Some Thoughts On The Current Middle East Crisis -- I'll Go Where You Won't May 19, 2021--

Some Thoughts On The Current Middle East Crisis -- I'll Go Where You Won't. 

May 19, 2021-- Part 1

I once had a conversation with an Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi who was visiting with one of my home health clients in his home. The Rabbi was imploring me to come to his Synagogue and in effect, convert to Jewish Orthodoxy. 

I explained to him that I was not religious at all, that I was raised by Jewish parents, with my father being a confirmed atheist after experiencing the horrors of WW II, and my mother, whose idea of a religious experience was to go Jewelry shopping.  

I tried to explain that while I am proud of my Jewish identity, I reject religious dogma and practice which sees the modern world and science as a threat to "Tradition". 

The Rabbi asked me, "was your mother born Jewish"? And I said yes. And he said that meant I am therefore Jewish by birth. 

I asked him about people who were born Christian or others who converted, took instruction and learned Hebrew, kept Kosher, observed the Sabbath, and attended Shule. The Rabbi said no, that is not a Jew, and would not be recognized as such, and if a woman, neither would her children, even if her husband was born Jewish. 

I was not shocked, since I had grown up around this and heard it before. So, throwing caution to the wind and turning off my filter, I said to the Rabbi, "you initiated this discussion, so I'll ask a simple question which will likely end it. If my identity as a Jew is based on my lineage, my heredity, my biological heritage, rather than my spiritual outlook and worship, then isn't the implication of your argument is that I should accept Adolf Hitler's definition of what is a "Jewish Identity?" "That I and we are defined by our race?"

Of course he and my client were outraged, and the Rabbi said "are you accusing religious Jews of being like Hitler?" I said of course not. I'm saying something different, which is that to identify as a race, rather than a human being who is part of the entire family of God's Children defines us as a people who are victims because of our race. We become victims of non-Jews, victims of progressive Jews, victims of ungrateful children who marry "goyim,"  victims of a God who has brought woe unto us throughout our history. Thus having a victim's identity, we see others who are outside of us as a constant threat, and justify oppression and injustice against those "others" in the name of our "Jewish Survival". I said that it was a short step from there to argue that some non-Jews are less than human if you accept race and heredity as your criteria for who is a Jew. 

Again, the Rabbi was offended and my client called me meshuggah. So I asked them point blank, "Is a Palestinian Arab a human being?" They both froze. They couldn't answer directly, avoided the question, tried to change the subject. And there it was. All of it. I saw the fear, hatred, victimization, distrust, willingness to capitulate to the same belief in "Blut und Boden" ideology (Blood and Soil) which was at the root of our own persecution. I saw in front of me the embodiment of "Stockholm Syndrome" as powerfully depicted in the play and film, "Man in the Glass Booth". 

Some of my Facebook friends will despise what I'm saying and unfriend me. Some will denounce me as a Jewish anti-semite.  I'll be surprised if I see a counter argument, though I'm willing to discuss it in good faith. Anyone who knows me and has read my writings is aware of my life's work, therefore should be also aware of my anti-fascist credentials. 

I'll never accept the policies of Netanyahu or Likud. I reject and denounce his tacit alliance with the Ultra-Orthodox "Ayatollahs" of Israel who express their murderer's intent by hanging memorial  portraits of Baruch Goldstein in their homes. (The West Bank Israeli settler who machine gunned 33 Muslims to death while in mid prayer in their Mosque) 

I stand with the legacy of Leah Rabin, whose peacemaking husband PM Yitzhak was demonized by Netanyahu as a Nazi, then murdered by an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish assassin under incitement by Rabbis in the occupied territories. Leah Rabin's book lays the blame clearly on Netanyahu's intrigues for her husband's assassination. The roots of the current crisis were the resulting failure of Rabin's Oslo accord in the aftermath of that assassination, destroying the patient and historic diplomacy of Clinton, Rabin, and Arafat. I know this from the inside because we were there. 

Just like today, the conflict which ended Oslo was begun by a provocateur who was Netanyahu's mentor, Israeli future PM, Ariel Sharon, the "Butcher of Lebanon". Like today, the fuse was lit by Ultra-Orthodox fanatics incited by Rabbis and hard right politicians who staged a confrontation at the Al-Asqa Mosque, (known to Jews and Christians as "The Temple Mount") the Holiest site in Islam and acknowledged potential flash point for Middle East War and World War 3.  Like today, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish fundamentalists are being funded and enabled by the virulently anti-Semitic Christian Armageddonists who want to use the State of Israel to fulfill Bible prophecy and bring about "End Times". This provocation caused the Intifada of the late 90's, and as we have seen, similar events unfolding in recent weeks on far more dangerous scale.

And this Rabbi of my client, sitting there smugly and piously telling me what it means to be a Jew, who couldn't even admit that a Palestinian Arab is a human being, wanted me to join THIS? 

I said no. I never worked for that family again, being let go the next week. I walked away, and thought of the quote from the old Black lady who boycotted the Buses in Montgomery Alabama, walking to work every day.

" My feets is tired, but my soul is rested".