Alert by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)

An important alert from different Jewish peace groups. Please read and follow up on some of the calls for action.Shalom = Salaam,

Elrig
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Alert—from Sydney Levy

Let me cut down to the chase. We have just learned that a number of Israeli peace activists have had their computers confiscated, have been called for interrogations, and have only been released upon signing agreements not to contact their political friends for 30 days. We are asking you to contact the Israeli Attorney General to demand an immediate stop to this harassment.

The activists targeted are members of New Profile, a group of feminist women and men daring to suggest that Israel need not be a militarized society. They are being wrongfully accused of inciting young people—like the shministim—not to enlist in the army. The charge is not true. While New Profile does not tell youngsters not to enlist, they certainly support those who do not: pacifists, those who oppose the occupation, and others. New Profile informs them of their rights and gives them legal support when necessary. But Israel is a country that does not acknowledge the basic human right to conscientious objection.

The government's accusation against New Profile is not new. It has been out there for some time, as a source of harassment. Today's police actions tighten the screws considerably. We've seen how international pressure has helped get many shministim out of jail. Now it's time to put as much pressure so that Israeli peace activists can do their work free of intimidation.

I leave you with a note from New Profile: "These recent acts confirm what we have been contending for many years: the militarism of society in Israel harms the sacred principles of democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of political association. One who believed that until now criminal files were conjured up "only" for Arab citizens of Israel saw this morning that none of us can be certain that s/he can freely express an opinion concerning the failures of society and rule in Israel."

MORE INFORMATION
Read more - click here.
Support Israeli activists - here.

For interviews:
Dr. Diana Dolev, telephone: 052 872 8300
Attorney Smadar Ben Nathan, telephone: 052 358 9775

For further details:
Ofra Leith, telephone: 0502 4372
Eilat Maoz, Coordinator of the Women's Coalition for Peace, telephone: 050 857 5729

On trauma, its memory, its future, its repetition?

Tonight started Yom Shoah, the day of remembrance of the holocaust- a sobering day for all of us. And I mean all of us.
Roger Cohen writes an interesting piece on Israel's need for closure in today's NYT. Two quotes I can only agree with:

“The biggest risk to Israel is Israel.”

The second is from Ehud Barak:

“Every attempt to keep hold of this area as one political entity leads, necessarily, to either a non-democratic or a non-Jewish state, because if the Palestinians vote, then it is a binational state, and if they don’t vote it is an apartheid state ...”*

In an older post I wrote that "The beliefs we feed now create the world we will live in tomorrow." (See The Words of War to the Death in Palestine.) Cohen for his part concludes:

"Closure ... cannot be attained through the inflation of threats, the perpetuation of fears, or retreat into the victimhood that sees every act, however violent, as defensive."

The current tone promoting paranoia, racism and more and more radical (aka lethal) "solutions" certainly does not encourage closure.

Shalom.


Elrig
PS: As always good column by David, also related to this topic. See http://hoseyblog.blog.com/4848847/

* I would ask what about a Federation of a Jewish State and a Multicultural Palestinian State, where members of one state can be resident in the other? That would solve the "Jewish identity" issue, allow settlers to get their Palestinian green card if they so desire to live in "Judea and Samaria", and give a viable option for Jerusalem residents. (I did not make that up - I heard a former Palestinian negotiator raise that option once in public.)

Picture Source: http://college.usc.edu/vhi/images/01_26_07.jpg

Wrong and Wronger

In the last three weeks, there have been two incidents whereby authorities -- once Israeli and once Palestinian -- disrupted and suppressed peaceful cultural events (all by Palestinians). Both were wrong, but this is a good illustration of how Palestinians let themselves get caught in a corner. Israelis were wrong, but served their purpose, while Palestinians were wrong and hurt their cause.

1- First there was the cultural festival of "Jerusalem, Cultural Capital of the Arab World 2009," with dance, music, art exhibit all around the West Bank and Jerusalem. The teenage daughter of our landlord desperately hoped we would see her group dance the Dabka in their traditional dance costume. In a place that's too often bleak, it's wonderful to see kids and adults get excited about something creative and joyful.

