My Zionist Manifesto

This morning I opened my e-mail to discover Daniel Gordis’s latest Israel-related column.  I nearly fell out of my chair:

Item:  Not long ago, a student at one of America’s recognized rabbinic schools sent a note to the school’s e-mail list saying that it was time to buy a new tallit.  Seeking advice about what to buy and where to get it, the student noted that there was only one stipulation – the tallit could not be made in Israel.

Item:  After that e-mail went out, a rather energetic discussion unfolded. As the conversation became increasingly heated, students were told that e-mail conversations about Israel were now off limits. You can discuss politics, the economy, sex and theology, but not Israel.

Item:  Also not long ago, other rabbinical students were discussing how to add relevance to their observance of Tisha Be’av. They began to compile a list of other moments in history that should be mourned. One suggested that 1948 be added. Because of the Nakba? No, actually. It was time, this student said, to mourn the creation of the State of Israel.

Item:  A rabbinical student in Jerusalem for the year chose to celebrate his birthday in Ramallah, accompanied by fellow students. There they sat at the bar, with posters (which they either did or didn’t understand) extolling violence against the Jewish state on the wall behind them, downing their drinks and feeling utterly comfortable. Photographs of the celebration got posted online.

Now I know that some of you are going to tell me that Daniel Gordis is a right wing scare monger, but you are wrong.  I know Danny from my participation in a long-term study program and have learned much from him over the years.  He and I do not agree on some things, but the centrality of Israel to Jewish existence is not one of them.

I am a Zionist.  I am deeply committed to the existence and flourishing of a state for the Jewish people.  It is central to my personal Jewish identity and, I believe, to the future of the secular Jewish culture that is so dear to me.  Just look at how Secular Humanistic Judaism is growing and thriving in Israel.

Like many liberals, I’d welcome some changes within Israel because I wish Israel the best.  I’d like to see minorities treated better.  I’d also applaud the elimination of the privileged position of traditional religion, the improvement of education and the elimination of widespread poverty.  Wow.  Those are also the things I’d like to see changed in the United States.  They have nothing to do with Israel’s legitimacy.

My vision of the state is that of Herzl and Ben-Gurion, not Shas or Yesha.  I’m opposed to the current settlement policy, but to borrow from Danny’s column, I’m “...too sophisticated to believe that [the settlements] are the reason that Israel has no peace with the Palestinians.”  Anyone with half a brain should be able to understand that.  It’s one thing to call current settlement policy un-wise or counter-productive, but the major obstacle to peace?  Give me a break.  Watch how fast Israelis dismantle settlements when (I still say when) peace comes.

How can any Jew with even a rudimentary understanding of Jewish history - much less a future rabbi - call into question the indispensability of Israel?  Do these rabbinic students believe that only the Jews, among all the nations of the world, should be excluded from the the basic human right of national self-determination?

If you’ve been following this blog then you know that I don’t give two hoots about the “holiness” of places, not even Israel.  But holiness is not the only quality that makes a place special or important.  As the Israeli Declaration of Independence says, “In the Land of Israel the Jewish people arose.”  Jews have a rightful claim to the land.

So, too, do the Palestinian Arabs who live there today.  These competing, legitimate claims are why we are in a CONFLICT with them.  They have a right to be there and so do we.  Since our cultures and world views are so different, life under a single polity would be unworkable.  So some day we will divide the land.  Each side will receive less than it would like which is the nature of compromise.  Sadly, this obvious solution is not imminent.

For anyone to use this impasse as an excuse to place the entire blame at the feet of the Jews is ludicrous.  Even the most negatively framed revisionist history of Zionism cannot deny the train wreck of decisions made by the Palestinians and their allies.

By their constant denial of the fact that two states must arise on this little strip of land, they have prolonged this conflict well beyond what was ever necessary.  One could argue that there are more and more Israelis who seem to agree with them, also refusing to ever share the land.  That is nothing but an illusion.  True support for the revanchist brand of Zionism is but a thin sheet of ice that will rapidly melt when Hamas, its little imitators and their “Islamic resistance” finally disappear.

When Israelis no longer live in conditions of constant threat and terror, realistic Zionists will be ready to execute the partition of the land that we agreed to a long, long time before there was a Jewish state.

I might not believe in God, but it is sheer lunacy to deny the existence of the Jews.  In fact, arguments for the necessity of a Jewish state are much more reasonable, rational and empirical than the unsupported belief in the supernatural.  And just as a side note to the tallit buying student in Danny’s column:  A tallit is a great deal more superfluous to Jewish identity than a Jewish state.

These rabbinic students and their friends probably think it’s pretty silly for an atheist who denies such ideas as divine covenants and holy places to call them out on this.  My answer to them is that it is one thing to reject the existence of a supernatural deity.  It’s another thing altogether to reject your living, breathing Jewish brothers and sisters and their right to a homeland.  But then again, I never became a rabbi to serve God.  I became a rabbi to serve Jews.

I’ll leave these colleagues-to-be with just one question:  If you don’t care about klal Yisrael, why become a rabbi at all?