Syndication
Building a New Israel, Activist by Activist
The Hour
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More in Forward ForumWhen it was first performed, all the way back in 1969, there were more than a few raised eyebrows. That performance was by Lehakat Hanachal, an immensely popular military choir. But the lyrics were very far from what one might expect of a group sponsored by the Israel Defense Forces: “S’u einayim b’tikva,/lo derech kavanot;/shiru shir la’ahava/v’lo la’milchamot” — “Lift your eyes with hope,/not through a rifle’s sights;/sing a song for love and not for wars.” Make love, not war. For a time, the song — “Shir La’Shalom,” it’s called, a song to peace — was banned by the chief of the IDF Central Command.
It might have been relegated to “Kumbaya” status; instead, it became an anthem, most famously sung by Miri Aloni, flanked by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, at the end of the monster Tel Aviv rally in support of the Oslo Accords on November 4, 1995. Rabin, in a wonderful mood because he’d feared the rally would be poorly attended, had actually sung along, and when the song was done, he turned to Shimon Peres and said, “This has been the best evening of my life.” Minutes later, he lay dying, assassinated by Yigal Amir; a blood-stained copy of the lyrics was later found in his breast pocket.
What brings this to mind just now is that I attended, the other night, a festive Jerusalem reception hosted by the New Israel Fund as the kick-off event of its annual board meeting in Israel. Some hundreds of people were there, many of them activists in the broad network of social change agencies the NIF supports, along with a group of 18 girls from Shani, an Arab/Jewish girls’ choir from Haifa. The girls sang several songs — among them, “Shir La’Shalom.” “Don’t just say ‘the day will come’; bring on that day!” And what was especially noteworthy about their performance (available, as is pretty nearly everything, on You Tube) was that they sang it not only in Hebrew but also in Arabic.
That may indeed sound Kumbaya-ish, but when it comes to Arab/Jewish relations in Israel, even the Kumbaya experience is a step forward. In the context of the NIF evening, an event showcasing the work of a dozen organizations (out of hundreds) devoted to social change, it is one of many such steps. Here, together, a new face of Israel; these NGOs are the very best examples of Israel’s emergent civil society, every bit as important to Israel’s tomorrow as is its endlessly publicized high-tech sector. (In the local CD stores, they’re featuring a series of “Classic Israeli Songs From the Good Israel That Was,” which suggests they’re out of touch with the rising reality, with the good Israel that is becoming. Nostalgia has its attractions, but it makes a very thin gruel — and in the case at hand, it is simply misleading.)
The key people of the NGOs are introduced, say a few words, and hand the microphone on. Here is the new head of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a young man with a background as a gay community organizer. ACRI is an old war horse of the NGO community; without its often successful legal challenges to the government, Israel’s Supreme Court would have had much more time on its hands over the years and been of much less interest and impact than it has been. Then comes a young Ethiopian woman who walked with her family through Sudan when she was 5 years old to reach this place and now organizes for the advancement of her own community as also for others who live at the margins of Israeli society. Environmentalists, educators and others, mostly young, and then veteran pursuers of social justice, pleased to be witnessing the emergence of a new generation to carry on the struggle: Alice Shalvi, winner last year of the Israel Prize, founder of the Israel Women’s Network, universally recognized mentor to generations of thoughtful feminist activists; Mordecai Bar-On, historian, long-time Knesset member, former chief education office of the IDF, above all, life-long peace activist; Nabila Espanyoli, a Christian Arab educator and activist in Nazareth, reminiscent of Janusz Korczak in the utterness of her commitment to children and in her gifts as an organizer and educator. And then, the outgoing (after six years) chairman of NIF, a man of singular decency and devotion, Peter Edelman, so moved by the occasion that when he was invited to the dais, it took him some time before he successfully fought back his tears and spoke of what the New Israel Fund has meant to him.
Years from now, when a social historian sits down to write the story of how Israel developed a civil society, how citizens learned that by working at the grass roots they could make change happen and enrich immeasurably the political culture of the place, a long chapter will surely be devoted to the work of NIF. Perhaps by then it will be able to describe how a country with such radical income inequity (tied, roughly, with the United States for first place in inequality of income) rescued its social contract before allowing it to be rendered an obsolete relic. Perhaps, too, it will acknowledge the grandeur of an intergenerational cadre that, despite the endemic exhaustion that is the chronic conflict’s toll, manages to find the energy to do battle on behalf of the once and future values that are Zionism’s — and Judaism’s — proud legacy.
All this under a full moon at the base of Mount Zion, in a land so marked by cynicism and by resignation, by corruption and by confusion. But not here, not this night.
