Eyes on the East

"With love as deep as the colors of Jerusalem" 
A Mizrach by Eileen Shulman

Dear friends, 

A Mizrach is traditional Jewish art piece that is placed on the eastern wall of the house. It includes the Hebrew word, Mizrach, meaning east, meaning the Land of Israel, meaning the site of holiness, meaning the place of truth, meaning the way forward. Staring at the one my mother painted in her home in Jerusalem and now lives on my wall, I found some focus this week.

The Shloshim has passed, the thirty-day mark since the horrors began. We’ve been in a cloud of emotions and confusion that has rocked our understanding and shifted our perspectives. And then, on Wednesday evening, as I listened to Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green of Standing Together speak in the Upper West Side, the haze seemed to scatter. “Stand up,” I heard them echo Lekha Dodi, “step out of the chaos.”

Many of us have been caught in confusion and pain that has left us frozen. We were so shaken that we questioned basic values that guide us. Unsure what to call for, we succumbed to the fury around us. I found myself envious of those who could clearly take a stand, no matter on which side, simply because they could put their emotions into action. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t find a single protest I felt comfortable going to. Free Palestine meant more than those words. Stand with Israel meant more than just that. Cease Fire came with “Genocide,” often with “River to the Sea,” sometimes with “By Any Means.” Release the Hostages came with a sea of flags, whose representatives had just spoken about devastating Gaza for generations, and then cut off basic supplies and destroyed tens of thousands of innocent lives. My entire adult life I have been fighting to end the occupation so that Jews can continue to live in the Land of Israel, and Palestinians can be free. Suddenly I couldn’t comfortably stand with either side. Justice, no matter whose, felt off the mark of truth.

The trickiest thing about being far away is that you can lose sight of the reality on the ground over there. You can stop looking for a solution and focus instead on some perfect notion of justice. Whether or not people have a right to act in one way or another is irrelevant to whether that same act is constructive or not. That should be our measure.

On Wednesday night a Palestinian woman and an Israeli man took the stage to state a simple truth: neither of them is ever leaving. No one is going anywhere. It is from that truth that I begin to find clarity, and from there that I stand up to act. (please watch the recording of that extraordinary event HERE. It gets going at minute 22.)

I do not act out of an expectation that it will “work.” I do not act out of an expectation that I will see peace tomorrow, or this year, or this decade, or even in my lifetime. Jews have been taught not to expect peace since the day we came into being. Instead, we do it Lishmah, for its own sake. When Sally and Alon-Lee speak about their work of “choosing a shared future,” they know the tremendous odds against them. They pay real prices for it, especially during these times. Palestinian Israelis, including very prominent ones are currently in Israeli jails simply for joining a demonstration against a war in which their family members are being killed in great numbers. Jewish Israelis are also in jail for expressions of solidarity and concern that this operation will come back to haunt them. But the activists of Standing Together and Spirit of the Galilee and Combatants for Peace and The Bereaved Parents Circle and Ta’ayush and other joint Jewish-Arab movements are steadied by the simple fact that no one is going anywhere, and this leaves everyone there with a simple choice between never-ending war, or building a shared future.

Sally and Alon Lee were asked what we in the US can do to help. Alon gave a four-point answer:

Support the movement financially.

Realize our influence in this moment. Blinken sits in on meetings with Israel’s war cabinet. He responds to our calls. Write to your reps, not with general heartbreak or concern but with clear demands. Alon didn’t outline these, and each of us can come up with our own, but a few obvious ones are: Release the hostages. Humanitarian pause. Humanitarian corridor. Basic supplies to Gazans. Stop handing out rifles to extremist settlers. Protect Palestinians in the West Bank from settler attacks. Freedom of dissent in Israel. A far more effective strategy to protect civilian lives in Gaza.

Realize our influence toward a solution to the conflict. Is there anyone who still thinks the status quo can hold? The occupation needs to end. The Hamas-Bibi era has to pass. You think it’s hopeless? Do it anyways. Understand the physical danger that hopelessness brings and step out of it. Hopelessness is what both Netanyahu and Hamas have sold these last several decades. Reject it. It was Carter who forced a right-wing Israeli leader to make peace with his sworn enemy. It can happen again.

Create a less toxic conversation here. The high fumes that we have witnessed in this country burn a palpable effect on the state of affairs in Israel/Palestine. Work peace into your conversations and expressions here. Check the way you speak, and get less offended and enraged, especially when you’re in conversation with Palestinians and Israelis. When, for example, a Palestinian says From the River to the Sea, remember that the very same language exists in certain Israeli circles (such as the founding charter of the country’s governing party.) When an Israeli says “I don’t care about Palestinian deaths,” imagine how you would feel if you lived there, where everyone in the country knows people who were murdered or kidnapped or both. Remember the videos these are seeing, and the ones these are seeing.

There is no doubt that we have our own problems over here in America, many of which have been brought to light by this war. But if we are going to be helpful to Israelis, and that has been one of the hardest elements of the experience for many of us, we have to keep our eyes on the Mizrach. There is a goal that we are striving for, which necessarily involves a shared future for Palestinians and Israelis. Let us begin working toward that now. Let us avoid language that erases one side. Let us resist division here so they can unite there. Let us amplify the voices of unity and help them build a future out of broken buildings and hollow hearts. To borrow a phrase from Netanyahu: this will be long and difficult.

My father has been miserable these days because since October 7th around twenty of the Palestinian villages in the West Bank that he’s been working to protect from extremist settlers have succumbed to their threats and been abandoned. The only times he is not entirely miserable about it is when he is in a Palestinian village under threat supporting them. Acting Lishmah, for its own sake has no rewards other than that fleeting feeling that you are doing the right thing. Does anything matter more?

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Misha