Now, of course from the Israeli standpoint the entire premise of the expansion of Israel's territory and the 'indivisible Jerusalem' is to deny the very obvious reality of the Arab presence in Jerusalem. It takes walls, house demolitions, expulsions and subjugation to make that denial a reality--it's a very active policy. And letting Arabs celebrate Jerusalem as any kind of a capital is obviously not something "tolerable" to this ethno-political ideology.

For all those who question, "why don't the Palestinian do peaceful things rather than encourage suicide bombers?" here's a case in point. Hopelessness is not the inherent fruit of Arab culture - no matter what its flaws - it is a product of the occupation. So the Israeli government sent in the police and all events around Jerusalem were canceled. (Read here.) My landlord's daughter didn't get to dance with her group. She was reminded that she is a non-citizen of a non-state and thereby not entitled to the common rights of all people. Even though her parents, grand parents, great grand parents and so forth have been in this place through generations.

Israel is wrong. Dead wrong. But this wrong is serving its political ideology of crushing the Palestinians into submission, denying existence and expression. It's a wrong which serves a purpose -- even if it's an immoral one.

2- Next comes the Palestinian example of Wafa Younis, a violinist and peace activitist who gives lessons to children in Jenin. Not only that, but she goes back and forth between Jenin (West Bank) and Israel and uses music as a way to create a different reality than checkpoints, soldiers, freedom fighters and terrorists. She uses art to recognize the humanity of all and the value of all humans. Not to mention that these kind of activities are desperately needed by children and youth in the grey world of refugee camps (where she works) and West Bank cities.

Now as part of her efforts, Mrs. Younis performed for survivors of the Holocaust as well as for Palestinian families who lost a member of their family to war and occupation. What a statement: 'let us acknowledge our diverse losses and traumas, acknowledge our humanity, and use art to speak healing to all of us (rather than use our respective traumas and pains to invalidate the Other).' That's serious peace work and it's gutsy.

What happened (read here) is that the Palestinian security forces in Jenin ended up closing down her operation because she had played for Holocaust survivors (presumably because of concerns that it showed 'fraternizing with the occupier and normalizing relations while Jenin is very much still occupied and suffering).

The first thing of interest is the narrative of how this happened. If you trust the Haaretz article, it seems that the security personnel sent to interrupt her wasn't too happy about it and pulled some legalese (e.g. being an Israeli citizen she is not allowed in the West Bank by the Israelis--something which usually does not concern the Palestinians). Then it seems the orders came from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which itself has done a lot to show goodwill and cooperation with the Israelis (perhaps too much). So, it's unlikely that President Mahmoud Abbas or Prime Minister Fayyad were really personnally upset at these activities. No, it seems they decided to react because of the accusation put by Hamas that they are "normalizing relations" (aka collaborating) with the Israelis.* The bottomline motivation was internal politics and posturing.

End result: we see that a security forces officer did something he did not believe in, under orders from a government which did not believe in it either, to appease internal political posturing against a political group which has been excluded from government of the West Bank.

This is my point: the Palestinians were here just as wrong as the Israelis in the previous example. The only difference is that in the Israeli case, actions were taken from top to bottow (law enforcement) to pursue a clear and single agenda (essentially the judaization of Jerusalem** in this case). While, in the Palestinian case, each level of action was motivated by a different short-view agenda and the ultimate result did nothing to advance the overall Palestinian strategy. (What it did is reinforce anti-Palestinian propaganda on the lines of "the Palestinian Authority opposes playing music to Holocaust survivors and hence, perhaps, is still denying the Holocaust, even worst planning the new one, etc.")

My conclusions?

• Short-sighted political idiocy abounds, but when the field is not even and you're losing the battle, you have to be smarter and better than the other team. Otherwise you keep losing.
• People like Wafa Younis are the people who will create the change we need. Some of my friends see those with a gun as "realists" and those with a violin as "idealists." Well - feel free to call them what you want, they impress the heck out of me and I'm betting my life that the violin beats the gun in the end. That's what faith tells me.
  

