Anti-Semitism Lite

Last week, I thought about the unbalanced nature of the conflict and how I believe that blame might be on both sides but responsibility falls to Israel because of their greater resources. The power to integrate lies in their hands. Unfortunately, they have had poor role-models.

A friend recently reminded me that her parent’s generation witnessed the Holocaust firsthand, giving part of the impetus behind believing that the Jewish people needed a homeland. This sentiment has never and will never make sense to me. Under this assumption, the visceral reaction of those well-meaning people who encountered Holocaust victims was to send them away. It reminds me of stories I have heard about well-intentioned congregations who welcome a new African American couple to their church by telling them where the nearest black church is and insisting they will be happier there. It is as if to say:

“We are sorry that we segregated you in that nasty way; we are going to segregate you in a nice way, now.”

In my opinion, the end of British Mandate and the creation of the State of Israel are functions of this nuanced anti-Semitism. Israel’s function was similar to the reservation system except that the background conditions were more favorable. Native Americans were attached to their land and knew their heritage well. Unfortunately, Jews in Europe had been made to feel like foreigners for centuries and were susceptible to Zionist mythologies surrounding their origins. It would worked perfectly if the land had been empty.

...wake-up: have you eaten the produce here? Of course there were Palestinians!

Then Al-nakba began and never stopped, as if everyone in the West is saying:

“We are sorry that we were scarce when they faced hate and violence; we are going to be scarce now that they are using hate and violence to get their own way.”

This is not acceptable. If society wanted to protect the Jewish people from being hurt again, it should have welcomed them to have a homeland where they were: to be safe in own countries. They should have welcomed Jews as part of their communities not through assimilation but through cooperation and inter-cultural exchange. They should have risked putting their own nationalist and patriotic principles at risk in order to soften the borders between the Jewish people and themselves-- to become part of one-another. That would have been challenging, yes, but loving and wise.

Instead of making sure that the Holocaust never happened again, the West allows it to be carried-out in light-beer form for decades via Al-nakba. Al-nakba flows continuously from the dysfunction and wounds of the Holocaust: they are two parts of the same process because one generation decided that love meant sending people away.

The most important part of being together is BEING TOGETHER.