Shabbat Shalom, And A Message From Jerusalem
Yossi Klein Halevi calls for "good people" to become 'more involved politically, socially and spiritually."
The Temple Mount: Ground zero for the current conflict.
Dear Reader,
It’s with a heavy heart that we enter Shabbat this week, our hearts going out to our brothers and sisters in Israel who are under attack, and to all innocent victims of the current conflict.
For me, the most confounding element of this tragic episode is the rioting among Israeli Arabs in cities where co-existence has thrived. Only a week ago, it appeared that an Israeli Arab political leader, Mansour Abbas, would play a kingmaker role in forming Israel’s first joint Israel-Arab government. And now this.
When Mideast issues get more confusing than usual, I often turn to my friend and colleague, Yossi Klein Halevi, in Jerusalem, to help me better understand what is going on behind the headlines.
Yossi, who is known to many of you, is a native of Brooklyn who made aliyah almost four decades ago. He is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and the author, most recently, of the bestselling book, “Letters To My Palestinian Neighbor.” He has made a career as an outstanding journalist, educator and humanitarian dedicated to explaining Israel to American audiences, defending Israel in the media, and working toward co-existence between Israeli Jews and Arabs.
So, this has been an especially hard week for him on all of those fronts.
Indeed, it’s been a deeply sad and troubling week for his fellow Israelis, as well, and for all of us who love and appreciate the Jewish State as it withstands a barrage of missiles from Hamas and verbal attacks from much of the international community and media.
When Yossi and I spoke the other day, he said he felt “the jury has already reached a verdict,” referring to the critics of Israel who blame Israelis for responding to hundreds of rockets from a terror group committed to killing them and eradicating the Jewish State.
He said he was pleased to see that, according to the latest Pew Research Center report on American Jews, released this week, that 82 percent of the Jews in the U.S. say caring about Israel is either “essential” or “important” to their Jewish identity. But he was troubled that 13 percent of young adult American Jews (ages 18-20) support BDS, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
It’s part of a growing trend among young Americans, including Jews, who are increasingly left in their political world view. They tend to see the Israel-Palestinian conflict as a piece with the worldwide struggle for minorities to achieve freedom -- never mind the complexities of the Mideast, the fact that Israeli Arabs are full citizens, and that Hamas is a recognized terror group whose charter calls for the murder of all Jews.
Much of the frustration many of us feel in reading media reports of the current conflict was described well by Rep. Richie Torres (D-NY), who noted: “Circulating on social media in particular is a vicious lie — a lie that deceptively reframes the terrorism of Hamas as self-defense, and deceptively reframes the self-defense of Israel as terrorism.”
Yossi also worries that “we are not at the top of our game, to put it politely,” noting that Israel’s government has been dysfunctional these last two years – now facing a likely fifth election since 2019 before year’s end – and led by a prime minister on trial for corruption.
He asserts that the only existential threat to Israel comes from Iran and he is concerned that the Palestinian conflict is “diverting our attention now.” Israel, he said, is engaged in a military struggle that has “no end game, politically or militarily,” other than maintaining the status quo, while the U.S. may be on the verge of renewing a nuclear deal with Iran that, he believes, would be a major mistake.
Reports that the talks with Iran are proceeding well doesn’t surprise Yossi. “You don’t put the same team back in place,” referring to the American negotiators, “and expect a different result.” That result may well be an Iran that would remain on the nuclear threshold, restraining nuclear development for 10-15 years before the inevitable breakout, Yossi said. In return, Iran immediately would receive the financial help it needs to become the regional Muslim conventional military and political power in the region.
Sooner or later, Israel will “regain its equilibrium” after the Hamas attacks subside, Yossi said, but less certain is rebuilding trust with Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of the state. That could take years of dedicated effort.
“The only hope at the moment is that when things get so bad, good people are galvanized to act because they have no choice,” Yossi said. “That means rolling up our sleeves and getting more involved politically, socially and spiritually.”
To that I can only add my prayers for an end to the bloodshed and a re-commitment to the democratic values Israel strives for.
How fitting is Psalm 122, part of the daily morning prayer: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you prosper. May there be peace within your ramparts, calm in your citadels.”
Amen, and Shabbat shalom.