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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/35332/full/35332/waving-the-israeli-flag-natan-sharansky-tells-bay-area-audiences-nationalis/ <br /><br /> <b>Waving the Israeli flag: Natan Sharansky tells Bay Area audiences nationalism is vital</b> <br /> Friday, July 18, 2008 | by <p>angela privin </p> <br /><br /><p>What would it take for Natan Sharansky to become prime minister of Israel?<br /><br /> American Jews often ask this question, said Sharansky, who rose to international fame as a long-imprisoned Soviet refusenik, in front of a packed house at the JCC of San Francisco on July 15.<br /><br /> “I am usually asked this question by people who can’t vote in Israel, and I tell them that when 1 million American Jews move to Israel, I will become prime minister,” he joked. <br /><br /> Sharansky spoke three times in the Bay Area on July 15 — in the afternoon at Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto, in the evening at Beth Jacob Congregation in Oakland and at night at the JCCSF — as part of the promotional tour for his new book, “Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy.”<br /><br /> In Palo Alto, the conversation was moderated by David Waksberg, a key figure in San Francisco’s free Soviet Jewry movement and now the director of the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education. <br /><br /> When he was the head of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews, Waksberg led numerous protests outside the Soviet consulate in San Francisco in the ‘80s, calling for the release of refuseniks such as Sharansky.<br /><br /> In San Francisco, the 60-year-old Sharansky stood at a podium of Kanbar Hall, the large stage dwarfing his small frame, while lecturing about the role identity plays in defending democracy and freedom. <br /><br /> The idea for the book, he said, came during a speaking engagement tour of U.S. college campuses, during which he found that both Jewish and non-Jewish students were demonizing Israel as being an apartheid state. During a talk, a Jewish student asked him why a Jewish state had to exist when Judaism was focused on healing the problems of the world, not just problems of the Jewish state.<br /><br /> Sharansky warned that the tendency to identify as a global citizen instead of as part of a national group is something that not only causes weakness in people and society, but also robs people of the passion and conviction to fight for a cause or sacrifice their lives for greater ideals.<br /><br /> He gave an example using his own experience as a victim of KGB interrogation, pressure and psychological manipulation. <br /><br /> “They tried to convince me that the highest value in life is my physical safety, so I should cooperate with them so they don’t kill me or hurt me. But I thought about the struggle of Russian Jews, this larger historical struggle, and this kept me strong so they couldn’t break me,” he said.<br /><br /> According to Sharanksy, learning about Jewish history and traditions and watching Israel defend itself created a sense of deep belonging. The strength of this identity sustained him through more than a decade of grave adversity, physical torture and repression. <br /><br /> After his release from prison in 1986, Sharansky moved to Israel, where he had a 10-year career in the Knesset as the leader of the Yisrael b’Aliyah Party.<br /><br /> Sharansky, who now chairs the Shalem Center’s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies, offered historical and political examples of the power of identity, including Stalin’s use of nationalism to help Russia triumph against the Nazis.<br /><br /> He also discussed the reverse example of Europe, weakened by decades of attempts to erase difference between its citizens, and now struggling to deal with aggressive fundamentalist Muslims and active terrorists at home.<br /><br /> Conversely, he praised the United States for its history of preserving identity by allowing differences to flourish among nationalities. The fight to preserve identity, or church faith, was the reason the United States was born, Sharansky said.<br /><br /> He concluded his talk on identity with thoughts on Israel, saying that identity is heavily under attack today in the Middle East. <br /><br /> “Israel is a national state in a postnational world, and today it is politically incorrect to fight for national states. People are using the language of human rights to try to destroy the only democratic state in the Middle East,” he said. <br /><br /> Not surprisingly, the topic of Israel dominated the Q&A session following Sharansky’s talk.<br /><br /> One audience member asked Sharansky how, as a champion of freedom, he reconciles the fact that Israel deprives its neighbors of freedom.<br /><br /> Sharansky, no doubt having answered this question many times, gave a practiced response that was met with thunderous applause. <br /><br /> “Arab leaders are not interested in the freedom of their people,” he said. “Israelis are much more interested in it. Start fighting for real freedom for Palestinians and I will join you. I want Palestinians to have every possible right there is, except for the right to kill me.” </p> <p> </p>

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