Wafa - and others like her, Palestinian, Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Secular - are the ones telling a story for the people, all the people. Holocaust survivors and Nakba survivors. More importantly she is telling a story for today and tomorrow, one where we can all live in peace.

Idealists change the world.

Salaam - Shalom,



Elrig

* This is happening in the context of national reconciliation discussions taking place in Cairo.
** For a glimpse of the personal significance of this to flesh and blood individuals, read Marlin's interesting vignette here.

Picture source: http://z.about.com/d/middleeast/1/0/6/6/-/-/0329-wafa.jpg

The U.S. sacrificed 120,000 lives to an idol since 9/11 only

Guns seem to be the topic du jour...(See the excellent column by Bob Herbert in today's NYT.)

I regularly go into circular debates about gun deaths in America with some of my more conservative friends. We usually go nowhere. It is not that we disagree on what needs to be done, but my friends disagree that anything either (1) can be done, or (2) should be done. Alternatively they argue that if anything is done, well... in the 80's the commies were going to come and take over the Capitol, or there's always the Government, or someone ill-defined which currently is dissuaded from invading not by the US Armed Forces or Police, but by the heat packed by average Jo's, plumbers and all -- anyway "they" are going to come and it will be the end of that if we surrender our guns.

I usually try to point out that common sense gun laws don't even have to 'take away the guns,' but that a nice licensing and registration program and proscribing of anonymous gun sales would go a long way in reducing the Uzzi distribution in American inner-cities. I also point out that the French only have 30% fewer guns than the Americans per capita but simply don't die in the calamitous proportions observed in the US.

I'm faced with the same slogans: 'if we take the guns away, the bad guys won't listen to the law and the good people will not be safe.' As if they were safe now; as if we were powerless to have a rule of law at all. And I always ask, 'what about the French bad guys?' Either the French police and gendarmerie are exceptionally more gifted than their American counterparts at taking the guns away from bad guys, or the French bad guys are inherently better people than the American bad guys. If we assume that 'bad guys always get the guns' then those are the only explanations. [I must say that the inherent sinlessness of the French is a thought-challenging and original implied suggestion from my American friends. We are deeply grateful and we concur!]

With Christian friends, I also get lost in long discussions about every solution being purely symptomatic but that the root problem is sin, which is better left to spiritual efforts. The implied conclusion is still that we (1) can't or (2) shouldn't do anything about guns. This baffles me, because--while the concept of sin is not unfamiliar to me--my friends also don't mind using the rule of law to proscribe gay marriage, proscribe abortion, enforce speed limits, prevent or punish theft and robbery, etc. It's just on this one issue -- guns -- that nothing practical can be done.

I have come to the conclusion that this issue reveals a mixture of two things:

• A cultural blind spot. It seems almost all societies have their blind spots which they can't look into, no matter how much evidence there is. The French have theirs, Arab societies have theirs, the Brits must have theirs and Americans have this one.
• A peculiar form of idolatry. I use the word with caution, but this gun-worship comes along with an inordinate societal attraction for violence. Everyone in France has heard of Malick Houssekine, a young man who died of police violence in the 1980's in the aftermath of a large scale demonstration. Many Americans have never heard of Amadou Diallo, a West African American Resident who was shot 41 times by five police officers in New York City in the early 2000's. The point is not to focus on police violence but to recognize that America can't keep up with its violent deaths, gang deaths, office shootings, suicide by guns, accidents, school shootings, etc.

Bob Herbert presents it very articulately. The figure is astounding:

Since 9/11 only, there have been 120,000 gun deaths in the US.
120,000.
120,000 lives.
One every 17 minutes.
8 kids every day.
8 kids
every day
day after day.


You can do something: license, register, close the anonymous sale loopholes, enforce. And not at a local level, unless you want checkpoints between Maryland and Virginia.

But I agree with my friends-- it is a spiritual issue. People need to turn back from gun-worship. In religious terms, "turning back" is called repenting. But it's so rooted in many people's psyche, I also don't think political lobbying and activism will suffice. Prayer might help break the hold of the idol on people's mind. That will help pass common sense laws and save lives. Let's say half of those 8 kids a day. That's a start.

