“For Zion’s sake, I will not be silent”
Reflections on the Flotilla Issue
Last Modified:
Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:57:13 GMT
v1.002
Excerpts from Rabbi Andrea London’s letter to the Beth Emet Synagogue congregation in Evanston
The Flotilla incident off Israel’s shores has people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide pointing fingers, posting videos and assigning blame—a futile enterprise that merely distracts us from the prophetic call to seek peace.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade in June 2007 after Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections, and the blockade has proceeded at varying levels of intensity during the ensuing two years of hostilities and outright warfare between Israeli forces and Hamas. Originally imposed, according to the Israeli government, as a way to make it more difficult for Hamas and various paramilitary groups to attack Israel, an advisor to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert once characterized the sanctions imposed on the Gaza Strip as a way "to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." In short, Israel’s leadership has viewed the blockade as a way to weaken Hamas politically, not just to prevent military supplies from getting to Gaza.
The Flotilla issue represents a fresh opportunity for Israel and all its supporters to ask with a sense of urgency whether the blockade is an effective and justifiable way to protect Israelis. As Peter Beinart, the former New Republic editor, points out in a recent blog post (“Israel’s Indefensible Behavior,” The Daily Beast, June 1), if there is one thing the U.S. has learned from its half-century embargo on Cuba, it is that an embargo gives a regime an excuse for its inability to govern but doesn’t turn a people against its leaders.
One can also point to the embargo of Iraq following the first Gulf War, which led to dramatic spikes in malnutrition, disease, child and infant mortality, child labor, and on and on. The one thing the Iraq embargo did not produce was a compliant regime. So it is in Gaza, where the blockade has served to impoverish Gazans, but has failed to turn them against Hamas.
Israel says it wants to keep arms out of Gaza. Yet, according to Gisha, an Israeli human rights organization, Israel also bars such items as sage, cardamom, dried fruit, chocolate, potato chips, notebooks, and writing implements. Nearly all exports are also banned from leaving Gaza, a policy that is helping to destroy agriculture and causing factories to close. Surely, with support from the U.S. government, Israel can conceive of ways to secure its borders and protect its inhabitants without subjecting an entire neighboring population to such deprivation. Surely, there are ways to inspect for dangerous contraband without resort to military tactics that bring further casualties, squander hard-won friendships and alliances and distract leaders on all sides of the conflict from the cause of peace-making.
The Flotilla incident calls upon all of us who believe that every human being is created in God’s image and who care about the safety and security of the State of Israel to call for 1) a lifting of the blockade on Gaza and a new policy that allows for humanitarian supplies and construction materials to enter the strip while putting in place security measures to keep weapons and weapons’ supplies from entering; 2) the immediate release of Cpl. Shalit; and 3) an outpouring of support from American Muslims and Jews and all who care about the well-being and safety of those who live in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank for a diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Zion’s sake, we cannot be silent.
Back to top