A crisis usually brings out the best in people. Or the worst.
In the case of what is going on in Israel, and the American Jewish reaction to it, it’s pretty much been the worst coming out of the Jewish people.
Just when it seems that we’ve grown up, matured, gotten past knee-jerk reactions to things, our “world is out to get us” mentality, the feeling sorry for ourselves attitude, along comes a situation like the current one to really put us to the test. So far, we’re not doing too well.
Watching Israel react to the Palestinians and American Jews react to Israel has been disheartening. I had come to believe we were on the road to being a healthier people, but it’s clear we haven’t gotten very far at all.
For starters, we’ve reverted to a style when it comes to media coverage of what’s been going on. Almost all of us have had harsh things to say about the media, decided the media are anti-Semitic, that it’s going out of its way to make Israel look bad.
All of which are completely inaccurate. The media have done a fine job, a fair job. Problem is they’re showing us what’s going on — and since much of what’s going on doesn’t make Israel look very good, our way of dealing with our discomfort is to blame the media. They’re distorting it, getting it wrong, picking on Israel.
They aren’t. Any objective reading of the media would show you that. But we are not objective. Seeing all the lives lost, the chaos created, we’d much prefer to say it’s the media’s fault than admit that all this started because a self-serving, reckless Israeli politician named Ariel Sharon did something incredibly stupid and provocative.
And then pretended like he did nothing. He says he had no idea just taking a little trip to the Temple Mount would bother anyone. Sure, and he always brings 1,000 policemen along on a harmless little stroll.
But the fact that an Israeli started it all is something we are not mature enough to admit. So we promote this baloney about Arafat having preplanned it all. Why take responsibility that an Israeli lit the match when we can instead engage in a conspiracy theory that lets us off the hook? It’s the media that are pointing the finger at Sharon, we say, and we all know how anti-Israel the media are.
And, of course, the media are at fault for over and over showing the heart-wrenching footage of the 12-year-old Palestinian boy being killed by Israeli soldiers. Damn media anti-Semites.
Are the media always right? Of course not. And, indeed, the New York Times messed up a caption in which it said a person near an enraged Israeli soldier was a Palestinian he had just beaten up when, in fact, it was an Israeli civilian who had been saved by the Israeli soldier after the civilian was beaten by Palestinians.
Yes, the Times made a mistake. But to think it was deliberate, to not understand that when you’re covering a breaking story and have a paper to put out everyday and have dozens of people working on it, compiling literally tens of thousands of facts, that mistakes happen. Not on purpose and sure as heck not to make Israel look bad.
But that so many Jews were so quick to believe the Times did it as some kind of anti-Semitic act shows how much we still do not trust the world, how much we still believe everyone is out to get us, despite so much evidence to the contrary. Anyone, for example, ever hear of someone named Joe Lieberman?
But blaming the media is just the beginning. Another way we have reverted to style is donning our Jew-as-victim mentality.
The poor Jews being seen as the provocateurs when in fact the Palestinians planned it all along. The poor Jews being picked on again by the United Nations. The poor Jews having to deal with trouble even from Israeli Arabs who we have treated so nicely. Oy, it’s always us.
Once again, we see ourselves as the innocent victims, never doing anything wrong, always being wronged by others, by the world. So it is, so it has always been.
A mature country, a mature people would realize we aren’t in the shtetl anymore and should act accordingly. We would under stand the sensitivities of the Palestinians and understand why what Sharon did was so offensive and provocative. We would see that while we can delude ourselves by saying Israeli Arabs have never had it so good, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t treated them like second-class citizens.
Another thing we’ve been doing is whining about double standards, as if Israel shouldn’t be expected to behave any better than anyone else. Remember how the Palestinians treated the holy places when they were in charge, we say. And think about how Arabs put down uprisings in their country, we say.
We compare ourselves to them as if that somehow justifies what we do. But that is not who we are or are supposed to be. And so, yes, it sickened me to watch the Palestinians destroy Joseph’s Tomb and attack synagogues. But, yes, it sickened me more to see Jewish mobs attack a mosque, Jewish gangs loot Arab shops.
We make our points, pour forth our facts, pile on our grievances. Act like winning the argument is more important than living in peace. Well, winning gets you the kind of thing we’re seeing now. It might make us feel self-righteous, but it doesn’t make us feel at home.
Of course, it’s easier to look back because that’s more familiar to us, and because the past cannot change and so doesn’t call on us to change. Looking ahead is much harder, asks more from us.
This is what the future of Israel will be if we do not find now a formula for peace. What these weeks have shown is that Israel can either feel itself the victim, blame Arafat, get “tougher,” as so many Jews are calling for, create the farce of a national unity government to circle the wagons. Or it can act differently, be honest with itself, stop playing games and work things out.
It’s true, most countries under similar circumstances wouldn’t. But then the whole point of Israel is that it is not most countries.
It is Israel. And that means it acts differently, shows the way, behaves in a Godly way. We must do what is right, which is to treat our neighbors, our cousins, with dignity and in accord with their needs; and by doing that, we ensure that our lives will be better as we live in harmony with those God has decided we would share this holy land with.
This past week, most Jews have been pointing fingers at the Palestinians, saying they haven’t changed. There’s certainly truth to that. But a mature country, a mature people, doesn’t lay blame. It looks at itself and sees what it can do better.
A crisis can bring out the best or the worst in people. So far it has basically brought out the worst in us — made us contend we’ve done nothing wrong, made us unwilling to see the other side.
It’s time for some of the Jewish best.