The video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7NcwQV-iI8&feature=player_detailpage) is an important one. It allows us to better reflect on how we engage the Jewish Diaspora, especially young adults, in both supporting Israel and working for a resolution of the Palestinian conflict, a conflict that suffers from numerous timelines.
Take your choice: Is the conflict a Biblical one where we need to parse who had more historical connection to the land 100, 200 or 2000 years ago? Is the conflict a 20th century one primarily focused on that seminal moment in 1947 when the United Nations decided how to divide Palestine and the administrative responsibilities for Jerusalem? Or do we look at the conflict based on the land area of Israel after the 1948, 1956, 1967 or 1973 wars? Or maybe it’s the land area inclusive of the major West Bank settlement blocs as they existed after the negotiations in Oslo or Camp David? Of course, for those who seem to want to perpetuate the conflict, we could just look at the Israel of 2011 inclusive of all of the West Bank settlements.
Too many people prefer to cling to their own ownership and entitlement narratives, which is, of course, part of the problem. That tendency has inhibited compromise: Why compromise on what is mine, mine mine?
For far too many wasted years, the Palestinian national movement viewed its success primarily in terms of Israel’s failure. That viewpoint was aided and abetted by Arab League supporters. But while the Israeli government has acknowledged that this situation no longer exists and that Hamas and other terrorist factions don’t define present day Palestinian governance, there remains a tendency for some of our Jewish institutions and organizations to operate as if they are permanently stuck in yesterday.
It still isn’t unusual to find prominent Jewish American leaders speaking of the Palestinian leadership as if Arafat was still in charge or that a peace agreement is a remote possibility. This despite the fact that Ehud Olmert, former Prime Minister, Tzipi Linvi, head of the Kadima party, Shlomo Ben-Ami, lead Israeli Camp David negotiator, and many other Israeli leaders have all repeatedly acknowledged that the vast majority of the key negotiation points — borders, Palestinian right of return, security and Jerusalem — have already largely been decided. The main remaining issue is simply for Palestinian and Israeli leaders to deal with their own internal politics, fine tune land area percentages and refugee numbers, and get to the finish line.
Livni recently expanded on her thoughts: ”The Palestinians could have turned to the U.N. for years, but they didn’t because they understood that we wanted to reach an agreement. But due to the lack of a dialogue, they are turning to the U.N. and submitting plans in various languages, only because the (Israeli) government continues to avoid making decisions. Israel’s isolation happened for a reason. It is directly related to the government’s conduct.”
Yet all of this is is dismissed in favor of faulting Palestinians for refusing to agree to negotiate with “no preconditions” — as if it somehow makes sense to ignore the logical “precondition” that negotiations begin at the point that they were last abandoned three years ago.
The young Jewish adults in this video experienced a well rounded portrait of Israel, and appear to come away both more engaged and supportive. They are part of a demographic that Israel trips sponsored by Birthright, the Jewish Federation system, synagogues and other Jewish organizations that (as of now) take more of a Candyland-type focus, certainly miss or don’t reach nearly as well as they could.
It’s not that these trips don’t have some value in sustaining and building support for Israel. They do. The problem is they play to an ever-narrowing niche audience.
Incorporating more of the Palestinian narrative into the trips would allow for better understanding of the issues that separate Palestinians and Israelis, and, in the long-term, create even more attachment and support for Israel. After all, Israel, warts and all, has a remarkable story to tell. The warts don’t define Israel just as Hamas doesn’t define the Palestinian National Authority. American Jews are capable of understanding that. They need to understand that.
Painting the entire picture could actually be the best recipe to arrest the declining level of interest in and support for Israel among American Jews. It would permit a more normal and healthier relationship and assist Israel’s current government in receiving more than the traditionally narrow and sycophantic Jewish American “input” it now receives.
Reaching a final status agreement with the Palestinians is critical for Israel’s survival as a democracy and as a country that continues to serve as the homeland for the Jewish people — both secular and religious. To get to the finish line will require much more of an honest and open dialogue between the American Jewish community and Israel and much less of an insistence on painting a distorted picture that the American Jewish community is then expected to support. That approach has failed. It is past time to change course.