Comments
When will Israel become a modern Jewish, Islamist, Christian, and Atheist state? Nothing good can come from prolonging the Zionist delusion. It is the endless righteousness that is the real killer that produces all the paranoia and megalomania.
Beautifully said, and after that NIF can speak for itself for those who want to learn more: http://nif.org/
As we see in the controversy over prisoner exchanges covered elsewhere this issue, Israel is a very different country from 1948 or 1967/73, and the sabras have made it so by their well justified dissent and disillusionment.
If you're a grizzled old Irgun type or Brooklyn settler, you think the young are weak, decadent, lazy guys who trust their mortal enemies too much, dream of emigrating and wouldn't fight Hezbollah hard enough that summer. Oy yoy, what can we do with the young people!
If you're more constructive (like Fein) and realise that israel is on a collision course with demographics and the contradictions always inherent in political Zionism, you feel sorry for the under-40s. They will have to steer the land through this horrible mess.
A country which has never reconciled ethnic favouritism with being noisily "antiracist"; which now harbours an increasing Arab minority which hates it and is cordially hated in return, if usually quietly-- give or take a YB or two.
A country which says it wants to live in peace with all, but has to shame itself by constant, pitiful lying about its fearsome capacity to wipe out its neighbours.
A country that only wanted a little patch of historic soil, but is cruelly forced to keep taking more and more of other folks': chasing them off it, enslaving them on it, starving them inside it, surrounding them with fences, choppers and friskers, and telling them they should be glad to live under any conditions in a civilised state.
A country whose founder looked forward to Jews flourishing honestly under their own governance, whose charities now constantly have to appeal to the poor persecuted (voluntary) prisoners of the Diaspora to help succour the children and the old of Israel, even as its corrupt, thieving elite boasts of its wonderfully thriving GDP.
"Make love, not war" was the slogan in the summer of 1967, when other events were afoot. I doubt if the most triumphalist IDF officer back then would feel happy with how things have panned out since the last unequivocal Israeli military victory, which now seems so long ago and irrelevant.
From Begin to Halutz... and from idealism and genuine empathy with tyrannised Muslim cannon fodder even in the moment of that victory, to the fatalism, chauvinism and Masada-ish hawkishness of today's Knesset and its American financiers and cheerleaders.
"Semitic" has only one real meaning: It is the name of a family of languages. So Hebrew speakers and Arabic speakers - together with Maltese and Amharic speakers - are already a kind of "Semitic family". Obviously, DE Teodoru's suggestion ("...a common strategic plan for Israel's integration into the Arab world of its Semitic family") is not merely a question of language; rather, it is a question of our collective identity that he raises. It would seem that he is hinting that Israel's non-Arabic character is problematic - as if she doesn't have the right to be herself. Interestingly, this argument was used by certain European political movements throughout the 19th century to justify the denial of civil rights to the Jewish population. The Jews, so it was argued, are outsiders. Sadly, many assimilationist Jews adopted such opinions as well, blaming the continuing and persistent Jewish identity as the obstacle to acceptance in Europe. Well, people - individually and collectively - have a right to their unique identities. Negating our right to be ourselves is discriminatory. Moreover, the rise of Israel is a central expression of Jewish continuity. Not only is it our right to continue being ourselves, it is also our right to expect others to accept us for what we are - without any conditions.
Yahudah, remember the old question asked of the rabbi: Rabbi, why does the dog wag his tail...and the rabbi answers: would you rather the tail wag the dog?
Your answer to my post reminds me of that. Lets be a little genetic. Arabs and Jews are the same stock (you can't have people living so close together from so long wothout mongralization, a better term "genetic drift"), also historically, the former coming from the latter. There's a common onery personality there too that I soooo love, I admit, but modern Israelis and modern Arabs can come to terms, not only because they can but also because they have to. I don't want the Jews out of Mideast, just as I don't want them out of US and Europe-- some of my best teachers were and are Jews, and I want them for my children to also experience-- similarly, I want them to be as appreciated by Arabs because if there's one thing Arabs appreciate it is their teachers. And, it happens, that there's no one to modernize the Mideast as qualified as the Israelis. Now, the Bklyn Jewish Jihadis are a small group and they fill only 10 % of the new houses. The "settlements" of Jerusalem are really fancysuburban housing for Israel's high-teckers or sitting there empty to become "facts on the ground." Don't you think that the Palestinians wouldn't mind the Israelis to be amongst them if they were their teachers and advisers in high-tech?...and the Pals could be a hell of a link for Israel to Arab world.
