War as a failure of the imagination
Gershom Gorenberg has another interesting piece in the American Prospect today about the current war in Gaza as a failure of vision, will, and imagination. And his co-blogger at South Jerusalem, Haim Watzman, has a good post up about moral choice and the efficacy of force. On his point about how, in practice, people value lives differently based on closeness, kinship, and so forth, I believe there is a argument to me made that echoes Gershom’s. War shuts down empathy. When we can make moral judgements on the sidelines, it is easy to say we value all lives equally, but, as he notes, when lives are on the line, the natural instinct is to rally to protect our side, no matter the cost of lives to “the other.” And this is why war is such a great evil. It forces these moments upon its participants. It shuts down our higher motives and our better ideals. The question becomes, what good are those ideals, if we abandon them when we are threatened? War makes lose those ideals that mark us as humans. That war rarely leads to peace is another issue entirely, and open to debate. That war always leads to inhumanity is hard to argue.
From talking to children in wars all over the world, I have long believed that war is one of the greatest brakes on the imagination, cutting off choices, ideas, empathy, and, of course, actual lives. Dialogue, even when it fails, leaves room for hope.
Of course, it is easy for me to suggest dialogue from safety in the United States. Rockets aren’t falling on my house and no one is occupying my country. But really, what is the alternative? No one really believes the current Gaza war will end violence in the region. It will certainly not help Israel’s image in the world, and it is only driving more young men toward anti-Israel (and sometimes anti-Jewish) militancy. What’s the alternative, then?
The Jewish world is filled with examples of the communities who have taken Jewish experience and ideas, the total history of the Jewish imagination, and marshaled those concepts into a creative way of engaging with the world. I look to the example of the young Jewish community in Uganda, who are building networks of peace in an impoverished land, sharing the clout they are gaining from international exposure with their Muslim and Christian neighbors (many of whom used to be their enemies…beating and reviling them). I look to the Jews of Iran, who have lived peacefully in that country since before the arrival of Islam, survived deprivations, war, oppression, revolution, and a dogmatic theocracy through an unwavering commitment to community. If you don’t believe me, spend a day at Dr. Sapir Hospital is South Tehran. I look at the Jews of Cuba, of New New Orleans, of Burma. I look at Jews all over the world who have taken the long history of coexistence, tinged with violent persecution, and used it to strengthen their practice of community, to spread of Jewish ideals of justice and of peace. These communities are an example of the triumph of imagination! These communities are the antidote to war. They did not wait for their enemies to offer peace. They became the peace they sought. And though some wanted to destroy them, so far, they have not been destroyed.*
The events of this current war in Gaza make me cringe when I hear Israel called a Jewish state. Israel is a modern state, a fairly progressive state (especially when compared to its neighbors), and a normal state (in that is wields as much power as it can to follow what it sees at the time as its interests) but a Jewish State? I don’t know anymore. It has been and should continue to be a haven for Jews who need it. Jews have gone from all the communites I mentioned above (except Uganda) to build lives in Israel. But, with the current response to terrorism (and the continued settlement of the West Bank), I do not see Israel acting Jewishly. I wish I did. It really could be a light unto the nations.
*Of course, with the exception of the Ugandan Jews, they all had Israel to flee to when the going got rough. Not all of them fled, obviously, but many did. The reasons are many, and I’ll explore them more in another post.
