RESPONSES

DISSENTING VIEWS

Editor's note: Some discussion may take place here,
but the dissenter always has the first and the last word.

Contact the editor to submit a dissenting view.

"Twenty-two to one"

A. S. (Columbus, Ohio) wrote: I found your proposal, though well-meaning, totally inappropriate. There is only one Jewish state in the world and, you may have missed it, at the recent Arab summit there were 22 Arab states. There has been no attempt by the Arab states with the exception of Jordan to integrate Palestinian refugees into their countries. Why not? Germany integrated Germans expelled from Poland and the then Czechoslovakia after World War II. The US has integrated refugees from all over the world and especially Vietnam and Cambodia but the Arab countries have failed to integrate their own brothers (i.e. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia) into their countries. Why? Israel has accepted Jews from many Arab countries and Ethiopia and made them productive citizens. Why do you not expect the same response from Arab countries? The UN has a very long history of being anti-Israel and to expect Jews to accept the elimination of the one Jewish state in the world because the Arabs and some muslim supporters do not want it there, is completely wrong. [My wife's] cousin, whose entire family died in the Holocaust and who survived by being sheltered by a Polish family, said how wonderful she felt during the '67 war, after she had gone to Israel, that she was being protected by Jews. No, the elimination of the one Jewish country in the world is no answer to the turmoil.

There has never been an Arab country called Palestine. The Ottoman Empire occupied that area prior to World War II. It was a British mandate until the UN partitioned it into a Jewish and an Arab state in 1947. The Jews accepted the partition and the Arabs did not. The Arab part was 60% of Palestine then! In the succeeding wars in 1948, 1967 and 1973, which the Arabs started, more land was lost by them. Prior to 1967, Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt controlled Gaza. There were no Jews in either area.  They could have been [absorbed into] an Arab state that wasn't "occupied" with Jerusalem as its capitol without any Jews. Why not? That is the question that should be asked.

Your plan would reward the suicide bombers and Yasser Arafat. There are consequences to countries because of poor leadership and the Arabs in Palestine have suffered because of Mr. Arafat. The US, and rightly so, has gone after the terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere because of September 11, 2001. Do you deny Israel that right to protect their own citizens after the Passover massacre? My feeling is that many Arabs would live at peace with the Jews in Israel but a group of terrorists encouraged and paid for by Iraq, Iran and Syria want to keep the pot boiling. Saddam Hussein is especially concerned and it is in his interests to deflect the US from attacking him. Mr. Arafat has been a corrupt and duplicitous terrorist from the beginning and your plan penalizes the Jewish citizens in Israel who want their own homeland and not a UN mandate. It is long past time when there should be two states but eliminating Israel is not the answer.

T. H. responded (April 14, 2002)

A. S. responded (April 14, 2002): Thank you for your response. We indeed have broken bread many times together and I do consider you a friend. I think that it may be difficult for [you] to appreciate how pervasive anti-semitism still is in the world today. We are seeing it in Europe once again. I have experienced it first hand in this great country of ours and it has seared and sensitized me in a way that you can't imagine. Sometimes I'd be willing to share those experiences with you but let us return to Israel because it has become a metaphor for the new anti-semitism.
   The move for a separate Jewish state began with the Dreyfus affair in France, in 1894. Herzl, who was an assimilated Jew up to that time, realized that only with their own state would Jews be able to control their own destiny. Would you sacrifice your citizenship in the US to become a "World citizen"? I certainly would not; I value my American citizenship. The Israelis whom I have known would not turn in their Israeli citizenship for one in the UN. The UN itself in its brief period has a strong history of anti-semitism where, until recently, Zionism was equated with racism. Outrageous to say the least. How many countries cannot hold membership in the Security Council? Why only one and that is Israel. And yet Syria, which harbors and supports many terrorist organizations (Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and probably al-Qaeda), is on the Security Council. How ironic and what does that say about the UN?
   People in Palestine after World War I, Jews and Arabs, were all British citizens and yet that did not prevent pogroms by the Arabs, especially in 1929 and in 1936-1939, when Jews living peacefully in Hebron, Safed and Jerusalem were massacred by their Arab neighbors. Making people "World citizens" does not change the disturbed mentality of some. Do you think making the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda "World citizens" would have eliminated the slaughter of innocent Tutsis? Or making everyone in Northern Ireland a "World citizen" would prevent the animosity and hatred between some Catholics and Protestants? Or making those in Kashmir "World citizens" prevent Hindus and Muslims from killing one another? This suggestion is analogous to waving a magic wand, hoping to make people get along with one another. Unfortunately it won't work, altruistic as that may seem.
   As a Jew, I do not claim that Jews are God's chosen people or even God's gift to the world. It is the precepts of my religion and not the people per se that are important. Hillel, the great Jewish rabbi, who lived 100 years before Jesus was asked by a heathen to teach him all the principles of Judaism while standing on one foot. Rather than being angry, Hillel replied, "Do not unto your neighbor what you would not have him do unto you: this is the whole law, the rest is commentary." Note that it is not the Golden Rule because we do know what we would not have others do against us. To be a Jew is to be involved not only with one's own people but through one's people with the world around us. A believing Jew cannot be disengaged from the world that God has created and must be concerned with injustice and suffering wherever it occurs, even on the West Bank and Gaza. However, we cannot engage in everything but we must do everything we can. It was again Hillel who said; "If I am not for myself who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?" The problem that each of us has is determining what we can do to better serve and meet the objectives of the one God of all us.
   Now, with respect to the survival of the Jewish people, James Carroll, who was formerly a Catholic priest and remains a believing Catholic, has written, in my judgment, the definitive work on anti-semitism entitled, "Constantine's Sword." In it, he states that without the 2000 years of anti-semitism, unfortunately instigated by political and Christian leaders purporting to be religious, there would be 100 million Jews today rather than the 13-14 million Jews now. The Diaspora has been no panacea and the past political and military weaknesses of the Jewish people has contributed to the pogroms, the forced conversions and mass expulsions. Anti-semitism has been endemic, like anthrax in the soil, rearing its ugly head in the form of "The Protocols of the Elders Zion," the Blood Libel and the Passion Play. These provided the fertile ground for Hitler's killing of 1/3 of the Jews in the world over a six-year period. Militant Muslims are now accepting these same lies as truths and inculcating these into their children. It is outrageous but because of such viciousness and the Holocaust, Jews are determined never again to be dependent upon the good graces of others for their survival as a people. And that is why most Jews support the state of Israel and its battle for survival against homicide bombers. Comparing the population ratio between the US and the Jewish population in Israel, the murdering of 20 Israelis is equivalent to the killing of 1000 Americans!
   Zionism may not be the answer but neither was the Diaspora. However, there will always be a remnant of Jews committed to the principles of Judaism. The doctrines and the dogmas might vary from among Orthodox, Conservatives and Reform Jews but the precepts are the same.
   Tom, I've gone at length more than I expected. You may use whatever I've written to you without modification and without attribution to me as an individual. You may use my initials, if you wish. But my purpose for writing you is not for publication but to share with a friend my great anguish at the vilification that Jews are now experiencing because they are simply trying to defend themselves. R.B. asked me recently where did I think in the world there was no anti-semitism. I responded Antarctica. He said maybe Iceland. That is the sorry state of the world today.