Cluster bombs versus open hearts

Image by Daniel Klein.

Mine! Mine! Mine! Praise God. . .

This is perhaps the worst thing people do: they take their deepest values ​​– connection, love, empathy – down to a religion, a name (let’s say Christianity, or Judaism, or whatever) and suddenly they have a flag. to brandish and a ’cause’ to wage war for. And the blood flows. Kill the savages! Kill the infidels! Kill the enemy! (Take their country.)

Here is the question of the day, as Israel continues to inflict hell and famine on Gaza, while brutal conflict and murder rage across the planet: how can we reclaim – and preserve – the integrity of our deepest values? Acting from love and connection with an ‘Other’ is, or can be, remarkably complex; Declaring the Other as an evil being who does not deserve to live not only simplifies things immensely, but also allows a part of humanity to connect with itself in fear of that enemy.

And when it comes to war, the mainstream American media basically shrugs and says, well, that’s how it is – at least if the US supplies the weaponry, if they don’t actually deliver “shock and awe” to the declared enemy. Oh God, this is insane. How do we live our values ​​in all their complexity? How do we embrace and caress the fragile future instead of holding it hostage?

Naomi Klein recently spoke at a public seder held in opposition to the Gaza attack – the Emergency Seder in the Streets in New York City – and spoke of “the human tendency to worship the profane and shiny, to look for the small and to look materially instead of at the great and transcendent.

“. . . too many of our people,” she said, “are once again worshiping a false idol. . . . That false idol is called Zionism. . . . It is a false idol that equates Jewish freedom with cluster bombs that kill and maim Palestinian children.”

And war causes nothing but war. It keeps everyone scared. As Eran Zelnik, a history professor who grew up in Israel and served in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a young man, wrote:

“I believe that as Jews we must embrace the universal lessons of the Holocaust and declare the ongoing events in Gaza a genocide and oppose an out-of-control right-wing government that is increasingly embroiling the entire region in war.”

Ironically, he adds

“The Zionist interpretation of the Holocaust, which has proven not only morally compromised but also ineffective – has offered no protection to the Jews. In fact, nowhere in the world is Jews more likely to be harmed en masse than in Israel today. . .”

Zelnik recognizes that paradox and contradiction are part of the human condition – and certainly part of the division of the planet into nation states.

“But,” he notes,

‘There comes a time when contradictions can no longer – and indeed no longer – continue to exist together, in people as well as in nations. For Jews around the world, such a time has clearly arrived. Now more than ever we are witnessing a confrontation between the two lessons of the Holocaust, with a growing number of Jews outside Israel recognizing in the slogan “never again” a deeply universalist commitment to humanity. . . .”

The time has come for a large part of humanity. The protest momentum is huge and growing, as is the stop-the-protest movement – ​​that is, the determination of government officials to silence and shut down campus protests, with students calling on their universities to get rid of the military. industrial complex and the Israeli war machine.

As Marjorie Cohn writes:

“At this moment in history, two related military occupations are taking place simultaneously – 6,000 miles apart. One of these is Israel’s ongoing 57-year occupation of Palestinian territory, which is now taking the form of a full-fledged genocide that has claimed the lives of more than 34,000 Palestinians. The other is at Columbia University, where the government has asked the New York Police Department to occupy the school until May 17. Both professions are fueled by the Zionist power structure. Both have weaponized anti-Semitism to rationalize their brutality.”

Noting that more than 2,300 people have currently been arrested or detained on campuses across the country, she points out: “Israel has damaged or destroyed every university in Gaza. But not a single university president has denounced the genocide in Israel or supported calls for divestment.”

And the stop-the-protests movement does not stop at arrests and occasional police violence against demonstrators. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed something called the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which is now making its way through the Senate.

Chris Anders, director of the ACLU’s Democracy and Technology Policy Division, said:

“This bill would throw the full weight of the federal government into an effort to stifle criticism of Israel and risks politicizing the enforcement of federal civil rights statutes at the very time when their robust protections are most needed. The Senate must block this bill before it is too late.”

Well, we’ll see, right? As I do my best to continue absorbing these developments, I feel a continuing need to remain aware that this is not simply an us versus them conflict – Zionism bad versus Zionism good. The efforts to stop the protests certainly want to portray it that way, psychologically tying the protesters down with the label “anti-Semitic.”

This is insane, not just because so many of the protesters are Jewish. It’s also crazy because the protesters desperately want to bring the spiritual values ​​of every religion – Jewish, Christian, Muslim and so many others – into full global play. Every human life is precious. We are – all of us – connected at the core of our being. Realizing this is extremely complex. We must get rid of the bombs, weapons and hatred and open our hearts to understand each other.