Judaism 101Rabbi Edwin GoldbergTemple Sholom of ChicagoFall 2013

What We Believe About IsraelJudaism 101

29th of November

UN TODAY

Arab Response to Partition Plan

When Does a State Become a State?

Napoleon

Mahemet Ali

Moses Montefiore

Daniel Deronda

Alfred Dreyfus

Theodor Herzl

The State of the Jews

First Zionist Congress

Rabbi Judah Magnes

Balfour Declaration

The Mandate Begins

British Mandate

Israel’s Early Borders

Sykes-Picot 1916

Sykes-Picot 1916

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw

White Paper 1939

David ben Gurion

Altalena

The Players

Menachem Begin Yitzchak Rabin

The Suez Campaign : A test of might for the young nation of Israel.

Israel expands at Egyptian expense.

Map of war zone 1967

The Sinai Desert. Main Egyptian forces dug in here. Jordanian forces

ready here

Syrian forces ready here

Israel before and after the six-day war 1967.

Results• Israel had restored its image as an independent and strong

nation.

• Israel was now three times bigger than it had been in 1966.

• The pan-Arab ideas of Nasser had taken a huge knock.

• Israel now had the security risk of an extra 1 million Arab people inside its own borders. About 1/3 million Arabs fled to Jordan- where they were easy prey to PLO recruiters.

• Israel was now easier to defend against outside aggression having wide deserts and mountains just inside its borders.

• The status of the new territories was problematic. Should the residents get citizen status?Could you have an Israeli/Arab Palestinian? Did Israel really want all the land- especially that with inherent ownership problems (eg the Gaza Strip)?

• Israel launched a huge settlement plan- to occupy the land won with people loyal to Israel.

Hostile Ground: Israel’s Wars Since 1948

Conflict Started Ended Duration Parties Involved/Areas of Fighting

War of Independence

May 14, 1948 January 7, 1949

239 days Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq

Suez War October 29, 1956

November 6, 1956

9 days Egypt, Syria and Jordan

Six-Day War June 5, 1967 June 10, 1967 6 days Egypt, Syria and Jordan

Yom Kippur War

Oct. 6, 1973 May 31, 1974 238 days Egypt and Syria

First Lebanon War

June 1982 June 1985 Approx. 1,000 days

PLO, Syria and Lebanon

Sadat in Jerusalem

Oslo Peace Accords

Lebanon 1982….

Assassination of Yitzchak Rabin

Recognizing the Two Narratives

The Palestinian Narrative:

• Fear of Dispossession / 20th Century Jewish Immigration• Nakba of 1948• The 37-year Occupation (West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem)• Spiritual connection to the Holy Land

The Jewish Narrative:

• History of Jewish Persecution• Holocaust• Israel as Jewish ‘Safe Haven’• Spiritual connection to the Promised Land

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Intifadas

Two Perspectives“I have spent a great deal of my life…advocating the rights of the Palestinian people to national self-determination, but I have always tried to do that with full attention paid to the reality of the Jewish people and what they suffered by way of persecution and genocide.”

– the late Edward Said, leading Palestinian American intellectual, Professor of literature at Columbia University and well-known author

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“When Israelis ask me about the Palestinians, I tell them they live like us, they suffer like us, they laugh and cry like us. They are just like us, but they suffer more than us.”

– the renowned Israeli immunologist, Dr. Zvi Bentwich, founder of Israels first and largest AIDS clinic and member of Physicians for Human Rights

Brief Historical Background

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The area known as Palestine was part of the Ottoman empire for 400 years until World War I, at which time Palestine fell under British control. In 1947, the U.N. proposed partitioning the area into two states. In 1967, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem came under Israeli occupation..

The Composition of the Holy Land

Page 53 of

41Source: 2003 CIA World Fact Book - Palestine data consists of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Economic Comparative Analysis

Israel

Unemployment 1 out of 10

Growth rate -0.8%

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Palestine

Unemployment 1 out of 2Growth rate -18%

Sources: United Nations 2004 Human Development Index (HDI), 2003 CIA World Fact Book.

