On the Massie amendment

Sovereignty comes with both responsibilities and dangers. Israel is on the wrong path and needs to be set right.

Many of those celebrating or condemning the 100+ democrats who voted in support of the Massie Amendment to cut off aid to Israel are falling into the usual binary of assuming that one must be either pro-Israel or anti-Israel. (Which as always makes no sense… are you pro-America or anti-America? pro-Canada or anti-Canada? Different people have different visions for what countries should be and do.)

But if you actually read many of the statements of those who voted for the amendment, you find something different. Yes, some of the yes votes came from members who have not shown a lot of love or concern for Israelis/Israel. But many came from members who have spent lots of time with Israelis, who mourned with Israelis/Jews after Oct 7, and who have reiterated over & over (including in their statements this week) a commitment to peace & security and 2 states for Israelis & Palestinians.

This week, Jewish communities read the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy, which consists largely of Moses’ last words to the people before they prepare to enter the Land of Israel after his death. In this week’s portion, Moses reminds the people of some of the ways in which they went down the wrong path during their time in the wilderness. Later on in the book, we will get many, many warnings about the responsibilities and potential pitfalls of sovereignty, including God (via Moses) warning the people not to get so full of themselves that they come to believe that they achieved sovereignty through their own efforts, rather than through divine provenance. And God repeatedly lays out the responsibilities of sovereignty—specifically, the privilege of having freedom, a land of one’s own, and a government of one’s own brings with it an obligation to use this sovereignty as a means of worshipping God and of making the divine presence manifest everywhere, not as a means of seizing more and more power or of serving one’s own material desires. God also reminds the people of the dangers of getting so drunk on their own power that they forget God, disobey God’s commandments, and come to worship idols. After all, from God’s perspective, we are all gerim—temporary residents of the earth, and God is willing to give and take sovereignty according to our actions.

These warnings, of course, presage the destruction of the first and second Temples, commemorated on Tisha B’av next week. (We always begin reading Deuteronomy in the week before Tisha B’av, and Moses’ cry of lament, eicha, at carrying the burden of the people is echoed in the book of Eicha, Lamentations, read on Tisha B’av). Despite God’s warnings, the people forget that the purpose of sovereignty is to worship God and to fulfill God’s commandments, and fall into a host of sins (slightly different in the case of the first and second Temples) that include idol worship, disregard for human life, wanton hatred, and more. As a result, God brings about the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem by way of the Babylonians and then the Romans, and sets the stage for millennia of exile.

To be clear, I don’t want Israel to be destroyed or for Israeli Jews to be scattered or exiled. I want Israel to thrive as a Jewish State, side-by-side with a Palestinian State, both of which also have equal protections for their minority populations. Nor do most of those who voted for this amendment want to see Israel destroyed. Like me, most of these Democrats have voiced their support for two states, which—despite the naysayers—remains the only plausible solution that will allow both Israelis and Palestinians to live in dignity and to fulfill their national ambitions. (Two states can happen with a hard border—i.e. the U.S./Canada model, or a soft border—i.e. the EU model, which is what Land for All is pushing. But this is a topic for another day.)

Tragically, Israel has increasingly become an illiberal democracy run by extremist messianic fascists. We are now in the sixth decade of occupation and settlement expansion, and the Netanyahu government has allowed for near-daily and sometimes deadly settler violence that serves the government’s purpose of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from most of Area C of the West Bank; has pursued anti-democratic legislation including just in the past week or so, attacks on the freedom of the press, on the independence of the Attorney General, and on access to polling stations and voting for the upcoming election. (Bibi REALLY doesn’t want old people, who remember when a different future was possible, to vote.); and has pursued forever wars that have killed tens of thousands in Gaza, and thousands more in Lebanon and Iran, including sending far too many young Israelis to their deaths and letting hostages linger and be killed in captivity rather than making a deal. I could go on, but you probably also read the news.

There are some people who say that this all is the inevitable end of Zionism, that the Netanyahu government was effectively pre-determined by the actions of the founders of Israel, and by the British Empire, in their disregard for the Palestinian population. I do not believe this to be true, any more than I believe that the Trump administration was inevitable, or pre-determined by the actions of the founders of the United States, including their embrace of slavery and of ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. Governments and electeds make choices along the way. Unfortunately, we can’t rewrite history, but we can see many, many moments in which a different choice could have been made that might have saved lives and contributed toward a future of dignity, safety, peace, and justice for both Jews and Palestinians. (We can also see some choices that did save lives—for example, the peace deals with Egypt and Jordan have likely avoided additional wars and saved countless lives on both sides. It’s impossible to imagine Netanyahu’s government signing such an agreement.)

It’s not pro-Israel to stand back and allow this government’s, or any government’s, worst impulses run wild. Just like it’s not pro-America to stand back and allow Trump to detain and deport immigrants, disenfranchise voters of color, or otherwise dismantle democracy. We can argue over which U.S. laws and policy changes might push Israel to move down the path of democracy, of following the international laws incumbent on all states, of ending its forever wars, and of moving toward a peace agreement. But it’s clear that the old ways of doing business are not good for Israel, not good for Palestinians, not good for the United States, and not good for the world. Those who care about saving both Israeli and Palestinian lives need to push Israel to make different choices, and to live up to the responsibilities God lays out for the Jewish people—to be a sacred community, and to use the power that comes with sovereignty to worship God and to bring the divine presence into every corner of the Holy Land and of the world.