Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism by West Cornel

Author:West, Cornel [West, Cornel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101655863
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2005-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

In regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he notes that, by the 1970s, “it would be hard not to conclude that the hawks had triumphed over the doves…. It is crucial to register the on-going vitality of a right-leaning, religiously inflected American Zionism.”

The recent history of prophetic American Jews questioning the myopic viewpoint and Manichaean framework of this conflict is appalling. The experience of Breira is revealing. Breira is Hebrew for “alternative.” In the years 1973 to 1977, this group of prophetic American Jews tried to create a democratic space that allowed serious debate about the fate of Israelis and Palestinians beyond the narrow consensus of mainstream American Jewish leadership—a consensus predicated on “ein breira” (there is no alternative to the reigning consensus).

Breira accused the Jewish establishment of a kind of “Israelotry” that blindly worshipped the Israeli state while downplaying Jewish democratic commitments to peace and justice. The group strongly supported the security of Israel and bravely promoted a Palestinian state. Most important, Breira members called for a respectful democratic debate among American Jews regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And they were viciously attacked and mercilessly crushed—denied membership in local Jewish organizations, forced to quit Breira in order to keep their Hillel rabbi jobs, and cast as self-hating Jews. This antidemocratic response of the mainstream Jewish groups sent chills down the spines of prophetic Jews. For example, the treatment of Rabbi Arthur Waskow was atrocious. His prophetic pro-Israel and pro-Palestine stance was deliberately cast as a terroristic pro-PLO position. He was dubbed a “Jew for Fatah” rather than a concerned rabbi rooted in the rich prophetic tradition of Judaism. Like Rabbi Michael Lerner today, Rabbi Waskow was unfairly labeled a Jewish heretic or traitor. Yet both today persevere against such attacks.

And the present does look more promising. Strong prophetic voices are in fact emerging within the Jewish Diaspora—as well as in Israel—that are putting forward powerful critiques of Israel’s handling of the crisis and courageous visions of less violent, more democratic ways forward. New Jewish Agenda, Jewish Peace Lobby, Jewish Peace Network, Americans for Peace Now, Heeb magazine, Israel Policy Forum, and especially Rabbi Michael Lerner’s Tikkun magazine and Tikkun community (headed by Rabbi Lerner, Susannah Heschel, and myself) are slowly beginning to turn the tide against the mainstream Jewish imperial idolatry. These organizations rightly recognize that Israeli colonial occupation of Palestinians and deference to American imperial strategic interests produce neither security for Israel nor justice for Palestinians. Yet these prophetic Jews are up against formidable Jewish establishmentarian forces.

Those forces have sponsored an impressive Jewish civic activism, through a highly successful lobby, to support Israeli government policies and snub prophetic Jewish—and non-Jewish—voices. We democrats must support the right of citizens to organize and influence U.S. foreign or domestic policy. Yet there also must be accountability and responsibility in democratic public life, including vibrant debate and dialogue. Unfortunately, the highly effective Jewish lobby seems to have little interest in such debate and dialogue. Like the attacks against Breira and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the

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