A few weeks ago, I joined a solidarity meeting at a nearby Israeli Palestinian middle school, whose eighth graders, on a school hike in a national park, had been attacked with pepper spray by teenage hikers from a yeshiva in the West Bank. The story brought to mind a couple of past conversations:

Years ago, I attended a talk by Amal Elsana Elh’jooj, the brilliant, charismatic, Bedouin social worker who has been so successful in championing Bedouin women’s rights in the Negev.  As we left the hall, I commented to no-one in particular, “Wow, she would have my vote for prime minister!” Which called forth the response from a Jewish educator colleague standing nearby, “Well, that would be the end of the Jewish state!”

Later, commenting to a neighbor that I was uncomfortable with the legal efforts to enable Jewish residential communities (like the one I live in) to reject prospective families on ethnic grounds (i.e., keep out Palestinian Israelis), she responded that not doing so would mean the end of Zionism.

It is obvious to me that both of my interlocutors do indeed speak for the majority, as we see not only from such random comments and WhatsApp chats, but also from polls and votes and public statements by politicians (e.g., opposition lawmakers trying to outdo their opponents in swearing off any potential coalition alliance with “Arab parties”).

In 1975, infamous United Nations General Assembly resolution 3379 declared: “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” I remember participating in demonstrations against the UN at that time in New York, stirred by Ambassador Chaim Herzog’s speech pointing to all the ways in which Palestinian citizens were integrated into Israeli life. Then, in 1991, the General Assembly voted, by a large majority, to revoke that resolution.

I live in the Galilee. Israeli Palestinians are not just the dominant element in the physical and demographic landscape here, they are a major part of the human landscape of everyday Israeli life – doctors, teachers, lawyers, architects, builders, musicians, entrepreneurs – far beyond what Ambassador Herzog described half a century ago.  If you look at it in the right light, you can see Herzl’s vision – where perhaps the most enthusiastic Zionist in his utopian novel, Altneuland (1902), was the Palestinian Reschid Bey, who speaks “German with a slight northern accent:”

The Jews have enriched us. Why should we be angry with them?  They dwell among us like brothers.  Why should we not love them?…  He prays in a different house to the God Who is above us all.  But our houses of worship stand side by side, and I always believe that our prayers, when they rise, mingle somewhere up above, and then continue on their way together until they appear before our Father. (Altneuland, p. 124)

However, as things have developed, Herzl’s vision of a hi-tech, liberal, pluralistic democracy was not and is not the only game in town.  Herzl, whose Jewish education and links to traditional literature were thin, was guided by the star of European enlightenment and progress.  But for thousands of Jews who were captivated by his idea of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland, the guiding star was to be not Vienna but Jerusalem.  It was very nice to travel around trying to convince the colonial powers to give us a piece of a colony (!) where we could build our own outpost of high European culture, but for many, the real end-game was…

At that time I will make an end of all who afflicted you.  And I will rescue the lame sheep and gather the strayed; and I will exchange their disgrace for fame and renown in all the earth.  At that time I will gather you, and at that time I will bring you home; for I will make you renowned and famous among all the peoples on earth… said the Lord (Zephaniah 3:19-20)

And if we believe that the modern state is indeed the manifestation of such biblical prophecies, then we all know what is supposed to happen to Canaanites and Amalekites, Edomites and Philistines. Joshua was not interested in hearts and minds. David’s kingdom, for whose restoration we pray every day, was not a liberal democracy. David’s instructions to his son and heir Solomon, regarding retribution for all who had opposed him (I Kings 2:5-9) would make President Trump feel right at home. So if that restoration is what we are experiencing right now, then Herzl and Ahad Ha’am and the Declaration of Independence are either obsolete or just temporary camouflage to get us past the gatekeepers of enlightenment so that the real redemption can become manifest.

I do not believe that nationalism is ipso facto racist. But that doesn’t mean that there have not been many nationalist movements which have been drawn into racist beliefs and behaviors. So too, I believe that Zionism is not inherently racist – but that doesn’t contradict my observation that the Zionism of many of our current leaders who claim to – and perhaps really do – represent the Israeli majority, is shot through with racist beliefs, assumptions, aspirations, and practices, rooted in (or justified by) a messianic understanding of our moment in history.

In the Talmud’s collection of mostly daunting conjectures about messianic times (Sanhedrin 96-9) both Ulla and Rabba are credited with the exclamation: “Let the messiah come – but let me not see it!” I’m with them.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)