Two Roads

I’m hurt, angry and alienated. The leader of the Reform Jewish Movement of which I have been a member for my entire life has called my views “morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve”. 

I’m proud of my Judaism. I was born into Reform Judaism. My family was fiercely reform and my parents devoted their lives to the reform movement and especially it’s magnificent work for Social Justice.  I became bar mitzvah in a reform congregation. So did my two children. Eugene Lipman, a giant of Judaism, officiated at our marriage. I was born in 1948 while Israel was fighting for her existence.  I’ve been to Israel 5 times. I’m a product of the reform ‘NFTY’ camps as are my children. Sam took the NFTY Israel trip after his confirmation. Ben’s a full time four year student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I’ve served on the board of our Reform Congregation and for many years worked hard on its social action committee.  I am deeply pained when the leader of Reform Judaism calls my views ‘morally deficient’.

Rabbi Yoffie wasn’t talking about me he was speaking about the views of  ‘J Street’. http://www.forward.com/articles/14847/   J-Street is a new Washington lobbying group and a major voice of the pro-Israel   pro-peace Jewish Community.  J Street

   http://www.jstreet.org/campaigns/statement–rabbi-eric-yoffie%E2%80%99s-comments-forward-december-31

had said, heretically, “Neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a monopoly on right or wrong…While there is nothing ‘right’ in raining rockets on Israeli families or dispatching suicide bombers, there is nothing ‘right’ in punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.”  Is that a morally deficient statement.? Out of touch with Jewish Sentiment? Appallingly naïve?

I agree with that statement. Yes, the actions of both parties are equally reprehensible. And I bet that many of the Jews of  ‘American’s for Peace Now’, ‘Brit Tzedek v Shalom’ and the ‘Israel Policy Forum’ feel the same way. And I am sure that the large and rapidly growing unaffiliated Jewish community here in the U.S. feels the same. Rabbi Yoffie says that ‘J Street’ is ‘mistaken’ and ‘wrong’. I guess being the President makes Rabbi Yoffie the decider of all morality and of right and wrong. Could it be that Rabbi Yoffie,  is the one who is “profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment”. Could it be the Rabbi Yoffie has gotten it wrong?

Here are some facts about the current situation

·        Since the beginning of the truce in June 08 until the Israeli attack on Gaza the twenty rockets that landed in Israel had caused no deaths.

·        Israel broke the ceasefire by killing six Hamas militants in Gaza on the night of November 4th, while the world was    watching the election of Barack Obama.  ( The world assumes that the upcoming elections in Israel and the change of administrations in the US had much to do with the timing of the invasion.)

·        Since the Israeli attack on Saturday, Dec. 26^th there have been 758   1000 Palestinian fatalities in Gaza, among them more than 257 children and 56 women. The injured totaled 3,100; of them 1,080 were children and about were 465 women. “In the perversely disproportionate mathematics of this conflict, 13 Israelis have been killed – four of them by militant rockets”

·        In the seven years since the launching of the Palestinian primitive Qassam rockets started, and until this incursion started  the rockets had killed a total of 13  Israelis and one foreigner. In that period Israel killed 2990 Palestinians (634 of them children!) in the Gaza strip, (and 1800 in the West bank). A very large number of the killed were innocent civilians, including many women and children.

See the Israeli human rights website for these statistics, circumstances of the killings and more: www.btselem.org .

What exactly is “morally deficient” about saying that the actions of both Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces are acting equally reprehensibly? Does Rabbi Yoffie believe attacking an apartment building with F 16’s and killing 16 women and children to kill one Hamas leader somehow more moral than the launching of primitive Qassam rockets which during the truce had killed no Israelis?

The massive imbalance of firepower and the astounding lopsidedness  in the numbers of innocents killed is undeniable. Israel has caged 1.5 million people under siege conditions for years as punishment for voting for Hamas. Israel withholds food, withholds heat, and withholds medicine. Is this somehow more moral than the launching of primitive Qassam rockets, which during the last 7 years have killed 13 Israelis?

 The greatest gifts that Judaism has given to me are the concept of Betzelem Elohim (because all people are created in God’s image they are equal in the eye’s of God) and the sanctity of life. Rabbi Yoffie’s argument that the actions of Hamas and the actions of Israel in Gaza are not equally reprehensible rips asunder this fabric of Jewish values that we have learned. It devalues Palestinian life. Is the killing of 654 Palestinian children somehow more moral than the killing of 13 Israelis?

Rabbi Yoffie believes that “a cease-fire imposed on Israel would allow Hamas to escape the consequences of its actions”  What additional  consequences does he want?

I was thrilled when J Street arrived on the scene to complement the other Jewish, Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace groups with political action and a  mission to let our government know that not all American Jews unconditionally support the actions of The State of Israel. I certainly expected AIPAC and the Jewish lobby to pulverize them as they villonize anyone critical of the occupation. The same way they demonize NPR, The New York Times, Amnesty International, and Betzelem. I didn’t excpect Rabbi Yoffie to do the same.

But I recall now that the Rabbi has a proclivity for denigrating the morals of others. When the Nobel Prize winner Pres Jimmy Carter harshly criticized Israel’s treatment of the Palastinians RabbiYoffie said that “there’s something fundamentally skewed in his moral outlook”.  Pres. Carter has given his life and his money “waging peace, fighting diseace, and building hope.”  Pres Carter had brokered the Egyptian- Israel Peace deal during his Presidency. The first of two peace treaties with an Arab enemy. Both peace treaties still stand  and Egypt has taken a very difficult position helping Israel through these very difficult days. At least when Rabbi Yoffie demeans our morals we are in good company.