This is what it means to be a people. This is what makes us different.

I have to admit I'm very conflicted about all that is taking place in Israel and Lebanon these days. I have recently been reading a lot of William Sloane Coffin, who in many ways I see as a professional role model when it comes to embracing the role of a campus chaplain for the sake of advancing the human condition. And Coffin was clear: War and violence are categorically bad. Nonviolence is the answer. And whether it was in the Civil Rights Movement or the antiwar movement or the anti-nuclear movement, Coffin always preached the gospel of nonviolence. He of course would be condemning Israel right now for killing civilians.

There is a large part of me that finds Coffin's attitude admirable, just as there is much in me that finds admirable teachings in the Christian scriptures. As I put it in an earlier post, I believe we all must weep when a Tzelem Elokim, an Image of God, is wiped out. The idea that human beings are created in God's image is the foundation of Torah, of our idea and respect for and love of life. So to see life destroyed, to see violence done to human beings, to human bodies, to the minds and spirits of children--we must weep in the face of these things.

And yet one of the key differences between Judaism and Christianity is that we as Jews tend to pay more attention to the world as it is experienced. Our utopian, messianic vision awaits fulfillment. And while we strive for it every day, we also value the continued existence of our people and our Torah. There are those who would try to separate the two--who believe that the Torah of Judaism would never allow the kind of exercise of power by Jews that we are witnessing these days. And at one time in my life, I believed that too. But while I do believe that the maintenance and continued vitality of Torah is our paramount value and greatest task, I have also come to believe that the maintenance and continued vitality of the Jewish people is indepsensable to and inseparable from it. You can't have one without the other--you can't have Am Yisrael without Torat Yisrael, the people of Israel without the Torah of Israel; just as you can't have Torat Yisrael without Am Yisrael, the Torah of Israel without the people of Israel.

Jewish identity is therefore dialectical--between the experienced present and the longed-for future; between the Godly ideals of the Torah and the human reality of the Jewish People. And because of that, we wrestle, as our namesake Jacob-Israel did. We are destined to a life of occasional contentment, but more often struggle--because the world as it is requires so much mending. When to side with the messianic and when to side with the realistic--this is the difficult choice Jews constantly face. For Christians the answer is obvious: You side with the messiah, you side with Jesus, you turn the other cheek. Would that it were so simple for the people Israel, for the nation of Israel.

Just before Jacob wrestles with the angel in the book of Genesis, the Torah recounts that heard that his twin brother Esau was on his way to meet him with an army of men. The verse reads, "And Jacob feared, and it troubled him greatly." The great medieval commentator Rashi writes on the seeming redundancy of the verse that, "Jacob feared--that he would be killed; and it troubled him greatly--that he might come to kill." And so Jacob prepared himself for both war and peace, and he prayed.

This is our dilemma in a nutshell. Anyone who has watched the news must be struck by how physically similar the Israelis and the Lebanese (and the Palestinians) look. By virtue of their humanity they are our brothers. And yet the story of Genesis--the story of brothers striving to figure out how to live with one another--continues to ring true.

So for all those reasons, I believe that this a moment like few others when Israel needs our support, our solidarity, and our compassion--but not our critique. Critique can come later. Right now Israel, and the entire Jewish people, is confronting what it means to be a real state in the real world. We are wrestling with God and with man, and we pray that, like Jacob, we will prove ourselves worthy of the task.

Start over - Haaretz - Israel News

This column by Ari Shavit in today's Haaretz is another important read for anyone conflicted about Israel's military action. Shavit begins by criticizing the performance of the government, and he calls for a unilateral three-day cease-fire from Israel to re-establish the moral high ground and "start the war over" on the right moral footing. But his main point should not be missed:

"The main problem is political. Israel is currently waging the most just war in its history. Not a war of occupation, but rather a war of defense. Not a settlements war, but rather a Green Line war. A war over the validity of an international border that was drawn, defined and recognized by the United Nations. Therefore, anyone who yearns for Israel to withdraw in future from occupied territories to recognized permanent borders must stand by Israel in this war. Anyone who wants peace, stability and an end to the occupation must back up Israel in its just war. The alternative is a violent and hemorrhaging Middle East chaos. "

Overcoming our Inhibitions

It is a truism (at least to me) that many liberal American Jews are uncomfortable with having power. Support for Israel in these trying times is frequently caveated with words like, "While it's important to support Israel, it's also important to remember our victims."

I admit to being torn myself. I cannot *not* weep for the destruction of a tzelem elohim, an image of God, particularly one in the form of an innocent child.

But let's be clear: This is not a moment for half-hearted support of Israel. This is a moment--particularly for those of us who supported disengagement--to loudly, publicly, and clearly support Israel and her right to use overwhelming force to restore the balance of power.

If you need convincing from the ranks of one of our own, take a look at this article in today's New York Times, which may be the most sympathetic piece of military coverage I have come across in the NYT. This is what it boils down to:

"What seems to be unfolding is an acid test of Israel’s recent strategy of seeking to extricate itself from conflict by building a barrier and generally going it alone, rather than negotiating with its adversaries. On two fronts, its antagonists have found a way to draw Israel back into the gyre. And the Israelis are again trying to extricate themselves — by making the fight even more painful than its enemies had thought it could be."

Yes, it sucks to be the ones dropping bombs and killing people. But you know what sucks more? To be occupying them for decades, and sending our own children to be corrupted by that cancer for a generation. This was the logic of disengagement, that Israel would retreat to internationally-recognized borders, and that when those borders were violated, the response would be immediate, swift, and ruthless. I would rather have these problems than the problems of the past.

Nevertheless, the present moment is scary, for the originating address of both Hamas and Hezbollah is Tehran. None of these guys obeys the normal rules of deterrence. So even as Israel inflicts unheard-of damage on Lebanon (and note how low the civilian death toll is considering the ferocity of the onslaught), you have to wonder what will come next. In the meantime, this is a moment to be a proud and loud Zionist.

Bedfellows

Check out this article from Haaretz today by Akiva Eldar, particularly the second half, where he points out the beginnings of what could be an interesting development in the relationship of Christians and Israel:

"It is important that we know that the evangelists who are called 'Zionist Christians' are not really 'friends of Israel.' According to them, Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer and their associates represent at most 25 million people, approximately one quarter of all evangelists. In their books and articles, Steven Sizer, Don Wagner and Ann Helmke cite evidence that fundamentalist Christian doctrine, which does not recognize the rights of the Palestinians, does not contain any form of concern for the welfare of the State of Israel. And the same is true of Jesus' doctrine. Sizer argues that behind the love of Israel, the Zionist Christians are concealing an intense anti-Semitism. His organization is behind the boycott of American companies, such as bulldozer manufacturer Caterpillar, whose equipment is being used to harm the population of the occupied territories.

Even in the U.S. Congress, several loyal evangelists have started raising their voices against Israel's policy toward the Palestinian civilians. Harm to the rights of Muslims is not keeping them awake at night. When the bulldozers disrupt the lives of faithful Christians, the chairman of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Henry Hyde, a Catholic, cannot restrain himself. Last Friday, he quoted in Congress from a State Department report that said the concrete wall around Jerusalem is hindering the path of the Palm Sunday procession, which commemorates Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem.

'I have been unable to understand how the currently routed barrier in Jerusalem - which rips asunder the existential poles of Christian belief, the Nativity and the Resurrection, and encloses 200,000 Palestinians on the Jerusalem side of the barrier ? will improve the security of Israel's citizens,' the senior Republican represen"