Dennis Fox’s Weblog

Readers of this blog and of my longer essays know that 40 years ago, when Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank began, I was already a firm believer in the Zionist project despite hesitations common to the left-humanist Zionist tradition I had internalized, according to which some of Israel’s clearly unjust policies would have to be altered to make way for a fully humanist, socialist, Jewish society in which Jews and Arabs would live as equals. That was my plan.

By the time I returned from Israel in early 1973 I was no longer a Zionist. Some combination of growing political awareness, nagging logical questions, and personal transformation turned me away from what had been the primary focus of my life from my mid-teens to my early-twenties. But although intellectually and politically I could no longer stomach Israeli policies, I resisted taking the next step: rejecting the rationale for Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. It was too difficult emotionally to re-think the years of interactions, memories and commitments that had made me what I was. I resisted hurting family and friends for whom Israel still represented ideals I had believed in just a short while earlier. I did not want to feel like a traitor.

It was easier to stop thinking about it. Realistically, I told myself, nothing I could do would have any impact, so I didn’t try. Except for a brief period after the Sabra and Shatila massacres, when I wrote a couple of op-ed pieces for my student newspaper and helped organize a local “Jews for Social Justice” group, I avoided the subject for three decades. It was easier to focus on other issues causing less emotional upheaval.

When I finally returned to this subject in 2001, I still tread cautiously and inconsistently, catching up on the political landscape and then in two visits the physical and personal landscape. I’ve written before about trying to free myself of as many preconceptions as I could manage. I know I haven’t been completely successful. The split between cognition and emotion has taken a toll on both. Although I know that Israel’s justifications for maintaining its identity as a Jewish state fail the test of universal justice, a theme I explored while teaching and lecturing last fall at Israeli and Palestinian universities, my inner turmoil persists.

It was instructive in this regard, sometimes painfully so, to read Joel Kovel’s new book, Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine. Kovel explores in much detail a dizzying array of themes, some of which I’ve touched on over the past few years in less organized fashion. But while Kovel makes abundant sense, it was sometimes jarring to take it all in. So much for old dreams.

Despite the book’s subtitle, Kovel spends little time on how to reach a single democratic state, instead referring readers to Virginia Tilley’s book The One-State Solution. The value of Kovel’s book, though, is the knowledgeable and logical critique of just about everything the Zionist movement taught me four decades ago. I marked too many passages to recount them here. For now, it’s easier to point to a 2002 article on Kovel’s website that covers some of the same ground. “Zionism’s Bad Conscience,” a theme Kovel expands upon in the book, relates directly to the dilemma of liberal and left Zionists who still imagine, as I no longer can, that a Jewish-democratic state is possible. Kovel explores the consequences of that bad conscience.

He also enumerates a series of universal principles to support his thesis that the logic of Zionism could only lead to a state built on inequality and expulsion. I’ve believed that to be the case for many years, despite remnants of wishful thinking to the contrary. Thus I’ve explained, especially in conversation with Jewish friends, that dropping my own Zionist identity required replacing the assumption that what matters most is what’s good for the Jews with the notion that universally applicable standards of justice are the real bottom line. Kovel’s account of those standards and how they fit together is helpful.
Kovel’s Bad Conscience article appeared in the same issue of Tikkun Magazine as my own agonizing about being more or less in the middle. As I read my five-year old piece today, it’s clear I wrote it near the beginning of my muddled return to the topic. I have zigzagged along, and today I would re-phrase much of it. Kovel’s book might help me keep on a straighter track.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 8:07 pm and is filed under Israel/Palestine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.