semitism.net

Yassir Arafat’s death brought a spate of columns, editorials and online posts lamenting his “legacy of violence”. Why, they ask, did he not lead his people down the path of nonviolent civil resistance, like Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King? What chutzpa! We march our army into places where Palestinians have been living for generations, take their land, deprive them of rights - and then ask, “why don’t they resist us nonviolently?”. What right do we have to ask such a question?

From a military standpoint, terrorism has probably served the Palestinians better than critics want to acknowledge. For a time, it posed enough of a security threat to induce Israel to negotiate. But it has isolated them diplomatically. Among other things, suicide bombings strengthened Israel’s case in the U.S. The image of Israel that emerged was of a nation defending itself from random violence. And in the end, it is U.S. support that has given Israel its greatest strategic advantage.

Professor Mark Levine, writing in Tikkun magazine, makes a pretty stong case that Israel has deliberately suppressed non-violent protest in the occupied territories, in effect forcing angry Palestinians into the arms of militant groups.

One of the first exponents of Palestinian non-violence, the Palestinian-American doctor Mubarak Awad, founded the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence in 1985. His innovative ideas and training of Palestinians in the tactics of non-violent resistance to the occupation was considered dangerous enough by Israel that it expelled him from the land of his birth in 1988. During the same period, the government supported the rise to power of militant religious groups such as Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO (which that year recognized Israel’s right to exist).

Since the outbreak of the al-Aksa intifada in September 2000 most Palestinians I know–and increasingly, their comrades in the Israeli peace movement–have exerted incredible energy trying to build grass roots non violent movements that could somehow check the inexorable advance of the occupation and the slow death of the national dream of an independent state. The response by the Israeli military has often been brutal. Not just Palestinian activists, but foreign peace activists and even Israelis are routinely beaten, arrested, deported, or even killed by the IDF, with little fear that the Government of Israel would pay a political price for crushing non-violent resistance with violent means.

Indeed, the International Solidarity Movement has been one of the most effective nonviolent groups operating in the occupied territories. Their stated goals are:

1. to dramatize the terrible conditions under which Palestinians live because of the Occupation, and to protect them from physical violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers. We work under the leadership of Palestinian peace activists, supporting them in their creative resistance to the Occupation, and lending support to Israeli and other peace activist groups.
2. to pressure International news media to focus on the illegality and brutality of the Occupation, and to so change public opinion that it demands that Israel respect international law, and that America stops funding Israel with billions of dollars each year.
3. to recruit volunteers from other nations to undertake non-violent resistance to the Occupation.
4. to establish divestment campaigns in the US and Europe to put economic pressure on Israel the same way the international community put pressure South Africa during the apartheid regimes.

They carry no weapons and do not in any way facilitate militant activities. All they do is witness, and communicate to the outside world, human rights abuses by Israel and the conditions of the occupation. Israel has, in fact, detained, deported, bulldozed, and shot ISM volunteers. They have also been physically assaulted by settlers, with IDF forces watching and refusing to intervene. And the Israeli right has mounted a particularly vigorous international propaganda campaign seeking to discredit the organization (the link is only one of many examples - do a Google search on International Solidarity Movement to see for yourself).

The American Jewish community needs to be more aware of such non-violent efforts to assert Palestinian rights. Those of us who want justice for the Palestinians should be supportive of organizations in the occupied territories involved in peaceful protest and civil disobedience. In the American Civil Rights Movement, and in the South African anti-Apartheid Movement, one critical factor for success was the fact that many whites ultimately recognized the justice of the cause and joined with blacks in their protests. Perhaps there is a similar role for Jews in the Palestinian struggle.

Let’s not fool ourselves. The Religious Right won the election. This is bad for the Jews, bad for all minorities, bad for civil rights, bad - in my opinion - for the U.S. And we cannot afford to sit around for the next four years waiting for another chance. Here’s the sort of thing I’m talking about.

In Friday’s Forward, EJ Kessler reported:

The movement to prevent Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the nation’s senior Republican Jewish lawmaker, from assuming the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee is highlighting the ascendance of evangelicals in the Republican Party and the loss of power of moderate Northeasterners.

