I Grew Up Guilty

I grew up guilty. It was not that I just felt guilty, I was guilty. In my little home town in South Carolina, there lived a whole community of black people with whom I seldom, if ever, had a conversation, shared a meal or knew much about the life they lived. But, in spite of attending a segregated school, a segregated church, and listening to talk about how important it was to keep things segregated, I knew. Deep down, I knew that the people on my side of town benefitted from the exploitation of those African Americans who lived on the other side of town. Few people ever talked about it but I knew. And to this day, I still carry the remnants of that guilt.


I grew up hearing that “they” were lazy, not as smart as white people, and always smelled bad. While I took baths in hot water, it never occurred to me that they did not have indoor plumbing and were forced to wash outside, even in winter. I seldom connected the dots that my privilege was connected to their suppression. Oh, there were some, a few, black people who “made it.” Johnny owned and operated a dry cleaning business and someone ran a little grocery store down by the school, but by and large, most black people were dependent upon the economic handout from the white community. But, there were times, when I would think about it, I had to confess, at least to myself, that I lived a privileged life simply because of the accident of birth. I even thanked God that I had not been born black.

My parents never told me that black people were inferior, but the entire system in which I lived said they were. I went to the new high school while they attended class in the old fire trap on the poor side of town. I wore clean clothes, washed by our black maid, while their shirts were wrinkled and often torn. I had no trouble in accepting things as they were and, along with all my friends, accepted it as something for which God was responsible. Yet, down deep. I knew better, and I felt guilty. I still do.

I feel sorry for Mitt Romney. There is going to come the day, when like George Wallace who, broken in heart and spirit, rolled down to the front of the African American church in Montgomery, Alabama and said, “I was wrong and I am sorry.” Mitt Romney is so caught up in doing anything he can right now to gain money and votes until anything goes to out-do Obama in proving his loyalty to Israel. He shows no concern for the illegal policies for Israel’s Zionist government, no matter how extreme. To heck with UN resolutions, international law and human decency. He spoke to a wealthy Jewish audience in Israel and according to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, said:

That Israel’s GDP per capita was $21,000 while that of the Palestinians was $10,000. Romney showed “a dramatic, stark difference in economic vitality.” The actual figures are $31,400 for Israel and less than $3,000 for the Palestinians – but that is not because, as he said later, “culture makes all the difference,” but because of occupation, discrimination and oppression.(1)

Then to put icing on the cake, he declared Jerusalem to be the forever capital of Israel. He brags about his close personal friendship with Benyamin Netanyahu and totally ignores the plight of the Palestinian. Not unlike my days in high school, he just did not see across the hill to the poverty and squalor in which those living under Israel’s military rule are forced to live.

Maybe he really does not see. Maybe his understanding is distorted by the sheltered and privileged life he has always lived. The rules of life, including his economic success have been so rigged that he is blinded by his own advantage and wealth. Maybe he does not know that Israel’s economy is built upon handouts and theft. It may be years before he will allow himself to see what he has become a part of, whether he does or does not win this election next month.

But, I have to believe, the average Jew living in Israel knows, whether he will admit it or not. He knows that his country was started by confiscating the land and homes of more than 700,000 innocent people who were expelled from 78 percent of their historic Palestine, not unlike the land on which I live was taken from the Cherokee Indians. He knows when he is taking a hot shower, the water is diverted from the Palestinian West Bank. He also knows that the modern highway on which he rides was built by the cheap labor of those forced to work in Israel. He knows that his economy grew at an amazing rate because of the control on the production of Palestinian banks and production. He knows about the settlements, the wall, checkpoints and the uprooting of olive trees. He knows that his privilege is paid for by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are living in refugee camps. He knows. And deep within himself, he feels guilty. For that reason, he will not allow himself to engage in a conversation with, or even about, the plight of the Palestinians and will gladly sell his conscience to a shyster like Mitt Romney. He is trapped. To admit what he knows produces more guilt than he can handle and he knows it.