A Palestinian has to work for 28 years to earn what an Israeli does in one year

GDPPer Capita

Annual BudgetUN HDI Rank

$117.4 Billion$19,500$45.1 Billion22 out of 177

GDPPer Capita

Annual BudgetUN HDI Rank

$2.4 Billion$700$1.2 Billion102 out of 177

In the land between the Mediterranean sea and the Jordan river…

Military Comparison

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Main Battle Tanks – Combat Aircraft –

Artillery – 2001 Military Expenditures –

Official Active Forces –

Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies

Israel Palestine

3,950 4381,542$10.1 billion167,600

000$85 million35,000

“We can argue with the Palestinians about who’s to blame; but about who is suffering worse – there is no argument. They are a destitute nation living in an elaborate prison under the guns of the Israeli army.” Jerusalem Post Editorial, March 3, 2004

Israel continues to maintain tens of thousands of troops in the West Bank and Gaza – Israel invaded and occupied those areas in the 1967 war

The Conflict has taken 4,000 lives in 4 years

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41Sources: Middle East Policy Council, The Guardian Unlimited

 

Population Citizens Killed U.S. Equivalent

Israel 6,116,533 949 45,048

Palestine 3,512,062 3,538 292,487

From September 29, 2000 to January 5, 2005

How Do We Resolve the Conflict?

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The Formula for a Two State Solution:

Israel and Palestine based on 1967 borders with a shared & open capital in Jerusalem and a just settlement to the refugee problem

I. A new state of Palestine, viable and independent, consisting of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.

II. A state of Israel, secure within its borders, fully recognized by all 22 Arab countries along with peace agreements with each Arab country resulting in normalization of relations and an official end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This will result in the following:

The Historic Arab Peace Initiative from the Arab League 2002

1. The full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967.

2. The achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.

3. The acceptance of the establishment of a Sovereign Independent Palestinian State on the Palestinian territories occupied since the 4th of June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Arab League would:

A. Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

B. Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace

Page 63 of

41Source: The Beirut Declaration of the League of Arab States, 2002.

The Arab League

This offer was repeated in March 2005

Joint Israeli & Palestinian Public Opinion

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76% of Israelis and Palestinians favor a two-state solution

The OneVoice poll of 23,000 Palestinians and 17,000 Israelis as reported in AP and Ha’aretz found that 76% on each side endorsed the two-state concept - a Palestinian state existing beside a Jewish state, "each recognizing the other as such, both democratic and respecting human rights, including minority rights."

Sources: Associated Press and Ha’aretz, May 2004.

Additional Palestinian Public Opinion

• 78% believe that the current Israeli measures, including the building of the separation barrier reduce the chances for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

• 85% support a mutual cessation of violence.

• 59% support taking measures by the Palestinian Authority to prevent attacks on Israelis if an agreement is reached on a mutual cessation of violence.

• 86% of the Palestinians believe that they cannot count on Arab States to support them in regaining their rights.

Page 67 of

41Source: Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, October 2003. Oslo Accords, 1993.

The 1993 Oslo Accord marked an historic turning point for Palestinians – they formally recognized, “the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.” Furthermore, they reduced their claims to just 22% of the land of historic Palestine (West Bank, Gaza Strip & East Jerusalem).

Israeli Support for Ending the Occupation

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59% of the Jewish Israelis support a unilateral withdrawal of the army from most of the occupied territories and dismantling most of the settlements

1,371 Israeli soldiers now refuse to play a role in, “the continued oppression of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.”

