by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

October 30, 2008

Rabbi David J. Forman, a civil rights and social justice advocate in Israel who is perhaps best known as founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, will serve as scholar-in-residence at Temple B’nai Jeshurun, a Reform synagogue in Short Hills, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

A native of Boston, Forman moved to Israel 35 years ago. He is the former director of the Israel office of the Union for Reform Judaism, in Jerusalem, and has been active in human rights and peace movements in Israel. Writing regularly for both the Israeli Hebrew and English press, he lectures frequently around the world on human rights and social justice issues.

In an e-mail exchange, Forman shared his thoughts on current Arab-Israeli relations and the upcoming American election.

NJJN: How would you describe the situation now on the ground in Israel between Arabs and Jews, and among Arabs?

David J. Forman: This is a very relevant question considering the outbreak most recently between Arabs and Jews in Acco (Acre). While Israeli Arabs enjoy full citizenship, and, for the most part, the relations between the two communities are good, there are rising tensions, which reached their height in 2000 when 13 Israeli Arabs were shot and killed during demonstrations in the north of the country. By every government’s own admission, not enough has been done to spread the economic pie around equitably among the Israeli Arab population — in the area of education, health clinics in local communities, public services. There is a natural tension between defining Israel as a Jewish state and making a non-Jewish minority feel comfortable.

NJJN: Regarding the upcoming U.S. election, what are people in Israel saying? Do they favor one of the candidates?

DJF: It is hard to know. The conventional wisdom is that George Bush has been good to Israel, and therefore so will McCain be. However, there are others, myself included, who believe that Bush has been a disaster for Israel, for two major reasons: the war in Iraq and his lack of involvement (until very recently) in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Regarding the war in Iraq: While publicly Israel supported the war, the country had no choice, because America is our greatest ally, Iraq fired Scud missiles on Israel during the Persian Gulf War, and Saddam Hussein sent $10,000 to the Palestinian families of every suicide bomber. However, Israel knew that Iraq did not possess WMDs. Even the simple citizen knew — for unlike the first Gulf War, we were not told to seal our rooms or renew our gas masks. In addition, in 1981, Israel destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor, and the senior George Bush decimated the Iraqi army.

What the war has done is destabilize the region. Al Qaida cells, which had never operated before in that country, are now free to cross over the porous border between Jordan and Iraq, head toward the vast Sinai Peninsula, and infiltrate Israel either by the Red Sea or through Gaza. It is not enough that Israel contends with local terrorists; it now must deal with international terrorists who, in addition to possibly wreaking havoc in Israel and the West Bank, can destabilize its peaceful neighbors, Egypt and Jordan. More problematic is that the Iraq War has undermined U.S. military capability to face the real enemy — Iran…. Equally frightening as that country gaining nuclear power is the fact that it is building a conventional army with conventional weapons that can walk into Iraq and take over its oil wells, something it would not do under the Saddam regime.

Also, because of lack of involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli imbroglio, there has been no one to coax each side into keeping international agreements. The U.S. has not forced the Palestinians to end corruption, put a stop to terrorist cells being established, disarm renegade para-military organizations, confront Hamas, establish a democratic judicial system. On the other side, Israel has not been forced to freeze its settlement enterprise and dismantle illegal ones, to take down road blocks and checkpoints that have little if any security value, and help prop up the Palestinian economy. Both sides agreed to fulfill these obligations under the Road Map and after the Annapolis Conference.

NJJN: Often when American Jews discuss Israeli politics and elections, people say, “If you don’t live in Israel, you don’t get an opinion.” Isn’t this true when the elections are reversed? Should we in the United States care what Israelis think about who should be our next president?

DJF: The perception of Judaism and the image of the Jew are often determined by what we Israelis do — for good and for bad. The Jewish state has become the lightning rod for how the world judges the Jews. As Saul Bellow wrote: “Israel is to the West what Switzerland is to the winter holidays — a moral resort area.” I do not believe that American Jews should and can take a moral vacation from what happens in the Jewish homeland.

However, while I personally encourage active Diaspora engagement in Israel and recognize that criticism of Israel’s behavior is legitimate, I would hope that Diaspora Jews would be dutifully conscious of the geographical locale whence their criticism emanates. There is nothing more irritable to those of us in Israel than to hear Diaspora Jews definitively pontificate about what we should or should not do, thereby displaying an all-too-ready willingness to sacrifice our and our children’s blood for their ideological purity. In the end, we in Israel will make our own decisions.

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