I once heard a Palestinian say, “I thank God that I was not born a Jew.” I immediately thought of that as anti-Semitic, and rejected him, But, the more I listened to him I realized that he had no dislike for the Jews. He earnestly felt compassion, even pity. The Jew, he declared, cannot enjoy his privilege because deep down he knows that it was stolen from another people and he will live with that guilt forever.

I understand. I still struggle with mine.

Thomas Are
September 20, 2012

[1]  John Lee, Romney on the Palestinians: It’s not the “Culture,” It’s the Occupation,  Washington Report in Middle East Affairs,  October 2012., p.16.

More Than One Way

There are many ways that we can approach the problem of seeking justice for the Palestinians.


One, is a head on confrontation with Israel. You hear those who hold this view saying such things as: Israel will never voluntarily give up power or give up claiming Palestinian land for its own use. Therefore the only solution is force. The Palestinians need a sponsor, they say, some Arab nation willing to risk suicide to send an army up against the state of Israel which has the fourth strongest military on the globe. Or, they say, “The Palestinians need a PAC. They need to organize enough financial resources to bribe US politicians into taking up their cause.” Those in this camp are pessimistic about anything of this caliber ever happening. Therefore, they say such things as, “It’s sad, but the Palestinians are a lost people.

This position leads some to justify Israel’s brutal control over the Palestinians and assault on its neighbors by declaring, “Israel lives with a siege mentality. They know if they let down for one moment, the Arabs will push them into the sea. Israel is forced to operate under a no tolerance policy against any threat, real or imagined.” Thus, Israel kills 1400 citizens in Gaza in the winter of 2008 because some renegade fired homemade rockets into Israel. “Israel can only survive by pouncing upon anyone who appears to be gaining power in the region.” Besides,” they say, “Nothing is going to be gained by criticizing Israel, especially in an election season.”

There is another camp of opinions which advocates, “allowing the two parties involved to work it out between themselves. Those who take this position say such things as, “Until both sides want peace enough to compromise, it’s not going to happen.” This seems to be the position of Hillary Clinton who says, we won’t do anything to help the Palestinians until they come back to the negotiating table.

This proposal sounds noble, but it’s a little like telling the slaves in 1830 to just work it out with the overseer. The problem is, only one side has power. Only one side has an army The weak side lives behind an apartheid wall and is controlled by the stronger.

Then, there are those who seek peace by bringing hearts together.. This group brings Jews and Arabs together to work and study toward accomplishing some goal beyond just talking about how to get along. The results of this effort, (I want to say ministry) is that individuals get to know each other. They hear one another’s narrative. By the end of their time together, they have developed a relationship of respect and affection.

This works. I have seen it in the youth camps run by Roscoe Possidenti where Jews and Palestinians hug and weep on the others shoulders. Elias Chacour, a Melkite priest in the West Bank village of Ibillin built a school in which the faculty is half Jewish and half Arab. The student body is also equally divided. The goal is education, but the result is united hearts. Jim Crupi brings together business and community leaders for training. The participants in his seminars include those of ethnic and religious backgrounds from numerous Middle Eastern nations. In the long run, this may be the best solution to bringing about harmony among some very hostile nations and people.

However, all these approaches to peace are too slow. Before Israel comes to any just agreement, or the Palestinians find a big brother, or enough hearts are changed, there will be no Palestine. Israel will have very well claimed the total of Palestinian land and natural resources, including water, except for a few Bantustans here and there. .

There is another possibility. What I think will happen and what is happening, which will result in peace and citizenship for the Palestinians, is that Israel will not be controlled from the outside but will crumble from within.

