Recently Fred Moolten and Dan K. wrote blog entries that were excellent expositions on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as it relates to TPM. The commentary that followed was generally lucid and civil. I just wished I had not been out of town that week and could have participated. To that end, I decided to respond with this blog entry.

The basic problem with the whole Israeli/Palestinian conflict is the inability of each side to accept the other's narrative. You can see the same thing on this blog by partisans on each side. Both want to claim the honor of being the biggest aggrieved party or victim. 

As a Jew I understand the victim role - we have used it and nutured it for thousands of years. We still want acknowledgement by the world of the thousands of years of descrimination and pain we have suffered. In the grand scales of justice, it's a debt the world will never be able to repay to our satisfaction. Yet we never acknowledge what a gift it is from G-d to be born Jewish. Thru a combination of genes, culture, economics and a supportive family and tribal structure we are blessed and the results worldwide are illustrative.

When my relatives living in the settlements and outposts complain about how hard and dangerous their lives are I ask them whether they would rather have been born as an African, or Hondurean or G-d forbid an arab, they grudgingly acknowledge maybe things are not so bad.

Through the auspices of the arab family in Haifa my sisiter hired as nanny/gardener/handyman when she made aliyah in 1966, I have come to know many Palestinians on both sides of the green line. The arab grievence stems from the demise of the great Islamic wave that swept over much of the civilized world more than a 1000 years ago. Islamic scholars were the epitamy of knowledge and Islam was the religion growing geometrically. The Ottoman Empire was the decaying end of the age of Islam. The honor and dignity of arabs disappeared with the empire. This is the reason Israeli attempts to deliberately humiliate Palestinians is so counterproductive.

Progress on the Peace front will not move until there is loud public acknowledgement on both sides of the other's grievances and narrative. The Palestinians and arabs need to say explicitly that Jews have been descriminated against and slaughtered for thousands of years and need the security of a Jewish state to live peacefully. They also need to acknowledge that the 1948, 1967, and 1973 wars against Israel were wrong and apologize. They also need to apologize for suicide bombings and driving out Jews from arab lands. To that end, arab countries are prepared to pay $50 billion to Israel in compensation.

Israel needs to state loudly and explicitly that the origin of their own state by UN mandate never considered the rights and wishes of the native arab population. That what happened during the Nabka was wrong. The 1948 war was fought primarily by armies of Jordan, Egypt and Syria and the vast, vast, vast majority of Palestinians driven out of Israel were non combatant civilians. They also need to acknowledge and apologize for the decades of occupation and excessive counter-terrorism tactics. To that end, Israel is prepared to pay $50 billion in compensation to the Palestinians. In addition Israel has to acknowledge the Palestinians right of return - then negotiate a face saving limitations to it's actual implementation.  While we are in an apologetic mood, the Palestinians can apologize for the Hebron Massacre of 1929 and Israel can apologize for Dier Yassin.  

Once these emotional issues are dealt with, I believe the issues of borders, East Jerusalem, how to allow Jews to continue to live in Palestine will all become fairly easily and quickly solved. But nothing will happen until the emotional baggage on both sides is dealt with. This will not be easy for anyone on either side to do. Pride is an obomination befor G-d and it needs to be jettisoned before peace will emerge.  

I have been in a quandary for months over making a decision about making aliyah. I feel I owe it to my friends here at TPM to explain why I decided not to go ahead. As with most decisions of this magnitude, there was a multiplicity of reasons. It was all brought to a head on Mother's Day.

As many of you know my entire side of the family resides in "Israel". Our children are scattered across the globe (Amsterdam, Bangalore, and Tokyo) but my wife Ruth's family are all here in the US. On Mother's day we had a big celebration with about half of her family. As I observed the family fun, it occurred to me how much my wife enjoyed these people - she was truly alive with her eyes sparkling and her laughter lively.(after 40 years of marriage you would think I would have already figured this out) I realized how self absorbed I was in my obsession with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the possibilities of peace. Ruth needs to be close to her family for the support and stimulus it gives her (she gets together with one or more of her family weekly) and moving to Israel would rob her of the gift of her family.

