Jewish support for initiatives addressing co-existence among all citizens of the State of Israel, both Jewish and Arab, has gone mainstream. Is this a good thing or not? Depends on whom you ask.
Last week's unanimous endorsement of the cause by American Jewry's largest religious movement, at the biennial conference in Toronto of the Union for Reform Judaism, was the latest sign that Jewish support for Israeli-Arab causes has become popular. But such support is not limited to Reform Jews.
Activists from secular to Orthodox have taken up this cause, though there is no doubt that the numbers skew in one direction - and it isn't toward the traditional community. That disturbs me personally, but should not actually be an issue in the debate about the wisdom of this trend.
It seems to me that this is ultimately an issue about which those on the left and the right, both politically and religiously, ought to agree.
The full integration of all of Israel's citizens is ultimately a security issue, so it should high on the agenda of the so-called hawks. And, it is a security issue which generates what many will consider to be a liberal social agenda, so it should remain high on the agenda of the so-called doves.
Democracies remain most durable when they serve the greatest number of their citizens with the greatest possible degree of equality, dignity and access to new opportunity. There are many reasons why some will not jump at the opportunity to apply this fact to Israel, and even I admit that in the case of a nation whose Jewish character I believe must be maintained, it will not always be easy to do. But there is no question that Israel's future lies in continuing to be at the leading edge of democracy and human rights in the Middle East, not at the expense of its security, but as a means of helping to assure it.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
I really wonder what kind of person Emily with a kippah is. You pose as a Jew but you keep quoting this website that the nazis would be proud of. You pose as a Jew and keep blaming the Christians who participate in this forum in order to make them hate the Jews. I don't know what your goal is but I don't think you are fooling anyone around here.
www.living-inspired.com
Your daily spiritual click
Gilad from the Galilee, I would just add: same rights = same obligations. If Israeli Arabs are OK with this then I completely agree with you.
Eytan
www.living-inspired.com
Your daily spiritual click
I went to the site mentioned by Emily with the Kippah and it quotes what appear to be hateful sections of the Talmud. Unfortunately, I don't possess the neccesarry knowledge of Talmud to assess how accurate the quoted Talmud texts are. I suspect some evil-minded editing is afoot. At the end of this is the statement that the only religion that truly follows Torah is Christianity.
The whole slant of this supposedly scholarly work about the Talmud has no relationship to the Judiasm I was taught growing up. I'd like to see a response from a true Talmud scholar of this defamatory non-sense.
Is every Arab a Muslim? Is every Israeli a Jew? When we encounter the phrase 'Israeli Arab', are we to equate it automatically with 'Israeli Muslim'? I can see no real problem contingent on the Israeli support of Israeli Arabs. But, on the Israeli support of Israeli Muslims, that is a different matter.
Israel is a country where live jewish russian french usa australian ukraine and arab people, and they all have to have same rights and conditions for life. its multinational country full of people with different mentality and Israel must consider it.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.