It's all in how you think. If you are a Likudnik who thinks that anti-Zionazi is anti-Semite, then you are a Jewish Jihadi and, just as Arabs are developing "Jihad fatigue," as in Iraq," Israelis are developing Zionazi fatigue, read Haaretz on Likud. YES, THEY CAN ALL GET ALONG-- Arabs and Jews-- except for the shysters with multiple passports trying to milk them both. But that's not what Jews are all about, nor what real Zionists are all about. One Palestine multi-ethnic nation is as good a solution as one Arab Mideast. But since no one wants one and only one brand for the product, like Yugoslavia, the Mideast will break up into lots of little places. Even the Haridi may chose a state of their own. and the Mizrahi, hating the Ashkanazi, may do the same. But truth is, no matter how many states you have, unless they are economically integrated they will starve. And to economically integrate they need to politically integrate to some degree. So far Israel survives because of America's outrageously generous aid. But that is going to stop because American generosity has a habit of ending when it hurts and we are no longer the world's top dog so it will soon hurt. Israel wouldm, therefore, do well to integrate with its cousins rather than think the great American cash give away will last forever....Anyway, the dollar is losing value so fast that you are going to have to get rich on your own by giving real value to the shekle. I have no doubt that Israel can and MUST become a "light onto the [Arab] nations," otherwise why would God have brough you guys back to thwe Promised Land from cushy jobs in LA?
David Nilsson, I loved your post-- as well as past ones. I wish we could get a group together to listen to your views and discuss them....Ah, but that was Jews back in the 60s....Now they are real Americans who only want to make money, not argue anymore. Nothing I nejoyed in America or gave as much meaning to "FREEDOM" as the days in the shools arguing seven opinions with six guys that were all so good that the debate would never resolve. Are you one of my 60s pals?
Actually, it could be that an anti-Zionist position could be another way of expressing the historic anti-Semitic hatred. There are many such people. Perhaps, on the other hand, there are others whose anti-Zionism is an attempt to negate Israel's legitimacy without harboring the old animosities toward the Jewish people. In the case of Mr DE Teodoru, there doesn't seem to be much doubt that his motivation is not simply politics. His use of the term "Zionazi" is obviously motivated by extremism and hatred.
My disappointment, however, is not focused on all those people out there who hate Jews or hate Israel (or both). We know that this is the reality of the Jewish experience for centuries. My disappointment is focused on the Forward which has declared that "name-calling" is not welcomed on this site - and it "reserves the right to remove comments for any reason". Since very nasty and rude anti-Semitic comments remain here day after day, I'm left puzzled as to which kind of comment the Forward deems worthy of removal.
The last thing Israel needs are more liberal activists, especially ones that Fein approves of. They will undoubtedly be clueless moral relativists who will be unable to distinguish between good and evil. They will promote policies that make them feel good without any consideration to whether those policies are practical, or if they will work and improve people's lives, or cause more harm. When those policies prove to be damaging to the country (as virtually all liberal policies of the last 40 years here in the US have been) they will continue to support them because they originally meant well. For liberals it's not about whether it works it's about how it makes them feel. Pitiful.
As a Palestinian, I dont accept the artificial argument of bozhidar bob balkas that ashkenazi and mizrahi Jews are distinct. In fact, a Jewishly written book, the Blood of Abraham, makes it convincingly clear that ashkenazi and misrahi Jews have astonishingly similar genetic backgrounds. I do agree with bozhidar bob balkas that all jews should be resettled from Palestine, perhaps in Nevada, because there is no Jewish historic claim, and we will never accept a Jewish state just like the body doesnt accept a splinter. Mr Fein, if you are a real progressive, you will support our cause. Otherwise you are no better than Baruch Goldstein
_The Blood of Abraham_, "Jewishly written"? By Jimmy Carter?
I think the problem with Israel is that, since by now most Americans are old farts of this me,me,me-ist 60s, 70s, 80s boomers generation, many Israelis are the same. So Israel's problem is america's problem. But as America sinks in its own crap, OUR kids decided to take it in hand and save it-- from us as much as from our enemies. They suddenly "got involved." Now I know that young Israelis are the cream of the Western cultural crop so all Israel needs is for all those narrow minded one-point young activists to get together and come up with a common strategic plan for Israel's integration into the Arab world of its Semitic family. Then it has to call forth the young-- serious, not criminal type-- Palestinians and bring them into this cabal of cousins and together make Israel first a fellow Mideast region nation, then the leader of the Mideast Renaisence. You can do it because you are too smart to be rigid and too clear to be as amoral as your parents' boomer generation, my generation. I saw those young sabras in action in recent crisis and I know they can lead Israel out of the corrupt Bush-Olmert world of multipassports and foreign bank accounts and foreign masters who fill those accounts for Israel's current boomer leaders