Would you consider commemorating Nakba Day (each May 15th) as a way to mourn and repent the injustices our people committed? If so, would you consider celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut to acknowledge the positive outcomes that Zionism has realized?

A few weeks ago, I went on a trip to Bethlehem. We visited various Palestinian institutions and met with different groups. I learned that the Nakbah is central to their identity, and that they do see themselves as victims.

That said, I celebrated Yom Ha’atzma’ut. I’m in Israel right now. I danced in the streets at night and in the morning, I attended two barbeques. I prayed festively with better kavanna than I have ever had.

I recognize that the founding of Israel is tied to suffering. I can even take responsibility for that suffering. But I refuse to muffle my emotions.

I am ecstatic that there is a state of Israel, a country that I can call home. I am ecstatic that the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were in this country in 1948 were not slaughtered by the incoming Arab armies. (Do you have any doubt that that would have been the result had Israel lost?) I sit at my computer looking over the beautiful Jezreel Valley and know that what happened in 1948 is responsible for my safety and ability to take advantage of my spiritual homeland.

I will not argue that Israel has committed sins in the past. I’m not suggesting that we can’t represent with the Palestinians in their suffering. I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t help them. But I am saying that we have every right to rejoice in our freedom. Even if the creation of the state is inextricably bound with suffering, it was created in a war! Wars are the definition of suffering. I suggest you stop celebrating Hanukah, Purim, Pesach, and Veterans DAy. Your claim that your values only restrict holidays based on land being taken is rather absurd. People suffer for other reasons.d

The Jewish people have a state, something we haven’t had for two thousand years. I’m happy, and I wish you were, too.

Richard

I’m not sure that the American Independence Day and Yom Ha’atzmaut are so historically comparable. If we’re going to look for parallels, it’s probably more apt to compare Yom Ha’atzmaut to Thanksgiving (inasmuch as it also involves the acquisition of a land at the expense of its indigenous peoples.)

And here I would say yes, we Americans would probably do well to consider T’giving to be a day of reckoning (and not simply a day to stuff our faces and watch football.) I wonder how many Americans actually know that most Native Americans consider this to be an official day of mourning – check out this link for instance: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/daymourn.htm

You ask, “is there no ethical rationale for the existence of the State of Israel?” To be honest, I don’t believe that any nation can ultimately claim an “ethical rationale” for its existence. Nationalism is by its very nature an ethically messy business. At best, one might claim it’s a “necessary evil” but I personally struggle with even that.

It’s worth pointing out that Jews have been the victims of other nationalistic movements for centuries. Now that we’ve gotten into the nationalism business ourselves, it would behoove us at least to seriously consider what we’ve wrought before we break out the party hats.

I’d rather be… well, neither a hammer, nor a nail.
But this world doesn’t give me that option.
All I can hope for is to be a fair or humane hammer, but I don’t even call the shots on that one.

Americans didn’t call the shots about what kind of hammers we were in Iraq, Guantanamo, and many other places along the 200+ years of independent nationhood. Because our government didn’t ask us for our opinions. Nor did it share with us all the awful stuff it did in our name… to support our “way of life”.

Americans celebrate their Independence Day in spite of the great Nakba to the Native Americans who were slaughtered and driven from their lands.

Jews celebrate Passover in spite of all the widows left behind after Pharoh’s soldiers drowned in the sea, and in spite of the horrendous Nakba that ultimately followed the that exodus forty years later on all the innocent dwellers of Canaan.

Brant, I truly appreciate your thoughts and opinions. I am not trying to argue or oppose them. But I feel the need to expand on them a bit.

For each part of our lives we celebrate, there is a victim. Be it the wild life that’s being destroyed by humanity, or the domestic animals being cruelly raised and slaughtered to support our lives. Be it the the people in far away lands, working hard, for pennies, exposed to poisons and other health hazards to support our way of life (like thousands of Chinese workers who get severe mercury poisoning in factories producing CFLs – yes, the hailed environmental “green” light bulbs!); and these are just some tiny examples – the very tip of the massive iceberg.
Our grandchildren and their grandchildren will surely pay the price for our and our parents and grandparents generations’ poor stewardship of this planet (let’s not kid ourselves – no matter how “green” we try to be, we are still driving this planet down the drain – perhaps slower than our parents’ generation, but there are more of us doing it than they were!). And when the sea level rises, it will not discriminate: Tel-Aviv, Gaza, New York… perhaps half the world’s population, if not more, will be driven out of their homes, and dry land will be oh so much more crowded than can even be imagined today… will that be the cause of unfathomable wars?…

Yes, whenever and whatever we celebrate, we should always remember that someone else, somewhere, either paid, is paying, or will pay the price, for our lives, and our celebrations. Because this world gives us no choice – either be the hammer, if you were born on the side of the hammers, or give it up, and become a nail. Unfortunately, we can’t choose to be neither!! And although our Jewish tradition didn’t tell us to always think of the nails when we celebrate our victories, perhaps it’s time to start a new tradition, and include the thoughts about the victims whenever we celebrate our… well, anything in life.

The Arabs that chose to stay in Israel have been treated fairly. The Arabs that left have chosen to vote into power a terrorist organization that seeks the destruction of your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, and you.

Israeli independence was nothing short of a modern day miracle and to temper one iota of gratitude to Hashem with concern for those that would seek to kill us is an absolute affront.

How soon we forget our history and how we were exiled, persecuted, burned at the stake, buried alive, and our women were defiled. After the shoah, we were grateful to have a land when no one else would take us in. A land where a few of us had lived for countless centuries. And what was the response of the Arab neighbors when we began to get off the boats with nothing but faded pictures of the gassed and cremated families and friends we left behind? THEY ATTACKED US LIKE AMALEK DID AFTER THE EXODUS.

We are the light and the prism through which Hashem’s light shines into the darkness of this world. The forces of darkness seek to destroy us. It was a miracle that a group of Holocaust refugees could defeat so many armies from so many nations.

We celebrate the miracle because for thousands of years, none of our great grandparents thought it could happen that we would have Israel back. They prayed for it all their lives while living in ghettos and disgusting shtetls and bizarre lands far from their true home. And their prayers paid off and we got Israel back because Hashem heard us. And now, you less than fully grateful Jewish grandchildren temper your gratitude with feelings of sympathy for the people that attacked us. Shame on you. How could you look your Great Grandmother, who risked her life to blow up bridges so the tanks of the enemy couldn’t destroy her new home, in the eye? What would you say to her? That times have changed? That it’s ok to ignore the miracle that she not only survived but set up the only democracy in the Middle East?

I love all of you, my Jewish brothers and sisters, but you have to open your eyes and understand that we must be strong because that is all Amalek and his decendants will ever understand. And please – never, ever dismiss or diminish the power of a miracle from Hashem. Ingratitude will negatively impact all of us.

Thank you again,

Evin