MY VIEWS AS A QUEER PROGRESSIVE JEW
THE ISRAEL-IRAN WAR
Do I think the war against Iran is unjust and terrible?
Of course I do. Aside from the environmental damage, it has cost many lives and destroyed beautiful world heritage sites.
THE GAZA BOMBING
Do I think that bombing Gaza unto oblivion (and stopping outside humanitarian aid) is unjust and terrible?
Yes, Indeed. It is a crime against humanity and even an extermination. For some legal scholars, it even qualifies as a genocide.
I prefer “crimes against humanity” or with Paul James “extermination” because “genocide” can be a contentious term often difficult to define, and arguing about semantics doesn’t help the people being harmed by these truly evil actions.
ARMING ISRAEL
Do I think we should stop giving Israel weapons?
Absolutely.
AIPAC
Should speak out against politicians who take AIPAC money?
Yes, we should. AIPAC has done a lot of harm and continues to do so. But please please do not use the image of a Jewish star in your “ban AIPAC” t-shirts.
THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER
Do I think the Israeli prime minister is just as bad as our dictator?
I sure do. I’ve been against him since the 1990s. He didn’t even care about the hostages.
THE OCCUPATION
Do I think that occupying the territories in the first place was a bad move for all concerned, and after 1967 the Israelis should have either offered citizenship and/or granted independence?
Definitely. It’s bad for the people living there and being an occupier harms the soul of the occupiers.
TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS PRE-1948
Do I think the Jewish people who immigrated to Israel could have done things differently, including letting the Jews who already were living there and who lived peacefully with the Palestinian population make things fully equitable?
Yes. I do. There were a lot of things that could have been done. The Palestinians were treated very badly. Granted, things would have also been better if a certain mufti of Jerusalem who was pals with a nameless dictator of Germany had not been around.
A LAW OF RETURN FOR PALESTINIANS
Do I think Palestinians who had to leave their homes should be granted a chance to return and get some reparation?
I don’t how it would work, but I like the idea.
ISRAEL AS A FAILED EXPERIMENT
Do I think Israel is a failed experiment in democracy?
Yes, I do. I mostly blame the British colonizers for this, along with letting extreme religious leaders have too much power.
You also can’t have a “Jewish” state and a democracy at the same time. There have always been a mix of people living in the region. The Hebrew Bible emphasizes supporting such people, not harming them.
The last time we had a Jewish state was under the Hasmoneans (140-37 BCE), the descendants of Judah Maccabee’s brother Simon. They were very unpopular rulers and forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism. One, Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BCE), crucified his enemies. Things got so awful, many Jews wanted to bring back the Seleucids (the enemies in the Hannukah Story) in from Syria.
But I can’t think of any democratic country right now that is an unquestionable success. The USA certainly is also a failure. Philosophically, democracy may have an inherent weak point, but it’s still the best option.
THE EXISTENCE OF ISRAEL
Should Israel exist in the first place?
No more or less than any other country. The current day settlers encroaching on Palestinian territory are wrong to do that as well as other colonial settlers that encroached into American Indian territory and elsewhere.
But the Jewish people who settled Palestine in the 19th century onward were not classic colonialists since they didn’t exploit the country’s resources to send back to a home country, and had historical ties to the region. There were Jews in Hebron who had been there a very long time.
People migrate from place to place. For the Jews who came in, there was literally no other option. Debates as to “who was there first” are irrelevant to the question. It’s better just to state that people who have homes should not be forced out of their homes. That applies to both Palestinians and Jews, past and present.
SUPPORTING PALESTINIANS
Should we support the Palestinian people?
Yes, in any way we can. There are plenty of Israelis who want to do this, too. This includes B’Tselem, which monitors human rights violations in the occupied territories.
You can help Palestinians by supporting The Jewish Voice For Peace, If Not Now, or by donating directing to a vetted Palestinian family.
HAMAS
Should we go on praising Hamas?
