Stop deluding yourselves!
October 12, 2011 
7 Comments
by Rabbi Eric Yoffie
Originally posted on Jpost.com
There is far too much self-delusion, on all sides, when it comes to theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict and issues of peace in the Middle East.What follows is my unsolicited advice to the major players.
To the Government and leaders of Turkey: Stop deluding yourselves!No matter how sharp your attacks on Israel and how craven your embraceof Hamas, you will not–as a non-Arab state–ever be accepted as a trueleader in the Arab world. And your outrageous criticism of Israel for”misusing” the Holocaust will not erase the memory of the OttomanEmpire’s role in the Armenian genocide–a role that your governmentshamefully continues to deny.
To the leaders of the Palestinian Authority: Stop deludingyourselves! You will not be taken seriously as proponents of a two-statesolution if you fail to support the underlying principles that makesuch a solution possible. A two-state solution means that there is no”right of return” to Israel, and that once a treaty is signed, theconflict is over. Really over. If you cannot say this now, and if youtalk about Palestine being occupied since 1948, you are not seriousabout two states–or about peace.
To the leaders of the settlement movement: Stop deludingyourselves! No one believes you when you claim that the thugs who burnmosques, uproot olive trees on Arab land, spout anti-Muslim slogans, anddeface army bases exist only on the margins of your community. Thisviolence has been going on for years, feeding on extremist views ofJewish law put forward by too many of your rabbinic leaders. Andeveryone knows that you could do far more about this hooliganism thanyou are now doing if you really wanted to.
To the leaders of the Israeli right: Stop deluding yourselves! Youcannot support a two-state solution and oppose it at the same time. ThePrime Minister asserts Israel’s position, but you offer tepid assent inpublic while whispering to everyone that you hold the opposite view. Inyour heart you know that the occupation cannot continue, but after allthese years you have yet to explain how it might end–and how Israel willmaintain its democratic character and its Jewish majority if itdoesn’t. Do you believe, as the Prime Minister says, that Israel shouldnegotiate without preconditions? Again, without exactly saying so, yourwords and actions suggest otherwise.
To the leaders of the Israeli left: Stop deluding yourselves! Yousay that the Palestinians want peace, and Israelis would like to believethat, but where, for heaven’s sake, is the evidence? Hints, and feints,and winks are not enough. Abbas at the UN should have said: “I welcomethe Jewish state as my neighbor, and I welcome the Jews home;” but hehad his chance, and he blew it. Please, no more making excuses for him.
Should we despair? Absolutely not. Now is the right time forIsrael, with American agreement, to define provisional borders for theJewish state–borders that might result should the Palestinians getserious about talks. What Israel needs now is tough-minded, unilateralsteps to regain the initiative. But no more delusions–from anyone.
I couldn’t be more embarrassed to be a Reform Jew right now. This op-ed manages to insult all parties and invite Israel to feel free to continue to act unilaterally. If Rabbi Yoffie was trying to alienate non-AIPAC supporting Reform Jews, this piece does a really good job of it.
I have a better question for Rabbi Yoffie–where is the evidence that Israel wants peace? In the outrageously still-growing settlements? In the Netanyahu government’s repeated pandering to the virulently xenophobic (including to other Jews!) ultra-Orthodox community? In the inability of low-wage Arab workers to reach jobs on the other side of security walls at any moment Israel deems they shouldn’t be allowed to cross?
If this piece were a little less angry and a little less pandering, there might have been a little more substance to it. And grace and compassion, for that matter.
It is Michael Doyle’s comments that cast shame on reform Judaism. With Abbas saying that the occupation began in 1948, how could Doyle, or any reform Jew, possibly blame Israel for the lack of peace. If Israel gave in to all”Palestinian” demands for the sake of “peace”, there would not longer be an Israel, at least not as a Jewish homeland. It took us thousands of years to come home;let’s not blow it now.
Bravo, Rabbi Joffe! My prayer is that these people will listen to you!
M. Doyle can choke on his shame. Of course Israel wants peace, the only question is the terms. If any people can understand a Palestinian’s paining for a homeland it is Jews. Jews know even more than Arabs what it is to them! But peace can not come without the truthful recognition, by all parties, that Rabbi Joffe speaks of. Peace takes trust; trust takes truth. Only then can the self interests of Jews and Palestinians be linked to a peace that has any hope of lasting!
Might there be a touch of self-delusion in the assumption that anyone whose life, home, and family are at stake in Israeli security decisions values the opinion of anyone who lives in a distant country?
Eric Yoffie wrote:
“To the leaders of the settlement movement: Stop deluding yourselves! No one believes you when you claim that the thugs who burn mosques, uproot olive trees on Arab land, spout anti-Muslim slogans, and deface army bases exist only on the margins of your community.”
You’re really going to accuse half a million Jews of acting like thugs?
How many cases of anti-Arab vandalism are there in a month? How many cases of anti-Jewish vandalism?
The reason the mosque attacks and spray paintings make news is BECAUSE they are rare! Furthermore, not all of those attacks are even prepetrated by the so-called “settlers”. The most recent mosque arson in the North was carried out by Beduins. The police acted hastily, arrested a young Jewish man, whose only “crimes” were visiting the Galilee, and living in Samaria, and released him soon after.
Perhaps Rabbi Yoffie needs to go back to rabbinical school. I know my friends who are Reform Rabbis learned about “dan l’chaf zchut” (judging others favorably) – which is especially true when judging your own brethren.
It is a genuine difficulty, if not tragedy, that the Palestinians, who rejected statehood in 1948, now claim that Israel has ‘occupied’ Palestine since 1948. This is unambiguous. The current Palestinian leadership does not want peace. Israel should be quietly engineering a new leadership.
And the settlers deep in Palestinian territory have not been good neighbors. But, if they are committed to the spot in the land they occupy, they should be permitted to remain during an eventual peace agreement, which would guarantee the equality and safety of all minorities. When this eventual peace agreement will occur is presently difficult to imagine.