Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco two days after Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women and children in southern Israel, Oct. 9, 2023. Credit: Phil Pasquini/Shutterstock
Gabe Ende – A Few Words for Progressive Israel-haters
How does one plead for his right to life, the right of his people to the universally accepted principle of self-determination, and the right to protect his heritage from cynically biased defamation?
I can’t change how the ideological trendsetters have decided that you are required to perceive us, but perhaps some of you will exercise your freedom—in the spirit of Passover—and give me a few minutes of your time. I have condensed my remarks into five paragraphs.
- What is incumbent upon Humanists?—Humanism celebrates the individual human being, his freedom, his potential, his complexity, his equality. It categorically rejects ideologies based upon notions of inherent superiority or inferiority, religious beliefs– and yes, “context”, historic or otherwise. When I embraced humanism, I realized as a traditional Jew that my concept of Jewish “chosenness” had to be radically transformed. How can we lay claim to be more important in the eyes of God or more deserving of Divine concern than others? How can we contend that the Land of Israel belongs only to us? In the same spirit, discriminatory references to Jews or Israelis ( e.g. rape of Israeli women on the part of Palestinians is not essentially rape, Jewish statehood is a priori evil and unacceptable…) is also antithetical to humanist values. And if the radical progressive narrative advocates these “postulates”, how is it different from classical varieties of anti-Semitism, which also rested upon anti-Jewish “contexts” –and also had prominent supporters within the intellectual community?
- Israel will soon be Seventy-six Years Old—
Why is this relevant? Because the overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis are now second, third, and even fifth and eighth-generation locals. They are not Johnny-come-latelies who can be swept aside, but people with firm Israeli roots and a sense of heritage radically opposed to the Palestinian narrative (which is based to a great extent upon the brutal defamation and denial of our heritage). And there are now more than seven million of us. This means that for Palestine to be “free from the river to the sea”, the foreseeable Palestinian state will have to begin its operation by murdering or expelling a majority of the population! This is because at least in this part of the world bi-national states invariably produce multi-generational civil wars. This is why Greeks and Turks—even on Cyprus(!)—are no longer part of the same political entity and Yugoslavia and Sudan were smashed to smithereens by internecine fighting. It is the basis of the Lebanese tragedy, as well as that of Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. But the radical progressive elite won’t be satisfied until the Israelis and Palestinians run the full course of blood-letting. For all their erudition, they are invariably driven by raw, simplistic ideological passion
3. Believe it or not, Israel is a far cry from how its enemies depict it—Israeli political and social life suffer from inequities. There are expressions of discrimination, even racism—but certainly not “apartheid” in Israel proper (excluding the “West Bank”). In fact, Arabs and Jews interact overwhelmingly as equals in a peaceful and friendly manner in the public domain and it is increasing common for the former to be in positions of authority vis-à-vis the latter… And “genocide”? I suggest that those interested in the truth consult Wikipedia to learn how the Arab population ( in Gaza, for instance) has grown by leaps and bounds since Israeli occupation began (with no “siege” before Hamas began firing rockets upon us after they threw Palestinian Authority personnel off roofs to gain control of Gaza in 2007)… The greatest asset of the Israeli right, in fact, is the inveterate hostility of the Palestinians –and the lurid, sensationalist rhetoric that the latter share with their Israel-bashing, Trumpist-like practitioners of the Big Lie in the West.
4.. The “Colonial Paradigm” is highly warped in our case—The Jews who immigrated to Palestine before 1948 –especially the overwhelming majority who fled Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany and later the Arab states themselves—can hardly be perceived as agents of their “mother countries”. Those who feel that they should have gone elsewhere or sought to assimilate among the Palestinian Arabs are a full century late in their critique. Simply stated, neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis “are going anywhere”.
Problems cannot be solved by making believe that a simple solution is at hand. The two-state solution has serious flaws– which have been demonstrated time and again—but it’s the only sustainable vision of the future.
If you really care for human lives and values, you should assert your intellectual freedom and adopt this position as well.
- Why is there no cease-fire? Because Hamas refuses to liberate the hostages. And why should they? They enjoy the support of the radical progressives no matter what they do…Think about it.
