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7 Unraveling God As we traverse the Jewish world, Palestine casts an ominous shadow over everything Jewish. Indeed, at each anniversary of Israel’s birth, Palestine looms larger. During Israel’s sixtieth anniversary, Palestine’s presence was larger than on Israel’s fiftieth, and it was still larger on Israel’s sixty-fifth. Meanwhile, the celebration of Israel’s existence continues to diminish. Already events have intervened since the sixtieth anniversary. Just months after the sixtieth anniversary, Israel invaded Gaza. The settlements continue to grow in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Wall dividing and encircling Palestinians is now almost complete. The Arab Spring has come and gone. In the United Nations and beyond, Palestinian statehood has been acknowledged. The pace of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) continues to pick up steam. Some have called BDS the third Palestinian uprising, this uprising being conducted by the international community. Israel’s isolation deepens. The Palestinians are defining of contemporary Jewish life. They reside at the very heart of Jewish history. Perhaps it is time for Jews to see Palestinians as within an expanded covenantal framework or as fellow travelers. Or perhaps the covenant has fled the Jewish people and now resides among Palestinians. Jews in search of the fleeing covenant have to journey with Palestinians in order to embrace the essence of what it means to be Jewish. If the covenant resides with Palestinians, Jewish life has undergone a transformation far greater than the controversial Yakov Rabkin ever imagined. If the covenant resides with Palestinians, any attempt to embrace the covenant and Jewish life today necessitates an embrace of the Palestinian people. This means that the Holocaust/Israel axis of Jewish identity has expanded outward toward Palestinians. As well, there has been an expansion inward to recover the essence of what it means to be Jewish. The Jewish indigenous, the prophetic, comes alive in the embrace of the land through Palestinians, who are indigenous to the land. Rather than 213 God’s will—if that can be discerned after the Holocaust—Palestinians become a conduit for a prophetic critique of the people Israel. The Palestinians therefore embody the prophetic calling for Jews today. In this sense, the Palestinians re-present the prophetic challenge to Jews. Jews of Conscience are up for the challenge. This is another aspect of an evolving joint history, where Jews and Palestinians jointly embody the prophetic critique of unjust power, while at the same time embodying the possibility of a joint future beyond violence and injustice. We began our exploration in search of a Jewish homeland. It is ironic that this very search may end by following the covenant into exile with Palestinians. The conditions of exile vary. The forcible exile of those who once resided in the land, or those who still live on part of the land but now under Israel’s domination, is different from a Jewish exile freely chosen as solidarity with those who are suffering. Still, once embarked upon, exile is defining and unrelenting. Today Jews are called into exile with the Palestinian people. In Israel-Palestine, the voluntary exile of Jews of Conscience and the forcible exclusion of Palestinians converge. Jews and Palestinians meet in the middle of two histories that are now irrevocably intertwined. This is no romantic idyll. When Jews throw in their lot with Palestinians, they should avoid idealizing the journey. Palestinians with no choice and Jews with many choices are poles apart in their life circumstances. Nonetheless, once a decision is made, exile is certain. Such an exile is burdensome even for the secure and affluent. Exile is fraught with complexities. These extend from fractious politics to issues relating to Jewish identity. While Jewish exiles witness to a collective Jewish journey, profoundly personal sensibilities are at stake. Exile is a public matter. Exile is also intensely private. The aloneness and violence exiles confront in embodying the truth is demanding.1 Think of Jews who believe BDS should be applied to Israel like it was in South Africa. Now read the paid statement in the New York Times in April 2012 that compares the boycott movement of today with the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933. Referring also to the murder of a rabbi and three children in Toulouse, France, some weeks earlier, the ad begins: “The Holocaust began with boycotts of Jewish stores and end with death camps. The calls for a new Holocaust can be heard throughout the Middle East and in Europe as...

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