I’m here in University of Warwick for Limmud’s Winter conference and I have a smile as wide as my face and I haven’t even done anything yet. Just the atmosphere. You can breathe it; sense it; live it. Already in 10 minutes, I have seen old grannies, long bearded rabbis, secular women, young families, knitted kippot galore, lots of people I know, hundred I don’t, Muslims, doughnuts, a 10 year old volunteer, a massive chanukiah, people helping out, everyone smiling, everyone ready to learn. Breathe Neil, Breathe
I have just put my stuff down in some university Halls of Residence and this is what it should have felt like to be at university. A culture of everyone together, everyone different, everyone wanting to learn.
My problem will be in deciding what to do. There are 5 days with about 10 time-slots per day. Some timeslots have over 30 things happening at once to choose from. In half an hours time- in just one slot- there are the following to choose from:
· Elijah, the Wandering Jew
· Homeopathy-Jewish Roots
· The State of the Nation- Israel Politics and Diplomacy: What’s on the agenda for 2009?
· Next year where? Thinking about Jewish Future
· Eros and the Jews
· A Tour of Tehillim
· Traditional Jewish Paper Cuts
· Gender and Religious Identity in Orthodox Popular Music
· Limmud South Africa: Democratising a community?
· The First Timers Guide to Limmud
· Introduction to Young Limmud
· How to change the world in three easy steps
· Self, Other Text, G-d: Dialogical Philosophy from Rosenzweig to Levinas
· Can Halacha make sense? Beyond formalism, postmodernism, historicism and sociologism
· The Psychological Significance of Mezuzah: Symbol or Superstition?
· Mass Communication and the Transformation of Contemporary Democracies
· Songwriting and Music Sharing Workshop
· Jewish Magic, Magical Judaism
· Write Reaction to Limmud
· How does a Jew say ‘I’m sorry’?
· A Jewish Lobby in the UK?
All in one session, and most happening only once, and more than one I want to do. Really, I should go to the intro session to Limmud so that I know what the hell is going on. But I can’t, and won’t. Too much to do! I have 25 minutes to choose and get there. Stressful and exciting all in once.
28 Dec 2008
27 Dec 2008
The day that Hamas won
I
Today Hamas has got what it wanted. Today it has celebrated yet another victory. Having riled Israel, committed thousands of unforgivable acts and mobilised world opinion against Israel, it has got Israel to perform an immoral act. Providing no avenue for any constructive solutions to the situation, Hamas have called Israel’s “What else can we do?” card into play to justify something that couldn’t otherwise be justified.
To come from Shabbat to find out that Israel has conducted massive air raids on Gaza and have killed over 200 people is quite frankly sickening. 200 people dead. Forget the rhetoric for a minute, forget who is in the right or in the wrong and forget the situation. Were Israel 100% in the right and it 100% necessary (which it was not), there would be no other reaction one should have apart from desolation. If in Judaism we are taught not to rejoice over the downfall of our enemies, how much more so if innocent civilians have been killed?
It must never be forgotten that hundreds and thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel. Israel must never apologise for the residents of Sderot being well drilled in what to do in an emergency, bomb shelters being effective, or Kassam rockets being crap. Israelis and Zionists must always prefer less people to be killed and have less popularity rather than vice versa. Israel must ALWAYS believe it has a right to exist and never be downhearted or think twice. This is not a numbers game and ‘amount dead’ on each side does not equate to the morality of one’s position.
Yet.... Yet... we must never be desensitized to the amount of pain, hurt and anguish caused to the Palestinians through the death of thousands of them over the years. We must never be deaf to the cries of mothers who have lost their children. Suffering is no one nation’s province. Hurt goes beyond ideology, politics or religion. Tears are a universal language. Israel should never forget this and should never perform an action they know to unnecessarily increase this.
They seem to have forgotten this. Bombing in heavily built-up areas isn’t the most targeted thing one can do, now is it? And for what tangible benefit? For Israel to perform an action that they know will cause so much ‘collateral damage’ (which human life SHOULD NEVER BE) is not something to be criticised heavily.
