Invite debate, reflection

Letters

Editor: Congratulations to the Jewish Western Bulletin for trying to present Jewish voices that dissent from the mainstream. This is a positive example for those who define solidarity as the silencing of debate.

As you accurately reported in your editorial "Leave the comfort zone," (Bulletin, Sept. 20) I was booed at the Sept. 11 campaign kick-off event of the Combined Jewish Appeal/Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. I dared to express my discomfort with David Frum's call for us to support George W. Bush's escalating war on Iraq and with Israel's stockpiling of U.S. weapons. I was voicing a fear and anguish shared by many other Jews, including many in the audience who approached me with gratitude (and even tears) afterward.

On this Sept. 11, surrounded by our Jewish High Holy Days, I went to the microphone to affirm that all Jews are not in support of a military "solution." Your editorial unfortunately falls into the trap of labelling us dissenters as "the other side," i.e., not Israel's supporters. The point I was prevented from making is that there are many Jews who love Israel as fiercely as anyone else, who are neither self-hating nor anti-Israel, nor – I shouldn't have to say this – pro-terrorist. Obviously these "pros" and "antis" are as meaningless as right and left. Frum's simplistic way of dichotomizing echoes Bush's either-for-us-or-against-us rhetoric. It is not "against" the United States or Israel to believe that hatred of U.S. imperialism, escalated by a war against Iraq, will put Israel even more at risk than it is now.

Nor is it "against" Israel to be empathetic and even grieve with the Palestinian people who are without homes, schools or hospitals, whose children are chronically malnourished. I just saw the Palestinian film Gaza Strip at this year's Vancouver Film Festival. I shivered to hear a Palestinian woman, in the rubble of an Israeli attack in a refugee camp, cry the very words we Jews often say, "They want to drive us into the sea." She went on to ask, "Don't these Jewish mothers have children?" This is not merely a public relations war, as your editorial implies, it is a real one.

"Israeli" and "Jewish" are thoroughly interchangeable words. Israeli actions have profound repercussions on the lives of all Jews. We in the Diaspora have a right and a responsibility to participate in the politics of Israel, not uncritically, but to ensure that Israel represents the best of our Jewish values.

We all understand that Jewish fear of any debate about Israel is historically based on our terror of anti-Semitism and our need for a homeland. This is the "Hitler trigger" that allows Frum to respond that the only alternative to attack is to surrender. I don't pretend to have any quick solutions for the complex and terrifying situation of Israel and the Middle East. All I know is that to blindly allow Israel to be a pawn in a war that will serve U.S. economic and strategic interests will only increase anti-Semitism and endanger Israel and all Jews. Our desperation for survival at any cost causes us to continue to sacrifice the moral high ground. Yes, we do hold Israel to a higher standard of morality, and why should we not?

Readers should know that under my calm and confident exterior, I was terrified, afraid of speaking at this Jewish event in my own community. I've never been booed before, despite a controversial professional life. It revealed the kind of mob mentality of which we accuse our "enemies."

But I choose not to dwell on the boos, which were silenced by their embarrassed neighbors soon enough. More important are the many people who approached me afterward in the auditorium and in the weeks since by telephone and e-mail. Many said they were relieved that someone expressed what they were feeling but were afraid to say. People who disagreed with what I had to say were ashamed and even outraged by the booing. One man introduced himself to me as "one of the people who had booed." He went on to say it was a knee-jerk response to any criticism of Israel, and he apologized.

Your editorial urges us to tell "our side" to the wider public. If we Jews can't even listen to each other, really listen, with all our shared history and culture, how can we hope to leave the cocoon and speak to the larger world? The truth unfortunately is that we are not confident "that Israel's stance is truly correct morally and politically," nor should we be. Our role is not to do PR for Israel, but to support her true interests by struggling to find alternatives to violence.

An alternative is to listen and learn together with patience and faith that the painstaking process of exchange and dialogue will lead to peace with justice, and to pray that we will not destroy each other in the meantime.

How? Instead of one-sided polemics, let's throw open the doors of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and other community institutions and invite debate and reflection based on the best wisdom of our tradition and of ourselves. Let's stop demonizing the "enemy" and be open to hearing the stories of our cousins who are suffering as we have done. Let's support Jewish and secular organizations and leaders in Canada and Israel like the New Israel Fund, which fosters exchange and dialogue in Israel, and promote the brave and beleaguered Israeli and Palestinian peace-seeking factions about whom we hear too little.

Let's not allow ourselves to be intimidated into silence. We are united in our concern for the true security and survival of our people.

Bonnie Klein
Vancouver

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