Another factor was trying to sell our home and at least one of our vacation houses in a piss poor real estate market. But from my point of view one very important aspect involves my current crisis of faith. Right or wrong, my Jewish faith and Israel are completely intertwined like a hand and glove. It has been so since learning everything about being a Jew at my grandfather's knee.  My anger at what Israel is doing (or not doing) on the peace agreement front has now spilled over to my identity as a Jew. I have certainly commented enough on TPM for most of you to understand my frustration with Israel.

As a result I have resigned from my Conservative congregation (it's a very large suburban one and they will not miss me or my money). I have tried a Reform Temple but while the words were somewhat similar, the spiritual dimension is not the same. I fear moving to Israel would merely exacerbate my religious conflict being totally immersed in a Jewish culture.

I had thought that I could fight for peace more effectively in Israel than I could in America but I now see that was an arrogant and naïve assumption on my part. This is particularly true because I am losing much of my mobility. As some of you know, I had polio when I was two and something called post polio syndrome has robbed the remaining strength in my polio ravaged legs. As a result, I find myself using my power wheelchair more and my crutches less ( I used to be pretty nimble and quick with those crutches).

I will continue to post my thoughts on Israel but at age 64, I doubt my ability and energy are sufficient to make a meaningful difference to Israel's peace prospects. I am far too emotionally caught up with this problem (as Bruce Levine can testify) and would not be helpful to Israel, myself or my family. It is the latter which will now assume paramount importance. Thanks for listening. .

My? Israel

As some of you know my wife and I have been seriously considering aliyah. We spent several weeks in November  in Israel exploring some of the details involved in such a move. We were somewhat optimistic at that point and on January 22 we made an official

Aliyah visit. Landing at Ben Gurion we were quickly moved to an interrogation room.

Two gentlemen (I assume they were Shin Bet but they never said) questioned us for 90 minutes about my blog postings on Israel, some of which I recognized from TPM. They had a significant volume of printouts and asked detailed questions about my criticisms of Israel.. Finally in exasperation I told them - "For G-d's sake, I am no Norm Finkelstein". Bad move - they immediately started questioning me on my relationship with Finkelstein and seemed unmoved by my denials of ever meeting the man. Finally, they said we could enter Israel but we "better watch our step". I was not terribly bothered by the interrogation but my wife was extremely upset by it.  

Meanwhile our Aliyah hosts were kept waiting and worried. When we explained our interrogation delay I could see the wariness in their eyes "who are these people". Nonetheless, they patiently explained all the details of such a move including language training for my wife who speaks very little Hebrew. Details on government grants available, housing allowances etc were laid out. It seems like a very well organized process. They understood where all my relatives lived and pushed for me to move to one of  their settlements. When I explained we wanted to start our Israel life in Haifa, where my beloved sister started her Israel journey, they looked at us as if we had six heads.

For the next 10 days we spent all of our time talking with native Israelis. We obviously know the land very well from our previous 70 visits but this time I wanted to better gauge the people and social/political environment.  Since we are retired and financially secure the economy was of less interest to us. What we found was tremendous interest in the upcoming elections. Since we were potential aliyah candidates people were very open with us about their views. From the bars and restaurants of Tel Aviv to remote West Bank settlements we found something like 90% of the people believe the peace process is dead. This may be a temporary reaction to the Gaza campaign but it seems more firmly established than I have seen in the last 40 years.

There seems to be great excitement that the "Arab problem" is about to be solved by the election of Likud with the cooperation of Yisrael Beiteinu. A majority of the people we talked with felt that the new government would formally establish the Palestinian "reservations (economic zones)"  leaving Israel to expand into the gaps. Indeed, we went to some campaign events where maps were put up on the wall showing  7 distinct Palestinian zones each completely surrounded by Israeli territory. The entire Jordan Valley would be Israeli.

Whether or not a new Israeli government would implement these kind of draconian measures is problematic. In fact, it may be primarily campaign hyperbole. However, one thing is not hyperbole and that is a dramatic increase in public hatred of Arabs. It used to be Jews were seemingly embarrassed to vocalize such sentiments and would usually do so only after 6 or 8 glasses of wine. Now at campaign rallies, at shul and just about everywhere you hear cries of death to the Arabs, move'em out etc. It's frankly very ugly. We spent one evening with the Israeli Arab family in Haifa who used to work for my sister's family as housekeeper/nanny and handyman husband. They gathered their extended family of sons, daughters, in-laws, children etc. About 50 people were crammed into their small home and it was interesting dialogue. From Arabic, translated to Hebrew, which I translated into English for my wife and then reversed the process. What leaped out was the easy comingling days between Arabs and Jews is completely gone. There is tremendous fear of Lieberman and his loyalty oath. My Arab friends argue who is this recent arrival from Russia to tell us to bow down before Jews or leave the place where their family can trace back several hundred years.

