How Zion (and the Rest of the World) Just Became Less Safe

By DON ROLLINS

Perhaps not since the grizzly Munich massacre during the 1972 Olympics has the state of Israel commanded so much of the world’s attention. As if turning 70 this month were not cause enough for revisiting the history, present and future of modern Zion, Trump’s initiative to relocate its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has put into motion a risky chain of events guaranteed to keep both the region and nation front and center for the foreseeable future.

Although much more significant than recent American overtures, the change in embassy venues can hardly come as a shock to anyone familiar with US-Israel relations since 1948. Even factoring for the few presidencies during which Palestinian interests were given increased shrift, the existential well being of Israel has been a constant consideration in Washington — geopolitically, economically, militarily and culturally.

Yet given a recent work by German scholar, educator and author Michael Brenner, In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea, it’s unlikely the administration’s staffers that engineered the switch in cities have even a rudimentary understanding of the complexities of Israel, then or now.

Brenner’s is not a political take on the state of Arabs and Israelis; but a history of the Zionist vision of a homeland for a people too long in wildernesses of many kinds. He parses the records and writings of the early and mid-20th century Zionists that led the cause for statehood, finding therein a two-fold purpose: to establish a legitimized nation, and be a light unto all others. (As described in a review of the book done by The Christian Century’s David Heim, “… a Jewish homeland was to be ordinary, but exceptional; secular, but the bearer of a mission of profound universal significance.”)

Noble in vision but naive in assessing its Arab neighbors’ outrage, first-wave Zionists gave way to leaders intent on establishing a strong military. As Heim notes, it was not lost on the new leaders they had obtained a permanent home a mere three years after one-third of their population were obliterated. The second wave understood the gravity of being Jewish amidst hostility.

Brenner next describes the onset of internal political and theological conflicts that continue unto this day. Zionism had taken a religious turn, prompting tensions over what it means to be a Jew, within and without Israel. The question of Jewish identity was further complicated by Israel’s victory in the Six Day War (1967) which increased the small nation’s boundaries, but also resulted in the addition of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs.

Brenner points out that in the wake of war, the still young and changing nation was faced with questions of identity: What does it mean to be Jewish in a nation of secular, nationalist and ultra orthodox Jews? What of Arabs in occupied areas, Christian as well as Muslim? Or, as Brenner mentions almost in passing, are some Jews right when they ask if the Zionist cause was itself wrong — what if a separate nation-state wasn’t the best option after all?

These are just some of the complexities at the heart of today’s increasingly diverse and fluid Israel — questions likely never pondered by an American administration in love with its narrow worldview, immune to any responsibility for its reckless ways. Questions worth pondering before the inevitable violence began.

As it stands, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud Party are the benefactors of Trump’s staged change in locales. Israeli polling indicates strong support even in the wake of deadly protests from Palestinians, and funding from American “Christian Zionist” evangelicals is at an all-time high.

But in the end Netanyahu and Likud have doubled down on the most mercurial world leader this side of Pyongyang - a guy who could give a rip about the nuances of history, statesmanship and geopolitics.

And now the world, including Zion itself, is less safe.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister and substance abuse counselor living in Pittsburgh, Pa. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2018

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