Rabbis For Human Rights

Editorials like the one in The Jerusalem Post of March 1 that try to justify Israel's behavior by comparing us to other nations of the world do a disservice to our history as a people, which is to serve the world as a "light unto the nations."

As the nascent stages of our Jewish history unfolded, we read in Exodus how Jewish national identity was forged on the anvil of the Egyptian experience of slavery. It was against the background of collective suffering and disenfranchisement that we were born as a people, and charged with the mandate of becoming a "kingdom of priests." In that Sinaitic somewhere of Jewish wonderment, our sages and prophets interpreted the story of our escape to freedom as the authoritative rejection of the social model of power and its abuse, as symbolized by ancient Egypt.

We Jews are constantly reminded of this throughout our literature: "Remember you were slaves in Egypt." This theme is reinforced throughout our history and its practical expression is: social injustice is evil, and the abuse of power is the greatest of social evils. In codifying a new moral code of conduct, our ancestors established the historical and theological principle: "In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as though he personally had gone forth from Egypt" (Haggada).

It was in this way that Judaism subordinated the use of power to the will of God. And so, we Jews are taught to understand that the use of power must be morally restrained. Of course, in today's reality, in order to exonerate ourselves of all types of moral aberrations, we would suggest that in the world of "realpolitik" it is not morality that counts, but power. However, the unrestrained use of power could inevitably lead to anarchy or totalitarianism. This is precisely the reason that we Jews have established for ourselves moral and ethical standards of behavior: "Justice, justice, you are to pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20). The rabbis ask, why is the word justice repeated? In order to show that one must seek justice in a just manner. Lofty goals - including self-defense - do not justify corrupting the means to achieve them.

Somehow, we must disavow ourselves of the warped notion that comparing ourselves to other nations of the world will somehow excuse all manner of Jewish behavior. I get no satisfaction in knowing that such an enlightened democracy as the United States bombed the Vietnamese back to the Stone Age, or killed innocent Somalians in air attacks. I do not see what this has to do with our actions in dealing with the present intifada, except to say that Americans are hypocrites. Anyone who knows the history of the US treatment of its own black citizens knows that America displays a double standard when it criticizes other nations about their moral behavior. However, this does not mean that their claims of our human rights abuses are illegitimate.

For us to gain satisfaction from comparative shopping only serves as a cover-up for what indeed is true. A case in point would be what happened after Binyamin Kahane's death. Haredi Jews went on a rampage, dragging Arab workers from a supermarket in downtown Jerusalem and beating them, and then attacking Israeli policemen. Not a single shot was fired - not a rubber bullet, not tear gas, not water cannons. Yet, when Israeli Arabs demonstrate, any number of them can be gunned down.

Does the American State Department refer to this as an excessive use of force? Would it prefer our kid-gloves treatment of "our own" be applied to the "stranger in our midst" (whom our tradition instructs us to treat fairly)?

Frankly, I couldn't care less what the Americans think. This is clearly an abuse of power: as is the withholding of medical aid to Palestinians; or blockading villages so that those in need of chemotherapy or dialysis are unable to avail themselves of it; or holding up a pregnant woman at a road block, and thus losing her baby; or uprooting olive groves; or never-ending curfews; or food shortages. One could go on and on.

Using the lowest common denominator as a yardstick to measure our behavior and justify our actions is antithetical to all that I hold dear as a Jew. What satisfaction can I possibly get, knowing that compared to the Palestinians we are a paragon of virtue? Such examples can only invite invidious comparisons. Trying to build ourselves up on the back of others makes no syllogistic sense. I am less concerned as to what others think of us than I am as to what I think of myself.

Sure, the world, not just the US, uses a double standard in judging us, but we should be using a single standard of judgment, one encased in our collective experience when we became a people, divinely instructed to create a new world order based on the prophetic principles of social justice and equality, to become a "holy nation." Did we return to this land to become a nation like all other nations?

Originally published by The Jerusalem Post, Tuesday, March 6 2001; 11 Adar 5761
Original Online version can be found at: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/03/06/Opinion/Opinion.22460.html
© 1995-2001, The Jerusalem Post - All rights reserved
Republished with Permission.