II
What pains me as a human being, also pains me as a Zionist. Jews and Zionists have already responded by saying “....but what else can Israel do about Hamas?”; “... maybe it is wrong but you can understand why Israel felt it had to do it” and “Don’t you know what Hamas do?”. Yes I do understand and I do know. I said so above. And? What has this to do with the morality of this action? This pains me because we are reducing ourselves to the scum-bag moral level that so-called supporters of the Palestinians show.
People like ‘Baroness Tonge’ understand Palestinian suicide bombers, groups like Jews for Justice for the Palestinians continually point out the ‘oppression’ of the Israelis, and terrorists ask “what else can we do?” The only question we have to ask about suicide bombing is whether it is anything but morally outrageous. Once we know it is, no amount of understanding can serve as a justification for their actions. When Zionists start to use their arguments and we have descended to their moral level, we know we have a problem.
There is a moral disease spreading round the globe. The ‘liberal left’ seem to be infected, the condition in the Arab world seems terminal and I really hope and pray that we are just suffering a bout of illness that will clear up. Where the dignity of human life is sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, someone’s moral condition is at critical.
III
Israel’s actions are frankly what Hamas wants. They are a group that simultaneously spread and feed on this disease. They don’t care about the lives of the Palestinians, one iota. The more Palestinians killed, the more grist to their mill. The worse their lives, the more supporters they have. The more they can provoke Israel, the more hate they can create. They have learnt that terrorism works. TERRORISM ABSOLUTELY BLOODY WORKS.
It doesn’t work in the sense of helping anyone but works in the sense of fulfilling their aims. It works in convincing people of the essential rightness of a position that is essentially wrong. Where the ‘rightness’ of your position is more important to you than human suffering, then they have a great strategy. They can do absolutely anything and get away with it, knowing that they can always lay the blame elsewhere. They don’t have to take moral responsibility for their actions because they were forced into it by “external conditions”. Say it enough and people believe you. Be consistent in your evil and people will understand you. Mobilise everyone on your side and make your enemy think the same way.
IV
Israel try to do the right thing, they get blamed. They try to be PR friendly, they fail. They try to get help from other countries to sort out the terrorists, none is forthcoming. They have a free press and independent judiciary, the world turns it against them. They try their war criminals and their corrupt politicians, they are made out to be nothing but corrupt and criminal. They try for a two-state solution, Palestinians demand its destruction. They try and sort out terrorism themselves, they get mulled. And so on and so on and so on.
EVERYTHING ISRAEL DOES IS ‘WRONG’, SO WHY BE RIGHT? Just as Hamas can do anything and be liked, Israel can do everything short of failing to exist and be hated. Israel’s moral standards do not lead to a moral solution. They will simultaneously get attacked and be blamed for it. The double standards of the international community mean that people will never accept a secure Israel that is able to defend its citizens. This leads to the paradoxical position (to the glee of Hamas) that far from international opinion constraining Israel, it releases them. If they’ll be blamed no matter what, what does is matter to the Israeli government whether they do this or that?
Why risk a targeted ground attack risking Israeli soldiers when you can air bomb the targets? Why warn people in Lebanon that they will be bombed if Hezbollah will intentionally put citizens in just those places? Why allow easy access of supplied to Gaza when they will just use it to transport bombs? Why sit back and let your citizens be bombed by Kassams when you take actions accident. Because the result will be the same- Israel will be ‘in the wrong’ according to international. So Israel might as well do whatever is best for their position, the position we know to be a valuable one, no? NO. ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY-NOT.
AND I WILL TELL YOU WHY. It is immoral to not allow people humanitarian aid, immoral to endanger innocent lives unnecessarily and immoral to do things which you could not otherwise justify. “What else can we do?” does not overturn a moral decision. It is not a justification. That is Hamas’ position. IT IS THEIR DISEASE. Advancing the ‘right’ position (whether right or otherwise) does not, in an individual moral decision, trump the dignity and infinite value of human life.
