Wrestling with Zion Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

by Kushner, Tony; Solomon, Alisa

• ISBN13: 9780802140159
• ISBN10: 0802140157
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-13
• Publisher: Grove Press

Summary

As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalates, a dangerous illusion persists that the American Jewish community speaks with a single voice, expressing universal, uncritical support for the policies of the Sharon government. This appearance of unanimity does grave disservice to the heterogeneity of Jewish thought, and to the centuries-old Jewish traditions of lively dispute and rigorous, unapologetic skeptical inquiry. Wrestling with Zion brings together prominent poets, essayists, journalists, activists, academics, novelists, and playwrights, representing the diversity of opinion in the progressive Jewish-American community regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All the participants share three things: a Jewish identity, an American identity, and a sense of urgency, refusing to ignore the catastrophic injustice that has been visited upon the Palestinian people, while at the same time being passionately committed to Jewish survival and American legacies of compassion and moral courage. The contributors — including Nathan Englander, Susan Sontag, Robert Pinsky, Daniel Wolfe, and many others — have considered certain essential questions: What is at the heart of the connection between Israel and American Jews? What is Israel's role in shaping Jewish-American identities? How has this role changed historically? And what is the history, both familiar and forgotten, of Zionism's political, cultural, and spiritual meaning?

Table of Contents

Frontispiece: Sh'ma: From The Book of Blessings
Acknowledgments
Wrestling with Zion: An Introduction	p. 1
What We've Always Known: A Century's Sample of Dissenting Voices	p. 13
From "A Truth from Eretz Yisrael"	p. 14
Letters to Chaim Weizmann and Felix Warburg	p. 17
Our Psuedo-Samsons	p. 21
From "Zionism Reconsidered"	p. 24
Two Letters to the Editor of the The New York Times	p. 26
From "Israel's Spiritual Climate"	p. 29
From "Holy War"	p. 31
On Withdrawing from Sh'ma	p. 35
Morning News	p. 37
The United States-Israeli Alliance	p. 41
Deal Breakers	p. 51
Israel and the Media: An Acquired Taste	p. 61
Rescuing Private Lynch, Forgetting Rachel Corrie	p. 69
The Chosen: Ideological Roots of the U.S.-Israeli Special Relationship	p. 72
"Globalize the Intifada"	p. 81
If We Really Care About Israel: Breira and the Limits of Dissent	p. 89
Five Short Essays
A Profile of Henry Siegman	p. 106
Jewish Ethics and Terrorism	p. 108
It Does Concern the Diaspora	p. 110
The Perils of Messianic Politics	p. 113
When Oslo Finally Dies	p. 116
Deal with Fundamentals	p. 117
Of Dogs and Tails: The Changing Nature of the Pro-Israeli Lobby
The Unchanging Nature of the U.S.-Israeli Alliance	p. 120
Wings	p. 134
Jew vs. Jew: On the Jewish Civil War and the New Prophetic	p. 139
Jewish Days and Nights	p. 157
Why Israel Must Choose Justice	p. 166
Living With the Holocaust: The Journey of a Child of Holocaust Survivors	p. 70
Rally 'Round the Flag	p. 178
On a Zion in the Wilderness	p. 183
A Blessing to the Families of the Earth	p. 191
Dislocated Identities: Reflections of an Arab-Jew	p. 195
Interrogate My Love	p. 198
No Return	p. 205
My Patriarch Problem - and Ours	p. 221
Is There Still a Jewish Question? Why I'm an Anti-Anti-Zionist	p. 226
Afraid 233
Immature Song Inman Square Incantation	p. 236
"Anti-Semitism," Israel, and the Left	p. 243
The Charge of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel, and the Risks of Public Critique	p. 249
Sharon, Le Pen, and Anti-Semitism	p. 266
Wall	p. 269
The Fundamental Truth	p. 275
The Law of Return	p. 279
Returning the Law of Return	p. 279
In Defense of the Law of Return	p. 287
Roadblocks of the Soul	p. 290
Utopia: An English Professor's Answer	p. 291
To Our Son, Marek Alexander Barnette, on the Occasion of His Naming	p. 293
Should Jews Relinquish the Right of Return? No!	p. 294
Nothing Is Good for the Jews	p. 295
Borders	p. 297
Intifada Diptych	p. 301
Next Year Where?	p. 314
Ruins, Mounting toward Jerusalem	p. 323
Prayer	p. 337
On the Refusniks	p. 341
A Profile on Dr. Robert Jay Lifton	p. 341
On Courage, Truth, and Resistance	p. 344
Doing Activism, Working for Peace: A Roundtable Discussion, March 9, 2003	p. 350
Birkat Shalom, Blessing of Peace: From The Book of Blessings	p. 379
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