The conscience of the world, including many young Jews, both in the US and in Israel, are rejecting the brutality of the right wing Zionist regime. Today’s younger Jews are not as emotionally tied to the holocaust, or to the state of Israel, as are their parents. Non-Jews simply find it hard to stomach the stories of cruelty coming out about the actions of Israel. And Israel is being trapped by its own Jewish theology. The story of Naboth’s vineyard found in the Book of First Kings, and such texts as Amos, “Let justice role down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream,” cannot be reconciled with the bombing of civilians, building of settlements, check points, restrictions on travel, demolition of homes, the assassination of neighboring scientists and treating a whole people as subhuman. This “God gave your land to me" theology, just does not fit with historical Judaism’s mandate for justice.

I honor those who chip away at the hard line Zionist agenda. I teach classes, lead discussions, donate money, give away books, show documentaries and put a bumper sticker on my car in an effort to support the “chippers”. I believe their method of seeking justice is the only hope for peace for Palestine and Israel and I believe it is working.

Thomas Are
September 2, 2012

He Just Doesn't Get It

Back in 1957, Golda Meir said something like:

     "Peace will come when Palestinian mothers learn to love their children
     more than they hate the Jews."

She also said that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people. Of course, several years later she apologized, saying, “That was the silliest damn thing I ever said.” Well, I don’t know. I think accusing Palestinian mothers of not loving their children merits a gold medal for silliness.

Palestinian mothers do in fact love their children as do mothers all over the world. They also fear for their safety. They are concerned for their future in an apartheid state where their rights as human being are being ignored because the big superpower occupying them wants their land and water. Mothers in Palestine long for their children to have an opportunity to grow up with dignity, to have a safe place to sleep and go to school, all of which are systematically jeopardized by Israel’s military occupation. Far from choosing to hate their enemies more than they love their children, Palestinian mothers on numerous occasions have sacrificed their lives to cover their children with their own bodies to protect them from bombs, tanks and white phosphorus.

I think I first heard this little caricature of Palestinian mothers in 1988 during the first intifada. Kids who had never lived a day in their entire life free of the humiliation and the pain of military occupation suddenly began throwing rocks at Israeli tanks, trucks and troops. Israel responded with “An iron fist policy.” by killing, beating, and torture.

During the first year of the intifada:

Amnesty International reported 540 killed by Israeli troops including 159 children. Their average age was ten years old.

Save the Children reported 7000 hospitalized from beatings, 1/3 were ten years old, 1/5 five years old.

Dennis Madden, Roman Catholic Priest attested,

"If you take all the Palestinians who have been killed, the number is roughly around 1,000. The number who have required medical attention is roughly around 106,000. The over 50,000 who have been in prison, the houses that have been demolished, the thousands of trees that have been uprooted, the deportations. You take all of the statistics together...what it averages out to is that every Palestinian family has had at least two members that have either been killed, deported, arrested or tortured."(1)

And this was BEFORE suicide bombers.

According to Rosemary Radford Ruether:

Anyone arrested in the occupied territories can be held without trial or consultation with a lawyer for eighteen days. During this period (and also during extensions of this period) those arrested are typically subject to brutal treatment, ranging from kicking and beatings to elaborate form of torture...” (2)

Ari Shavit, a young Israeli soldier ordered to serve in Ansar II, one of Israel’s prisons for Palestinians, reported in Ha’aretz.

Perhaps the fault lies with the screams: At the end of your watch, on the way from the showers, you hear horrible screams...from over the galvanized tin fence of the interrogation section come hair-raising human screams. I mean that literally. Hair-raising. And you of course have read the B’Tselem report...And you ask yourself, what is going on here five meters away? Is it someone being tied in the “banana” position? Or is it a simple beating? You don’t know. But you do know that from this moment forth you will have no rest. Because 50 meters from the bed where you try to sleep, 80 meters from the dining hall where you try to eat, human beings are screaming. And they are screaming because other people wearing the uniform as you are doing things to them to make them scream. They are screaming because your state, your democratic state in an institutional systematic manner — and definitely legal — your state is making them scream.” (3)

To avoid the moral judgment of the world, Israel shifted the responsibility of their treatment of Palestinian youth onto the mothers whom they said, “sent their children out to commit violence.”