I don’t give a flying f*** about world opinion (or at least I should not) but as a human, I care about life and as a Zionist, I care is about the moral integrity of Israel. Let us not be morally debased and stand against wrong wherever it can be found. If, on the other hand, we take Hamas’ position and do whatever they want, then we not only confirm their position to the world but in our own souls
V
At the beginning of last year, Akram, the head of PSG and a co-founder of Leeds Shalom-Salaam told me that Palestinians just want to get on with their everyday lives, want to go to work, and want to raise their families. This, he said, trumps ideology. As a Palestinian himself, I very much wanted to believe him. I still have to have faith that this is true of most Palestinians, but the actions of groups like Hamas and PSG (on Leeds campus and elsewhere) seriously undermine that. If their intentions are good, their actions betray them.
Golda Meir once said, “We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”. Unfortunately, this is not yet true. Or if it is, and Akram is right, then Hamas have helped spread the disease to me and undermined my ability to see the good in the other side. I must, at least, make sure that our side stays good. Actions, like today’s, make me lose faith. They make me hate Hamas and despair of Israel. They make me see black.
Tonight, we must pray for the Palestinians who have lost their life. We must reaffirm our morality and say that human life is infinite. We must help Israel remain morally strong and a blessing in the world. We must strengthen our resolve to see a solution to this conflict that aids every person’s dignity. We must leave vengeance of our enemies to G-d and not take it upon ourselves. We must weep the tears of others.
Today Hamas has got what it wanted. Today it has celebrated yet another victory. Having riled Israel, committed thousands of unforgivable acts and mobilised world opinion against Israel, it has got Israel to perform an immoral act. Providing no avenue for any constructive solutions to the situation, Hamas have called Israel’s “What else can we do?” card into play to justify something that couldn’t otherwise be justified.
To come from Shabbat to find out that Israel has conducted massive air raids on Gaza and have killed over 200 people is quite frankly sickening. 200 people dead. Forget the rhetoric for a minute, forget who is in the right or in the wrong and forget the situation. Were Israel 100% in the right and it 100% necessary (which it was not), there would be no other reaction one should have apart from desolation. If in Judaism we are taught not to rejoice over the downfall of our enemies, how much more so if innocent civilians have been killed?
It must never be forgotten that hundreds and thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel. Israel must never apologise for the residents of Sderot being well drilled in what to do in an emergency, bomb shelters being effective, or Kassam rockets being crap. Israelis and Zionists must always prefer less people to be killed and have less popularity rather than vice versa. Israel must ALWAYS believe it has a right to exist and never be downhearted or think twice. This is not a numbers game and ‘amount dead’ on each side does not equate to the morality of one’s position.
Yet.... Yet... we must never be desensitized to the amount of pain, hurt and anguish caused to the Palestinians through the death of thousands of them over the years. We must never be deaf to the cries of mothers who have lost their children. Suffering is no one nation’s province. Hurt goes beyond ideology, politics or religion. Tears are a universal language. Israel should never forget this and should never perform an action they know to unnecessarily increase this.
They seem to have forgotten this. Bombing in heavily built-up areas isn’t the most targeted thing one can do, now is it? And for what tangible benefit? For Israel to perform an action that they know will cause so much ‘collateral damage’ (which human life SHOULD NEVER BE) is not something to be criticised heavily.
II
What pains me as a human being, also pains me as a Zionist. Jews and Zionists have already responded by saying “....but what else can Israel do about Hamas?”; “... maybe it is wrong but you can understand why Israel felt it had to do it” and “Don’t you know what Hamas do?”. Yes I do understand and I do know. I said so above. And? What has this to do with the morality of this action? This pains me because we are reducing ourselves to the scum-bag moral level that so-called supporters of the Palestinians show.
People like ‘Baroness Tonge’ understand Palestinian suicide bombers, groups like Jews for Justice for the Palestinians continually point out the ‘oppression’ of the Israelis, and terrorists ask “what else can we do?” The only question we have to ask about suicide bombing is whether it is anything but morally outrageous. Once we know it is, no amount of understanding can serve as a justification for their actions. When Zionists start to use their arguments and we have descended to their moral level, we know we have a problem.
There is a moral disease spreading round the globe. The ‘liberal left’ seem to be infected, the condition in the Arab world seems terminal and I really hope and pray that we are just suffering a bout of illness that will clear up. Where the dignity of human life is sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, someone’s moral condition is at critical.
