Palestinian’s “March of Return” to Gaza Fence and Israel’s Response

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

Palestinians are now marching with the intent to enter Israel through the Gaza fence every Friday until May 15 corresponding to the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel and to their “Naqba” (The Great Catastrophe). They have done this twice already.

The first week’s demonstration included about thirty thousand Palestinians. Despite the demonstrations being billed as non-violent protests, some Palestinians (stirred up by Hamas) threw rocks at Israeli soldiers and set fire to tires thereby obscuring the view with smoke for Israeli shooters to see the perpetrators of violence. Israeli commanders told their shooters to fire warning shots in the air, then shoot in the dirt, and finally at Palestinian legs. Israeli snipers killed between 15 and 20 Palestinians and injured close to 1400.

On the second Friday there were fewer protestors, perhaps between ten and twenty thousand. The Palestinians called it a “Day of Tires” (note the photo of the massive amount of smoke). Israeli shooters killed nine Palestinians, including one journalist wearing a journalist vest.

To date, about thirty Palestinians are dead.

What’s going on? Israel has a right to defend itself but the death of unarmed Palestinians ought to be of great concern to all Jews in Israel and around the world.

The Israeli human rights organization B’tzelem called upon Israeli soldiers to defy orders to shoot unarmed Palestinians. All Israeli political parties refrained from protesting Israel’s actions except the Arab list and the left-wing Zionist party Meretz. Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman charged that “Meretz has stopped representing the State of Israel and now represents Arab interests in the Knesset.”

What disturbs me is that Israelis and we American Jews have become so numbed to violence of this kind that we refrain from protesting the deaths of innocent Palestinians. We would not so refrain if the dead were Israelis.

Again, we don’t know if the shootings are wrong and we don’t know how difficult it is for the IDF to monitor the border, but B’tzelem isn’t wrong to encourage Israeli soldiers to refrain from firing on unarmed people even if they are ordered to do so. There are lots of other means of crowd control available to Israel than shooting with live ammunition.

Is Israel’s sense of the threat these Palestinian protests pose exaggerated? It may be that the shootings are meant to discourage future non-violent Palestinian demonstrations because the Israeli government doesn’t quite know how to handle them.

The Israeli Defense Forces have the duty to protect the State of Israel, but is the IDF doing it the right way? In Israel, there’s an ethical code that encourages soldiers not to follow unethical orders, and especially when orders are given to fire on unarmed Palestinians.

I would hope that every Palestinian killing is investigated by the IDF and if wrong-doing is discovered, those guilty are punished.

The Reform Movement’s Statement on Israel’s 70th Anniversary

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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April 18, 2018 – The statement below is issued by the organizations of the Reform Jewish Movement, the largest movement in Jewish life:

“We join with our Israeli brothers and sisters, the worldwide family of the Jewish people, and friends of Israel everywhere, to mark with joy the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel.

We take this moment to renew and reaffirm our Movement-wide commitment to ahavat Yisrael (love for the land and people of Israel), through our words, by personally studying and traveling in Israel, and by providing financial and political support to the State of Israel and our partners there. We work every day to defend Israel when she comes under attack, and we play a key role in advancing the crucial relationships between Israel and the countries in which we serve.

We know this to be true: The State of Israel represents the greatest achievement of modern Jewish history, reuniting millions with the land that gave birth to the faith and people of Israel. Following nearly 1900 years of exile – centuries of persecution and expulsion, that culminated in eras of both catastrophe and creative growth and innovation – the Jewish people are again sovereign on Jewish soil.

As the Declaration of Independence states, the establishment of the State of Israel “is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.” The Zionist dream has been fulfilled with the ingathering of Jews who sought refuge and fulfillment in a land holy to our people, and is continually renewed by ongoing technological, medical, and economic miracles. We are continually inspired by Israeli creativity and contributions to Jewish life and culture. We will not yield in our pledge to strengthen our ties to the Jewish state and to be strengthened by her.

Across her first seven decades, Israel frequently has been forced to defend herself against stronger and more numerous enemies that have sought her destruction. Israel has sacrificed for peace while maintaining the only democracy in the Middle East. At this critical milestone in Israel and Jewish history, we recommit to working for a secure and just Israel that exists side-by-side with a future state of Palestine. Additionally, we must work for the future, securing an Israel that fulfills the aspiration of its Declaration of Independence as Israel’s founders imagined when they wrote that the Jewish State will “uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed, or sex.” As tireless advocates for religious pluralism, we recognize that religious equality has been far too elusive for Israel’s growing Reform and Conservative Jewish movements and we remain committed to an Israeli society that recognizes the rights of all Jewish movements – and all Jews.