Peace,

Elrig

(Go to the excellent column by Bob Herbert in today's NYT.)

PS: After the exchange of comments with Alexis below - I went back and dug this out:

TITLE: Australia's 1 996 gun law reforms: faster falls in firearm deaths, firearm suicides, and a decade without mass shootings.
ABSTRACT:
Background: After a 1996 firearm massacre in Tasmania in which 35 people died, Australian governments united to remove semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns and rifles from civilian possession, as a key component of gun law reforms. Objective: To determine whether Australia's 1996 malor gun law reforms were associated with changes in rates of mass firearm homicides, total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides, and whether there were any apparent method substitution effects for total homicides and suicides. Design: Observational study using official statistics. Negative binomial regression analysis of changes in firearm death rates and comparison of trends in pre-post gun law reform firearm-related mass killings. Setting: Australia, 1979-2003. Main outcome measures: Changes in trends of total firearm death rates, mass fatal shooting incidents, rates of firearm homicide, suicide and unintentional firearm deaths, and of total homicides and suicides per 100 000 population. Results: In the 18 years before the gun law reforms, there were 1 3 mass shootings in Australia, and none in the 10.5 years afterwards. Declines in firearm-related deaths before the law reforms accelerated after the reforms for total firearm deaths (p=0.04), firearm suicides (p=0.007) and firearm homicides (p=0.15), but not for the smallest category of unintentional firearm deaths, which increased. No evidence of substitution effect for suicides or homicides was observed. The rates per 100 000 of total firearm deaths, firearm homicides and firearm suicides all at least doubled their existing rates of decline after the revised gun laws. Conclusions: Australia's 1996 gun law reforms were followed by more than a decade free of fatal mass shootings, and accelerated declines in firearm deaths, particularly suicides. Total homicide rates followed the same pattern. Removing large numbers of rapid-firing firearms from civilians may be an effective way of reducing mass shootings, firearm...
SOURCE: Injury Prevention; Dec2006, Vol. 12 Issue 6, p365-372

From Tikkun: Morality, Judaism and The Crimes in Gaza

Jewish believers, friends of a viable Israeli State and American supporters of Israel must read the comments from Tikkun and Rabbi Michael Lerner.

In the meantime, listen to and read this letter to Obama from an Israeli woman, written back on the day of his inauguration. The price for having a conscience is such a "pain in our stomachs."

Elrig

************************************ FROM TIKKUN***************************

Whenever human rights violations have occurred, the Israeli propaganda machine in the US and Israel proclaim that Israel has "the most moral army in the world and adheres to a doctrine of "tehorat haneshek" (purity of arms) that is a higher standard than any other fighting force in the world. Yet Occupation always and inevitably undermines such intentions. And as Ethan Bronner documented in theNY Times on March 22, there is a significant voice of religious Jews who no longer believe that they have a moral obligation to treat Palestinians by such higher standards, and that group has increasing influence in the Israeli Army's actual practice. Yet you don't have to be a Jewish religious extremist to treat Palestinians harshly--the logic of Occupation itself pulls for a disregard for the humanity of the occupied by the occupiers. And now we have concrete proof--supplied by the soldiers themselves. And what will the Israeli propaganda machine do? What it always does--it will set out to attack those who have raised the issue rather than addressing the substance of the charges.

All this deeply saddens us at Tikkun. We reject the notion that Israel is worse than all the other countries of the world--a notion that is too prominent in some circles of the Left. Similarly, we reject the notion that Judaism or "religion" automatically leads to these kinds of distortions. What is happening is a product of a specific set of historical circumstances--the Occupation, the moral failure of the Israeli Left to challenge the ethical distortions of the Occupation, the blind loyalty of American Jewish institutions to the Israeli government no matter what it does, the capitulation of Congress and every American Administration including the current Obama Administration to the political pressure from the Israel Lobby (which is composed not only of Jewish forces but also of the Christian Right), and the failure of the American media to honestly report what is happening while excluding from public presence voices like that of Tikkun which provide a different narrative and analysis to that of the propagandists. From our perspective, all this is tragic, will likely lead to decreased support for Israel in the long run and also to a growing rejection of Judaism on the part of young Jews who cannot accept a Jewish world that has lost its ethical moorings. So we send out this information not to rejoice in some "gotcha" but in mourning for the high values of the Jewish people, as well as in sympathy with the suffering of the Palestinian people and the people of Israel who are not served by this Occupation.

