Sermon Archives & High Holy Day Sermons - see below

Parshat Shlach Lecha – Friday, June 4, 2010

Responding to the Flotilla "incident"

What an anguished time this is for the Jewish world. Anguished because of the events of the Gaza-bound flotilla confrontation and more anguish with the world’s condemnatory response. In our condemn Israel immediately world, rhetoric gets escalated and sent into warped overdrive, often at the expense of thoughtful, independent analysis of the reasons and implications of political behavior. Every one of us has seen on youtube, or read on-line, or in conventional media, articles, accounts, and analyses of the intervention of the Turkish “aid” ships which last weekend determined to subvert Israel’s blockade of weapons to the Hamas government. And once again, as the American Jewish community, we find ourselves in the position of wanting to explain Israel, support Israel and question Israel about tactics. In many ways, when Israel is in hot water, it brings the Jewish community together in solidarity, and yet we are mindful that, on this 43rd anniversary of the Six Day War, we are weary and perhaps spiritually depleted at having to respond to the seemingly intractable Palestinian issue. Our younger generation of American Jews hardly knows of the beauty, strength and courage of the Jewish homeland, having that reality perpetually overshadowed by the political image of Israel as “oppressor of Palestinians,” the image that is brought home to us by media and by circumstance. The Marmara conflict feels like the latest of media disasters and political disasters for Israel, following on the heels of the Dubai assassination of a Hamas leader, the Operation Cast Lead incursion into Gaza 18 months ago to stop the incessant missile fire into southern Israel, and even the Lebanon War of 2006, from which Israel is still trying to secure the release of soldier Gilad Shalit. These events have been made into media disasters for Israel, even as we sit back incredulously and wonder how it can be that to defend oneself makes one look like the bad guy. The incident this week, and the media hype and spin on it, must be seen within the larger picture of what has been going on the last few years, a concerted campaign to legally, politically, economically and through the media de-legitimize Israel. The legal battle is being fought in international courts, when Israeli soldiers are in danger of traveling abroad for being arrested for participating in the war in Gaza. It is being fought in Israeli courts using democracy as a means to undermine the Jewishness of the state. It is being fought militaristically, with alliances between Iran, and Hizbollah, Hamas, that are not condemned by anyone save the United States. It is being fought right here, right now on the economic front, with our own UC college campuses and countries calling to divest interests in Israeli companies, and to cut economic ties with Israel. And it is being done in the media, as we have seen this week. The Marmara incident will have a deep and powerful influence in turning public tide against Israel even more, and lest we look carefully at the events, it may serve to bias us in harmful ways too, as we seek to support and understand. We may be disheartened by this event, it may look quite bleak to us, but Israel needs us to be its advocate right now. We may not agree on the tactics that Israel takes, we may or may not agree with its present government, or the government’s response in the next few days, but our support and advocacy must be heard. As Cyndi Silverman, the ADL director reminded us on Tuesday night there is a difference between defending Israel and supporting Israel. In the face of a global campaign to cast Israel- indeed the Jews- as a rogue state that functions outside the laws and international system, whether that is the international court, the United Nations, the Maritime laws, etc., in the face of the 12 Israeli boys and girls who lived in this community this week with us, sung and danced with us, ate with us, slept in our homes, in their ever-hopeful and resilient faces, we must show as much courage as they showed, to be ambassadors of Israel to a world that is not so interested in the facts of Israel.

There is not an Israeli that will tell you that the situation right now doesn’t looks unfortunate from every perspective. Israel has worked to invest in a relationship with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, hoping that by strengthening the secular Palestinian movement led by Mahmud Abbas, it could marginalize the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas. Indeed Hamas brings to Gaza more of a platform against Israel’s existence than for the planned, strategic creation of an economically, politically viable Palestinian state. Some of the truths of the Palestinian people- that prosperity has grown by 7% in the West Bank this last year, that a not-insignificant number of roadblocks have been removed between the West Bank and Israel proper by the Netanyahu government, that the balance of support by Palestinians has been shifting away from Hamas and toward the PA, all of this has been rendered irrelevant by the flotilla confrontation, as Hamas garners support from the Muslim world and beyond. Even Egypt, which has had its own blockade against Gaza, for fear of the influence of Hamas extremists on its own religiously-driven Muslim Brotherhood, even Egypt (which has sought to suppress the black market run by tunnels underneath the Egyptian border to Gaza,) has allowed for humanitarian aid to come through. It is irrelevant to point out that Israel sends about 15 tons of supplies to Gaza each week, more than the 10 tons which was on the 6-vessel flotilla; each week pasta, oil, sugar, frozen meats, disposable diapers, medicine, garlic and some fresh fruits are sent from Israel into Gaza; not allowed are those considered luxury items like sesame seeds, clothing, shoes, canned meats, books, mattresses. Not permitted is cement, which had been used to build bunkers to protect Hamas from retaliations for the missile attacks that were being instigated in Gaza. We can determine if we want to use the word “humanitarian crisis”; the amount of calories per person is monitored by the United Nations. According to Counsel General Yakov Dayan of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, in the last 18 months, 1 ton of aid per person in Gaza has been transferred from Israel. 70% of Gaza’s electricity comes from Israel. Israel’s three year blockade on Gaza has been perpetuated in hopes that by limiting the free flow of items into Gaza, Palestinians there would see the comparatively better lifestyle of their brethren in the West Bank, and put their support towards the PA and not Hamas. It is a debatable point whether there has been any positive effect of the blockade, but I would venture to say most would agree that it has not had the desired results Israel had hoped for, to weaken Hamas and render them a terrorist government. At any rate, the realities of three prior flotillas which Israel has let through, of 9 that were previously sent before last week, all of that is washed away now. What we have is an Israel that is even more vilified, more marginalized, more delegitimized in the eyes of the world, regardless of whether it was legal to board the flotilla, regardless of whether it is legal for a country to have a blockade against a neighboring country whose charter calls for its destruction, regardless of whether this flotilla was really committed to bringing aid to the Gazans or to forcing a show-down with Israel, which explains the metal saws, night vision goggles, pipes, knives bullet proof vests, and gas masks found on the ship. In the Muslim world, in Europe, across the globe, there seems to be no interest in looking at these facts from Israel. Our frustration is that to have any kind of civil conversation about what is going on in Israel-Palestinian relations is to be met with flag burnings of Israel, (funny, we never see flag-burnings of Palestinian flags)—and to find a world that would rather condemn than discuss. And so Israel feels itself more isolated, more entrenched this week, than ever before, and in a position that has become more and more familiar, in these last few years. And we, the American Jewish community, and the U.S., seem to be the only democratic voices asking to explore the issues and ask for answers on both sides, than to simply condemn Israel. We are weary, we are disheartened, but let’s make sure we send our frustration in the right direction, because we much as we have a right to be in dialogue with Israel, I fear that we might begin to blame the victim here.

