that the Arabs recognize its existence. Excuse me? Israel is here, and if you want to pretend it doesn’t, then you can double your mental illness and ignore other things as well, but no matter what, your delusions don’t affect reality!
But you’ve upped the ante. Israeli propaganda, designed to bolster support by showing how great Israel is, presupposes that were Israel only average, were it only a country of meager achievements in keeping with its meager population, then Israel would not deserve respect and acknowledgment. This, as you put it, is a fundamentally flawed attempt at increasing support.
I think the more correct way of increasing support, and an infinitely more difficult method, is of increasing attachment to Judaism. Most of the Jews who no longer support Israel, do so because they see no connection between themselves (Americans of the Jewish persuasion) and Israelis. Like the German Reformers, they see no nationalistic component to Judaism; they have renounced the Jewish claims to a homeland, declaring it irrelevant to their belief. Moreover, their Judaism isn’t really “Judaism”, but rather, it is merely “vote for the Democrats and be an ethical person”ism. (This is actually rather racist; gentiles cannot be ethical people; it takes Judaism to be ethical?) The cause (and implied solution), then, to the paucity of Jewish support for Israel, is the paucity of Jewish support for Judaism.
Michael: Thanks for your two cents. I have heard the assertion that a deterioration in Jewish identity is the direct cause of deterioration in identification (notice I didn’t say “support”) with Israel. I cannot deny that fact. I began to write here that the Cap’n and I have many relatives who are not religious Jews who have a strong bond with Israel, but I realize that some of that has to do with the fact that they have close family (i.e. us) living here, and if that were not the case, they would probably view Israel as just another country on the map.
One of the things I like about Avigdor Lieberman’s platform as Foreign Minister here is that recognition of Israel as the State of the Jews is not a deal breaker in talks with the Arabs. Lieberman says that anyone who is serious about peace will tacitly be agreeing to that fact without the necessity of a specific declaration. That makes sense to me.
That’s an interesting point, Lieberman’s is, that any Arab peace talks (clarification: ingenuous and sincere ones!) will indicate an implicit recognition of Israel’s legitimacy.
I like this for another reason: it is a takanat shavim, a measure that eases the teshuva of sinners. I am reminded of what Rabbi Dr. David Berger says (inter alia; the whole piece is worth reading) regarding Christians apologizing for Medieval antisemitism (http://media.www.yucommentator.com/media/storage/paper652/news/2007/12/17/KolHamevaser/An.Interview.With.Rabbi.Dr.David.Berger-3144750.shtml):
(Quote)
When you talk about the past, there are a number of issues involved. Should I forgive Christians for what they did in the past? I don’t forgive Count Emicho and I don’t forgive Chmielnitzky, or Torquemada, and unfortunately it‘s not hard to find names to add to this list. I don’t forgive these people at all. I hope that Count Emicho continues to be punished eternally in hell; I don’t think I have any obligation to forgive mass murderers of Jews, or any kind of mass murderer. So the question is, how does that affect my relationship to Christians today? Any contemporary Christians who reject what those people did, and say that it’s sinful, do not bear in my mind any responsibility for what they did any more than Jews bear responsibility for the crucifixion.
And to some degree, I think Jews have been excessively nitpicky about demanding of the Church that they use certain language regarding the Church‘s past behavior. For example, the Church refused in Vatican Two to ‘condemn’ anti-Semitism, instead using a weaker verb. Jews demanded they use the word condemn, and Catholics responded that they didn’t want to use the word condemn because it had a technical theological meaning. Years later, they did condemn.
This continued with the ‘We Remember’ document on the shoah, where Jews took out a microscope and complained that the authors didn’t condemn ‘the Church’ as an entity for its behavior, instead saying only that there were children of the Church who misbehaved, and that it was terrible, but they didn’t say ‘the Church.’ I consider such demands to be dikdukei aniyut. [impoverished pedantry] I think it’s wrong intrinsically to demand that Catholics denounce the Church itself, which they see as a metaphysical entity. As long as they’re prepared to say that anti-Semitism is evil and sinful and that the actual acts that were done in the past were terrible and objectionable, I don’t think there’s any point in pushing the matter further.
Therefore I don’t think that the question of forgiveness of fine contemporary Christians who are vigorously opposed to anti-Semitism is an issue at all. As long as they denounce what was done by their ancestors, they don’t have to be forgiven for what was done by their ancestors, any more than we need to be forgiven for our alleged role in the crucifixion. And if the analogy is pushed, Christians after all don’t hold us responsible for the crucifixion even if we haven’t made public statements saying that the crucifixion of Jesus was an evil and sinful act. Christians don’t demand that we say that; they just affirm that we’re not responsible. The demand by Jews that Christians issue statements that dot every “i” and cross every “t” that we present to them has always seemed to me a diversion and really something that undermines the Jewish interest.
So, I don’t forgive them because I don’t think they need to be forgiven. The ones who did it I don’t forgive because they don’t deserve forgiveness, and the people who have positive attitudes toward Jews today don’t need forgiveness.
(End quote)
Rabbi Berger makes a few points:
1) The Christians alive today didn’t commit the sins, and they don’t need to be forgiven in the first place.
2) We should be content with the Christians denouncing the acts, and not require them to denounce their ancestors themselves. (Whether they should denounce their ancestors is a separate question; the point is that we shouldn’t be too demanding.)
3) In fact, (2) above might go too far; the Christians don’t ask that we condemn the act of the Crucifixion (much less do they ask us condemn the Mishnaic sages of the time!); it’s enough that the Jews today didn’t commit the act. Similarly, as per (1) above, the Christians alive today did not commit any antisemitism, whether or not they condemn the antisemitism (not to mention their actual ancestors themselves who committed said antisemitism).
I think Rabbi Berger’s basic point is that it doesn’t help our case to be overly picky.
While speaking of Rabbi Berger: see his excellent essay, “Egalitarian Ethos”, a veritable treasure on what the Torah says about gentiles, at http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/judaism_and_gentiles.html