People often have “political” discussions when it comes to Israel. This has taken on the generic meaning of referring to the situation in Israel vis a vis the Knesset, Arabs and, most importantly, the security of our country. Generally speaking, the two opposing sides of the argument includes the left and more dovish side that favors concessions and negotiations with our enemies and the right and more hawkish side that, allegedly, backs the use of force and more severe measures (please keep in mind that this an extreme generalization that I am making for the sake of this article; I by no means intend to paint anyone in any particular light).
Without getting into much specifics, I have been decidedly cast on the right side of the argument and recently found myself in a discussion with someone placed squarely on the left. Obviously, many people on both sides of the argument have provided sound, logical reasoning to back up their beliefs over the years and I am not here to argue one side versus the other. However, this particular discussion I had left me deeply disturbed. It was an argument in favor of the left by my friend and coworker that I had never heard before.
It seems the crux of his argument leaning towards the more dovish, concession like approach is that (and I’m paraphrasing) we, as Jews, should start to realize and accept the fact that we have been handed a rough situation and should just, essentially, accept our lot in life as a people who were meant to get the short end of the stick. Now keep in mind that this is a very educated person. He has been through Orthodox Yeshivot/Schools all of his upbringing and is a certified lawyer in the New York City area. Therefore, this is not a case of lack of information or the access to it. This was someone’s genuine opinion on the political situation in Israel and, to an extent, the world.
I found this disturbing as, again, I had never heard such an argument. I always thought that people on the left sincerely believed that their “way” was the best way to fix the various problems. I had never thought that our people actually considered themselves inferior. That we were entitled to anything less than anyone else. I mean, when one goes through the leftist’s arguments that’s the conclusion that can reasonably be made. However, I had never actually heard someone make that explicit assertion.
Then it occurred to me. This is indeed the bottom line of the “dovish” side of the argument. We do feel we deserve less and that is the reason for all of the one sided concessions always provided by Israel to its enemies. Perhaps this lack of self worth is one more reason why people, despite the best of intentions, hold back from ultimately making Aliyah and moving to Israel. If we don’t believe we deserve the land and believe that we should continue to be handled with lower expectations of justice than another people, then why should anyone take up one more challenge and face all the hardships that await us in Israel. Living here, and being Jewish for that matter, are hard enough without having the presumption that we deserve less than anyone else. We are a tiny nation that has survived numerous attempts on our existence throughout time while continually thriving and making a disproportionate contribution to the international (medicine, technology, security, etc.) community. We have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to apologize for. We deserve an equal amount of justice as anyone else and should fight for it when it is not provided.
Only when we begin to understand this and truly believe it will it be easier for us to make those hard and challenging decisions, including one of the hardest of all: to pick ourselves up and move to Israel, our rightful homeland.
Ari
