| Collective Corner |
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| Written by Natalie Engel | |||||
| Tuesday, 20 January 2004 | |||||
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Freedman and Solomon Discuss Dissent on Israel That American Jews are united in unwavering support for Israel and its citizens is often taken for granted by both Jews and non-Jews alike. But according to journalists Sam Freedman and Alisa Solomon, the truth is more complex. On November 24th, 2003 the two noted commentators tackled the issue of growing dissent over Israel within the American Jewish community at the inaugural seminar of the New Voices Collective. The Collective is a new program developed by the Jewish Student Press Service–publisher of New Voices, the national Jewish student magazine – and funded by the UJA-Federation of New York, which brings together young Jewish journalists to discuss issues of crucial importance to the Jewish community. Reflecting on the origin of the Israel divide and its possible implications for the future, Freedman and Solomon, traced a fault line of dissent that has gone largely unnoticed by the public. "When Yaron Israchi spoke to the general assembly of the United Jewish Communities, which met last week in Jerusalem, he said to them, ‘We’re all here in solidarity with Israel; but which Israel are we here in solidarity with?’" said Freedman. "I think that’s a valuable reminder that within the overall idea of feeling connected to Israel and feeling supportive of it, there has been – and always ought to be – dissent and disagreement." Those debates have largely defined American Jewry’s relationship to Israel, and date back to opposing views on Zionism from before the Second World War, said Freedman, whose book Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry won the National Book Award in 2001. When the Zionist movement began to emerge, so did a divide within America’s Jews. Members of the American Orthodox and Reform communities opposed the idea of Israeli statehood, for separate reasons, the mainstream of American Jewry gravitated towards Zionism. Yet even after the full magnitude of the Holocaust came to light - ending much of the formal opposition to Israeli statehood - and Israel had established itself as a nation, the overall sentiment of American Jews towards the new country remained apathetic. "Even after the partition of statehood is achieved and the War of Independence is fought, there’s still a rather non-energetic relationship of most American Jews to Israel," said Freedman. "A lot of American Jewish politicians don’t even go there, the number of American Jews who emigrate is very small —somewhere along the number of 1000 a year – and the Jewish lobby which we now think of as being such a powerhouse in Washington is minimal: APAC has three people in the mid-50s. And American policy under Truman, but especially under Eisenhower, is certainly not particularly pro-Israel." But according to Solomon, these sentiments changed with the Israeli victory in the 1967 Six Day War. "I think that 1967 was a really important turning point [in America]," said Solomon, who recently edited the essay collection Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict with Tony Kushner. "The image of the powerful Israel defeating its enemies on all sides was a really heavy, exciting thing for American Jews…it created this thrilling, macho image of Jewish power for a lot of people," said Solomon. "The sense of triumph over enemies on all sides was very much celebrated in that period, and [American Jews] were all encouraged to participate in that and to draw some of our own strength and identity as Jews [from it]." This sense of pride was only intensified with Israel’s victory in 1973’s Yom Kippur War, Freedman and Solomon agreed. Shortly afterwards, however, as awareness increased about the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories and its effects, the trend of dissent among Jewish Americans began to emerge yet again. Solomon identified the rise of the national Jewish group Brera (Hebrew for "choice") as an influential factor in galvanizing the movement, while Freedman believed its source to be the Camp David meetings. Activists began to raise the American Jewish community’s consciousness about the other side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focusing on the possibility of negotiating a two-state solution. Activism in the United States has escalated since the outbreaks of the first and second Intifadas, although pro-peace activists aren’t necessarily making the policies. "You hear sometimes people from the peace camp…say that we can’t get our message out, or that our voices aren’t being heard. I’m not sure I agree with that – I think the voices are out there, but I think the voices aren’t being heeded" said Freedman. Solomon agreed, "I think for those of us who still have these anxieties and still believe that peace and justice are possible, there’s a lot of power and inspiration in seeing that thread [of dissent] in our history."
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