Appalling Students

Nachshon Litzedek is a Jewish student at the University of California, Santa Cruz who says he has struggled with his Jewish identity since he was 12 when an Israeli soldier came to his class in Hebrew school, according to the Jewish Faculty Roundtable (JFR), a list-serve for Jewish faculty around the country addressing Jewish issues on college campuses in the United States.

According to JFR, Litzedek said, “The soldier tried to explain to explain to me why he had to shoot Palestinian kids who were throwing rocks at him. They were about the same age as me.” So, on April 20, on Yom Ha-Atzma’ut (Israel Independence Day) Litzedek was demonstrating against Israel. “This is an audacious day to protest,” he said. “One country’s celebration is another country’s catastrophe. I feel obligated to be a part of this because I’m Jewish. If anyone understands ghetto-ization, persecution and genocide, it’s the Jewish people. Specifically because of my Jewish values I can sympathize with the Palestinians.” There is an interesting choice of words here.

When Litzedek speaks of catastrophe he is using the English language word for al-nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” which is how Palestinians describe the victory of Israel in 1948/49. Odd, isn’t it. And, the JFR reports, in the Cesar Chavez Student Center at the university, pro-Palestinian students waved the Palestinian flag over recumbent white-faced bodies participating in a “dead-in,” arguing for divestment from any companies that did business with Israel. The argument was that Johnson & Johnson and Exxon-Mobil were selling products in the bookstore, which they felt was “appalling.” “Why are we investing money in killing people?” asked a Palestinian student. “This is supposed to be a campus that’s committed to social justice... All of the budget cuts wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for war, so how do you feel about San Francisco State spending money on companies that fund the military?” Ah, Israel, it turns out, is responsible for the economic disaster that is California. Who knew?

Litzedek is appalled that Jewish soldiers defended themselves against rock throwers. I’m appalled that the powers-that-be in the Palestinian movement hid behind youthful rock throwers, cameras at the ready to record the massacre, disappointed when there was none, I imagine. I’m appalled that Litzedek seemed unaware that the previous day marked the commemoration of Jews killed in the various wars against surrounding Arab states and civilians killed by Arab terrorists.

The coincidence of dates is striking for another reason as well. On April 20, 1889, a son was born to Alois and Klara Hitler in the small Austrian border town of Braunau. That Israel could celebrate its coming into being on the anniversary of the birth of the Haman of the 20th century is an unparalleled vindication of the triumph of good over evil, a circumstance that occurs with depressing irregularity.

I remember when my youngest son was 11 and we were choosing when to celebrate his bar mitzvah. The synagogue had several dates available, but one stood out in my mind: April 20, 1986, what would have been Hitler’s 97th birthday. When my son was on the bimah, chanting his portion from the Torah, a thought came to mind: “Take that, you Nazi bastard; my son is having his bar mitzvah on your birthday! You fought a war to exterminate us, and failed. Today another Jewish boy has reached adulthood.” Not charitable words, perhaps, but I’m not sure why we should be charitable to those who wished us harm, who would have killed us all.

I don’t want to pretend that I associate calls for divestment with Nazism; it would be absurd. Such actions by Palestinians and their allies are a political means to achieve a political end, a political fight that ought to be countered by political action on the part of Israel’s friends.

Can there be peace in our time between Israel and the Palestinians? Some say yes, but I wonder if generations of hatred, mistrust, fear and loathing can be eradicated by ink on a page. It can happen, I know. Look at Germany and France, enemies since at least the mid-19th century, fighting over Alsace and Lorraine whose territory was French, then German, then French, then German and now French again with the agreement of Germany.

Yes, it can happen, but is now the time it will happen? Is now the time to create a bifurcated Palestine surrounding Israel, each half cut off from the other? Let us explore Palestinian textbooks and TV; then we'll know better.

Advocates of peace now seem to envision an Israeli/Palestinian relationship comparable to that between the U.S. and Canada. They should think instead India/Pakistan.