No fricking way. Who can possibly support and organization that committed crimes against humanity on Oct 7, 2023 including Jewish peace activists?
THIRD REICH THEMES
Should we combine a swastika with a Jewish star and share it on social media to show how the Jews are no better than the N-is?
It’s true that being a traumatized Holocaust survivor may not lead to the best policies and that Holocaust survivors have spoken out against the Israeli actions, as well they should. But once you post things like that you have left advocacy for an oppressed group and entered anti-Jewish territory. Just don’t.
THE ZIONIST LITMUS TEST
Should we call out anyone who supports Israel in any way a “Zionist,” and even use this term as a slur? Should all Jews have to put that they are non-Zionists or anti-Zionist in social media to be treated okay?
Zionism and anti-Zionism have been an inner Jewish debate for more than a century. People have the right to their opinions on this, but once Zionist becomes a code-word for Jewish, as it has, things have become unjust. And do we even know what “Zionist” means?
In my opinion, the term “Zionist” only was useful prior the establishment of Israel. In this context, a Zionist meant that, in light of severe anti-Jewishness, including programs like Kishinev, the best solution was to have a land of our own.
There was even some discussion of this being Uganda. Other Jews were in favor of socialism like the Bund group. Jews who belonged to Classic Reform Congregations with organs were generally also not interested, nor some religious groups.
ZIONISTS ARE NOT AND WERE NOT MONOLITHIC
Zionism came in many flavors. Some were like the famous Ahad-Ha’am (Asher Zvi Hirsh Ginsberg) who protested at the mistreatment of Palestinians.
Others like Ze’ev Jabotinsky were right-wingers who wanted Israel to be “both sides of the Jordan,” and verged into fascism.
Today a Zionist could equally refer to someone who supports the Israeli government’s actions or to someone who simply thinks Israel has a right to exist. If you make the latter a requirement, you are losing a lot of supporters who otherwise agree with at least some of the statements I made above.
BENEFITS OF DITCHING “ZIONIST”
If we get rid of the term of “Zionist,” we can stop using it as a dirty word. The question of whether Israel should exist or not should be mute. The only question is whether we oppose the unjust actions of the Israeli government or not.
Rather than limit the discussion to asking a politician to call it a “genocide,” even if it is arguably the case, it’s better to ask:
“Will you promise not to take AIPAC money? Will you vote against arming Israel and supporting the unjust war against Iran? Will you not comply with the Prime Minister and the IDF? Will you aid Palestinians and allow for them to peacefully protest? Will you vote against bills that forbid such protest?”
As for boycotting, the question always is who is actually being harmed, which is complex.
Some time back in the UK there was a move to ban Israeli academics from visiting UK universities. This seemed misguided to me, for how can we achieve a just peace if we can’t dialogue? How do you know such academics are in favor of Israel’s unjust actions?
I LIVED WITH THREE PALESTINIANS FOR A YEAR. THEY WANTED PEACE, TOO
I lived in a dormitory with three Palestinians, one from Gaza, one from Nablus, both Muslim, and a third, a Christian from Jordan. They talked to me, shared food with me, and educated me in valuable ways. They wanted peace just as much I did.
STORY OF A ZIONIST AND TWO PALESTINIANS
I will close with a story about a Zionist and how two Palestinians saved his life.
BENJAMIN THE SEPHARDI JEWISH ORPHAN
His name was Benjamin Sinitsky. His last name means “dark blue” in Russian (there are two words for blue in Russian). Originally it meant “bluebird” in Spanish. For his ancestors had once lived in Spain. They were expelled in 1492 and his family made their way into Eastern Europe. Benjamin lived in the Ukraine.
His father, a Sephardi rabbi, and his mother, were both dead by the time he was eight. He had several sisters, one of whom was blind. The oldest, Dora, a seamstress, supported the entire family. He was apprenticed to his uncle, the town butcher, but he couldn’t bear to kill the animals, ran away, and became a vegetarian.
