Zionist for a Free Palestine

(By Owen Gent)

I'm a Jew who believes in the right of Jews to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. I'm also a Jew who believes in the right of Palestinians to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. I don't see either of these two stances as contradictory but rather mutually affirming. 

I reject bigoted and extremist definitions of the labels, and increasingly the various movements, surrounding this conflict. I've struggled (from my relatively privileged place in the diaspora) to support peaceful, mutual coexistence, when so many on all sides are deeply invested in a status quo they paradoxically admit is unjust and untenable. I've also struggled to connect with more people who have a shared reality of the conflict and shared values around ending it.

But even after a lifetime surviving virulent antisemitism while the world burns, I have hope. A hopeless hope against hope because the only alternative would be to lay down and die. Well, fuck that.

***

We're well past the point where it's become clear that the Israeli government and military have perpetuated a genocide in Gaza. Ostensibly this was in pursuit of self-defense, hopes of hostage rescues, and gestures of justice for the massacre on October 7. In reality, Israel's descent into warmongering and extremism has only acclerated since the political ascent of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu in the late 90s and his resurgence in 2009.

As should be obvious to everyone, Bibi is trying to stay out of prison for multiple offenses, from breaching the public trust and fraud to bribery, as well as (internationally) war crimes and crimes against humanity. But even before that, Bibi sought to secure his own power at the expense of peace, making common cause with actual Jewish supremacists, Kahanists, and even authoritarians across the globe.

Paradoxically, after decades of armed struggle, terrorism, and political intransigence, the Palestinians as a whole have become the more willing partner for peace, resigned to a siege of Gaza, an occupation of the West Bank, and segregation in East Jerusalem, along with thousands being tortured in prison without trial and scars of the Nakba. It was almost as if they are being punished for repeatedly losing the very wars they started, from 1929 to the Six Day War to the Yom Kippur War to the Intifadas.

Yet they continue to call for their own freedom and independence. They make due with less and less, even as more and more is taken from them by Israel as much as by their own leaders in Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, whom none of them actually voted for. (Unlike in Israel, where Bibi, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir, and many others just as terrible were democratically elected.)

It should be no surprise that Bibi sabotaged this by actively funding and supporting Hamas. And by doing so, he created the means and opportunity for the massacre of over 1,200 and the kidnapping of 251 people on October 7, along with all of the associated destruction and, yes, even rape. In response, Israel has reportedly killed over 70,000 Palestinians, with as many as half of them being children, not to mention some of the very hostages they claimed to be saving. They've flattened the Gaza strip, bombing the rubble into powder and expanding their occupation into annexation. Despite a ceasefire, Israel is still bombing too.

Ironically, this has actually led to Israel being weaker militarily, domestically, politically, diplomatically, economically, and even undefined than at any point in its history. Morever, Jews across the diaspora are paying the price, in blood and tears, for decisions made by the Israeli government, as they are targeted by those angry with the Netanyahu Regime and about the conflict at large. In response to this, Israel has done little to nothing in support, abandoning our people over and over. This time in pursuit of another war with Iran now.

While the responsibility for bigotry against Jewish people remains first and foremost with the antisemites perpetuating it, there's no denying that Israel has shown how little it cares about the diaspora, from our values to our very safety.

***

You would think that the leaders of diaspora Jewry would take a stand about all of this. But they've been feckless at best and complicit at worst. Greenblatt has turned the ADL into a mockery of itself, excusing antisemitism from the right and waxing hysterical about criticism of Israel from the left. The AJC continues digging for data to support their priors even as the data shows that most Jews, especially younger Jews, don't support the current Israeli regime.

Conversely, JVP, JFREJ, and INN make common cause with antisemites in pursuit of ideological purity instead of ethical consistency. They would rather sacrifice some Jews than tell SJP and BDS, among others, to stop promulgating antisemitism in the name of their twisted version of social (in)justice.

As for J Street, Bend The Arc, T'ruah, PIN, NIF, the URJ and RAC... They barely have enough support together to counter the loudest voices, let alone individually how they usually act. Even the local JCRCs have become dysfunctional, more worried about domestic politicians that mention the word Israel than Jewish people actually suffering due to poverty with rising costs of living, lack of healthcare access, and increasingly authoritarian state regimes.

