Secular Humanists are the New Religious Zionists (Israeli Politics)

Can you support a state which doesn't agree with your worldview?

In 2005, less than six months before I made Aliyah, Israel’s government forcibly removed about 7000 Jews from their homes in Gush Katif. I had been involved in protests in Jerusalem against the move. I saw it as a reversal of the basic purpose of the state of Israel, to enable Jews to return to the Land of Israel, and there provide them the peace and security to fulfill the Torah of Israel. Religious Zionism was built on the idea that, despite the secular Zionist establishment being anti-religious (which it explicitly was back in the day), it was forwarding this goal. The withdrawal from Gush Katif challenged that basis for cooperation. Nonetheless I argued with many religious friends at the time that this was a reversal not a defeat. The state still stood and millions of Jews still lived and flourished and studied and practiced Torah under its wings in the land God gave us. Make no mistake, I believe those 7000 people were materially hurt by this government action. I believe it was, furthermore, a strategic blunder which enabled Hamas to come to power and endangered millions of Israelis by putting them in the range of Hamas rockets, which Iranian technology is, at this moment, helping to make more accurate and deadly. This is also part of why Netanyahu cake back to power…

Note: If you’d like to learn more about the withdrawal from Gaza, you should read Daniella’s book “Disengagement,” which is a master-class in nuance and a literary gem. Buy on Amazon or Book Depository (which ships to Israel for free).

Countries make mistakes, they waver, they blunder forward and back, and nothing is ever guaranteed. But Israel’s purpose is bigger, broader, and more important than the specifics of its strengths and weaknesses, or even it’s ideological alignment with one or another Jewish political sub-culture. So now, if the most dire understanding of Israel's recent election is taken at face value, the shoe is on the other foot. Secular, liberal Jews, mostly in America but also an increasingly small minority in Israel, are faced with a similar situation, where they must put the government of Israel becoming something and doing things they don’t like in a larger context and decide how they feel about the whole project. I believe the fear of changes to Israel’s governmental structure are highly overblown, but not crazy. I understand how, if Israel’s purpose is understood as being a light to the world, and that light is understood as being a secular-humanist, Western democratic light, then many current or proposed policies contradict that vision directly. Those people must then decide, is the importance of Israel, it’s reality, it’s accomplishments, the safe haven for the Jewish people both politically and physically, as well as spiritually, still valuable and deserving of their support?

The truth is that Israeli politics are volatile. They change swiftly and dramatically over time. But there is a legitimate concern from this perspective. The overall trend since Israel’s founding has been toward more religiosity, more particularism and less universalism, more tradition and less secularism, even if the state under the Labor Party was not an exemplar of pluralistic politics and individual rights, it was at least socialist. But even if these are trends you oppose, is the overall project still valuable? Do the millions of Jews in Israel still need a state to protect them, and is the only state capable or even interested in doing so one run by a Jewish government? Would our ancestors at the mercy of all comers in sun-forgotten, God forsaken, impoverished, medieval northern Europe be thrilled to live under such a government rather than being burned alive by crusaders (may their names be erased)?

In truth, the socialist fantasy many Jews historically had about Israel was never real. Israel was always deeply flawed by any definition, and was something closer to a one party state when it was at the height of being appreciated by liberals around the world. But as Israel is a real country full of human beings, it could never have been perfect. What’s more American Jewry’s support for Israel was only ever wall-to-wall in short bursts of enthusiasm; just before and briefly after the Holocaust in the 1930s and 40s, around the Six Day War in the late ‘60s and for a while after, as well as perhaps during the Oslo accords in the 90's. The story of worldwide Jewry has been one of falling in and out of love with Israel over time. This is neither a new problem, not is it worse Ryan it has been in the past. But in any case, contending over preferred policy is not the same as condemning the project outright, which is what I see increasing numbers of American Jews publicly doing. Here are a few reasons not to:

1. It means you are giving up hope for changing things for the better. Why can’t you change things if you turn against Israel? Because…

2. Unbalanced attacks on the state as a whole provide ammunition to those who oppose you, who point to your statements and with some justification say that your opinion is now irrelevant and you can be classified with Israel’s enemies. You are feeding the populist right, not fighting it.

3. It’s not as bad as you think. Wait and see what happens. Nothing is final until it’s final. And what’s more, try to learn more about how Israel’s judiciary works so you can argue cogently about what changes might or might not be reasonable in a way an Israeli will listen to. Israel’s judiciary is incredibly powerful and incredibly activist, with an extremely flimsy and relatively recent, never-voted-on legal justification for that power in comparison to the US Supreme Court. Whether you think that’s good or bad, you have to argue credibly for why it shouldn’t be changed, not simply that it is bad because you like the judges’ politics more than the current Knesset's. Otherwise your voice will not count in the Israeli debate, which is ongoing, yes even on the right.

4. The majority of Jews on Earth live in Israel and will continue, increasingly, to do so. If you have concern for their welfare, and the continued existence of the Jewish people, you cannot simply condemn the nation as a whole and walk away in good conscience. If you do so, you are condemning yourself as well as them. Your fate (if you are a Jew) is inextricably linked to theirs.

There are many levels of engagement between full support and full antagonism. One can decide to minimize their donations or time spent. One can pull away from a role in hasbara. One can decide that Aliyah is not for them under the current conditions. Yet when the next war comes, and it will, I expect those same Jews who criticize Israel for being undemocratic to stand at the side of their Jewish brothers against the explicitly anti-democratic, pro genocidal regimes arrayed against us. That still counts as ‘supporting Israel.’ Don't take your ball and go home. History is not over. The game is still in play…

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Going Deeper

For a deeper and broader discussion of this recent election and what it means I highly recommend a colloquium of sorts at the Jewish Review of Books. This article by the incomparable Hillel Halkin forcefully lays out the case for pessimism. There follows a series of seven responses, including my favorite by a former professor of mine Ze’ev Maghen. All the articles are here, and a Halkin response to his critics is promised to be forthcoming soon at the same place. If this issue distresses you, please, engage in the conversation. Please keep in mind that my missive above addresses a person who has already come to the most pessimistic conclusion and asks that, even then, they refrain from making an extreme break from their support of the one and only Jewish state.

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P.S.

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