More than in decades past, the Israel I recently visited is a mixture of despair and arrogance. There is a great deal of pride over the Gaza campaign. When I pointed out that was nothing to be proud of since it was like the Pittsburg Steelers playing against a High School team. Most Israelis felt that while true, "those people" deserved it. The despair comes from a terrible realization that there is no real "just" solution to this conflict. It's a zero sum problem, us or them, and there is a groundswell of support for a "move'em on out" permanent solution for the Palestinians. With respect to Gaza the solution I heard most frequently was to lock the gates and let them wither away from starvation or bust the gates at Rafah and move to Egypt if they want to eat.

Meanwhile settlement activity continues to grow. The construction in the E-1 corridor is amazing and soon Ma'ale Adumim will extend all the way to Jerusalem cutting off most Palestinian access. Just look at the new settlement of Adam East where Migon settlers will go and the proposed 1400 houses for this new settlement. The construction is going on everywhere. It is getting ridiculous to even contemplate closing some settlements in return for a peace agreement. We went to campaign events for all the major parties and Likud flatly stated no Palestinian state and no closing of ANY settlements. Labor assured people that they would not abandon any settlements and even Kadima was quite circumspect on the subject.

I will be the first to admit that this analysis is anecdotal and limited. But it does reinforce my primal fear that Israel is losing its soul. There is an indifference to death that is not only chilling but an anathema to the faith I learned as a child. My grandfather was Irgun and he became emotionally torn apart from the death of British soldiers and innocents that he was responsible for. He was so conflicted by his activities that he could not live in an Israel born of the death of innocents. As a result he moved to America several months before Independence. I no longer see that kind of  concern by a significant portion of Israelis'.

Like my grandfather I dream of a Jewish homeland. But year by year I see that dream slipping away. Our own decision on Aliyah will be made after the election results but frankly the current Israel is one I hardly recognize and am not sure I want to be a part of. This morning my heart is still yearning but my sadness cannot be masked.

I, for one, will not watch the speech tonight. I am past the point where I can tolerate Bush’s face or words. It’s simply I no longer trust a word he says. I say this as a moderate who voted for Ford, Bush 41 twice, Bush 43 in 2000 ( I honestly felt Bush was less dangerous than Gore - what a fool I was).

It’s gotten to the point where Bush is like squeaky chalk on a blackboard to me. It’s personal and I think the reason I’m so upset is that Bush and the current crop of Republicans have pushed me further to the left than I feel comfortable.

I’ve always been very conservative on fiscal issues and that made it hard for me to vote for Democrats. However, on social issues I was always more Libertarian. However, now I feel betrayed by our political environment. Republicans have turned into radicals who are out to destroy the America I love. They actually remind me of the SDS of my youthful college days - radicals sowing chaos as a way of forcing radical change.

Thus I am still not a Democrat but I am an Anti-Republican. Call it BDS or anything you like, but the feelings are genuine.

I call your attention to the plight of the Yacoub family of Lakeland, Florida. The following link gives a good summary of the situation:

Yacoub family

 These are native born American citizens who flew into Ben Gurion in June but are not being allowed to use their return tickets because the Israelis feel they are tainted by Palestinian bloodlines. I became aware of the change in attitude by Israel toward ANY non-white visitors late last year after attending services for my sister. My entire family flew in from around the globe to attend. This included my son-in-law from India and my Mongolian daughter-in-law.

When we were all at Ben Gurion to fly home, my son-in-law traveling on an Indian passport had to plead to be allowed to leave because Israel thought he was muslim. He's not but it was not until I got my IDF nephew's commander on the phone to vouch for us was he allowed to leave. Later that day my Mongolian daughter flying on a US passport was subjected to the same kind of treatment. Isreali security did not understand Mongolians are buddhists -not muslims. The fact that she is a US citizen did not help her one iota.

