Rants and Books
Aug. 22nd, 2005 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pocket1_pitaI used to think that I would move to Israel one day. I was even in a “garin” for a year (means seed, a group who plan to move to Israel together) planning a move to an “irbutz” or urban kibbutz. I ended up dropping out of that group, but maintained a connection to Israel for many years, visiting multiple times a year, being politically active on Israel issues, working with a Zionist movement etc. I even met my husband at a meeting of the Progressive Zionist Caucus. This of course was in the early 1990’s when the peace process was in full swing and I was filled with hope and faith in Israel. Over the last 15 years I have been through the wringer with Israel to the point where I am no longer involved on any level because I am sick of the whole business. My husband was born there; my IL’s maintain close ties; one of my closest friends lives there. But I wouldn’t move there unless the political situation improves. By that I don’t just mean a reduction in the violence. I mean a constitution, a decrease in the influence of religion in politics and an attempt to differentiate those two things, and a reorientation of policy towards a real post-cold-war regional strategy and away from asking “how high?” every time the US says “jump!” Maybe that is harsh, but Israel is far far over the line for a normal western-style democracy. They have some serious human rights problems that they refuse to address.
When I was a kid and a teenager, I went to Hebrew school and attended an educational and political summer camp where we learned a lot about the history of political Zionism, Jewish and Israeli history. One of the things we learned as truth was a story that I bet a lot of you have heard too. Before the 1948 War, when Israel’s Arab neighbor states were on the verge of invasion, that night Israelis living near Arab villages went door to door begging their neighbors to stay – begging them to stay and make a country with them. But the Arabs refused and chose to flee their homes believing that soon the Jews would be pushed into the sea and they would be able to return to their homes and take over the Jewish land. And that’s how they all ended up in refugee camps. So for those of you who have heard this story….does that sound right to you? Or does it sound like propaganda? Because it stinks to high heaven to me, and from the day I understood that it was bullshit I have felt such intense resentment to the teachers and leaders who fed me such crap.
And let me tell you, no one at all was interested in hearing this new opinion of mine for many years, so it’s kind of a new thing for me to hear American Jews criticizing Israel so openly.
It’s not really as violent there as it seems everywhere in the country. It’s violent in particular places, and the threat of violence is everywhere. The entire country is battle-ready at a moment’s notice. I lived there during the first gulf war, and did the whole sealed room, gas mask, sit on the floor and listen to the news in Hebrew waiting for the all-clear to sound. We learned how to protect ourselves from chemical and gas attacks. I was also a student there in 1993 living in Tel Aviv with a bunch of friends and spending my weekends on my kibbutz near Beersheva.
I just don’t like Israel as much as I did. There are a lot of nice things about the country, and I get why people want to live there. But for me, personally, I find the political issues too troubling and the indifference to Palestinian suffering really pervasive in the society. Maintaining with every ounce of effort the country can muster, a political reality that involves your children oppressing and killing other people is just sick.
Books: I just finished The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber. It was OK. I wouldn't recommend it highly, i think it was a bit overambitious and he ought to have shot a bit lower. It's the story of a Victorian prostitute named Sugar and her life and lover and complexities. It's very well-written, the characters are well-drawn, and it’s very detailed and lush. It's lacking in plot and in motivation, and that makes it fall flat.
Now I am listening to an audiobook, The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, which is very Matrix-y and so far is pretty good. We'll see!
Had a really nice weekend, let me just post this public.
When I was a kid and a teenager, I went to Hebrew school and attended an educational and political summer camp where we learned a lot about the history of political Zionism, Jewish and Israeli history. One of the things we learned as truth was a story that I bet a lot of you have heard too. Before the 1948 War, when Israel’s Arab neighbor states were on the verge of invasion, that night Israelis living near Arab villages went door to door begging their neighbors to stay – begging them to stay and make a country with them. But the Arabs refused and chose to flee their homes believing that soon the Jews would be pushed into the sea and they would be able to return to their homes and take over the Jewish land. And that’s how they all ended up in refugee camps. So for those of you who have heard this story….does that sound right to you? Or does it sound like propaganda? Because it stinks to high heaven to me, and from the day I understood that it was bullshit I have felt such intense resentment to the teachers and leaders who fed me such crap.
And let me tell you, no one at all was interested in hearing this new opinion of mine for many years, so it’s kind of a new thing for me to hear American Jews criticizing Israel so openly.
It’s not really as violent there as it seems everywhere in the country. It’s violent in particular places, and the threat of violence is everywhere. The entire country is battle-ready at a moment’s notice. I lived there during the first gulf war, and did the whole sealed room, gas mask, sit on the floor and listen to the news in Hebrew waiting for the all-clear to sound. We learned how to protect ourselves from chemical and gas attacks. I was also a student there in 1993 living in Tel Aviv with a bunch of friends and spending my weekends on my kibbutz near Beersheva.
I just don’t like Israel as much as I did. There are a lot of nice things about the country, and I get why people want to live there. But for me, personally, I find the political issues too troubling and the indifference to Palestinian suffering really pervasive in the society. Maintaining with every ounce of effort the country can muster, a political reality that involves your children oppressing and killing other people is just sick.
Books: I just finished The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber. It was OK. I wouldn't recommend it highly, i think it was a bit overambitious and he ought to have shot a bit lower. It's the story of a Victorian prostitute named Sugar and her life and lover and complexities. It's very well-written, the characters are well-drawn, and it’s very detailed and lush. It's lacking in plot and in motivation, and that makes it fall flat.
Now I am listening to an audiobook, The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks, which is very Matrix-y and so far is pretty good. We'll see!
Had a really nice weekend, let me just post this public.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 11:34 pm (UTC)First of all, I love audio books - the make me less road rage'y because I'm actually thinking about something other than the slow driver in front of me who is pissing me off. Secondly, I listened to The Traveler earlier this summer and really liked it. Great book.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-22 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 05:43 pm (UTC)Do non-religious folk actually make aliyah anymore? I imagine a few die-hards do it each year, and I also imagine that most of them go "home" sooner or later. Really, unless you're an orthodox jew, you have no reason to come at this point.
I love my husband more than anything, and if I hadn't swallowed all of that ideological crap they fed us over the years I would probably never have met him. But I would be lying if I didn't admit to being pissed that we were "led" they way we were as teenagers. Someone should have told us the hard truths earlier on.
If I wanted to do Zionist youth movements a service, I would go around the country explaining to them why it sucks here. (And not in a "the weak ones can't stick it out; only the truly strong and truly deidcated stay.") Those kids deserve to know! (Come with me? Let's crash peulot and scream "it's a cult! it's a cult! they're lyyyyyyyying!")
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 09:31 pm (UTC)How funny is it to imagine two 30-ish ladies running around summer camps trying to deprogram kids? Who am I kidding? Of course I want our kids to go to culty jew camp! You know DJ just took a job as the coordinator for West coast programs and summer camp director for YJ? They are moving to Portland, OR. We're sad that they are going, but it's such a great job for him and such a great move for them that its hard to be very sad about it.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 10:33 pm (UTC)I wonder how same/different those groups are now, 15 years later. Do you think the movements have changed, as we have? Or are they still doing the same peulot, etc...
Did you ever play aliyah bet? Where you act out illegal immigration to Palestine under the british mandate? I think your team wins when we get your immigrants in and you set up a settlement, wall and flag. Something like that.
Very educational.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 11:05 pm (UTC)i don't know how much Habo has changed. they are still zionist, but i believe at the last veida (movement meeting) they voted that a meaningful jewish life can be lived in the diaspora, and we axed socialism in 1990. they are pretty activist in progrssive jewish politics in the us.