There's just no unified voice with broad-based support willing and/or capable of voicing even the most anodyne moral positions on the conflict, let alone acknowledging the legitimate grievances on all sides. Instead, claims of antisemitism have been weaponized like a political football, carried by gentiles and spiked to suit their particular endzone.

***

As for the Left, and particularly Jews on the/of the Left, well... We saw what happened. Joshua Leifer put it plainly, "I thought we were leftists because we wanted a world without war, torture, the killing of families & children in their beds ... Self-professed human rights defenders, even would-be colleagues are celebrating and glorifying unspeakable acts that violate the most basic elements of human life."

After October 7, we learned the answer to the question Jews were taught to be paranoid enough to ask ourselves: who would hide us if they came for us again? The answer was no one. Some of our alleged allies ditched us in the immediate aftermath of the massacre. Others slowly but surely began embracing antisemitism over the days, weeks, and months of the war.

The Left made a choice between campist rage through bloodshed and collective liberation through solidarity. They chose to betray everything they claimed to believe in as quickly and as easily as clicking "like this post".

***

So where do we go from here? I don't have many answers, but I do have some ideas. I'm curious what others think best path forward is, if there even is one.

For my part, instead of relitigating the same arguments of the past, this cycle of bloodshed must stop and someone has to be first. As Jews and as the stronger party, it should be us leading the way towards peace instead of doubling down on another endless war. As Americans and Jews with a massive investment in this conflict, we should demand accountability from our ally, from our mishpocha, as much as we defend them from aggression:

• Stop all offensive weapons sales to Israel
• Cutoff military funding to Israel
• Build a new pro-peace Haskalah in the diaspora with a rebuilt American Jewish coalition centered around traditional values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
• Call for an independent commission of inquiry into the events of October 7 and condition diaspora support on actual solidarity and mutual aid from Israel
• End all active armed hostilities with Iran and negotiate a new peace treaty with a JCPOA component
• Pass a United Nations Security Council resolution to deploy UN troops along with members of the Gulf States in Gaza and the West Bank to enforce international law, guarantee the ceasefire, and help civilians
• Implement a new Marshall Plan for Gaza and the West Bank that will establish an independent Palestinian State based on the internationally recognized Green Line

If Israel wishes to prove themselves a partner for peace, they would not only agree to these conditions, they would go even further:

• Allow international journalists and humanitarian organizations immediate access all conflict zones
• Release the over 3,474 Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention
• Release all tax revenue funds withheld from the Palestinian people
• Arrest and prosecute settlers committing terrorism in the West Bank
• Arrest and prosecute all soliders who committed war crimes
• Begin the process to dismantle the settlements in Area C and East Jerusalem
• Immediately withdraw from Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Southern Syria
• Dissolve the current government and elect a new pro-peace coalition government along with the Joint List
• Deliver Bibi, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir to the ICC for trial for their crimes against humanity
  
• Establish a truth and reconciliation commission to begin the peace process between Israel and an independent Palestine

But, let's be real here, I might as well wish for world peace while I'm at it. None of this remotely simple to do, even if it's the right thing to do. Worse, no one in this conflict wants all of this, let alone any of it. No one except for all of the innocent people caught in the middle, suffering, struggling, and dying.

***

It's like I said though... I have hope. A hopeless hope against hope because the only alternative would be to lay down to die. And fuck that.

None of this changes that Jews, Israelis, Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims are entitled to self-determination in their homelands and to representative government in the nations they call home now. None of this justifies the antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and other bigotries infecting the zeitgeist.

Because the people themselves, the regular just plain folks want peace. They just want to live. It's their leaders that have betrayed them for power, greed, fear, and hatred. It's a damning indictment of democracy and the rules-based international order that those aspirations have been thwarted for generations. So badly so that now we're entering a new era of fascism, with authoritarians, oligarchs, and warlords deciding the fate of millions based on the whims of their avarice.

So here's to being a pariah for peace. Because misery loves company almost as much me. If you feel the same, you're welcome to join for a drink while we tell each other stories and dream of building a better world for our children than the one our parents left us with. A world beyond the wildest dreams of our ancestors who survived long odds and hard times for the chance to take back something more than what they were given.

Shalom Aleichem.