An interesting question was raised at a Jewish Federation event in Greater Los Angeles: Should Jews who do not live, pay taxes, or risk their lives in Israel have a say in Israel’s affairs?
While the community is debating this question, Israel has long been struggling with the reverse question: Should Israelis living overseas have the ability to vote in Israeli elections. There are many hundreds of thousands of Israelis whose permanent residence is outside of Israel (in the Greater Los Angeles area alone there are rumored to be some 350,000 Israelis).
An Israeli, even if one’s residence is outside of Israel, can vote in an Israeli election only if one is physically present in Israel during the election. This may sound strange to Americans, for we can vote wherever we are in the world during a local, state or federal elections. Not so for Israelis.
The debate is heated and emotional. Today, there is not a household in Israel that does not have a member residing overseas, usually “temporarily” that turns out to be decades, often a lifetime. Once it was looked down upon, those who left the country, today the same is impossible to do for the simple reason there are far too many.
Head of Opposition Livni is adamant Israelis who do not live in Israel should not participate in deciding the fate of the country, while Netanyahu’s government is proceeding much in the same manner it does with all other major decisions: one small step at a time. The philosophy behind this approach is simple: The friction and resistance to change is lower when done very gradually, until faced with the complete change and then it is a fait accompli.
A second question was raised during the same event: Should we, those to whom Israel matters (Israel seems to matter to a whole lot of people according to the frequency of her appearance on the front page of all international newspapers), talk differently about her among ourselves and to the outside.
The question is a good one and caused me to pause, not a small achievement on its own merit. Do I write differently in Hebrew, to an Israeli audience, than when I write in English for international distribution? Do my positions on Israel change or reflect differently depending on my audience?
This question is crucial, and I will elaborate. The essence of truth for Jews is the one; there is no intention to deceive so there is no need to invent a parallel “truth.” But only the essence of the truth has to be extracted and should be presented in its concentrated form. When diluted and mixed with discourse and debate, it loses its potency. Let us examine each of these arguments.
First, one must learn from the Muslims. They have perfected the system of talking in two languages, a soft melody to Western ears and a very strong, harsh, uncompromising, almost rough one in Arabic. (Iran is quite the exception, talking “tough” consistently, regardless of the consequences—there are none—and thus building on and furthering Iran’s strength, real or perceived.)
Arafat was a master in double talk, like a snake hissing to the West while dispatching his armies of mercenaries to unleash unimaginable terror on Israel and around the world against Jewish targets.
“Peace” say the “Palestinians” and they cheer in Arabic as the World Trade Center buildings collapse one after the other. “Peace,” they proclaim and announce immediately in Arabic that Palestine must be freed from the Occupier, every yard, every step, every building.
As they grow stronger and their acceptance wider, they become more emboldened. Soon all the pretenses will fade and their real faces appear. There are no “two states.” There is no craving for “peace.” They are already boycotting and burning Israeli products, murdering Israelis and celebrating the murderers’ achievements. Next they will expand their circles of terror.
They burn products and re-write history. Next they will burn books and finally people. They are very good at that.
Do we, like our enemies, engage in double talk? The answer is unequivocally, no. Israel has nothing to hide. Her intentions are pure. Her actions transparent and she is always subject to scrutiny. She is almost always held to a higher standard than any other nation or people on this earth.
Thus, there is no reason to deceive or hide, to mislead or amend. What one sees is what one gets. This, however, does not mean that everything needs to be done publicly. Much like a person who may not want her Calvin Klein underwear washed in public, Israel has much that I believe should be kept for internal discourse. Certain issues and events must be kept within the bounds of a nation for its own security.
The main issue is that items are taken out of context, elements of internal debate highlighted and used as a weapon against Israel. Thus, when Israel struggled with the question of being in Lebanon and the cost this necessity extracted on her soldiers and the families back home, movies were made to show us as occupiers, ruthless, who really should not have been there.
When Israel struggles with immigration and assimilation, something she has been doing for the past 63 years of her existence as a modern country, more successfully than anywhere else in the world, the difficulties are portrayed in the most negative light. Immigrants to Israel were—and are—thankful for having the opportunity to be one irrespective if they came from Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Russia or elsewhere.
Immigrants faced enormous challenges, but their sons and daughters and grandchildren are not distinguishable from any other Israeli. One should go no further than compare the Israeli experience to the eternal “Palestinian Refugees,” a moneymaking machine of the UN that perpetuates the misery and burden of those “Palestinians” throughout the world.