Please read the details of the latest revelations, plus the latest analysis of them by Gideon Levy, at www.tikkun.org/article.php?story=20090322141045456

Economic Crisis and Life-Giving Spirituality

I've got to admit, more often than not I write about political issues. I was going to say 'about political issues, not spiritual issues,' but I don't understand how you can be 'spiritual' without being political. You can be political and not spiritual. Maybe. But you sure as heck can't be concerned with the Life of the Human Spirit -- whether you consider our connection to one another or to a Higher Power -- without at least putting politics in the equation.

Let me restate: if you think you can, it's because your forefathers were never under slavery, victims of a genocide or ethnic cleansing, you never spent a day in a slum, you never met someone dying for lack of access to health care, and you've never seen a mother separated from her kids at a checkpoint.

So when I write about political issues, particularly in a Land which has the arrogance of calling itself Holy, I am (also) writing of spiritual things.

But this time, allow me to foray into a spiritual meditation. I believe in clarifying language, so allow me a longer introduction to clarify my use of spiritual lingo.

You can be spiritual without being a Christian, a believer in any Monotheistic religion, or any religion at all. A Chinese friend of mine told me that when Communism crashed as an ideology in China, the country found itself without any known spiritual values (and everything needed to be reinvented). I personally think that Communism was probably as bankrupt spiritually as Greed -- I mean Capitalism -- but it nonetheless had a spiritual component. End of the digression: "spiritual" does not mean "religious."

And correspondingly being "Christian" or "religious" does not mean you're necessarily more spiritual than the next guy. It probably should, but it's not always the case. Religious people can be militaristic, materialistic, violent and hateful as much as the next guy. (Come visit the Holy Land!) I suppose all these things have a spiritual component -- even admiration for an F-16 -- but not the kind of life-giving, healing, redemptive spiritual value I'm interested in.

So, after these caveats, allow me to continue.

We're in a context of economic crisis. I don't feel it because I haven't lost my job or my home. If I did, I'm sure I'd perceive this much more as a reality. But it is a reality for many.*

But the extent of this economic crisis and its relationship with our unsustainable mode of production and consumption is--for once--well described by Thomas Friedman. I usually disagree with Friedman, notably on his views of the Arab world, but since he seems to get it this time, I recommend his column (click here).

I'm not going to go into further analysis and recommendations, as I have none. But I want to post here and excellent writing by Robb Davis on what Life-Giving Spirituality might mean in a time of not only economic crisis, but quite possible collapse of references particularly in the US where the prosperous have been sheltered from the un-prosperous so effectively. I have few readers but they are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Agnostic -- I think there's something of value to all in Robb's text.

You can click here to visit Robb's page, but I'm pasting his last entry below and invite you to read it. (I kind of assume Robb is allowing me to do so. Hey! It's the blogosphere; if we can't pillage and plunder, what good is it?)

Thanks Robb,

Elrig

* The crisis seems for now to be better shouldered in Europe than in the US, because Europe has kept relatively stronger elements of social protection than the US. This burdens us economically (yes, it does) and those who can climb can't climb as high as fast as their Americans counterparts can when things go well, but when the going gets tough and we start falling, we fall slower and we buffer the fall a little better than the Americans.

*******************

On Weakness (a Lenten Reflection) - [Robb Davis]

I listen closely to a broad array of top economists who, collectively in this time, communicate a message of uncertainty, fear and warning about the potential for a severe and long-lasting economic downturn. Some are already experiencing the leading edge of this storm (here in CA unemployment is already near 16% in the central valley, areas in the rust belt can't be far behind), and it is a storm that is likely to lead to many changes--most of which no one can predict. There will be much pain, suffering, perhaps violence and, with all of this, the opportunity to live out the gospel in novel and life changing ways.

