Two Roads

As a child my family practiced liberal Reform Judaism. We would observe the Sabbath by lighting the candles, saying the blessings and singing a few songs. My father was an important leader in the blossoming Reform Jewish social and political action movement. I grew up caring about liberal political and social issues. As I grew up the idea of a God that is involved with the world grew more and more alien to me. Eventually I found myself at peace with a faith in a people, a faith in religion.
I love the words of the Prophet Micah. The words which were engraved on the edifice of the early home of Reform Judaism in New York City; “Do justly, lovemercy and walk humbly withyour God” The Friday night reform liturgy with which I connect most profoundly are these words said in English after the T’filah; “…O God, Teach us the pathto a better life. So shall we, by our lives and our labors, bring nearer to realization the great hope inherited from ages past for a world transformed by liberty, justice and peace.” My faithis grounded in the vision and the mission of a people commanded to do justly in order to help redeem the world. I grew up with a vision of Israel inherited from many of the early leaders of the Yashuv, Jewish Palestine before 1948, and of the early Israeli labor parties. It was a vision of social and economic equality.
I’ve been to Israel 4 times. My last visit was near the end of the Al Aqsah intifada with my wife Emily, and sons Ben and Sam in December of 05. It was the boys 1st visit. They saw the West Bank the same way most Israeli’s see it. On an apartheid road on our way to Masada and Eilat. Ben and I also visited near Ramallah entering through one of the remaining roads still un-walled at that time.
I have a love/hate relationship with Israel. I love the people- they are my people-. I love the vibrant, diverse culture. I love their humor, their humanity, their intellect. I love the land and its connection to our history. I love the peacefulness and the spirituality of the Kinneret and Tzfat. I love camping under the Roman Aqueducts of Caesarea at the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. I love Masada, Mostly though, I love Jerusalem. Most of my time in Israel has been spent wandering the alleys of the Old City; transformed in time and spirit. I love Jerusalem more than anyplace in the world; the hope it symbolizes brings me joy and its tragedy brings me tears

My first trip to Israel was in 1968. I went to take my junior year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I lived in the dormitories at Ein Kerem in Jewish West Jerusalem and for seven months in the Palestinian West Bank town of Al Azzariyyeh, the biblical Bethany. I traveled to nearly every corner of the State and sat on my veranda in Azzariyyeh overlooking the Judean hills. In those days Azzariyyeh was just 30 minutes from the Tachana mercazite- the central bus station -of West Jerusalem- But the West Bank was worlds apart. The West bank and East Jerusalem had been ruled by Jordan until the 6-day war the previous year. The Palestinians seemed to be looking forward to a better life than they had under Jordanian rule. Many Palestinians worked in Israel and most of their crops and products were sold there. A Bedouin walked his camel past my house, each day, on his way to Jerusalem to have the first ever Jewish and Israeli tourists in the old city have their pictures taken on his camel.

I liked to take my motor scooter around the West Bank. I loved the smell of the citrus groves in Jericho, the smell of coffee and spices in the shuks of Bethlehem and the Golden Araq liquor of Ramallah. A few miles outside my village towards Jericho, on the hills off the road I’d see Bedouin tents. They’d welcome me for tea. There were 750,000 Palestinians on the West Bank. I was one of a few hundred Jews.