In the presence of both triumph and challenge, hope remains our compass. Today, we join with Jews throughout the world, celebrating joyously this milestone anniversary of Israel’s independence. We pray for the fulfillment of Israel’s promise as a thriving democracy, an exemplar of security and peace, a beacon of light and hope for all the world. “

American Conference of Cantors
Association of Reform Jewish Educators
Association of Reform Zionists of America
ARZA Canada
ARZENU – International Reform Zionist Movement
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Men of Reform Judaism
National Association for Temple Administration
NFTY – The Reform Jewish Youth Movement
Program and Engagement Professionals of Reform Judaism
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Union for Reform Judaism
Women of Reform Judaism
World Union for Progressive Judaism

The Bitter and the Sweet – Naomi Shemer

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Poetry

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Naomi Shemer’s beautiful song Al Kol Eleh (“For all these things”) was written after the Yom Kippur War. It remains one of my favorite Hebrew poems and Israeli songs.

23,646 Israelis have died defending the State of Israel, and many more injured. Trumpeldor put it poignantly before he was killed in the early 20th century – “Tov lamut b’ad Arzenu – It is good to die for our Land.” His courage, the courage of these Israeli martyrs, and the ultimate sacrifice that they gave to build and secure the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland will be forever impressed upon the memory of our people. Zichronam livracha – May they all be remembered for a blessing!

Yom Haatzmaut-Israel Independence Day is a time for massive Jewish celebration even with all the challenges internal and external that Israel and the Jewish people continue to face. Shemer’s words ring true and whenever I hear this song, my heart at once breaks and is fortified.

“Every bee that brings the honey / Needs a sting to be complete / And we all must learn to taste the bitter with the sweet.

Keep, oh Lord, the fire burning / Through the night and through the day / For the man who is returning / from so far away.

Don’t uproot what has been planted / So our bounty may increase / Let our dearest wish be granted: / Bring us peace, oh bring us peace.

For the sake of all these things, Lord, / Let your mercy be complete
Bless the sting and bless the honey / Bless the bitter and the sweet.

Save the houses that we live in / The small fences and the wall / From the sudden war-like thunder / May you save them all.

Guard what little I’ve been given / Guard the hill my child might climb / Let the fruit that’s yet to ripen / Not be plucked before its time.

As the wind makes rustling night sounds / And a star falls in its arc / All my dreams and my desires / Form crystal shapes out of the dark.

Guard for me, oh Lord, these treasures / All my friends keep safe and strong, Guard the stillness, guard the weeping, / And above all, guard this song.”

“Zionism was once a pretty young thing…” Aharon Shabtai

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Poetry

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As Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s 70th Anniversary approaches) I offer this poem (and more to come throughout this week) to express both the beauty our people have brought to world Jewry as well as the moral and ethical challenges that come with sovereignty.

This poem written by the Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai expresses the aspirations of Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, and the political means by which Israel may enhance the dignity of all the people of the Land.

“Zionism was once a pretty young thing / like my cousin Tsila. / Boys caught sight of (her) – / and were ready to die. / Ahh, what days we spent among the cypresses / not far from Wadi Faleek! / What proud, honest mounds of manure I lifted / with Joseph Mintser at Kibbutz Merhavyah! / But political theses can turn into stinking corpses too, / And it’s better to leave them behind – / before we sink into an ethical mire – / In order to take up a new idea that might enlist / the stores of goodness within our hearts: / Namely, that equal rights be granted / to the children of this land as one, / That two cultures should flourish with dignity, / side by side, like beds in a single garden. / Let this be the girl whose beauty thrills us / And about whom we dream towards the summer’s end, / and through the months of winter.”

Aharon Shabtai (b. 1939)

We Jews are always betwixt and between – especially in these days

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Holidays, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Poetry

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Last week the Jewish people commemorated Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), and this Thursday we Jews mourn those killed defending the people and State of Israel on Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day). On Friday, we turn our mourning into celebration on Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s 70th Anniversary of Independence).

Throughout the week I will offer poetry that evokes the essence of these days. Here are words of the Russian Jewish poet Shaul Tschernichovsky (1875 – 1943):

“Laugh, smile upon the dreams / It is I, the dreamer, who is speaking / Laugh, for I still believe in humankind / for I still believe in you.

For my soul still yearns for freedom / I have not sold it to a golden calf / For I still believe in humankind / in his strong spirit.

I believe also in the future / even if the day will tarry / Yet, it will come and nation from nation / will carry peace and blessing.”