Then when Israel looks at the role of women, at the large segment of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews, the Arab minority with equal rights in Israel, etc., all these are taken out of context and used against her.
When we talk about Israel, we must leave our debates, self-scrutiny and criticism at home, for internal discourse. None will be ignored, no argument spared. But to the outside, to those who do not live, participate or see their future in the Jewish homeland, these issues should not be part of the discourse. May attention be paid everywhere else in the world to issues they was it is done in Israel.
Second, the diversity of positions that can be found among Israelis and among Jews is very dangerous. Imagine you are a junior member of the House of Representatives, recently elected with little knowledge of Israel other than what you may have seen daily on the front page of the newspaper or heard at the top of the hour on the news. It would not be flattering by any stretch of the imagination.
A non-stop stream of lobbyists visits your new office on Capitol Hill. The Jewish Lobby is all-powerful: from AIPAC to J STREET, they come and present their positions. One State. Two States. A State for its entire people. Demographic danger. Security. Borders. Occupation. Apartheid. Roadblocks. The Wall. Terrorism. Boycott and Divest. Stop the military and foreign aid.
All these highlights are from various Jewish organizations, all supposedly “concerned” about Israel.
Indeed, an all-powerful Jewish lobby. Its real power: It manages to confuse even the most sophisticated individual and savvy elected official. To whom does one listen? Who is telling the truth? Why can’t the Jews speak in unison? If both J-Street and AIPAC represent the Jewish Lobby and the craving for peace and security, why are they on two opposite sides of the spectrum when examined side-by-side?
This is the crux of the issue. When we debate outside of very confined space, we allow our arguments to be taken out of context and be used as weapons against us. Worse yet, we send the wrong signal of disagreement.
Again, we must learn from the Muslims: They speak in unison, in a clear manner, with a simple unified message. You leave knowing what they wanted you to repeat: ISLAM IS A PEACEFUL RELIGION. ZIONISM IS APARTHEID. ISRAEL IS OCCUPATION.
Jewish people gather to discuss civility in discourse, yet we are so used to the many freedoms afforded to us in the USA and to the reality that Israel exists that we forget of the consequences of our actions. There are no costs associated in our mind’s eye, so we talk freely, we criticize and malign and call for bad things to happen to the only Jewish country in the world.
No one likes us around the world. It is a millennia-long hatred that is embedded in the world’s DNA. We do everything possible to awake this hatred that remains dormant for long periods of time, to help it surface again with immense intensity. It is us who dig and shake, rattle and pinch to create the desired effect. It is our “pluralism,” “political correctness” and care and concern for others that have misguided us to forget to take care of ourselves.
There is something that defines us deeper than our understanding, deeper than our enemies’ ability to extract it physically from us. It is our DNA. It is the common denominator that unites us, makes us one and the same despite our great variety and diversity.
We are like a compass, Judaism embedded in our DNA. Except that we lost the needle which points to the North, so we aim without a guide, lost and searching.
We seek to define who is a Jew and who is an Israeli, who has a right to vote and who can express an opinion. We debate whether to do it from the pulpit or in closed sessions behind doors. We struggle with our identity that keeps fading away, our children more distanced from Judaism than ever before, Israel largely inconsequential and irrelevant for them.
Criticizing Israel or being critical of her every move will not help us bring back the needle of our compass, nor will it separate us from our true DNA.
We need to learn from our enemies, support Israel at all costs and speak clearly with simple messages everyone remembers.
This is who we are. Do not get obscured or confused by mixed messages. We have been here since the beginning of time and plan to remain. We attempt good and expect others to behave similarly. We are guided by the Torah, a history and a set of universal values shared by most, but not all on this Earth. We value the other as we would want to be valued, and we have done nothing but bestow amazing achievements on this world.
Israel, dear readers, in the Land of Israel, is the Jewish Homeland. It is there to stay. It may be paying dearly for her people’s inability to agree on commonalities or to speak clearly, but her essence is purer than light, harder than diamonds, clearer than water, stronger than lava and hotter than the mantle of Earth.
There was a third question posed, why do Israelis and Jews care so much more about Palestinians and their cause to destroy Israel than about protecting themselves and their homeland. This conundrum I leave to a future Postcard.
