I was going to respond to Andrew Sullivan‘s argument that “”no American Jew can conceive of a situation in which they would walk away from Israel, then there is no leverage at all to persuade Israel to act responsibly to save Zionism’s soul, or to behave as a constructive ally of the United States,” but J.L. Wall already did:
But I can’t conceive of a situation in which I would walk away from Israel, because for me, as for many, if not most, American Jews, Israel is both a nation-state and a segment of the Jewish people. I can conceive of many situations in which I could and would cease to support the policies of Israel’s government (there are already those which I do); I can conceive of situations in which I would feel I had no choice but to actively oppose the actions or policies of Israel’s government; I can even conceive of situations in which I would feel that Israel’s government had lost its legitimacy. But I can no more conceive of walking away from Israel itself—all of it, its people included—than I can conceive of walking away from my own family.
I would add a couple of things to this. One of the problems is that this unconditional link to Israel can’t and shouldn’t be mimicked by the United States, whose interests can and do diverge from those of Israel. The best way to understand Jews’ obligation to each other is through a hierarchy of obligations–one owes more to family than one does to strangers, and so forth, but that does not mean that one has no obligations to non-Jews. In fact those obligations are part of being a Jew as outlined in Exodus: “Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” On that basis, support for an independent Palestinian state is something Jews are obliged to do, given that Zionism, if it means anything beyond mere tribalism, it is the belief that when the world shows a callous disregard for the lives of a group of people, their right to self-determination must be respected.
I would add that ultimately “walking away” is simply the wrong decision. While being Jewish in no way obligates Jews to support Israeli policies, it’s a function of in-group dynamics that those best situated to change hearts and minds are members of the group.
The other thing I would say is that “walking away” from oneself is a privilege that only certain people possess. It’s one thing for Irish people to “walk away” from being Irish until St. Patrick’s Day comes around. Black people cannot “walk away” from being black, because society will simply does not allow it. Latinos cannot “walk away” from anti-immigration laws targeted at them that fall on citizen and undocumented alike. It’s a remarkable thing really, that despite America’s success in assimilating the great mass of ethnic whites, American Jews continue to refuse to walk away. For better or worse, most Jews understand that the survival of the Jewish people is a collective effort, because when the pogroms come the cossacks don’t care whether or not you lit candles last Friday.
As for policing people’s Jewishness, like Randall Kennedy I think that marginalized groups require the ability to police their membership, but that excommunication should be reserved for the worst offenses, not genuine issues of conscience.
