Should Jews leave Israel?

The US, Israel and Australia were all strong enough to chase the people living there from their land. The Australian Aborigines and the American Indians pose no threat to the continued existence of those countries. However, Israel may not be strong enough to survive a war of continued attrition. With the Palestinians and their Arab allies against them eventually they'll probably lose. The numbers are against them. If they survive as a nation it will be at the price of becoming a garrison state like Sparta. Such a state can maintain humanitarian values with great difficulty.

Our Jewish past is largely a tragedy, and the state of Israel is a continuation of that tragedy.

The Dreyfus' trial of 1894 aroused in Herzl the realisation that there was no place in much of the world for a Jew to have the rights that all humans should have. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jewish person in the French Army General Staff, had been charged with spying for Germany. Jews were second class citizens even in civilised France which had promoted the “Rights of Man”.

At the time of Dreyfus a Jewish state made good sense. There were analogs to Dreyfus in the US and Russia. Leo Max Frank was falsely convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl. New evidence cast doubt on his guilt, but he was lynched. Mendel Beilis was put on trial for ritual murder in Russia and was eventually freed.

The continuing persecution of Jews culminated in the Holocaust, an expression of the hatred promoted by Christianity mainly in its Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox versions. Herzl wanted to create a state where Jews could live a life free of prejudice and be able to pursue any occupation they could qualify for.

The state Herzl envisaged differed from the existing Israel in being more like Switzerland. There would be no national language, but Jews would gather in enclaves where they would keep the culture of language of the lands they had come from. Early Zionism was primarily a secular movement. Most religious Jews opposed Zionism. Their position was that if God wanted the Jews to return he would see to it so human action was unnecessary. Now Hebrew has been revived as a living rather than solely a liturgical language, and many religious Jews are ardent Zionists.

A remnant of Jewish survivors joined those already in Israel to form a new state. The new state of Israel bravely fought off its enemies. Citizens of the new state produced marvels in science and literature. Israelis have won eight Nobel prizes. Jews can walk in pride.

Myths have been restored from the dustbin: one of the myths is that of Masada. The siege of Masada had largely been forgotten in Jewish thinking, so it was recreated from largely non-Jewish sources. Bernard Lewis told the story of the recreation of the myth in History - Remembered, Recovered, Invented.

The zealots at Masada fought bravely but finally committed mass suicide in preference to being overwhelmed by the Romans and having their survivors put into slavery. The story of the siege of Masada disappeared from Jewish consciousness and has been resurrected from non-Jewish sources to become part of the ideology of the state of Israel. That is unfortunate as Masada contributed nothing to Jewish survival. The loss of Jerusalem, the Temple and the Jewish state did not mean an end to the Jewish people. It was Yochanan ben Zakkai who held the key to Jewish survival.

Many Jews today equate the state of Israel with the Jewish people. Yochanan ben Zakkai knew better. He knew Jewishness was in ethos, learning, tradition and religion and not in territory. Yochanan ben Zakkai was a Pharisee, one of a group of Jews who have been maligned in the New Testament. The Sadducees whose existence was bound up with Temple worship disappeared as a separate entity with the fall of the Temple. The high priesthood came to an end, and the rulers of the house of Herod ceased to be spokesmen for the Jewish people.

Yochanan ben Zakkai did not believe the Jewish people could live by the sword and established a basis on which they could survive. The nations who opposed the Jews at that time have disappeared long ago, and Jews are still around so his insight appears valid. He opposed the war with Rome and, according to tradition, had himself smuggled out of the besieged Jerusalem in a coffin. The Romans conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and ending the existence of the Jewish state.

Yochanan ben Zakkai got permission from the Emperor Titus to establish a school for the study and exposition of traditional lore. This was established at Jabneh (Jamnia). Eminent scholars gathered round him. The sanhedrin was reconstituted with members chosen for erudition rather than influence or wealth. With the fall of the Temple the synagogue became the centre of Jewish life.

It is uncertain when it happened, but some scholars think that the present Jewish Bible was canonised at the synod of Jabneh in 90CE (after the destruction of the Temple in 70CE). It was collected from existing Jewish writing. At any event the Jewish Bible would not exist had it not been for ben Zakkai and his school.

Without the synagogue and the Bible Judaism would not have continued for very long after the destruction of the Temple.

Yochanan ben Zakkai was a man of his time. He wanted Jewish continuity and realised it could not be based on the reconstruction of past glories. He was reviled in his time as one who fled Jerusalem, collaborated with the hated Romans and discarded the past in not working for a new temple. He worked very successfully for a new Judaism.

There are many in the Jewish community now who are interested in resurrecting the past. Some wear 18th century stremels (the fur hats of the Hasidim). Some want to regain the kingdom of David and Solomon. Some even want to rebuild the Temple.

Yochanan ben Zakkai realised the past was gone. He based Jewish continuity on accommodating to the time in which he lived. There seems to be a sterility in part of the contemporary Jewish community. For many a primitive nationalism about Israel has replaced a religion they can no longer follow wholeheartedly. Others have immersed themselves in that old time religion. Others embrace both the nationalism and the strict religion. Jews’ ethical heritage should be regarded as paramount.

Jews have not escaped their pariah status with the creation of the state of Israel. The Jewish tragedy continues with the Jewish country given pariah status even though other countries have behaved far worse.

To add to the tragedy Jews have created a Jewish state in which non-Jews are usually second class citizens. They occupy the status that Jews have had and still have in many countries.

Not only are non-Jews second class citizens but some Jews are also second class citizens. Those Jews who do not subscribe to the orthodoxy that is recognised for rites of passage are discriminated against. They must have their rites of passage solemnised by clergy they don't believe in. One of the rights recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the right to marry the person of your choice. This requires a civil marriage. Any marriage in Israel must be approved by clergy. Even for non-Jews there is no civil marriage.

In 1954 the US Supreme Court decided in Brown v Board of Education that segregation in US public schools would no longer be lawful. It was no longer legal for taxpayer funds to support public schools segregated on a racial basis. The US Supreme Court recognised that separate educational systems promote unequal educational systems. This was part of the movement to give black people equal rights. That movement continues, and the election of Obama is a landmark in that movement.

In Israel most primary and secondary students are in three separate systems - Orthodox Jewish, secular Jewish or Muslim. Three groups of Israelis grow up separated from each other and most internalise the attitudes of suspicion and prejudice produced by such separation.

I recognise the needs that created the state of Israel. It gave strength and pride at a time of need. I cannot argue with the Zionism promoted by Herzl, but current Zionism is something different. Current Zionism rests on resistance to assimilation and Israeli nationalism.

One can question the value of culture and heritage if its existence is endangered in the free democratic society of Australia.

My personal preference is for a country where ethnicity and religion are not a matter for the state except to remedy past injustices as in Kevin Rudd's “Sorry" speech and accompanying action.

Israel has been a refuge. It is also a tragedy. It would not be good for Jews to leave Israel. However, I think it would be worse if they stayed. Of course, if it were possible to have a secular democratic state in the area which did not discriminate in regards to religion Jews could stay and work together with everybody else. That seems impossible at this time.

There is a beautiful Yiddish song of old, "Wie ahin soll ich gein?" (Where shall I go?) It was written when prejudice against Jews was worldwide, and Jews sought refuge in vain. We can now live well in Australia. Jews also live well in the United States and in other places. It seems senseless to persuade young Jews living in the UK, the US and other good places for Jews, to go live in Israel.