Sources: The Forward 8/20/04. DaHaf poll, May 6, 2002 by Peace Now. Refuseniks Watch. Yedioth Ahronoth, November 14, 2003

Four former Israeli security service chiefs called on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip and dismantle most of Jewish settlements

Ami Ayalon, ex-Shin Bet chief, “I favor unconditional withdrawal from the Territories – preferably in the context of agreement but not necessarily”

Phot

o: A

mi A

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“The Occupation of Palestinian territory is eroding Israel’s international standing. The U.S. is virtually our only friend, so we must remember that it, too, supports a withdrawal almost to the borders of 1967.” – Ehud Olmert Current Deputy PM of Israel

Current Challenges to a Two-State Solution

I. The current path of the Israeli barrier in the West Bank

II. The 200+ Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

III. Violence Against Civilians

IV. Restarting the Peace Process

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Challenge: The Path of the Israeli Barrier

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The barrier’s path has been projected to annex between 7% – 45% of Palestinian land. This will:

1. Completely surround 100,000 people in 42 towns2. Reduce the available water supply by 1 billion gallons 3. Confiscate hundreds of thousands of acres of land4. Severely restrict travel to jobs, hospitals and schools5. Adversely affect 4 out of 10 Palestinians

Sources: B’Tselem, Gush Shalom, Ha’aretz, International Court of Justice

The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that the West Bank is “in belligerent [Israeli] occupation…subject to international law”

And the International Court of Justice at the Hague has ruled that the path of the barrier in the West Bank is illegal and must be torn down and compensation paid to the Palestinians adversely affected by it.

Is It Too Late For Two States?Some people argue it is too late by pointing to the fact that there are literally hundreds of Israeli settlement compounds throughout the occupied Palestinian territories with more being built every day. According to Condoleeza Rice, “Settlement expansion is not consistent with our understanding under the road map.”

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Question: Have you tried visualizing the settlements without the settlers?

Evacuating the settlements is a key ingredient for a just and final peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Sources: Brit Tzedek v’Shalom Jewish Alliance for Justice & Peace, Americans for Peace Now, CCAR 6/11/03

The Central Conference of American Rabbis in a letter to President Bush stated, “No peace can be established without…the dismantling of certain Israeli settlements.”

Final Goal – Peace in the Middle East

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The Future State of Palestine

Ups and downs of Jewish power

King David + Babylonians -

Maccabees +

The Romans -

1948 +

Concern #2 Should we launch a preemptive strike?

How To React?

Case Study: The 35

Etzion Bloc

The Saving Private Ryan Dilemma

Jack Bauer

Saul and the Amalekites

Something to consider:

•“Whoever becomes merciful on the cruel ends up becoming cruel to the merciful.”

•Rabbi Yonah Gerondi (Spain, 13th Century)

Issue #2: Judaism and Preemptive War

Judaism and Preemptive War

Three Types of War in the Bible:

ObligatoryDiscretionary

Commanded

Rabbi Edwin Goldberg: Swords and Plowshares

Obligatory WarWhen the Eternal your God brings you to the land that you are about to enter and possess, and God dislodges many nations before You – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you – and the Eternal your God delivers them to you and you defeat them, you must doom them to destruction; grant them no terms and give them no quarter. Deuteronomy 7:1-2

Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey after you left Egypt – how undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore when the Eternal God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! Deuteronomy 25:17-19

Discretionary War

The king may lead forth the army to a voluntary war on the decision of a court of seventy-one. He may force a way through private property and none may oppose him. There is no limitation to the king’s way. The plunder taken by the people in war must be given to him and he receives the first choice when it is divided. Talmud Sanhedrin 20b

Commanded War

When you are at war in your land against an aggressor who attacks you, you shall sound short blasts on the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Eternal your God and be delivered from your enemies. Numbers 10:9

Preventive or Preemptive War?

Rava said: Everyone agrees that the wars Joshua fought to conquer the Land of Israel were obligatory. Everyone agrees that the expansionist wars of King David had to be discretionary. They argue about a strike against gentiles in order to weaken them from a future attack. One party considers it commanded [in self defense] and one requires it be discretionary. Talmud Sotah 44b

What’s Next?

Chanukah and Maimonides

Which to Light?

The Most Important Thing

Further Study

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