So first, there are those of us who are angry at Israel for falling for this trap, for being provoked, for being hard and fast about stopping this ship, or for not anticipating the response of the activists on the boat, or the media nightmare that comes with every use of force. Even as we sit here, the Irish ship the Rachel Corrie is on its way toward Gaza, intent on riding on the waves of this anti-Israel, smash the blockade fervor that has the entire world in its clasp. Wouldn’t this be a good time for a world peace organization to step forward and agree to broker a resolution before another inevitable clash? If the United Nations cannot be independent enough to do this, couldn’t the United States under George Mitchell, or Great Britain under a Tony Blair who has real creds in the Middle East, do so? It feels like the rest of the world is happy to sit back and watch a train wreck happen. We may sit back and tsk tsk Israel for whatever it chooses to do: if it holds firm to its right to blockade a terrorist government, will we condemn Israel for use of force, and be just like the rest of the world, that is seeking to make Israel every military maneuver a pr. nightmare, where soldiers are accused of illegal behavior? And if Israel were to let the Rachel Corrie, or the next flotilla through, then we know that Israel will win no positive pr in the world for avoiding a confrontation, just a celebration that Israel has been defeated. And then what happens tomorrow? The dismantling of a blockade guarantees the resumption of weapons flowing into Gaza, and missiles fired in to Israel. There is no easy or right answer for Israel, and so we cannot be armchair American Jews, who critique Israel’s strategy as if we are commenting on a strategy for an NFL game. We must be, in the words of Aaron David Miller, have hope without idealism. We American Jews must seek to really understand the world that Israel exists in. The era of heroic politicians in Israel is over, Israel is not the brilliant Jews who outsmart our enemies, the myth we like to hold on to from 40 years ago. Writer Yossi Klein HaLevi says that we American Jews are in a time warp; the right wing is still living in the 1970s, talking about the days of a ”greater Israel” meaning the West Bank and Israel united;’ and the left wing is stuck in the 1990s, thinking if we just tinker with the Oslo process we will get it right. We need to understand the nuances of every decision Israel makes. The vast majority of Israel wants to see a two state solution. Writer activist Amos Oz posits, why not immediately trump Hamas right now by creating a Palestinian state with Mahmud Abbas and the PA. But without the infrastructure in place, an infrastructure that it took ten years to create during the 1990s and which no longer exists in the West Bank, how would that be a successful or survivable state? And while Israelis would opt for such a state, when we ask the question of what the likelihood would be that Hamas might win political domination over a Palestine, such as happened two years ago in elections, then the scenario changes- an East Jerusalem in the hands of Hamas, whose charter’s Article Seven calls for Muslims to kill Jews wherever they are? How foolish of a strategy that would be for Israel. We certainly could not count on the international world to force Hamas to behave, to place nice with their Jewish neighbors? There are no quick fix answers to the problems at hand. As Aaron David Miller stated yesterday, regarding the Palestinian Authority, it took 25 years to bring secular Palestinian nationalism to agree to a two state solution; how many more years to change a religious theology against the Jews into one of acceptance?

Rather, let me offer a different American response, rather than belligerency to the world for condemning Israel, or disconnect from Israel ourselves, because Israel isn’t making political or military choices in accordance with what we personally know with utter certainty to be right. We can do this: first, if Israel is being made to feel isolated by world opinion and condemnation, we can reach out and let them know we are with them. Read their media online, hear the national conversations they are having, to understanding the nuances of the situation. There is a rally this Sunday, from 2-3 p.m. in front of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, on Wilshire Blvd. Support them with your mail, or support their organizations with your membership or your donations. You can be an advocate for Israel through ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America; both Marianne Flam and Nan Waltman are our Temple’s ARZA reps, to keep us connected with Israel and able to be there during political and social issues where we want to lend our voice. Don’t be afraid to talk about Israel with people you know here. Get facts, get information, and offer to explain to people what the situation looks like from Israel’s side. Its up to us to use every gift of democracy, the power of the written word, the spoken word, in our letters to the editor, and the power to congregate and protest, to speak our minds and our hearts. Anat Hoffman, yesterday quipped, that the word on the streets in Israel is “We tried to stop a ship but we sunk Israel.” We can’t let the Jewish state, sitting between Hamas on the south and Hizbollah in the north, and now feeling betrayed by disintegration of its ties with Turkey, to live with gallows humor. Our job is to give them strength. So we pray for the peace of the middle east, we pray for enlightened leadership. We Jews have always prayed to be delivered from our enemies, because we have always lived with the realism that there are those who would do us harm. Evil perpetuates, when we do nothing.

Sermon Archives