My second visit was withEmily celebrating our honeymoon in 1984. There were still only about 30,000 settlers. Many of these early settlers were armed reservists. Many were extremist, antagonistic and confrontational. There were huge military bases, extensive roads, and Israeli water and electricity lines. Tremendous mortgage incentives were being offered to settlers. 175,000 acres of Palestinian land had been bought up or stolen. Much of the undeveloped West Bank was in Israeli hands. General Sharon had declared that soon there would be 120,000 settlers. Gen. Sharon, and PM’s Begin, and Shamir and others were talking about “greater Israel”. Rabbi Kahane, elected Member of Knesset was talking about expelling Arabs. But when we drovethrough the West Bank we were oblivious to what was happening. We came across an abandoned refuge camp. As we wandered through this camp we had no idea of the history of the Palestinian people. That the people of this camp had been refugees not once, but twice. I was still ignorant about what was happening, before my eyes, in the West Bank and what it would ultimately do to my faith. I would remain conveniently uninvolved, blissfully ignorant for many years. I saw, I read, I was there; but I didn’t want to believe that my people could do what they were doing. I still believed the myths that I had been taught in my youth. I believed that Israel had been a land without a people for a people without a land. I believed that peace would come.
Returning to Israel in Feb 2004 with my Mother and Father to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday in Jerusalem I was not surprised to see what I saw. I had, by then, been reading the English edition of the Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aretzfor many years. But I was deeply saddened, shaken, This visit was during the peak of the despicable suicide bombings. Two weeks after I left there was a terrible bombing at a corner just two blocks from the apt at which my parents were still saying. The goal of settlement of the West Bank was nearly complete. In my opinion, the created facts on the ground nearly precluded the possibility of a just two state solution. The settler population had grown to 250,000 not including another 200,000 in East Jerusalem. Withsettlements, house demolitions, checkpoints, closures, targeted assassinations the Israeli government had created a virtual prison of the West Bank filled with poverty and distrust. I saw a once pristine peaceful land; now a full-blown militarized state. I visited a Palestinian friend in Azzariayyeh and had to sneak through the an opening in the wall which was nearing completion at AbuDis. My pristine village would soon become a walled ghetto. The Palestinians were living in unimaginable humiliation. Jewish homes were built withgovernment incentives. Palestinian homes were being bulldozed with IDF operators. There were Jewish Roads and Arab Roads. There was a “pass” system in which Palestinians would wait for hours at check points to go from village to village. Israelis had green watered lawns and used 80% of the water from the aquifers, which flow below the West Bank; The Palestinians lived in poverty and oppression. Israelis travel for miles, to their sparkling West Bank homes, through tunnels and Jewish only roads never having to see an Arab.
… A wall twisted through the West bank walling Palestinians from their own fields, separating them from there own families, from there own schools from there own hospitals. The road on which I used to ride my motor scooter, a beautiful twisting road from Jerusalem thru the Judean Hills to Jericho now runs directly into a 27 foot high embankment of concrete that the Israeli’s call a security fence and the Palestinian’s call an apartheid wall. The wall cuts deeply into Palestinian lands. It surrounds towns completely. At this spot it is also a sightseeing wall because the Israeli side is easily accessible from Jerusalem. This is usually the only view that most Israelis or tourists get of the west bank. They proclaim “It’s a shonda ( a shame) but they brought it on themselves with their suicide bombings”. I wish they could see the other side.
Some of you met Rabbi Arik Asherman of Rabbis For Human Rights when he visited Austin a few years back. Rabbi Asherman took me on a visit I will never forget. He took me to visit the JahlainBedouin. These are the same Bedouin that thirty-fiveyears previously had proudly grazed their flocks outside my village and invited me to tea. Again I had tea with the Jahlain, but this time not in a tent, but their new home, a shipping container a few hundred yards from the garbage dump of Ma’ale Adummim. Ma’ale Adummim is a settlement of more than 30000 settlers outside Jerusalem, which nearly chops the west bank in half. This settlement was built on lands of the Jahlain and in compensation the Israeli Government has provided them the shipping containers and scenic view of a settlements garbage dump.
Our visit with the Bedouin was cut short because Rabbi Asherman was called to a house demolition. We went to visit the twisted remains of the house and visit the three generations that had lived in the house. Their home was destroyed because it was built without permit. Sole reason- no permit. A permit is virtually impossible for an Arab family any place the Israeli government covets the land for Jewish settlement. That includes most of Israel proper and much of the West Bank.

I’ve heard American Jews and Israeli’s say it. “They deserve it. It’s there own fault. They’ve brought it on themselves with their suicide bombings.” My people seems ignorant of the history of almost 40 years of occupation, of settlement and oppression. The occupation and confiscation of Palestinian lands has been going on for nearly 40 years. Suicide bombings have been sporadic and happening for not much more than 10 years and not at all for last two years.
I’m not defending suicide bombing. It’s a horrific and horrendous affront to humanity and a degradation to any community, including the Palestinians, who allow it within their midst and does not speak out against it. Suicide bombing is not an excuse for occupying and humiliating another people. Killing of innocents isn’t an excuse for killing of more innocents. It’s not an excuse for stealing a people’s lands and destroying a people’s dignity. All responsibility for the situation does not lie at Israel’s door. The PLO, Hamas and the Palestinians havemade equally stupid, duplicitous, immoral and inhumane choices. At Israel’s birthshe was invaded by five Arab armies. The elected government of the Palestinian people still does not recognize 1948 Israel. But Israel is the overwhelming power and Israel has settled and occupied her neighbor’s land.

I’ve spent years, along with Batya and Charlotte and others trying to open Jewish eyes. We’ve been unsuccessful and that’s overwhelmingly disappointing. We all know how ignorant Americans are about Israel/Palestine. Jimmy carter has suggested that much of this is due to the power and efforts of the pro-Israel Lobby. While this is true, some of the blame must also be placed at the hands of the Palestinians. It’s hard to sympathize with a people who are unable to grab a higher moral ground in a conflict with an enemy whose actions are mired in a moral cesspool.
This conflict and my community’s ignorance and rejectionism have nearly destroyed my lovefor my religion. Once a board member and regular at religious services, I now rarely attend. I can’t stand to hear the high moral words of the prophets and the unspoken, unquestioned support for Israel in the same service. And along with the love of my own religion has gone my respect for religion in general. How often has Religion become the voice for tribalism, intolerance, fundamentalism and hatred? At the same time I’m torn. I’m inspired by groups like yours and our own Austin Area InterreligiousMinistries and Austin Interfaith who towards the true mission of religion; “to do Justly, LoveMercy and walk humbly with your God”
So where does that leave me. Very disappointed, despairing. Why continue banging my head against a wall? The Central Conference of American Rabbis is the rabbinic wing of Reform Judaism. My liberal Reform Judaism. This week they denounced Jimmy Carter for his new book “Palestine,Peace Not Aparthied”. I’m sure most of those Rabbi’s never read the book, have never seen even the Israeli side of the apartheid wall, have never been on a “Palestinian road” in the West Bank. I will speak out. Write letters. Register another view. But will it matter, will it make any difference?