By Joe Goldberg
The following fictional conversation depicts a real-life debate that can be found in Jewish synagogues throughout America. Until now, it has largely been a private Jewish discussion, taking place behind synagogue doors.
The two characters represent two views of the current conflict in the Middle East. Laura is an English major who is active in the Jewish community. Joe is a political science major who enjoys writing columns for his university newspaper (hint-hint). Both characters consider themselves reform Jews.
Laura: Jews need to unite for the survival of our people.
Joe: Uniting means we have to stick to a single party line. This doesn’t mesh well with principles of democracy. I sure wouldn’t want progressive Muslims to stop criticizing their extremist clerics in the name of “unity.”
Laura: Jews must show solidarity with Israel in times of crisis. Stereotyping ourselves does nothing to help our cause.
Joe: Did you know that the words solidarity and stereotype are related? “Stereotype” comes from the Greek word stereos, meaning solid. “Solidarity” is the solidification interests through a union of people. When we exercise solidarity we are actually becoming a stereotype.
Laura: Enough semantics. How can you, a Jew, be so anti-Israel?
Joe: I’m pro-Israel, anti-occupation.
Laura: But the occupation is just to protect against terror.
Joe: A wall separating the two peoples will protect against terror. The occupation is to protect Israeli settlers.
Laura: But, if we pull back settlements, we would be rewarding terror. Don’t you realize Tel Aviv is next?
Joe: Israel has strong defenses. Tel Aviv is going nowhere.
Laura: You’re overestimating our capabilities and dismissing the memory of the Holocaust too lightly. Six million…
Joe: Our parents’ generation overloaded us with a sense of victimization regarding the Holocaust. It’s not their fault … after all, you couldn’t even discuss it before the 1960’s. We must never forget what happened, but we must move away from the mindset of victims.
Laura: You self-hating Jews need to get a grip on reality.
Joe: I’m not self-hating. I went to religious school for 12 years, traveled to Israel, and taught Hebrew to second graders.
Laura: You sound more like those socialist protesters who wave Palestinian flags at rallies.
Joe: I’m very different from them in that I am a Zionist. I believe that Israel has the right to exist.
Laura: Then why can’t you understand that the Arabs hate us and just want us out of the region?
Joe: That may be true but it does not justify immoral policies.
Laura: Immoral policies? Israel is the only democracy in the whole region.
Joe: If Israel is to claim the West Bank, it must enfranchise the people who live there in order to be a democracy. This would mean an end to the Jewish character of the state. This is why we must leave the occupied territories.
Laura: Why don’t people like you criticize the real bad guys like Saddam and Osama?
Joe: Muslims should do that. As a Jew, I have a much better chance at affecting the behavior of other Jews.
Laura: When you criticize Israel publicly, it makes Jews look weak in the eyes of our enemies.
Joe: It makes us look strong. It proves that we can solve our problems with public discourse and not just violence. We also help dispel anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about what the Jews are plotting when we make our conversations public.
Laura: What about all of Arafat’s broken promises regarding Oslo? Should we ignore them?
Joe: Moderate Palestinian voices must speak out against Arafat. We, however, must recognize that both sides violated the spirit of Oslo. Israel had better lawyers, so our violations are tougher to document than theirs.
Laura: But, Arafat condones violence, lets terrorists run free, purchases weapons, and calls murderers “martyrs.” I think this is a lot worse than anything Israel has done.
Joe: The whole “us vs. them” thing is getting tired. We can’t abdicate responsibility for our own misconduct by simply saying, “They’re worse.”
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