What is Happening in Our Country and the World
In the past weeks, I’ve been wrestling with the news and the reports of Israel’s engagement in Gaza and the West Bank. It has not been easy, and questions from abroad have not let me ignore what we work hard not to see in our daily lives.
Yesterday, I read the article in the New York Times about genocide and Israel’s actions in Gaza. It is too early to say if there is any reaction in Israel; however, for those who notice the article, it will probably be dismissed as being written by another left-wing, self-hating, antisemitic Jew in the left-wing anti-Semitic New York Times. In the past, I have cautioned my Palestinian friends about using terms like “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing” as I didn’t believe that it was something that Israel was doing, and that it stopped any open discussion, consideration, and understanding of what was being done.
The actions of the Israeli government and military in the past year, and the article in the Times, have changed my view, and although words are thrown around indiscriminately and used to quickly define complex issues, I can’t argue with experts in the field who repeatedly reach the same conclusions. It also becomes harder for me to ignore the stories that come back from the war, and articles in the news of innocent, unarmed people being killed by the Israeli army. A subtle message, briefly mentioned in the NY Times article, is that Israel’s actions will redefine how the world sees the Holocaust. It is redefining Israel’s relationship with the world, and Diaspora Judaism’s relationship with Israel and the rest of the world. This is an extremely worrisome reality.
As to the Israeli public’s views, we are deeply immersed in the trauma of October 7, being bombed daily by Iran (and the Houthis in Yemen), and our soldiers being killed every day. We feel threatened and probably are, despite the fact that we are aggressively acting on many fronts. We live in a tough neighborhood where we have never been accepted, although this has slowly changed and continues to change, providing opportunities for larger regional peace. Unfortunately, the U.S., Israel, and the rest of the Western World lack the leadership needed to actualize these opportunities.
The NYTimes also published an article about Netanyahu prolonging the war to stay in power, and it had no surprises for the Israeli public. It very clearly summarized Netanyahu’s and his government’s long list of corruption and failures. What is disturbing is that none of this is generating any change in Israel; little in the world Jewish community; or in the American government’s relationship to Israel. It is having a huge impact on Israel and the Jewish people’s future relationship to the world, as well as the growth of anti-Semitism. Equally, I am distraught at the similar corruption, lies, and dismantling of the safeguards of democracy in the U.S. and the lack of protest and a massive pushback, especially from the judicial and legislative arms of government. Somehow, justice and democracy have fallen out of favor in the general public, and we must figure out how and why, in order to bring them back.
The world is experiencing a shift in the tectonic plates that built a moral and ethical base for life in the last 100 years. As difficult as it is, we must continue to fight for the human values that we believe are salient to the survival of the world that we want to live in.
