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<\/p>\nI have been involved in political action working for a peace and justice in the Middle East for over thirty years, beginning with New Jewish Agenda in Cleveland to my move to Syracuse 23 years ago when I co-founded Syracuse Jews for Peace, was a member of Women in Black and then became an active member of CNY for a Just Peace in Israel\/Palestine.<\/p>\n
I have consistently spoken out against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and because of that stance I have been called, among other things, a \u201cself-hating Jew\u201d and an \u201cenemy of Israel.\u201d I have been adamant that I am not a \u201cself-hating Jew\u201d\u2014and maintained that it was, in fact, my Jewish upbringing and education which made me such a staunch advocate for social justice. I took to heart the Jewish teachings about clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. As a child I said that I wanted to make the world better. Every Yom Kippur for the last eight years I have chanted the haftorah from Isaiah that says that God does not want you to merely tear your clothes and fast and repent, but that you must do the real work, the hard work, of working for justice. Many who supported my social justice work when it pertained to South Africa or Nicaragua wanted me to suspend those same principles when it related to Israel.<\/p>\n
And, I also argued that I was NOT an \u201cenemy of Israel\u201d but rather someone who wanted to hold Israel to a high standard of moral behavior. I supported Israel\u2019s right to exist as well as the rights of Palestinians to self-determination and statehood.<\/p>\n
Now, painfully, I am no longer certain that I can say that I am not an enemy of Israel, if that means that I believe that Israel\u2019s right to exist excuses any of its current policies or means that Israel\u2019s right to exist trumps the rights of Palestinians. Although I never would have called myself a \u201cZionist,\u201d I, like many American Jews, was brought up to celebrate Israel as the safe homeland of the Jews. But the ways in which Israel was founded and the current policies and practices now disturb me greatly. I find myself in a position of separating myself from Israel in many ways, including through Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaigns and I cannot glibly say that \u201cIsrael has a right to exist,\u201d much less a \u201cright to defend itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has always been painful for me\u2014and has sometimes made coalition work difficult\u2014when people have been unable to separate \u201cJews\u201d from \u201cIsrael.\u201d I have defended non-Jews\u2019 rights to criticize Israel without being labeled \u201canti-Semitic\u201d and I have worked hard to explain to many that \u201cIsrael\u201d and \u201cJews\u201d were not synonymous. There have been Jews for thousands of years\u2014far longer than the State of Israel has existed. I do not want my values as a Jewish activist and my identity as a Jewish woman to be conflated with Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestine.<\/p>\n
A recent article in the New York Times, is entitled \u201cThe End of Liberal Zionism: Israel\u2019s Move to the Right Challenges Diaspora Jews,\u201d and this makes it clear that I am not alone in my extreme discomfort about Israel now. In this article, by Antony Lerman, he writes, \u201cThe original tradition of combining Zionism and liberalism\u2014which meant ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, supporting a Palestinian state as well as a Jewish state with a permanent Jewish majority and standing behind Israel when it was threatened\u2014was well intentioned. But everything liberal Zionists stand for is now in doubt.\u201d But Lerman is also concerned\u2014as am I\u2014with the ways in which criticizing Israel can feed genuine anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n
Recent attacks on Jews in France and Germany are terrifying to me; a kosher supermarket and pharmacy were smashed and looted, crowds chanted \u201cDeath to Jews\u201d and \u201cSlit Jews\u2019 throats.\u201d In an article in The Guardian by Joe Henley entitled \u201cAntisemitism on rise across Europe \u2018in worst times since the Nazis,\u2019\u201d he writes. \u201cThe conflict in Gaza is breathing new life into some very old and very ugly demons.\u201d But some argue that this response is not simply a reaction to this latest version of the Israel\/Palestine conflict and that \u201cthe threats, hate speech and violent attacks feel like the expression of a much deeper and more widespread anti-Semitism.\u201d It has been pointed out that the protesters are not screaming \u201cDeath to the Israelis\u201d but \u201cDeath to the Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Syracuse Jewish Federation has launched a major new fundraising campaign to raise funds for Israel in its \u201chour of need.\u201d And the most recent issue of the Jewish Observer (the newspaper of the Federation) has a front-page article explaining how the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement is an attempt to \u201cde-legitimize Israel\u2019s right to exist\u201d and is both wrong-headed and dangerous.<\/p>\n
So, where does that leave me and others like me? I am buoyed by the large numbers of Jews who are also speaking out against what is happening in Gaza. Jewish Voice for Peace and other organizations have taken strong stands, and massive protests in Washington, London and Cape Town have been organized to protest current policies.<\/p>\n
I do not feel alone as a Jew who is working for social justice, but I am, indeed, frightened. I want peace and justice for all\u2014and I want to continue to do this work as a Jew. Being Jewish and working for peace and justice are not incompatible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several weeks ago, as I stood with a sign as part of a vigil against the Israeli actions in Gaza, a woman passing by rolled down her window and gave me a huge thumbs-up. Moments later, she had parked her car and came running across the Erie\/Genesee triangle where we…<\/p>\n