Power versus Ethics

Tuesday 29 May 2007

I’ve been reading Ali Abunimah’s book, One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He quotes an Israeli Arnon Soffer who in 2004 bluntly stated in an interview: “We will tell the Palestinians that if a single missile is fired over the fence, we will fire ten in response….when 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.”

I was reminded of something my teacher, Jewish theologian Marc Ellis wrote a few years ago: “Rather than discovering this inclusive liturgy of destruction, what amazes me is how we have repressed it, as if the suffering of Palestinians at our hands can be repressed forever and the liturgies of our synagogues and the work of our artists can survive this violation of another people without change.” (from Practicing Exile)

And last, the famous words of Rabbi Hillel: “Whatever is hateful unto thee, do not do unto they fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is explanation.” (Sayings of the Fathers [or Pirke Aboth], translated by Jospeh Hertz)