But, why bring this up now, twenty five years later? Because that old unfounded quip is still being passed around by intelligent people in an effort to give Israel legitimacy. Recently, I was referred to this very slogan to make the case that the Palestinians are really the cause of their own pain.

It was quoted by a friend who is quite superior to me in education and theological acumen. I was shocked, not so much by the quote, but that with all his credentials, he still thinks this is relevant to the Israel/Palestinian situation. In spite of his creditability in other areas, when it comes to applying his biblical faith to justice for the Palestinians, he just doesn’t get it.

Thomas Are
August 22, 2012

------------------------------------------
 1 - Private conversation with Father Dennis Madden, Tantur Institute, Jerusalem. Summer, 1991.
2 - Rosemary Radford Ruether, Herman Ruether, The Wrath of Jonah, (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2002) p. 157.
3 - Marc Ellis, Beyond Innocence and Redemption, (Harper and Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1990,) p.73.

Romney Sells Out Justice for Votes

This week I received an email:


Yesterday in Jerusalem, Governor Mitt Romney made some statements that were not only wrong, but frankly, prejudiced and ignorant. Romney declared that “cultural differences” were the reason the Palestinian economy is not doing as well as Israel’s, without even acknowledging the Occupation.

This criticism of Romney’s mischaracterization of the Israel Palestinian conflict was published by none other than JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE, which called upon Romney to apologize to the Palestinian people. I respect this organization, even given money to help in their call for justice. I wish everybody would support them.(1) They are people of conscience who take seriously their Jewish faith.

Is it possible that Romney has never heard of the Occupation, or the Wall constructed by Israel which stunts economic growth? Does he not see the closures and checkpoints which prevent Palestinians from getting to their jobs, fields, health care facilities and schools as a hindrance to economic success? Could he not know about the theft of Palestinian water, the restrictions on travel and shipments of goods? Is he not aware of the prohibition of imports and exports which robs Palestinians of normal business opportunities? These restrictive policies have been around a long time. Certainly long enough for him to know.

Economic oppression of Palestine has been official Israel policy from its beginning. Twenty years ago, Frank Collins, writing for The Jerusalem Journal reports:

For 24 years of their occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israelis have systematically done everything in their power to block the normal
development of the Palestinians’ economy. Far from allowing the growth and modernization of the economic infrastructure, the occupation authorities have gone to great lengths to thwart any progress in this direction. They have striven to make the Palestinian economy totally dependent on, and subordinated to, that of Israel… The licensing of a new Palestinian factory requires securing certification from potential Israeli competitors that they will not suffer from the new Palestinian competition. Naturally, very few licenses for new factories are granted. Water consumption by Palestinians is restricted to 1967 levels, with the results that irrigated agriculture has declined from 18 to 5 percent of the Palestinian economy.(2)

I remember visiting a mother in the West Bank village of Hisma. She lead us down a concealed path to a hidden chicken coop which provided her family with a few eggs. I asked her what would happen if the Israelis discovered her “illegal business”? She responded that she would probably be put in jail. At that time, approximately twenty years ago, I found her hard to believe. No nation could be that calculating and cruel. Today, I know better. I owe her an apology.

It is amazing that the Palestinians have managed to hold on in face of such oppression. Romney praises Israel for its business success. He then turns right around and supports the giving of billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars to keep Israel’s economy afloat. I wonder how long Romney would stay in business in Gaza without electricity for most of the day, the resupply of materials or trucks to make deliveries.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace writes:

Governor Romney’s willful lack of understanding for facts on the ground and what appears to be racist assumptions about Israelis and Palestinians do not represent us… Romney stakes his value as a leader on his success in business. But any businessperson should know that blocking free trade and commerce, profiting from exploiting stolen land, and holding an entire economy hostage is not exactly fair play. (3)

Romney was in Israel attending a million dollar fundraising breakfast and sitting next to Shelton Adelson who has pledged a million dollars to defeat Barak Obama. The fact that Adelson bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s calling the Palestinians an “invented” people was not missed by Romney. He supports Netanyahu’s hard right rejection of any peace initiative that might lead to a two state, equal opportunity, solution.

