Ad Matai? Until When?
Another senseless attack on Jews occurred just two days ago, this time in Boulder Colorado. Anger at Israel mixed with plain old-fashioned antisemitism, brought the Israel-Gaza war to this tranquil, lovely college town.
A Holocaust survivor, marching to remind the world about the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas, was set on fire, along with several other Jewish marchers, by an aggrieved Egyptian on an expired visa. The attacker, apparently, had not been made aware of the fact that Jews and Israelis are not interchangeable; that all Jews are not the same; that Jews rarely agree with each other about anything, let alone the Israel-Gaza war.
The war has brought untold grief and devastation to Israelis and Palestinians alike. I am heartbroken both by the events of October 7th and by the horrific death toll Israel has unleashed on Palestinian civilians. What appalls me more than anything else, however, is the seeming inability of the two warring parties in Israel and the Palestinian territories to extricate themselves from the death dance they have been engaged in for the past 100 years.
Both sides have just cause to be furious with each other. Both sides have suffered horrible losses, whether in full-blown wars, tactical raids and military actions, or terrorist attacks on civilians.
Both sides feel like victims and both sides have good reason to feel so. Feeling like a victim, however, has never solved any problem for anyone, anywhere, at any time. Victimhood is not an achievement to be proud of, nor is it a strategy for liberation, or a path to safety and security.
Victimhood embraced is the guarantee for atrophy. A desire for vengeance left unchecked is a guarantee for violence and, as I see it, both sides of this awful conflict are locked into a narrative of victimhood and vengeance. The result has been the despicable massacre of October 7th and the ensuing bloodbath of the war launched by Israel.
The Palestinians, to quote former Foreign Secretary Abba Eban “have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Stubbornly refusing to accept any deal offered to them since 1947, they have been left homeless and oppressed.
The Palestinians have also, too often, chosen a bloody, indiscriminately violent solution for their predicament. Leader after leader, they have chosen murderous idealogues – secular and religious – to lead them to freedom. They have failed miserably and have inflicted untold sorrow and grief upon Israelis who, many times, were the very advocates for dialogue and justice for Palestinians. Such is the ugly irony of this conflict.
Israel, on the other hand, has allowed settlements on the West Bank to pop up, grow and flourish over the past 58 years. Everyone knew full well that these very settlements would choke off access to Palestinians from village to village and town to town. Every administration knew these settlements would form stumbling blocks to any possible, future agreement on a Palestinian State. This has been a neglectful, foolish, cynical, and all too often an intentional and malicious policy.
I will not argue against the right of Jews to dwell in Judea and Samaria – that territory is, after all, our ancestral, biblical homeland. I argue against the advisability of doing so for basic, humane, factual reasons: another people have been living there and cultivating the land for over 1400 years and I wish not to become their oppressor. Too late, I know.
I am well aware of the oppressive rule we, Israelis, have imposed upon the Palestinians in the West Bank. I served there as a soldier in the IDF. I hated what we were doing back in 1968 and it has gotten infinitely worse over the decades. I am convinced that if I had grown up on the West bank under Israeli occupation, I, too, would have become enraged.
So here we are: two peoples outraged, devastated, heartbroken and not one step closer to solving what really lies at the core of our conflict – the right of two nations to share the same land.
I no longer care if the two parties ever grow to love or even like each other. I care only that they learn to let each other be. In order for that to happen, any pseudo-messianic aspirations of fanatics on either side must be abandoned – yesterday. All notions of “total victory” or “from the river to the sea” need to be discarded for the nonsensical statements they are and for the passions they enflame.
To my Palestinian cousins I have this to say: I am a Zionist and I have always believed in your right to live dignified lives in your own free state. I have never wanted to be an occupier and certainly not an oppressor. I am not alone in my beliefs – just about every acquaintance and childhood friend of mine believes the same. That includes former Knesset members, retired generals in the IDF, artists, entrepreneurs, academicians, and others.
I beg of you to reject Hamas and other such organizations. They are evil and have cost you dearly. Hatred is not a philosophy and vengeance is not a strategy. And send our hostages back home. Now. I wish you peace.
To my Israeli brothers and sisters I have this to say: Nothing about this conflict is in any way, shape, or form equivalent to the Holocaust. We are not defenseless. Israel is the most powerful military in the Middle East. We are not residing in other peoples’ lands – we are finally living in our homeland.
Reject the Kahanists and marginalize them. Racists and ultra-nationalist fascists have no room in an Israeli government. They have defiled the Knesset, the government, and Israeli politics. Their presence in the government has made Israel into a pariah state. Their path is evil and will lead, once again, to a cliff overlooking the Dead Sea. One Masada was enough.
One more thing: get out of Gaza. Now. We don’t belong there. We never did and we have killed way too many women and children on that cursed earth for us to ever show up there again with anything other than an olive branch.
Let us all take a good look in the mirror and ask ourselves: Ad matai? Until when?
Peace to all.
