In Obama's Election, Hope for Israel's Future
Avrum, you have opened such a critical conversation for the Jewish people with your writing and your thinking, not just in Israel but for American Jews as well. I thank you for that.
So much of our thinking about the world and about the future has become a hostage to our experiences of the past. If we remain captives to fear, obliged to view the world through the lens of past persecutions and horror, we will never adapt to the new realities of the present day and never be able to build a future of hope and optimism.
The election of Barack Obama has the potential to completely lead us to a future built on hope. Not only can the new President reestablish America as a pragmatic and positive player on the world stage, but he has the potential to help mobilize the international community to address the serious global challenges that lie ahead.
As encouraging, I see in his victory the potential as well for forward movement here in the American Jewish community. I'm deeply encouraged by American Jews' outright rejection of those who sought to peddle fears and smears in the election and who were stunningly rebuked when American Jews voted for Obama by a margin of 78-22.
Our community rejected the smear campaigns that sought to change the conversation from one of substantive policy to one about fear, tinged with bias based on ethnicity and race. Just look at the RJC's vile attempts to frighten Jews out of voting for Obama by juxtaposing a photo of him in Berlin with the text: "a naïve and weak foreign policy has resulted in tragic outcomes for the Jewish people" ... or the Pennsylvania Republican Party's email that warned "fellow Jewish voters" of an impending second Holocaust should Obama win ... or Joe the Plumber's affirmation that a vote for Obama "is a vote for the death of Israel." Rather than falling prey to this fear-mongering, American Jews adamantly embraced hope and demonstrated the political will to move forward.
That gives me hope. Now we have to engage this community in understanding that we must move beyond our fears and open up meaningful negotiations and dialogue with those with whom we have conflicts. To talk to one's enemies is not a sign of weakness. It is not a step to be feared. Rather it is a sign of strength, opening up the possibility of building a bridge to the future that moves between conflict and destruction.
I sense as you do that we will only be able to find the strength to do this when we have released ourselves from the bonds of fear of which you speak.
I also have hope that Obama will be a force for positive change in the IP conflict. But it is no more than hope. There is really very little in his record, and especially in his campaign rhetoric, to indicate that he will be able to move Israel to withdraw its settlers from the West Bank. We simply do not know at this point what his policies will be.
December 9, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The election of Barack Obama has the potential to completely lead us to a future built on hope."
whatever you're smokin pass that shit over here!
Like Adam Sandler's mother says in his newest movie, "they've been fighting for thousands of years, it can't be much longer now."
Let us face this logically, as long as there is religion, and three different religions all claim the same "Holy Land" there will be endless violence. If folks think otherwise, they are underestimating the power technology gives to single actors, or even just a couple of extremists.
As a Jew who went to Israel for 7 weeks with a zionist youth group, I am painfully aware that there is not going to be any miracle. Obama is not some superhuman that can single handedly rescue us, them, or anybody. Too many people think our battles have been won already, simply because we elected a black guy that you think is a liberal sharing all your views and priorities.
I gave money to, made calls for, and celebrated with Obama in Grant Park on Election night. I have managed to temper my feelings with reason. A "future built on hope" is a fairy tale for small childen to have sweet dreams. It is crocodile tears to a people desperate for a reversal of GWB's policies. The future in Israel is building walls and ghettos, tanks and bombs.
Israel's economy is increasingly based on "security" technology, as well as military technologies. Naomi Klein goes into great detail in the Shock Doctrine on this. It is another side of the same coin, where heads peace loses, and tails violence wins.
There is no easy solution for 3 uncompromising religions who all believe they are the sole rightious faith, and that they have been given permission by G-d to convert or destroy their enemies. That is the situation, and now more deadly weapons are easier to make/obtain and smaller than ever before.
There will be no happy ending in our lifetime. This is unfortunate, but it is the truth.
Myself as well as everybody I've met and talked to in Israel, including Arabs, Jews, Bedouins, etc. all want a peaceful solution. But I didn't get a chance to talk to the powers that be in the Israeli government, nor to the Arab politicians who benefit over the Palestinians plight.
I like to share peoples' hopes, but hope is a thought that exists somewhere in electrical signals in your brain. Actions need to be taken to create peace, and those actions are not being taken.
You wrote (and beautifully so)
"So much of our thinking about the world and about the future has become a hostage to our experiences of the past. If we remain captives to fear, obliged to view the world through the lens of past persecutions and horror, we will never adapt to the new realities of the present day and never be able to build a future of hope and optimism."
There is no past in the Middle East, the past is the same as the present. Thinking that Obama can change that in four or eight years is pure folly. You write eloquently about being "captives to fear", yet the Palestinians are captives to a very real ghetto, surrounded by walls, with electricity, water and jobs denied. They are captives to something much realer than the emotion of fear.
It will take leaders from that region who renounce religious intolerance (if not religion itself), and convince EVERYBODY. Even the comedian Adam Sandler gets that.
Hope is like Dope, it may get you high for a while, but it eventually floats through the air, and is not potent enough to change how people on the opposite side of the world will act.
December 10, 2008 1:54 AM | Reply | Permalink