Sermon 2.15.06 - Parshat Yitro: Are we Allowed to Criticize Israel?

Parshat Yitro
Are we allowed to criticize Israel?
Jonathan Jaffe – Congregation Emanu-El


I begin tonight with a question: as Jews, are we prohibited from criticizing the state of Israel? Does our religious and cultural identity mandate that we support Israel’s national policy at every step? I ask this question in light of the recent essay entitled “Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism” written by Alvin Rosenfeld and commissioned by the American Jewish Committee. In the essay, which has stirred great debate within the Jewish community, Rosenfeld argues that a new liberal anti-Semitism is being led by progressive Jews and their condemnations of Israeli policy. That is, Jewish criticism of Israel is endangering Israel and is therefore both anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. After all, as Brandeis professor Shulamit Reinharz has commented, “In a world where there is only one Jewish state, to oppose it vehemently is to endanger Jews.”
The essay continues by outing several prominent liberal Jews such as playwright Tony Kushner and Washington Post editorialist Richard Cohen as demagogues of this liberal conspiracy. By speaking out against Israeli policy or by buying into historical revisionism, these liberals have sparked a new tide of anti-Semitism. Therefore the correct way to support Israel is to give it carte blanche in its internal and external operations.
Professor Rosenfeld’s argument seems all too callous as an American living in an era in which public dissent is often portrayed as anti-patriotism. Our own government has consistently argued that criticism of American policy “enables our enemies” and “puts our troops in danger”. Any real American must support the president in “staying the course”. Rosenfeld has taken this logic one step further, arguing that criticizing a country in which we are not citizens constitutes political sabotage. Since when does criticism amount to treachery?
I recall the wise words of American Jewish liberal (you can tell the AJC already doesn’t like him) commentator Al Frenken. In response to the argument that criticism of American policy amounts to anti-Patriotism, Frenken makes an interesting analogy. He says that there are two kinds of love: childish love and adult love. For a child, everything their mommy does is perfect and wonderful. Mommy can do no wrong. To criticize mommy is purely unthinkable. All of us have experienced this form of love. But as we get older, Frenken argues, we graduate to adult love. Adult love is when we realize that our loved ones are fallible and imperfect. True love occurs when we accept the other, not just despite their blemishes and faults, but openly with them. Over time, these quirks may indeed even enhance our love for the other. At the same time, we acknowledge our own imperfections. In adult love, we save our most honest criticism for those we love most. We criticize because we love; because we want the other to live up the great expectations and standards we have for them.
As an American Jew, I have an adult love for the state of Israel. This does not mean that I love everything Israel does. And while I see Israel as imperfect and still evolving, that does not mean that her neighbors stand beyond judgment either. I love Israel as the greatest of social experiments, the bringing together of disparate peoples from around the globe, each with distinct languages and cultures, and melding them into a burgeoning democracy, in the heart of the world’s most hostile zip code. As Israel is only 59 years old, it is still figuring out who it will be. This is one reason why it is so exciting to visit Israel – I imagine the feeling is quite similar to living in our country in the beginning of the 19th century, when the nation was young and still figuring itself out. It took us over a century to finally wrestle with slavery, an issue far more egregious than anything Israel has done. Israel is still going through these growing pains.
But when Israeli policy puts 3,000 fanatical settlers into a Gaza strip packed with 1.5 million Palestinians, I criticize out of love. When Israel devotes 30% of the roads and infrastructure to these 3,000 settlers, I criticize out of love. When Arab Israelis are treated inferiorly, I criticize out of love. When Israel abuses immigrant laborers and allows them to be taken advantage of, I criticize out of love. When Israel raises its pension age and lowers teachers’ pay, all the while supporting thousands of non-working orthodox Jews, I criticize out of love. And hopefully, none of this makes me the new Jimmy Carter. I steadfastly maintain Israel’s right to exist and to defend herself. But I am personally pained when Israel makes poor decisions which limit her from reaching the high expectations I hold for her. This isn’t anti-Zionism and it certainly isn’t anti-Semitism. It’s a mature, adult love for my people’s homeland.
For me, the most shocking element in this debate is that Israelis have long embraced such an open debate. Open the editorial page of Ha’aretz on any given day and you will find open criticism a will to change Israeli policy. Here in America, we panic when a Muslim is elected to the House of Representatives and wants to be sworn in on a Quran. But Israel, which has been attacked numerous times by a coalition of Arab armies, opens its doors to Arab political parties and hardly raises a peep when they send Muslim representatives to the Knesset. How is it that debate on Israel is so stifled here, halfway around the world, whereas in Israel, criticism is made openly and freely?
In this week’s Torah portion, Moses’ father in law, Yitro, observes Moses legislating to the people. After watching Moses labor throughout the day, Yitro says to him, “The thing you are doing is not right; you will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.” In today’s era of modern discourse, we might expect Moses to reply, “Stupid old man. Don’t you see that your questioning of my tactics only emboldens the enemy? You are not even one of us and so your criticism of Israel smacks of anti-Semitism. Bite your tongue and support our troops.”
But Moses recognizes that Yitro’s criticism is made out of love for him and the people. He listens to his father in law and changes his ways, allowing the Israelites to deal with their own problems.