On Criticism of Israel

Dennis Fox

MSU Jewish Voice
December 1982

A few days after the massacre at the Shatilla and Sabra refugee camps in Beirut, I wrote an article that appeared in the MSU State News called "A Drastic Departure From Jewish Ethic." I was outraged at the thought of Jewish soldiers looking the other way while Israel's "allies" slaughtered innocent children.

Partly because I have children of my own, partly because for many years I've drawn much inspiration from Judaism's long moral tradition, and partly because there was a time I expected to live in Israel (and did live for a short while on a kibbutz), I felt -- and still feel -- that recent events in Lebanon were a corruption of what the Jewish State should strive to be. Menachem Begin's right-wing Zionism, it seemed to me, had become a mockery of the progressive values early Zionism tried so hard to fulfill.

The reactions to my State News article have been interesting, and they seem to fall into two groups. The Jewish students and faculty on campus who have talked to me about it almost all agreed with me; they also feel ties of one sort or another to Israel, but they cannot support the policies of the Begin government. Many feel that the government is leading Israel toward moral decline (of which the Lebanon invasion is only the latest example) and toward inevitable disaster. I have been thanked repeatedly for writing the article, which seemed to tap some very widespread feelings,

In the organized Jewish groups, on the other hand, the reaction was somewhat different. While some members of Hillel and the Jewish Student Union expressed agreement with me, the majority have been openly critical both of my opinions in the article and, even more important, of the very fact that I had written it. Any criticism of Israel, they seem to feel, only "helps the anti-Semites." I have been told that "we shouldn't wash our dirty linen in public" more times than I can remember. Criticism of Israel should be an "internal matter, not a public debate. I should have written for the Jewish Voice, I was told, not for the State News.

I disagree. I think it's vital for Jews throughout the world to speak openly and honestly about what's happening in Israel. Israelis themselves, after all, have been actively demonstrating against the government's actions. Many Israelis recognize the moral depravity of the people responsible for allowing tile massacre to occur,

Israel has come to expect our support because we are Jews, and it usually gets that Support. But this is different, We have the right -- and the responsibility, as Jews -- to hold accountable a Jewish government that violates Jewish ethics in the name of the Jewish people. Menachem Begin invaded Lebanon in the name of the Jewish people; he refuses to allow real Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank in the name of the Jewish people; he refuses to even consider the possibility that Israeli policy should be thoroughly re-evaluated in the name of the Jewish people. I think it is time that the Jewish people made some demands on the Begin government, in the name of the ethics of the Jewish people,

I also think that as long as organized Jewish groups refuse to openly criticize Israel, those groups will fail to gain the respect of the many Jews who do distinguish between support of Israel and support of whatever particular government is in power.

Many Jewish students feel uncomfortable in groups such as the Jewish Student Union, which typically presents a one-sided, right-wing Zionism as if that's the only kind there is. A little honesty and criticism might even force the local "anti-Zionists" and the general public to distinguish between the Israeli government and Israel as a nation. If we don't make the distinction, why should they?