The Movement for Reform Judaism

“THE REBELLION GOES GLOBAL” ran the Jewish Chronicle front page headline on February 9th. “International drive to challenge communal leaders’ ‘unquestioning support’ for Israel reaches Britain”.

The launch of Independent Jewish Voices was exceedingly dramatic with pictures of Zoe Wannamaker, Mike Leigh, Harold Pinter and Stephen Fry to the fore.

There are in fact three main positions on Israel discernable within the mainstream of the British Jewish community.

First, there is what may be termed the fundamentalist religious point of view. This is the dominant view of the United Synagogue rabbinate. It understands the State of Israel in Biblical terms and the claim to the land as authenticated by the word of God.

I remember debating the withdrawal from Gaza with a leading Orthodox rabbi. He was deeply opposed because Gaza is part of the Land of Israel and giving up Gaza – whatever the justification in pragmatic terms – was not a religious option.

It is a view that has to be grappled with. It underlines the need for secular states and spells out the danger of theocracies. But it is not a view which seeks to suppress others, only to argue its own case.

The second position sympathises with the argument that Jews and Israel have enough enemies without Jews giving comfort to those who would seek to undermine us. They point to something that liberals cannot ignore. A new book by the American historian Michael Oren is heavily critical of American policy in the Middle East which, ultimately, says Oren is based upon American contempt for the Arab world and a dislike of Islam. Israelis, says Oren, are regarded as being ‘OK’ because Israelis are much more like us. But you don’t have to delve back very far in history to find John Foster Dulles calling Israel “the millstone around our necks”.

As we have often pointed out in MANNA, there are 2.0 billion Christians in the world, 1.2 billion Muslims and 14 million Jews. Of those 14 million Jews, more than 80% live in Israel and America. The numbers make us exceedingly vulnerable. The survival of Israel up to now owes a great deal to the influence of American Jewry on American foreign policy. But that’s a very precarious position to be in. In a world in which national and group self-interest is the driving force, Jews don’t have too much reason for feeling secure.

Those who adopt the second position do bring pressure to bear on those of us who voice dissent. But they do not do so from a position of uncritical support of Israel but from a world view which sees Israel – and world Jewry – as under serious threat.

The third position is the one that I take on behalf of the Movement for Reform Judaism. Since, with our sister Liberal Movement, we account for 30% of UK synagogue affiliations, it is clearly a mainstream view. This position affirms a religious dimension to the rebirth of the State of Israel. It maintains the Jewish imperative of hope. But it does so against a background of non-fundamentalist realism.

So the State of Israel is open to criticism – in the same way that Israel and Judah were open to criticism by the Prophets – whenever justice is denied and the rights of the poor, the stranger, the widow and the orphan are refused. Its meaning is inextricably interwoven with its values. But it exists neither within a Jewish universe nor a utopia but within a corrupted and corrupting world.
According to a recent public opinion poll in Israel the present Government’s approval rating stands at 22%. It is astonishing that 22% of the Israeli population can still approve of a Government discredited by corruption and incompetence, nakedly clinging to power, without plausible, constructive policies for peace. In such circumstances Reform Judaism compels us to speak out – and we do. It also compels us to act constructively – to urge our membership to engage with those groups and institutions within Israel that are actively working for a two State solution, for reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians and for the vindication of the human rights of all the people of the region. In MANNA, we have listened with the utmost attention to the voice of the Israeli on the front line of the struggle – embodied in Julian Resnick in our last issue. We have also listened to the voice of those suffering in the occupied territories. In this issue we listen to those within Israeli society campaigning against human trafficking in the Jewish State.

There are all kinds of remarkable features to Israeli society. Its outstanding and ongoing contribution to many aspects of positive human endeavour, for instance, in medicine. The constant reassertion of a robust democratic system despite waves of immigration from non-democratic countries. The outstanding example of Israel’s Supreme Court. The multiplying of initiatives to work with Palestinians and advocate peace, justice and collaboration, despite an environment that conspires against them.

But there is also a bleakness. We look back and see that there have been opportunities for peace that were missed or sabotaged. During the Clinton Administration. Rabin’s assassination. Now the leadership on both sides pursue policies that seem hell bent on making a dire situation worse. And the context is Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Islamic extremism and a disastrous American foreign policy

It is bleak, frightening and deeply frustrating.

And that, I would suggest, provides the key to understanding IJV. The situation is profoundly worrying, deeply perplexing and it is astonishingly difficult to see the way forward. It is in situations of deep frustrations like this that we turn on each other and seek some spurious moral high ground, “Those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people… Independent Jewish Voices reclaims Jewish support for universal freedoms, human rights and social justice.” Well, good for you. I hope that makes you feel better.
Now let’s actually engage and see whether, together, we can find some glimmer of light, some hint of hope, some policies that we can advocate and work for which will bring about a peace based upon justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Because that is what the majority of the mainstream of British Jewry is wholly committed to.

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