It’s ironic that his breakfast was being served in the King David Hotel, the site of Israel’s pre-state terrorism which killed 91 people. But, that was then, when terrorism was on the other foot. Now, he could look out the window and see the wall and military control of Palestinian life, if he had chosen to. But, if you are humping for votes, such things as truth and justice get in the way. Nobody says that Romney isn’t smart. It’s his morals and ethics that are being called into question. Does anything matter to him as much as “business success”?

Thomas Are
August 2, 2012

1 - Open Letter to Governor Mitt Romney: Apologize to the Palestinian People. Jewish Voice for Peace. 1611 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA 94612;
Phone (510) 465-1777; info@jvp.org

2 - Frank Collins, “Palestinian Economy in Chaos After Gulf War.” The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 1991, Vol X, Number 2, p.23 . Cited in my book, Israeli Peace/Palestinian Justice. p.155.
3 - Jewish Voice for Peace, cited above.

Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment

TIAA/CREF drops Caterpillar from its investment portfolio because of the specially equipped bulldozers sold to Israel for their construction of an illegal wall, twice as high and four times longer than the Berlin wall, and specially equipped to demolish homes in the occupied territories. Alice Walker refuses to allow her award winning play The Color Purple, to be published in Israel because of apartheid policies and the persecution of the Palestinian people. Friends Fiduciary, a Quakers investment organization holding assets of more than $200 million, is divesting from Caterpillar because of profits derived from selling weaponized bulldozers to Israel.(1) On and on it goes.


The solidarity movement has scored significant success with the organization of a boycott of Israeli products, including the decision by British University and College Union to boycott Israeli academics; the amazing decision of more than 7 million people to join the BDS campaign; the decision taken by Hamshire College and some US churches to refuse to invest in the Israeli occupation; and the decision of Norway and Denmark to divest from Israeli military companies. (2)

Artists by the hundreds, from South Africa to Canada, have pledged support of BDS, especially since the massacre in Gaza in the winter of 2008-09 and the murder of nine humanitarian workers on the flotilla bringing aid to the suffering people of Gaza in 2010. In spite of peace talks, attacks on Palestinians have become even more harsh, with more home demolitions, the building of more and more settlements, an apartheid wall, road blocks, and armed response to nonviolent demonstrations. Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman cancelled appearances at the 2010 Film Festival. Dock workers from Sweden to California refused to unload Israeli ships right after Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara. Students at Berkeley have advocated BDS for more than ten years and are influencing students on other campuses to do the same.

For all these reasons, the Church of England several years ago divested from companies profiting from the occupation. Now, this week, even as I write, my church, the Presbyterians, after several years of trying to influence Caterpillar, to no avail, will have the opportunity to uphold DBS or choose the safe and popular position of looking the other way.

I quote Desmond Tutu:

Without a doubt, we South Africans who fought apartheid have been unanimous in finding Israel’s methods of repression and collective punishment far, far worse than anything we saw during our long and difficult liberation struggle. Israel’s indiscriminate, widespread bombing and shelling of populated areas with scant regard for the civilian victims, was absent in South Africa because the apartheid system relied on cheap black labor. Israel rejects outright an entire people, and seeks to eliminate the Palestinian presence entirely, whether by voluntary or enforced “transfer.” It is clearly this that accounts for Israel’s greater degree of sustained brutality in comparison to apartheid South Africa. This provides all the more reason why it is necessary for world opinion and action to assist the beleaguered Palestinian people. (3)

So, the Presbyterians will decide, do we stand up for peace and justice or do we side with the Christian Zionists who are anxious for Armageddon and with the arms industry which seeks more profits derived from conflicts. Some would say that to vote against BDS is to partner with those who promote Israel’s crimes against the men, women and children of Palestine. I would be one of them.

Thomas Are
July 1, 2012

1 - Friends of Sebeel, May 18, 2012.

