Zionism and power

By Rabbi Michael Cohen, CGNews,

Within the rubric of national sovereignty come many challenges; the use of power is paramount to how a nation defines itself.


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One raison d’être for the Zionist movement was the reintroduction of Jewish might back into the vocabulary of world history. Zionism, as well as pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism, were influenced by the late 18th century ideas of democracy and liberty promoted in the American and French revolutions. In addition, early 18th century romanticism and mid-19th century modern nationalism helped the development of these parallel nationalisms in the Middle East.

Woven into this was Zionist thinking that 2,000 years of the Jewish people being stateless and by extension powerless was no longer tenable. The Jewish longing to return to Zion had been carried in Jewish liturgy and ritual since the end of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel following the Bar-Kochba Revolt of 135 CE, and the changing of the name of Israel to Palestine by the Romans in an attempt to cut off all Jewish connections to the land.

The reestablishment of that sovereignty 60 years ago, following the catastrophic destruction of one-third of the world’s Jewish population by the Nazis and their collaborators, reconstituted in the state of Israel sovereign Jewish power. That Jewish power allowed Israel to win the war of independence, which began immediately after David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence on 14 May 1948.

The Zionist narrative states that Israel’s use of power has always been mitigated by a strong Jewish ethic, even when made complicated by the fog of war. There are too many accounts of Israeli soldiers who died because they followed that core Jewish ethic when it would have been easier and safer to do different. This, however, does not give licence when Jewish might and power are abused by Israel.

In addition, after two millennia of being stateless and powerless, after suffering the consequences of that reality, after living under constant threat and the reality of attack, Jewish Israelis tend to think that power is the suitable answer.

However, there is an interesting passage in the Talmud that cautions against that approach. In the Deuteronomy (10:17) Moses describes God as being “the great, the mighty and awesome.” The Talmud (Yoma 69b) records that the Prophets Jeremiah, Daniel and Nehemiah all took out one of these attributes when they described God at various moments centuries later. In the ensuing discussion about how they could have changed the words of Moses, the Talmud says that the prophets did not describe God with all those adjectives because they did not experience all those attributes.

The Talmud says that God prefers truth over the parroting of words and that in these instances, God actually showed his power and might by withholding them! Like a great Zen master, the Talmud teaches the wisdom and strength of power held back.

Israelis will be quick to say that they do this constantly. While it is true that Israel has not unleashed all that it is capable of doing, this does not exonerate it from the need to examine its use of power and the short- and long-term consequences of their decisions.

In the Haggadah of Passover, the ritual lesson plan and textbook of that Jewish holiday of freedom, the Israeli commentator Nechama Leibowitz notes that 36 times the Torah reminds the Jewish people that, “you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having been strangers in the land of Egypt (Exodus 23:9)”. She reminds us that this is the most repeated injunction in the Torah. She comments by teaching: “We are bidden to put ourselves in the position of the stranger by remembering how it felt when we were strangers in another land.” The message here underscores how quickly power can corrupt a nation, particularly a group that was so long denied power.

The great Zionist advocate Albert Einstein constantly worried about this tendency within the Zionist nation, particularly when it came to the Israel’s Arab minority. The stark reality is that unless Israel improves how it relates to its Arab population, the latter will continue to radicalise and we will not be debating the 1967 lines, but once again the borders of the 1947 Partition Plan.

In the Mishna (Pesachim 9:10), the ancient Jewish Oral Tradition, there is a section that addresses the holiday of Passover. There we find a discussion about what happens if two groups of people lose their sacred holiday offering. They each pick a paschal sacrifice and then say to each other: “If this Passover sacrifice is ours, you withdraw from yours, and you are subscribed with us; and if this Passover sacrifice is yours, we withdraw from ours, and we are subscribed with you.”

Here we discover a model for two groups of people sharing something they hold sacrosanct. A two-state solution does require both sides to give up territory that they both feel exclusively belongs to them and not the other. The greatest strength and use of power that Israelis and Palestinians now need to show each other is to hold back their power and might. In so doing, they will allow the other side to see them in a different light. The ability to bring about that long-needed change in perspective of the other side is the most powerful tool both Palestinians and Israelis have in their respective arsenals. The sooner both sides realise this, the better off we all will be.

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Rabbi Michael Cohen is director of special projects for the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (www.friendsofarava.org), where future Arab and Israeli environmental leaders are trained together. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org.

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