Division and conflict in Israel: a Jewish-Christian exchange

Christian Century, August 26, 1998 by Yehezkel Landau, Tom Getman

To achieve genuine reconciliation we must rise above the partisan perception and matrix of feelings that have colored attitudes on both sides for so long and to which the current Israeli government has unfortunately regressed. Open-hearted outsiders can offer empathy, solace and hope. They can build bridges based on our common humanity to span the gulf between adversaries.

The challenge is to oppose injustice and the assaults on human dignity without choosing one side for generalized moral affirmation and the other for total condemnation. To do that, people must experience the emotional realities of both sides. That will help them appreciate the tragic complexity of our situation so that they can work in solidarity with the struggling peacemakers in both Israel and Palestine for a better future.

Blessings, brother,

Yehezkel

DEAR YEHEZKEL,

Our conversation and your letter affected me as no others have during my months in Israel. I especially thought about your statement that Christians should distinguish between loving concern and judgmentalism.

I do see God's grace at work in the creation of the state of Israel. But I have a deep, abiding and, I think, appropriate concern about Israel's definition of itself as a "Zionist Jewish state," accepting growing religious coercion from those who desire a theocracy, and about its willingness to put its own need for security ahead of every other value. This can only lead to more trouble. It exacerbates the traditional hostilities between Israel and its neighbors. Those who love Israel should not be silent about these things.

Maybe as a Christian I don't have the same freedom to speak about Israel's excesses as I did about conditions in Uganda, South Africa, Latin America and, indeed, in my own U.S.A. Because of our unfaithful past, evidenced in the Crusades, the inquisitions and the Holocaust, we believers in Christ are too easily misunderstood in this country. But as an American whose taxes undergird Israel, I may have some responsibility to speak if I can just manage to get my message and spirit properly aligned.

I will proceed, then, to say that in my way of thinking the establishment of a secular state through war and the emergence of a religion through sacrifice and love are not analogous, as you seem to think. We cannot excuse the cruel racism and oppression of the late 20th century by citing the injustices of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, whether perpetrated by the U.S. or any other country. We have laws, conventions, understandings, the UN and CNN. Our commitment to biblical justice and peace should have matured, as should our realization that the best way to respond to having been a persecuted people is by not persecuting others. Certainly a cruel and illegal occupation of another people's territory enhances neither Jewish moral teaching nor Israeli security.

I went into the West Bank with a CBS crew after you and I had lunch together. We visited the 90-year-old man whose ancient family property contains the tomb of zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. His farm and family are now totally surrounded by the ever-expanding Efrat and other Jewish settlements south of Bethlehem. When he blacktopped his lane, the Israeli authorities told him to remove the blacktop; they threatened to do so themselves and charge him for it. This is on West Bank land recognized as belonging to Palestinians. He and his large family are being pressed to move so that the Jewish settlers can take his land, with its holy site.