2 - Mustafa Barghouthi, Freedom in Our Lifetime, Cited in The Case for Sanctions Against Israel, Edited by Audrea Lim, p. 8.
3 - Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Realizing God’s Dream for the Holy Land, Boston Globe, October 26, 2007, Cited by Ronnie Kasrils, Sour Oranges and the Sweet Taste of Freedom in The Case for Sanctions Against Israel, Edited by Audrea Lim,, p. 109.

Seven Years Later - It's Even Worse

Seven years ago, in 2005, Ariel Sharon, with great media fanfare, pulled 8,000 settlers out of Gaza. Women screamed and cried as soldiers dragged them from “their” homes. Sharon took bows. What a great humanitarian act and what a generous step to give independence to the people of Gaza. Of course, he did not have to project such harsh scenes of settler pain. All he had to do was announce that the thousands of IDF troops stationed in Gaza would be pulling out. The exodus of settlers would have followed without as much as a whimper.


Also, it may not have seemed so generous had the public known that at the very same time 8,000 settlers were moving from Gaza, Israel was building 13,000 units for Jews only on Palestinian land in the West Bank, and those moving from Gaza were offered $227,000 to relocate. Palestinians driven from their homes in 1948 and 1967 were given no compensation for the lives and land taken from them by force.

Sharon’s disengagement was hardly a liberation. It’s hard to feel liberated when surrounded by a hostile army. Israel maintained control of all crossing points, sea and air space. Gaza would remain alive only as an outdoor prison. Yet, we saw on the news only how much Israel was “giving up” to offer peace and prosperity to the Palestinians.

So, let’s take a look at what is not mentioned on the evening news, or in the chambers of Congress or even from Christian pulpits in America.

According to British based Save the Children:

Gaza’s only fresh water source is now too dangerous to drink and is contaminated with fertilizer and human waste.

Miko Peled, son of IDF General Matti Peled, continuing his father’s criticism of Israel writes:

Israel is getting away with murder, and it’s making me sick to sit around here and do nothing. Innocent people are being killed, children are hungry, there is mass unemployment and poverty, and it’s happening an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv. None if this was caused by a natural disaster. It was caused because Israel deliberately caused these conditions, and no one in America says a thing. … Israel’s restrictions on travel and movement and the import and export of goods, plus the occupier’s complete control over land and sea have created a siege that is choking one and a half million people, including 800,000 children. Gaza has essentially been turned into an enormous prison camp. (1)

In 2008, Sarah Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center, an activist organization opposing war and racism, wrote:

Conditions today in Gaza are desperate; Israel severely restricts and in some cases even denies the entrance of even basic food, fuel and electricity. Water filters, water pumps and bottled water are barred. The most basic supplies, from soap to batteries for hearing aids, are prohibited. No spare parts of any kind are permitted. Even desperately needed incubators for babies or dialysis equipment cannot be repaired or replaced. In the cold and crowded wards of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the dispensary is out of 85 essential medicines and is close to using up almost 150 others. (2)

And this was before Israel bombed Gaza for 22 days in 2008-2009, killing 1400, of whom 1200 were unarmed civilians, wounding 5000 and destroying no less then 22,000 buildings.

When human rights activist attempted to enter Gaza bringing humanitarian aid, at least nine of them were murdered in international waters by Israel. When Rachel Corrie tried to stop a bull dozer from destroying a Palestinian home she was crushed to death. Even now, when kids wave flags and protest Israel’s occupation, they are shot to death. And what do our political leaders, preachers and news broadcasters do? They tremble in fear that someone might say that they are less than lovers of Israel.

Pictures of the suffering in Gaza would make most of us sick. Yet, without much objection, we Americans have been aiding this crime against a defenseless people for more than sixty four years. We support it through our taxes and remain silent when our politicians look the other way. The United States actually blocks actions of others, including the United Nations, when they speak out to condemn Israel’s atrocities. How the church can continue with “business as usual” while this tragedy continues is beyond my understanding. Politicians ignore it for money and votes. I guess the church does it for the same reason.