TOUGH TIMES AS A CHILD
But things were still rough. He was so hungry sometimes he not only ate out of trash cans but even the whitewash off the wall. This probably brought on his later diabetes. The community refused to support the family or attend the school for boys, cheder, so he slept on the hard synagogue benches.
His education was on his own. The only book he had was a Hebrew Bible. He found a French math book. So he stole a French Bible, taught himself French, then studied the math book and became a math tutor.
(His daughter always made fun of his funny French pronunciation but when he went with her and his wife to French Canada and they had a flat, the Canadians couldn’t understood his daughter’s Parisian French but understood his.)
Of his full childhood and later trauma, little is known. He refused to tell his descendants anything lest they got the same nightmares that tormented him. They had to wrench any details out from Dora.
AS A ZIONIST
He got involved in the early Zionist movement. Once he refused to take off his hat for a picture of the Tzar. His home was ransacked and Zionist literature was found. He got locked up for a good while in a Tzarist prison, which must have been terrible in so many ways.
JOURNEY TO PALESTINE
But his friends bribed the guards and sent him with a ticket to Palestine. He took to speaking only Hebrew and was involved with the revival of the language. Benjamin was a mild-mannered, gentle person who only got angry once in his life, at a Hebrew Teacher’s conference when someone spoke in English. I know in my heart he would not abuse anyone, including Palestinians.
(Later he would become an amazing Hebrew Teacher in Chicago. His daughter grew up in an exclusively Hebrew speaking household and for the rest of her life would write to him in Hebrew. Among his books are a dictionary of all the new words Nobel Prize winner Shai Agnon invented.)
SAVED BY PALESTINIANS
But then came World War I. With no desire to serve in the Turkish army, he escaped to Alexandria with the help of a Palestinian fisherman. From there he escaped and made his way to the US, probably “illegally” via Canada. But even before that, he was drowning once, and another (or maybe the same) Palestinian fisherman saved him.
LATER LIFE
On his first day in Chicago, he met his wife, Leah Raginsky, at the Public Library. Later she would become a successful psychiatrist whose patients included Benny Goodman’s sister. Benjamin became a family favorite with Leah’s large family. He was extremely kind and fond of innocent practical jokes, including leaving fun things in people’s shoes.
Without any previous formal education, he attended the University of Chicago for a single year, renting an apartment to study, and got his degree. He poured all his love on his young granddaughter and was a family legend.
His beloved sister Lily died young from breast cancer. Of his remaining siblings, most perished in the Holocaust, but one survived.
DEATH
He died suddenly of a heart attack in Jerusalem when his granddaughter was only eight. Her mother and her grandmother felt him die while they were thousands of miles away in Yellowstone. But his family always could feel his spirit with them.
Benjamin was my great-grandfather. I never met him, but my family has many pictures (even a movie) and told me over and over about his life.
I OWE A DEBT TO THE PALESTINIANS
I often think of the Palestinians(s) without whom I would not exist, and what happened to their descendants. I fight for them for both this unpaid debt and because my Judaism teaches me to pursue justice for all.
A WARNING
But if you go around using the word Zionist as a dirty word we cannot work together or be friends. Because not only are you being anti-Jewish, you are piling mud on my beloved great-grandfather.
Let’s retire the word “Zionist,” denounce anti-Jewish rhetoric, stop talk about “destroying Israel,” stop worshipping Hamas, work together to support Palestinians, and resist the unjust actions here, in Israel, and the world over.
I ADMIT IT
I can’t help but love Israel. That makes me all the more determined to fight for it to be a just place for all who live there and in the territories.
But when the Left joins the Right in anti-Jewishness, I am forced to decide whether to vote for a candidate that won’t arm Israel, but embraces anti-Jewish views and people who express such views, or for a candidate that takes AIPAC money but doesn’t hate me.
Clean house so that I don’t have to make such a terrible choice. Thank you.