Since Specter, a moderate pro-choice lawmaker, made post-election comments noting that anti-abortion judicial nominees would have trouble getting approved by the Senate, evangelicals and other conservatives have inundated Senate offices with mail and phone calls, even holding a Capitol Hill “pray-in” in an attempt to derail Specter’s chairmanship. Specter, who is entitled to the chairmanship under Senate Republican seniority rules, since has backpedaled furiously, lobbying his colleagues to save his post. While some senators, including outgoing Judiciary chairman Orrin Hatch, have indicated that Specter, recently elected to a fifth term, is likely to prevail in the end, tensions persist as the matter awaits a final vote in January.

As a chastened Specter struggled to make his case to his colleagues this week, the Senate’s other Jewish Republican, Norm Coleman, who headed President Bush’s re-election campaign in Minnesota, failed in a bid to win the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, losing out to a more conservative colleague, Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina.

As it turned out, Specter, having jumped through the requisite hoops, received the backing of all the Committee Republicans. He is expected to be confirmed in January. But it’s hard to believe, after this, that he’ll be able to block the hard-right, strict-constructionist judges Bush will appoint - unless he has the backing of an equally strong grassroots movement opposed to stacking the court.

And the fact that Specter is Jewish? I think it would be a long stretch to say that the campaign against him was anti-Semitic. But it does bring into focus the chasm between the values of social and religious tolerance that Specter embraces, and the agenda of the Religious Right.

The composition of the Court is of great importance to Jews. We have religious practices and beliefs that differ from those of Christians. As a minority religion, we depend particularly on the courts to protect our rights. We have an inherent interest in issues like freedom of expression and action, and the religious neutrality of public institutions. We respect other beliefs very sincerely, but we do not want them forced on us.

So, as the Moral Majority marches forward in lockstep, where is our powerful Washington lobby? Um… Well, here’s Michael Freund, former Netanyahu aid and now a conservative columnist, writing Wednesday in the Jerusalem Post:

In terms of flexing political muscle and shaping the outcome of the vote, no group proved more successful than America’s evangelical Christians. They flocked to the polls, boosting the incumbent and helping to set the country’s political agenda for the next four years.

While some American Jews view this development with mounting concern, my reaction is far more sanguine, even upbeat: Israel should be thanking God for the rise of the Christian Right. They are the best hope for ensuring long-term US diplomatic support for the Jewish state in an increasingly hostile world.

And from a July report in the Christian Science Monitor,

“Christian Zionist groups play an increasingly important role,” says Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America and a leader of the Jewish lobby, AIPAC. “In many districts where there are very few Jews, the members of the House and Senate are Israel’s supporters in part because of the strong Christian Zionist lobby on Capitol Hill.”

Other observers say the Bush administration’s tilt toward Israel in the Israeli- Palestinian dispute results from a coalition of neoconservatives, the Jewish lobby, and Christian Zionists - with the latter providing the grass-roots political punch as a prime Bush constituency.

The Religious Right supports Israel for rather different reasons than we do. According to the same Monitor article:

For Christian Zionists, the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham and the center of His action from now to the Second Coming of Christ and final battle of Armageddon, when the Antichrist will be defeated. But before this can occur, they say, biblical prophecy foretells the return of Jews from other countries; Israel’s possession of all the land between the Euphrates and Nile rivers; and the rebuilding of the Jewish temple where a Muslim site, Dome of the Rock, now stands.

What on earth is the Jewish leadership doing embracing these people? Their goals may be in synch with those of the far right wing of the Likud party - but they are not, really, good for Israel; and, believe me, they do not have Jewish interests at heart.

Which brings me to my main point, which is that AIPAC and the major Jewish organizations that have clout in Washington are way out of step with Jewish America. Most of us voted for Kerry. A fair number of us - I really believe - want security for Israel, yes, but also want justice for the Palestinians; and the number would be greater if American Jews had a better idea of what was really going on in the occupied territories. Most of us care about civil rights, social welfare and social justice - ideals that are deeply threatened by the Bush administration. Most of us feel threatened by the sudden dominance of the religious right.

So what are we going to do about it? I would like to open up a discussion - on this site, and anywhere else we can have it - on strategies for grassroots activism in the Jewish community. Could American Jews have a moderating influence on U.S. Israel policy? Could we actually, in keeping with our ethical tradition, speak on behalf of Palestinian rights? Could we find common cause with progressive Muslims and Christians in the U.S.? And can Jewish organizations join with other U.S. groups in the fight for social and economic justice? How can we influence our synagogues and our organizations toward these ends?

I will keep writing on these issues, and hope to get some thoughts and comments from readers.