Considering the situation of the Yacoub family one has to wonder about the value of even a US passport when it comes to combatting the discrimination of our Israeli allies.

In perusing the net this morning looking for a piece of music information, I came across this article in Rolling Stone Magazine. It is an analysis of expectations for the outcome of the Iraq War by a very distinquished panel of knowledgeable Americans. The group includes Brezinski, Richard Clarke, Nir Rosen, Gen Tony McPeak, Sen. Bob Graham, Chas Freeman, ex CIA'ers Paul Pillar and Michael Scheuer and Juan Cole.

 Their Best Case, Expected Case and Worst Case scenerios will probably cause you to lose your breakfast but I would love top hear your thoughts on their prognostications.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13710030/leaving_iraq_the_grim_truth

Today Josh posted his thoughts on Israel, anti-semitism, and the commentary here on TPM Cafe about this subject. Here is the link

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/009318.php

 After I came down from the ceiling, I tried to reflect on Josh's actual words. I know he has been critical of many of Israel's political and military tactics but he continues to support an amorphous Israel. He has the same problem many Israeli supporters have, both in Israel and in the US. They simply do not have the guts to define their concept of Israel's borders.

 It is shocking to me that they support a country that absolutely refuses to set it's borders, simply saying we will take as much as we can get away with. I know with working with my sister when she moved from Haifa to Ariel in 1996, that the political support from the Likud was to take the land and hold it forever. I remember being in her living room when the local Likud representative outlined the financial support her family would receive, she asked a perceptive question. Would Israel ever agree to leave the West Bank and force her to move. He answered never and if the Palestinians made a fuss, Israel would simply kill them.

 I problem I have as a Jew with strong ties to Israel, I hear stuff that Israel never admits in public. I see the dark underside in that country. That does not deter me from still believing in a strong Jewish homeland in Israel.

 So here is my challange to all the Israel supporters out there. How do you define the borders - what are they. Don't provide the crap about "defensible borders" try to be as specific as you can, right down to the streets of Jerusalem that we have all walked dozens of times.

I sit here this afternoon, numb with overeating and reflecting on the state of life while my family gently snoozes around the house. It occurs to me that America has, or is, becoming the CAN'T DO NATION. Yes, we have much to be thankful for at the present time but as a nation we seem to be on auto-pilot pursuing our individual dreams and solace. We are consumed with the pursuit of money for ourselves and for our own gratification. 

We need a leader of the JFK variety to shake the malaise that is creeping through our country. "Ask not what your country can fo for you but what you can do for your country", or we will land a man on the moon before this decade is done. Where are our national dreams? 

Today we are a nation fighting a half-hearted war and fighting it badly. Even though I strongly disagreed with invading Iraq, if it was to be a war is should have been fought with everything this nation could muster in terms of troops and national sacrifice. 

If we were going to reconstruct Iraq, it should have been on the scale of the Marshall Plan, not the half-hearted effort we are currently making. 

When the distruction of Katrina became obvious, Bush said we would do everything it takes to rebuild. Yet as the months pass, little is being done and hundreds of thousands of people are still scattered with their life support systems gradually fading away. 

Bush said we will go back to the moon and beyond, yet there are only words behind this effort, with nothing in the way of fundemental resources being allocated. 

Our Live for Today, to Hell with Tomorrow budget gets worse and worse. Politicians are unable to wrestle with even the smallest of fiscal issues much less the big ones looming over the horizon. Our trade deficit is 3/4 of a trillion and growing so fast, it's hard to fathom. The day will come when we have to pay the piper for our over consumption. Our disparity in wealth continues to grow, where we are in danger of becoming a "bar bell" society with all of its attendent social ills.  

The education disparity between rich and poor continues to grow and "no child left behind" is nothing more than a thermometer to measure our growing educational sickness.Our technology and medical expertise is growing flabby.

This list is in no way inclusive but it is illustrative of the fact that as a nation we seem to not be able to do anything very well anymore. We seem unable to muster the courage to tackle really big issues. The list of internal problems to tackle grows by the day and yet that says nothing about our obligations to the rest of the human race.

As Yoda once said " Do or Do not, there is no Try". America's many generations of do'ers has given way to try'ers, half hearted ones at that. We need leaders who can dare to dream and lead us where no nation has gone before.