Thomas Are
June 23, 2012

1 - Miko Peled The General's Son, (Just World Books, 2012)  p. 157
2 - Cited in Joyce Chediac, Gaza, Symbol of Resistance.  (World View Forum, 2011)p. 31

Israel's Ultra-Orthodox

“Pappy” loved to sing in Sunday School. One of his favorite songs ends with the refrain, “Jesus love me, Jesus loves even me." However, Pappy, week after week stood up and sang at the top of his voice, “Jesus loves me. Jesus loves ONLY me.”

When it is sung by a senile old man, it is humorous. When it is lived out by fanatical settlers, it is serious. The ultra-Orthodox settlers are convinced that they are the only ones loved by God, the only ones God wants to live on the land. No body else belongs there. They see their task of settling Jews in the occupied territories as commanded by a God who “loves only me.”

This “me only” theology creates havoc not only for the Palestinians whose land, water and crops are stolen, these ultra-Orthodox are threatening the stability of Israel itself. Ronald Krebs, professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, writes:

Subsidies for the ultra-Orthodox are one of the reasons that the overall tax burden on Israel’s citizens is high, helping propel a slow exodus of largely secular Jewish elites from the country. In recent years, Israel has suffered from a brain drain, in which large numbers of its most talented citizens have gone abroad to complete advanced degrees and have not returned.[1]

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics found that between 1990 and 2009, 260,000 more Israelis left the country than returned.[2] It’s easy to see why.

Under the pressure of boycott campaigns, a stream of international investigations into Israel’s military conduct, potential lawsuits in foreign courts against Israeli soldiers and officials for alleged human rights violations, the Palestinian quest for statehood at the UN, and deteriorating relations with Egypt and Turkey, Israelis have not felt this alone and embittered for a generation.[3]

My Republican friends detest the idea that the government might subsidize welfare recipients who “work the system.” Yet, they support Israel’s hand outs to non working ultra-Orthodox families who do nothing but study Torah and justify Israel’s theft of Palestine. The burden on Israel’s economy is immense even though much of that growing welfare is passed along to the US taxpayer.

The number of ultra-Orthodox in Israel is 470,000[4] and estimated to double in the next twenty years. Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel said, “We cannot have an ever-increasing proportion of the population continuing to not go to work. Without a change now, within ten years the situation will be a catastrophe.”[5]

But, that is not the worst of it. I wonder what the parents of our young men and women who are being prepared to go to war with Iran would think if they knew that some 50,000 military aged ultra-Orthodox men are excused from military service in Israel.

In fact, according to Gershom Gorenberg, Israel is in trouble:

By keeping the territories it occupied in the Six Day War, Israel has crippled its democracy and the rule of law. The unholy ties between state, settlements, and synagogue have promoted a new brand of extremism, transforming Judaism from a humanistic to a militant faith. And the religious right is rapidly gaining power within the Israeli army, with catastrophic consequences. In order to save itself, Israel must end the occupation, separate state from religion, and create a new civil Israeli identity that can be shared by Jews and Arabs.[6]

It will not be easy. Even if the government ordered a withdrawal from the West Bank tomorrow, the military cannot count on its officers to carry out its orders to leave.

Israel has too many ultra-Orthodox singing, Yahweh loves me. Yahweh loves ONLY me.

Thomas Are
April 2, 2012

[1] Ronald Krebs, Israel’s Bunker Mentality, Foreign Affairs, November 2011., p.17
[2] Ibid. p17.
[3] Ibid. p. 13.
[4] Gershom Gorenberg, The Unmaking of Israel, (HarperCollins, 2011). p. 177.
[5] Ronald Krebs, Israel’s Bunker Mentality, Foreign Affairs, November 2011. p. 16.
[6] Gershom Gorenberg, The Unmaking of Israel, (HarperCollins, 2011). Front jacket cover.