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Israel Does Not Speak for Jews Like Us

SCHEERPOST,  byEDITOR,February 8, 2024

In the midst of the ongoing destruction of Gaza and the slaughter of Palestinians, the identity and authenticity of Jewish people calling into question the actions of Israel are being tarnished. A greater discussion of what it means to be Jewish, what it means to have a Jewish state and what Judaism has historically taught people is taking place among Jews around the world.

On this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast, Heyday Books publisher and former LA Times book editor Steve Wasserman and host Robert Scheer commit themselves to this conversation as Jews who have experienced these questions firsthand through their families in addition to having explored and reported on this topic throughout their careers.

Whether it was through Scheer’s reporting (with research by a youthful Wassernan) on the “Jews of L.A.” series for the Los Angeles Times and his reporting on the Six Day War in Israel and Gaza or Wasserman’s work with authors exploring Zionism and Israel, the pair have dealt in depth with the issue at hand.

Both stress the importance of Jewish culture in shaping their upbringing and viewing the world from a progressive, inclusive lens. Wasserman explains that for him Judaism encapsulates “The idea of being an honorable, ethical person, about making the world better, performing tikkun, helping to heal the world.”

As it pertains to his own familial history, Wasserman explains his mother’s brothers’ sacrifice: “They were premature anti-fascist. And they were eager to fight Hitler. And, they were killed within a week of each other… My mother has never gotten over their sacrifice. So, yes, we shed blood in the war against fascism.”

While delving into the idea of Israel, the two acknowledge the complexities of the history as it relates to the struggles of the diaspora and the Holocaust, but still, Wasserman acknowledges, “I’ve never thought that Israel or the State of Israel spoke for everyone. I’m a disciple of I.F. Stone, who said that all governments lie, including governments that you might be attached to for emotional and historical reasons.”

Transcript

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Scheer.  I felt at home with the survival of a certain, international Jewish concern for the other, which, of course showed up in the American civil rights movement, with the important participation of American Jews.

Now, you look at Israel, and it’s a totally different picture, where the more fundamentalist religion is critical and indeed a formal part of the government, supported by very prominent right wing Jews like the late Sheldon Adelman and others in the United States, the leader of Israel and Netanyahu actually came to the United States when Obama was president and challenged his peace initiative with Iran in the US Congress, almost unheard of………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What counts is the emotional attachment that peoples on every side, each of whom are hostage to fanatics and fundamentalists and extremists, but who believe with all their might that they have a near God given right to this bit of desert, and they are going to squander their best, the flower of their youth and the murderous rage to claim a right to live there. So, now we have 25,000 and counting deaths, many of them women and children. A murderous, vengeance, criminally prosecuted by a power-mad guy called Netanyahu. Other extremists on the other side. And as the old slogan in the ‘60s had, war is bad for every living thing. And, I see, at the moment, a pretty, forlorn and, hopeless situation here because, what Israel has done in its acts of vengeance is simply created, they have sowed the seeds for the dragon teeth that will arise.

Every Palestinian will seek revenge down the centuries. And the place is cursed. Reason has taken flight. Sobriety is nowhere in the picture. And we have a fever dream of nationalist yearnings by two peoples who somehow cannot find a way to live together in peace and harmony and the squandering of their national treasure, as I say, the flower of their youth is a heartbreak for everyone. So the question of the endangerment of Jews everywhere. I’ve never thought that Israel or the State of Israel spoke for everyone. I’m a disciple of I.F. Stone, who said that all governments lie, including governments that you might be attached to for emotional and historical reasons.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………And it was also, as I say, a convenient copout for the rulers of England and the United States and the Soviet Union to embrace Zionism. Good, the Jews who are troublemakers, they’re progressive, they’re radical, they write too much, they think too much. There is a wonderful tradition which you summarized before. They’re a threat to our stability wherever they are. Let them have a state of their own. Okay. So there was a cynicism that underwrote this, that Zionism could play on. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
 https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/08/israel-does-not-speak-for-jews-like-us/

February 11, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Israel, Religion and ethics