Protest Movement in Israel

Photo by TheeErin

My old friends Michael and Gayle just returned from a month in Israel. They lived there for 15 years in the 70's and 80's. Michael told me about the social uprising that has been going on all summer with tent encampments in the medians along busy streets and in parks. Many thousands are part of it, frequently going to work in the day and returning to the encampments for the nights. The mass protest is against the high cost of housing that make it difficult - especially for young people - to cover rent - even when they have jobs. They are protesting the huge gap between rich and poor in the country, and policies that favor the rich and raise the cost of living. Michael said it's common to make about $400/month but have rent of $1200 in Tel Aviv for a one bedroom apartment.

There are numerous encampments with particular demographics such as single mothers. There are performances, workshops and speakers who come to particular encampments for public events open to everyone. It sounds like the teach-ins and campus building takeovers of the late 60's and early '70's. Michael heard it began when a young woman who was fed up told her friends that she was going to camp out along a boulevard in Tel Aviv. Facebook helped fuel a mass movement and within weeks, there were tents everywhere, and in several cities. On July 30th a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv numbered at least 150,000 in a country of 7 million.

Photo from The Adovcacy Project

Michael said the protesters are purposely not discussing the Palestinian issue and relations with Arab neighboring countries as that would enable the powers that be to divide them against each other. For now they have some support in the government. The police have let them be. The mayor of Rosh Pinna, joined the protestors there. Several of Michael and Gayle's Israeli friends now have kids who are very involved in the tent cities - yet another opportunity for us to comment on how quickly the years have passed.

This uprising may fizzle as the school term begins again in the coming weeks, but it has been huge and inspiring. Maybe something transformative will come out of it. I was hardly aware of it. I went to YouTube and found a few videos that provide some visuals and context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyl_r7Sz3Bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBYVo8raLbc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCoRBHCZl6E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0YCI-2qhA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8u8cjS-TiM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTMfIuTCzSY&feature=related

Father Knows Best

I read the cover story in The Atlantic magazine, "The Point of No Return: Israel is Getting Ready to Bomb Iran." There's quite an outpouring of comments about it on the magazine's web site. Without getting into the speculation of whether (nuclear empowered) Israel or the U.S. might bomb Iran's budding nuclear facilities, the part that intrigued me was the description of dynamics between Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, and his 100 year old father. His father is a hawk. There was an older, venerated son who died a military hero during the rescue of Jewish hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda in 1976. It is Benjamin, "the Prime Minister son," who disappointed his father when, under U.S. diplomatic pressure, he withdrew Israeli forces from the West Bank town of Hebron in 1999. The father got up to speak at his centennial birthday party that Benjamin arranged. He did not wax sentimental about his children. He spoke about the need to trust in the military in the face of the existential threat that Iran poses to Israel. One friend of Benjamin's told the article's author that "always in the back of Bibi's (Benjamin's) mind is Ben-Zion (his father). He worries that his father will think he is weak."

The theme of favored, absent son and ever-striving present son sounds like an Arthur Miller play. I suppose that millions of adult sons can be analyzed in their actions and found still to be trying to please or piss off their fathers - me included. But not many of us direct armed forces that rule over another people desperate for their autonomy. Not many of us have a button that could launch a nuclear war.

Chasidic Wedding

I went to Israel to attend my niece's Chasidic wedding. What a surprise to see many of her friends looking like they'd just come from the Rainbow Festival. The young women wore long beautiful headscarves and a number were drumming. The young men had long hair, accented by "payis" (earlocks) and danced in that arm-waving, swaying, bouncing way that we do at Grateful Dead concerts. The Chasidic band included an outstanding fiddler and the music was mixed with strains of "Chieftains-style" Irish rock. I'm going to have to do some research on the "Breslov Rebbe" and the "Bayla Rebbe" who are at the center of the ideology. I believe the Breslov Rebbe lived in the 1800's. My 20 year old niece and her 22 year old soulmate-husband were lost in each other's eyes for minutes on end, when he lifted her veil.

Israel - Palestine through a Lerner's Eyes

Palo Alto's First Presbyterian Church hosted a weekend with Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor/founder of the progressive magazine, Tikkun, and a co-founder with Cornel West of a movement of Spiritual Progressives. Deborah and I went on Friday night and this morning (Sunday) to hear him speak for the first time.

It was great for me to hear someone voice the feelings/opinions I hold about Israel-Palestine, but rarely articulate. In my immediate family with its divide between ultra-religious Zionists and non-observant, culturally proud Jews the easiest course has been to avoid any discussion on the issue, not get deeply involved in any movements, and just not respond to my father's mailings of pro-Israel, pro-Orthodoxy articles. I have a friend who is a progressive Cuban American whose extended family is divided between rabid anti-Castro folks (mostly in Miami) and pro-Cuba folks. He reports a similar dynamic where he just keeps quiet to avoid the deep family rift that would otherwise occur.

As a spiritual progressive, Lerner says we must start with the "I-Thou" perspective rather than the "Evil Other" perspective of those with whom we are at odds.

He talked about the need for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to model a real "intention" for peace and generosity and seeing the humanity and goodness in "the other side." When the Oslo Peace Accords were signed he encouraged Israeli President Rabin to use it as an opportunity to travel to Palestine, initiate new bonds between the two peoples, express sorrow for all the killing Israel has done, etc. Instead Rabin went back to Israel and proclaimed he signed the agreement but doesn't trust the Palestinians and would take each step very slowly and cautiously. When Lerner subsequently asked him about it, Rabin said that first he had to build trust among his own people and after re-election he could move forward with more initiatives for real and lasting peace. Instead he was murdered by Israeli right-wingers before serving another term. Be careful because "the mask becomes the face," Lerner said.

It also felt good to hear him say to those who would promote total divestment from Israel that there is a big difference between selective divestment from companies that fuel the occupation such as Caterpillar Tractors and total divestment. He said that when the left would promote divestment from at least 15 human rights violators including the U.S., then he would be fine with adding Israel to that list and joining the cause. Too often it feels to me that people on the left demonize Israel on an emotional level that goes beyond the attention they give and express about places where torture, repression, and ethnic cleansing are practiced at least as vigorously. That gets very uncomfortable.