This much perhaps is not earth-shaking news. Many are wondering how to live faithfully in this time of uncertainty. I share that "wondering" and am thinking about how we might walk forward in this time. I don't have any economic solution to these present woes. I offer no "strategic plan". I offer merely a few reminders and an exhortation about faithfulness.

First, I think about the meaning of this season of Lent which is a time of reflection concerning the cross--the crux of history. As Jesus approached Jerusalem he did so in a spirit of service and with a clear sense that he would lay down his life. This embrace of weakness is remarkable and, in itself, stands as both a model for the way of the kingdom but also a judgment of world systems, principalities and powers who dehumanize and dominate by force. However as Marva Dawn points out in "Powers, Weakness and the Tabernacling of God" (if you have not read it I recommend it) Jesus' decision was not a simple one as he was confronted with an ongoing temptation to choose the way of domination. This temptation began before his public ministry began and clearly continued throughout that ministry and into the garden the night before his crucifixion. In other words, the choice of weakness was constantly challenged and the way of worldly power always present as a choice for Jesus. This makes his decision to take up the cross an amazing illustration of his love for us.

Dawn points out that the theme of weakness dominates the writings of Paul and other New Testament writers and suggests that Paul's words in I Corinthians 12 would best be translated this way:

...(B)ut he has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for your power is brought to its end in weakness." All the more gladly, then, will I boast in my weakness that the power of Christ (not mine!) may tabernacle upon me.

Powerful words--the tabernacling of God--the dwelling of Christ in us--comes when we acknowledge and embrace our weakness.

And so as we walk towards the cross--the crux--in this season, a season full of doubt, uncertainty and fear my exhortation to myself, to others, is to embrace this weakness and to publicly acknowledge that we have no solutions. We have no grand plans. We have no power to effect the kind of change that the world is clamoring for. What we have is weakness, and in that weakness we have hope that the Christ will powerfully use our humble obedience to accomplish his kingdom purposes on our midst (things like healing, freedom, sight, justice). Jacques Ellul in "L'homme et l'argent" makes it clear that "Mammon" is one of the powers that Jesus defeated at the cross. I will not, therefore, encourage people to trust God until the economy "turns around". Nor to "hunker down" until the storm blows over. Rather I encourage myself and others to meditate on a theology of weakness--that our trust in our own power might come to an end and that God might reveal God's power in us. We must envision, not some ideal economic order nor a return to the status quo of the "business cycle", but a way of walking each day in generosity--an open hand--in a time of testing. Only this can enable our liberation from the false promises of a modern economic system that has promised (but failed to deliver--as it must) security, comfort or "a better life".

I will demonstrate my commitment to this kind of walk by fasting and praying on Good Friday. May our prayers on that day be prayers of thanks that our power has come to an end. May they be prayers in which we "boast" in our weakness. And may we seek God's wisdom and guidance as we prepare to faithfully serve the suffering, oppressed and fearful in the days ahead. I agree with John Howard Yoder that the church carries the "inner meaning of history" in that God (for reasons that are a mystery) has chosen this entity to bring about the great unwinding of the fall.

************************

Stimulating read on radical living

Well, I'm not a radical, but here's a Young Turk* who's putting some serious thinking about what this might mean. Visit David's blog and read his entry on Christian Peacemaker Team member, Tom - who died three years ago in Iraq. I am not always sure what I think of such 'radical' people, but in a world which relishes "heroes" and "martyrs," you have to respect someone willing to lay down HIS life to love and help friends and enemies alike -- as opposed to someone willing to kill friends with enemies through an act of suicide; or someone willing to live with the collateral damage of his/her acts of war.

[And if you want a good read about people putting into question the US's excessive reliance on the military, check out David's blog entry just before that. (Click here.)]

Elrig
* There's a long tradition of me calling David names -- it has to do with all the beer he's plundered out of my fridge.