JEWISH EXPERIENCE (Cont.)

My August 2 blog quoted extensively from an
article by Kim Chernin entitled "Seven Pillars of
Jewish Denial," found in Vol. 17, No. 5, of Tikkun,
a magazine of and for the Israeli peace movement.
Here is my remaining quotation from that article:

Obstacle 7
Ideology vs. Living People?

"At one extreme, the decision to further occupy the
West Bank is guided by a sense of Jewish destiny and
by an ideology that claims Judea and Samaria as Jewish
sacred ground. These claims are based on archaic
conversations with God. The Orthodox families moving
to the settlements will set themselves down among a
hostile population, will be trained to shoot, and will
paticipate in the further partition of Palestinian lands.
They will take up a great deal of water when there is
already not enough water for their neighbors, many of
whom go for days without being able to wash or even
drink. In service to an archaic idea these people will
see their Arab neighbors, not as a humbled, battered,
impoverished, hopeless people, but as a potent enemy
living illegitimately on ancient Jewish land. In the grip
of ideology some things get neglected. Living people,
the present, the sanctity of civilian life become less
important than what, exactly? An idea? The idea of
the Jewish people as chosen by God, living out a
covenant with Him?

When I first went to Israel in 1971 I was on my way to
a new kibbutz in the Golan Heights. It was a bleak, grim,
heavily armed place with living conditions as rough as
those faced by the early pioneers. There were no trees
on this kibbutz, no gardens, no fields, no grazing animals.
It was an armed camp made up of mud, reserve fences,
and young Israelis who were there to hold the newly
acquired land. I was convinced I belonged with them,
although I was not invited to stay. Today I want to ask
that younger self: What can it mean to be God's people
if this election does not come with a concern for all
living peoples? Would it mean that the God who once
spoke to our people has nothing new to say?"

These have only been excerpts from a powerful,
insightful article that I hope you all will track down
and read. For my part, this is a continuing quest to
understand the Israelis and their attitudes and
actions toward Palestinians. I remain baffled by the
Israeli lobby (AIPAC) and there 100% support for
the ruthless oppression and suppression of the
Palestinians that so outrages and alienates the
Muslim world, and is a major cause of Muslim
terrorism.

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net