Ruvi Rivlin gets everyone singing

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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This Facebook video is beyond charming. Ruvi Rivlin, the President of the State of Israel, decides to get the people of Israel singing in anticipation of the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel. His big heart and joyfulness abound.

https://www.facebook.com/koolulam/videos/2118226415098757/

He explains that music brings everyone together.

“Words words words – blah blah blah – too many words.”

Ruvi and all that he picks up along the way in his offices sing together the famous song “Al Kol Eleh” (“Over all these things…”) made famous by Israeli poet/songwriter Naomi Shemer.

In the middle of Beit Hanasi (the President’s House in Jerusalem) he stops and says: “Wait – this isn’t enough!” The entire people of Israel have to join and sing too, so he invites everyone to sing – the secular and religious, Arabs and Jews, young and old, men and women and children. He asks they everyone put all else aside and come together as one.

“Over the honey and the stinger
Over the bitter and the sweet
Over our daughter, our baby
My God, watch over what is good

Over the flame that is burning
Over the water running pure
Over the man returning home
from far away

Chorus:
Over all these, Over all these
God please watch over them for me,
Over the honey and the stinger
Over the bitter and the sweet

Do not uproot what is planted
Do not forget the hope
Return me, and I will return
to the good land.

Watch over this house for me, my God,
the garden, and the wall
protect them from pain, from sudden fear
and from war.

Watch over for me the little I have
the light, the baby.”
over the fruit that has not ripened
and over what has already been reaped.

“Mr. Prime Minister – I am ashamed of you” – Rabbi Donniel Hartman

09 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Ethics, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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Note: The following is a blog posted today on the Times of Israel site. Rabbi Donniel Hartman is the Director of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His integrity is beyond reproach and never takes partisan positions. Rather, he speaks from the heart of Jewish tradition and always with thoughtfulness and a moral sensibility. Rabbi Hartman’s letter is written in the spirit of the Biblical prophet who criticizes power when leaders of our people’s morality goes awry.

April 9, 2018, 3:19 pm

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

It’s not easy to be both proud and ashamed at the same time. As a politician, it is particularly difficult, as protecting yourself from constant criticism is a prerequisite of the job.

As prime minister, you have much to be proud of, both personally and nationally. You have navigated our country through perilous times and circumstances. As we approach our 70^th birthday, we do so with confidence and joy, for Israel is strong and secure, prosperous and successful. The source of your political success and longevity is that so many Israelis feel indebted to you and feel secure because of your leadership.

However, together with your well-deserved pride, you should also feel a measure of shame. It seems like a lifetime, but it was less than a week ago, that you forged a new low. Instead of embracing the moral high ground on the issue of the African refugees in Israel and following through on what was your negotiated agreement with the United Nations, you chose the path of moral obtuseness, while making sure to lay the blame on others. Such actions, although common in our world, are not worthy of Israel and the Jewish people.

Shame on you for turning human rights discourse in Israel into a political football, dividing the Left and the Right. Shame on you for peddling fear to buttress your political standing. Shame on you for singling out false enemies for vilification to galvanize national loyalty and self-righteousness.

Your morally bankrupt rhetoric, branding all asylum seekers as “infiltrators,” instead of allowing that, at the very least, some are refugees, and supporting the false claims that they pose a danger to the Jewishness of Israel and the well-being of southern Tel Aviv, caught up with you. Or more correctly, infected us all.

When you propagate fear and hatred of so many different “others,” and employ fake enemies to encourage phony nationalist sentiments, it is indeed difficult to turn around and admit that the strong and vibrant Israel you helped to produce has nothing to fear from 16,000, 26,000, or even 36,000 refugees. It is difficult, even during Pesach last week, to speak of our people’s responsibility to remember that we were slaves in the land of Egypt.

Fear and hatred are cancerous, and once introduced into the national discourse, have a destructive life of their own. While you have mastered their political use, as we saw last week, they have become your masters.

For the sake of a short-term high as the proclaimed “protector of Israel,” “lover of Jews,” and “the one who cares about the disadvantaged neighborhoods,” you were willing to throw the lives of tens of thousands of human beings into chaos and turmoil and yet again divide the Jewish people. You know that the Supreme Court will challenge any policy of forced expulsion, further weakening it, and will also lead to extensive divisiveness, both within Israel and among the Jewish people.

Tomorrow’s problems, however, are not allowed by you to outweigh a bump in the polls, today. This is doubly true, when tomorrow you, or your coalition partners, can transform the Supreme Court itself into the enemy du jour of Israel and Zionism, and blame all of poor Government of Israel’s problems on all-powerful foreign conspirators, such as the New Israel Fund.

