Are We Victims, Perpetrators or By-Standers?
It is nearly impossible to overstate the impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish collective consciousness. The murder of 6 million Jews forever changed Jewish history and culture. I have often thought that Holocaust trauma created two types of Jewish political ideology:
- The fear of being a victim: This can be seen in some of the more militant elements of right-wing Zionism. This world-view sees a constant state of conflict, where the only choice is kill or be killed. In such a world, we have no choice but to be the aggressor, or to take military actions that might seem unethical when judged in a vacuum -because the world is not a vacuum.
- The fear of being a perpetrator: This can be seen in some of the more dovish elements of left-wing Zionism. This world-view believes that defense always carries a risk of becoming offense, so we must constantly question our own actions; we must always pursue the peaceful option and avoid harming innocents, even if there might be a security price to pay – and perhaps, if we take peaceful actions, the security threat will also diminish, as we reduce our enemy’s cause for grievance against us.
But more recently, I have been wondering if there might be a third ideology:
- The fear of being a bystander: This is the Zionist who chooses to live in Israel, rather than watch the biggest experiment in modern Jewish history (Jewish sovereignty after 2,00 years of exile) unfold from the side-lines. This is the Jew who goes to protect Palestinian villages and olive groves from attacks by Jews who claim to act in the Torah’s name, to prevent their religion from being corrupted.
But where is the third ideology?
I worry, as I see so many Jews in the Diaspora disengage from Israel, rather than take actions meant to bolster the forces of change within it. To be clear, engagement can take the form of critique. It can take the form of protest. But it is about changing Israel rather than dismantling it.
Similarly, I worry within Israel as I see religious Jews and settlers remain silent in the face of daily price tag attacks.
I want to be clear: These attacks are carried out by a fringe within religious and within settler society. But: Unless we call out these attacks, we cannot simply hand-wave moral culpability away by saying that it’s only the extremists.
We need to prove that these extremists do not represent us, by publicly condemning them. There have been some organizations, such as Tag Meir and Smol Emuni, that have done so-and there was an admirable petition circulated among residents of Gush Etzion.
But where are the masses of rabbinic leaders writing op-eds against price tag attacks or speaking out against it from the pulpit? Where are the masses of political leaders of the settler movement decrying such attacks? Until publicly condemning these attacks becomes mainstream, we cannot credibly claim that such attacks are merely done by fringe elements. Because if they were considered only extremists, completely outside of our religious or political camp, then the moderates wouldn’t be hesitant to speak out against them.
I think that, in a post-Holocaust era, we need to combine all three elements: A commitment to the need for Jewish security, alongside a commitment the rights of all humanity (including Palestinians), and a commitment to live our lives in a way that makes the world a better place and doesn’t always accept the status quo. This is the challenge of the current moment in Jewish history.