Jews Uniting to End the War and Heal America - Conference

This past weekend I attended Jews United to End the War, organized by the Shalom Center, Workmen's Circle and endorsed by many of the other upstanding Jewish groups I respect. Overall it was a successful effort, with speakers from a wide range of backgrounds covering many of the relevant issues. That being said, there are critiques one can make, in the spirit of advancing the peace camp within the Jewish community.

The Huge Irony

Among the truths that emerged was the analysis of the mainstream Jewish community's logic before the war began. We now know that the Israeli leadership was opposed to the war. Sharon told Bush a few things, including:

• Make sure you have an exit strategy.
• Plan for guerrilla warfare.
• We aren't really in favor of the war, because Iraq is not the biggest threat; Iran is.

Bush listened respectfully, and then asked Sharon to remain silent about his views and about the war in general, so as not to complicate matters.

While this was going on, two groups gathered their rhetorical missiles and prepared for combat. The Jewish right wing, representing less than a quarter of Jewish public opinion, loudly championed the war, and claimed that it was in Israel's interest. They were able to connect the ‘democratize the Arab world' meme that Netanyahu advanced in the 90s and bring it home to the White House in a full neo-con circle.

Much of the radical left was advancing the story that Israel was the reason why Bush wanted to go to war. They often continue to claim that U.S. imperial adventures in the Middle East were intertwined with U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, making both issues actually one issue with two heads. Finally, they saw opposition to the war in Iraq as an opportunity to build organizations and movements that would promote a political agenda far beyond the immediate necessity of ending the war.

The leadership of the generally liberal, mainstream Jewish community looked right, looked left, and mostly decided to passively go along with the right. They did it by remaining silent, voicing criticism in mild, hushed tones, refused to join broad anti-war coalitions, and exerted pressure within the community to stay the hell away from those willing to speak out on the injustice of the war.

[Side note: I remember speaking with very well known reform rabbi and environmental leader in the DC area. He told me about a meeting of rabbis with a senior official from the Israeli Embassy where, in grave, authoritative tones, he heard how Iraq was actually a severe threat. These kinds of briefings were taking place across the country, and while they didn't necessarily persuade everyone to hawkishly support the war, they drove war opponents into silence for many years.]

So what is the irony? That the war was AGAINST Israel's real interests, and much of the Jewish community refused to oppose the war because just maybe, Israel would benefit. After all, Saddam was a nasty dictator who rewarded the families of suicide bombers with cash - no one would be sad to see him toppled.

The cowardly silence of liberal, mainstream Jewish leaders who often did oppose the war is the perfect complement to the arrogance and undeserved clout of the unrepresentative Jewish right. Together they turned the Jewish voice - so strong in support of gay rights, the environment, civil rights and social justice - into mush. So many of the religious leaders I want desperately to respect stood aside when the butcher knives were being sharpened, stood aside when the blood began to flow, and to this very day have never been held to account for that silence.

[sidenote: the Jewish left is so damned pleased that some mainstream groups finally joined them, that they don't want to bring up the moral responsibility angle. Gotta embrace the peacenik turtles - we don't want them retreating back into their shells, do we?]

In some ways, it's bigger than the black mark of supporting the Israeli boot as it stands on the Palestinian face. After all, in that conflict, there really are two sides, and one of them is family, so a lot of the nonsense makes sense on a gut level. Some Palestinians really do engage in terrorism. But Saddam never had WMD's, and YOU KNEW IT.

Now, the representatives of the Reform Movement who attended might disagree with some of this screed. After all, before the war they wrote a document in which they expressed doubt that it would be a ‘just war' unless Bush exhausted ‘all options' before launching the attack. They joined Win Without War, the coalition whose website appears to be defunct. Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center expressed what looked like pride over the decision in 2005 to make a formal statement against the war.

This post is kind of long, so I'll wrap it up and give a shout out to Jeremy Ben-Ami of J-Street, who was smart, insightful, and informative. There's a lot more I could report back from this conference, - why not take a look at the MondoWeiss blog and see what he wrote?