III
Israel’s actions are frankly what Hamas wants. They are a group that simultaneously spread and feed on this disease. They don’t care about the lives of the Palestinians, one iota. The more Palestinians killed, the more grist to their mill. The worse their lives, the more supporters they have. The more they can provoke Israel, the more hate they can create. They have learnt that terrorism works. TERRORISM ABSOLUTELY BLOODY WORKS.
It doesn’t work in the sense of helping anyone but works in the sense of fulfilling their aims. It works in convincing people of the essential rightness of a position that is essentially wrong. Where the ‘rightness’ of your position is more important to you than human suffering, then they have a great strategy. They can do absolutely anything and get away with it, knowing that they can always lay the blame elsewhere. They don’t have to take moral responsibility for their actions because they were forced into it by “external conditions”. Say it enough and people believe you. Be consistent in your evil and people will understand you. Mobilise everyone on your side and make your enemy think the same way.
IV
Israel try to do the right thing, they get blamed. They try to be PR friendly, they fail. They try to get help from other countries to sort out the terrorists, none is forthcoming. They have a free press and independent judiciary, the world turns it against them. They try their war criminals and their corrupt politicians, they are made out to be nothing but corrupt and criminal. They try for a two-state solution, Palestinians demand its destruction. They try and sort out terrorism themselves, they get mulled. And so on and so on and so on.
EVERYTHING ISRAEL DOES IS ‘WRONG’, SO WHY BE RIGHT? Just as Hamas can do anything and be liked, Israel can do everything short of failing to exist and be hated. Israel’s moral standards do not lead to a moral solution. They will simultaneously get attacked and be blamed for it. The double standards of the international community mean that people will never accept a secure Israel that is able to defend its citizens. This leads to the paradoxical position (to the glee of Hamas) that far from international opinion constraining Israel, it releases them. If they’ll be blamed no matter what, what does is matter to the Israeli government whether they do this or that?
Why risk a targeted ground attack risking Israeli soldiers when you can air bomb the targets? Why warn people in Lebanon that they will be bombed if Hezbollah will intentionally put citizens in just those places? Why allow easy access of supplied to Gaza when they will just use it to transport bombs? Why sit back and let your citizens be bombed by Kassams when you take actions accident. Because the result will be the same- Israel will be ‘in the wrong’ according to international. So Israel might as well do whatever is best for their position, the position we know to be a valuable one, no? NO. ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY-NOT.
AND I WILL TELL YOU WHY. It is immoral to not allow people humanitarian aid, immoral to endanger innocent lives unnecessarily and immoral to do things which you could not otherwise justify. “What else can we do?” does not overturn a moral decision. It is not a justification. That is Hamas’ position. IT IS THEIR DISEASE. Advancing the ‘right’ position (whether right or otherwise) does not, in an individual moral decision, trump the dignity and infinite value of human life.
I don’t give a flying f*** about world opinion (or at least I should not) but as a human, I care about life and as a Zionist, I care is about the moral integrity of Israel. Let us not be morally debased and stand against wrong wherever it can be found. If, on the other hand, we take Hamas’ position and do whatever they want, then we not only confirm their position to the world but in our own souls
V
At the beginning of last year, Akram, the head of PSG and a co-founder of Leeds Shalom-Salaam told me that Palestinians just want to get on with their everyday lives, want to go to work, and want to raise their families. This, he said, trumps ideology. As a Palestinian himself, I very much wanted to believe him. I still have to have faith that this is true of most Palestinians, but the actions of groups like Hamas and PSG (on Leeds campus and elsewhere) seriously undermine that. If their intentions are good, their actions betray them.
Golda Meir once said, “We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us”. Unfortunately, this is not yet true. Or if it is, and Akram is right, then Hamas have helped spread the disease to me and undermined my ability to see the good in the other side. I must, at least, make sure that our side stays good. Actions, like today’s, make me lose faith. They make me hate Hamas and despair of Israel. They make me see black.
Tonight, we must pray for the Palestinians who have lost their life. We must reaffirm our morality and say that human life is infinite. We must help Israel remain morally strong and a blessing in the world. We must strengthen our resolve to see a solution to this conflict that aids every person’s dignity. We must leave vengeance of our enemies to G-d and not take it upon ourselves. We must weep the tears of others.
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