Reflections After My Home Was Vandalized: Stop the Assault by Right-Wing Extremists on Israel’s Critics

EDITORIAL 8 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 Y ou may have read that a group of Zionist extremists plastered the outside of my home with signs identifying me with Judge Richard Goldstone, who put together the UN report on Israeli human rights violations during the war in Gaza (it also pointed to human rights violations on the part of Hamas).Thevandals’signscalledGoldstoneandme “extreme leftists” and “Islamofascists,” accusing us of supporting terrorism. The police said the point of the vandalism was to show us that we are vulnerable to personal physical attack even in our own home, and to scare us. And in fact, to this day my wife and familyremainveryconcerned. If only my personal safety were at stake, I wouldn’t take this space in Tikkun to discuss the incident. But the truth is that hundreds of thousands of Jews in the United States and around the worldfacethissameproblem:manyofthemostvocaldefendersof IsraelintheJewishcommunitypersonallyassailanyonewhocriticizes Israeli policies toward Palestinians, declining to answer the actual criticisms and instead labeling the critics as “self-hating Jews”or“anti-Semites”or,asyou’llreadbelow,worse.Youcanhear these attacks in the pews of not only Orthodox but also Conservative ,Reform,andReconstructionistsynagogues.Andyoucanhear this among both secular and religious Jews. The resort to assaulting the integrity and decency of critics of Israeli policy, instead of answering their criticisms, is a move by frightened people who cannotreallyunderstandwhyIsraeltreatsPalestinianssoharshly, who really can’t provide a rational defense. To protect themselves from the horrible realization that the Jewish State is acting immorallyandself -destructively,theyreactbydenouncingthepeople whocallthisrealitytotheirattention. The long-term effect of this intimidation of dissenters is a weakening of global support for Israel. These defensive attempts tosilencecriticsalsodrivepeopleawayfromtheJewishcommunityandprovideaidandcomforttotherealanti -Semites,whosehatredofJewsbecomeseasiertohidebehindcriticismsofIsrael .But in the short term, it is an effective technique for suppressing dissentandensuringthatpeopleintheJewishworldrarelygettohear the ideas and nuanced strategies for Israel’s security from those whoshareourpro-Israel/pro-Palestine“progressivemiddlepath.” And it’s not just Tikkun that faces this—J Street, the New Israel Fund, Rabbis for Human Rights, and the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem now also face the same attacks that Tikkun andIhaveenduredfortwodecades. The most recent phase of the political assault on dissenters beganthisway:inmid-AprilwelearnedthatleadersoftheJewish community of South Africa were telling South African Justice Richard Goldstone that he should not attend his grandson’s bar mitzvahbecauseright-wingZionistshadthreatenedtodisruptthe event. Jewish community leaders told Goldstone they could not guarantee his safety. We at Tikkun were outraged at this capitulationtothreatsofviolence . Let’s remember that Goldstone was an honored jurist who— though he served under the apartheid regime and apparently uphelditslaws —wasselectedbyNelsonMandelatocontinueinoffice under the new regime; Goldstone played a role in legitimizing the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa that had headed off the feared civil war between Blacks and whites after the apartheid system was dismantled. The UN later selected Goldstone to head investigatory commissions into the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. It was with this background, and as a proud Zionist and former member of the board of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, that Goldstone accepted the UN task of investigating the large number of deaths of Palestinian civilians, particularlychildren,duringtheIsraeliassaultonGazainDecember2008andJanuary2009 . GoldstonesoughtIsrael’scollaborationinthisinvestigation.He wasgoingtohearagreatdealofevidenceindicatingIsraelihuman rights violations and even war crimes, and he hoped to include in his report Israel’s version of what happened. He also hoped that Israel would punish any members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) found guilty—by appropriate Israeli judicial process—ofillegalorimmoralacts. UnfortunatelyforIsrael,theworld,andtheJews,Israelrefused to cooperate with Goldstone’s UN mission or to present its Reflections After My Home Was Vandalized: Stop the Assault by Right-Wing Extremists on Israel’s Critics And, yes, there is something you can do! Take the ESRA and getitendorsedbyyourlocalcitycouncil,yourstatelegislature,and your elected representatives to the House and Senate, your local church or synagogue or mosque or ashram, your professional organization , your civic group, your college or university, and your neighbors and friends. We’ll help you—but you need to let us know that you want that assistance. Write to me at rabbilerner@tikkun.org or send a letter to 2342 Shattuck Ave, #1200, Berkeley, California, 94704. Donate to Tikkun. Put us in your...