The Bibi of just a few years ago would be ashamed. It was you who in your previous terms served as the ultimate protector of the Supreme Court, the rule of law, and the unity of the Jewish people. In the past, these were values that you held as central to Israel. Today, outside of national security and preserving your coalition, it is difficult to identify anything that you hold as holy.

When you withdrew your support for your resolution, you knew that Friday was but a few days away, and that you could count on Hamas and Gaza to change the focus of our national discourse. You knew that the next car-ramming in Europe or gas attack on innocent civilians in Syria were but a few news cycles away. Who could reasonably criticize you for deporting a few Africans, when our country and soldiers are facing a new threat from Gaza? Who can criticize you as morally wanting, when such moral depravity surrounds us? Only an anti-Semite or an anti-Zionist, of course.

As Israelis we live in a macabre reality. Together with our well-deserved sense of strength, prosperity, and success, we know that danger and instability constantly threaten us. Be it Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iranians in Syria, or lone wolf Palestinian terrorists, we live with the ever-present sense that somebody wants to kill us. Someone sees our destruction as their principal mission. I don’t know of any other Western democracy whose citizens have to live with this consciousness, daily. Most Israelis trust you, Mr. Prime Minister, above all others, to help navigate us through this treacherous reality. In truth, much of that trust has been earned and well-deserved.

Israel, however, does not merely have to learn how to survive in the Middle East, but also survive the Middle East itself. Remaining a liberal democracy and a Jewish and democratic state and upholding our commitments to human rights and the Jewish values of peace, justice, freedom, and equality, as outlined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, is a challenging task in today’s Middle East. It is difficult to achieve and even more difficult to continue to care. However, after survival, doing precisely that is Israel’s greatest challenge and responsibility.

Israel needs a leader and not merely a politician. A leader provides vision and challenges the people to expend resources for the sake of their values. A leader inspires sacrifice for a greater cause. A leader also experiences shame when they fail in their responsibilities.

There are voices in Israel and in the Jewish world who, after your debacle last week, expressed shame in Israel. I am not ashamed of Israel. Israel and Zionism transcend our political leaders and are not defined even by the current will of the majority. Israel embodies the mission to build a safe and secure homeland for the Jewish people which is committed to the noblest of Jewish, moral, and democratic principles. I am not ashamed of Israel, because we are in the middle of Zionism’s journey, a journey undertaken under the most challenging of circumstances.

Mr. Prime Minister, I am not ashamed of Israel. I am ashamed of you.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/mr-prime-minister-i-am-ashamed-of-you/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=cea6605211-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_04_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-cea6605211-55741261

The Prime Minister’s Attack on the New Israel Fund

04 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the CEO of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, echoes my concerns and the concerns of anyone who values democracy and human rights and who is well-aware of the enormous good that the New Israel Fund has done on behalf of those in need in Israel. I am printing his statement in full:

“The Prime Minister’s attack on the New Israel Fund is a crossing of a line that we cannot remain silent about and is a critical test for Government of Israel coalition members who are truly committed to democratic values and to the need for solidarity in Israeli society. The call to form a parliamentary investigative committee instills a sense of witch hunt and McCarthyism into Israeli dialogue, akin to that of crippled democracies and those that lose their way. The discourse and discussion regarding the NIF’s activity is legitimate. Marking the NIF as a subversive organization and the attempt to threaten it, its supporters and its activists – is dangerous and disgraceful. The fact that these acts were done by the Prime Minister, in large part in order to cover up his embarrassing conduct in regards to the annulment of the agreement on the matter of asylum seekers, is a disgrace to the government and its coalition parties. We call upon the heads of all coalition parties and the Members of Knesset of these parties who are committed to the freedom of activity of Israel’s civic society to sound a clear voice of objection to the Prime Minister’s statements.

The New Israel Fund is a loyal partner of the Israel Reform Movement in efforts to promote freedom of religion and conscience among Israeli citizens, in fortifying human rights and promoting social justice. We will not hide this partnership and we will stand by our friends as they become a target for the lowest level of shaming and incitement. The attack on the NIF is a direct attack on Israeli civil society and on the majority of social change organizations in Israel. Now is the time to stand together in a wide coalition and make clear that there are red lines. A dialogue and argument – yes. Incitement and shaming – no. Israeli history will judge the elected officials who choose to remain silent during this time. We are not part of them. We do not hesitate to say to the Prime Minister: there is a limit to incitement! Enough of turning Israelis against one another! Enough of sacrificing Israeli solidarity for political interests! This is not what we expect of you on the eve of Israel’s 70^th year of independence!”