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“The moment of truth has arrived, and it has to be said:
Israel does not want peace.”
—Gideon Levy, Israeli columnist

“If we do not change our direction,
we are likely to end up where we are headed.”
—ancient Chinese proverb

The more I study the New Testament,
the better a Jew it makes me.
—Prof. Amy-Jill Levine

~MY VOICE ...
By Glenn Edward Witmer
Christ Killers, and The Misunderstood Jew

From time to time, in an effort to inform and help us understand other points of view, we draw our readers’ attention to new books which have been well received, and are clear windows on difficult but critical subjects. In this issue: How do Christians and Jews see each other, and how has history distorted that view? The books in question this time are from Jewish writers; they are excellent, written for a wide audience, and by respected writers who are highly respected in their field. Interested readers are encouraged to consider them for personal reading, and also for group discussions.

Jeremy Cohen’s Christ Killers:
The Jews and the Passion, from the Bible to the Big Screen

Jeremy Cohen is a three-time winner of the national Jewish Book Award, and has taught at Cornell, and Ohio State. He is now in Tel Aviv. This clip is from the jacket summary:

“Christians believe that Christ’s death redeems and forgives. Yet the same blood shed on the cross has been used to stain Jews with lasting, incomparable guilt. The gospel narratives of the Passion cast the Jews as responsible, directly and indirectly, for the death of the Son of God. The stigma of “Christ killer”—the notion that all Jews, at all times and in all places, share the collective responsibility for the Crucifixion—has plagued Jews ever since and is the source of much Christian anti-Semitism.

“Cohen traces the Christ-killer myth from ancient times to the present day, touching on the Gospels and their roots in Hebrew Scripture, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, and much in between.”
— Published by Oxford University Press, USA

Amy-Jill Levine’s The Misunderstood Jew
New book offers fresh Jewish perspective on the New Testament.
Author interview by Holly Lebowitz Rossi of The Dallas Morning News

Amy-Jill Levine sounds like a fish out of water, a self-described Yankee Jewish feminist from Boston who is a New Testament professor at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. Author of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, is used to crossing boundaries and helping people understand each other’s—and their own—religious traditions. She spoke about how studying Jesus has made her a better Jew, and why the historical Jesus matters to contemporary Christians. Here are excerpts.

Q. What is the ‘Jewish Jesus’?
A. Both Jews and Christians fail to appreciate how Jesus would have sounded in his own context: He’s a Jew speaking to other Jews. For many Jews, Jesus is a Christian and not a Jew—or a bad Jew. For many Christians, Jesus comes to do away with Judaism—or to distinguish himself from Jewish practice.

Q. Why did Christian tradition take Jesus out of this context?
A. As time went on, the church became increasingly Gentile, or non-Jewish. The knowledge of that first-century Jewish context began to get lost. People who followed Jesus, as the generations passed, needed to explain why Jesus’ own people, the Jews, didn’t follow him. So Jesus’ Jewish relatives, Jesus’ Jewish neighbors, Jesus’ fellow Jews became demonized.

Q. How would one explain why Jews didn’t sign on to the Christian faith?
A. Well, one could claim, as does the Gospel of Matthew, that they were misled by their leaders. But after two or three generations, that explanation doesn’t work anymore. One could claim, as St. Paul does, that the hardening of Israel, as Paul put it, was part of the divine plan. But that’s not the explanation that carried. The explanation that carried in the church was that the Jews were children of the devil.

Q. Why is interfaith knowledge so lacking today?
A. Christians think that if they simply read the Old Testament, they understand Judaism. That’s a misperception. Judaism is not just the Bible. It’s the Bible plus later interpretation, just as Christianity is not just the New Testament; it’s the New Testament as understood through the past 2,000 years.

Q. How is Judaism stereotyped in Christian circles?
A. I frequently find Christians making a distinction between law and grace: Judaism is law—Jews follow certain laws out of fear of an angry, wrathful God. Christianity teaches grace and compassion and love. This is a false distinction.
The God of what Christians call the Old Testament, the Jewish Bible, is just as gracious and compassionate as the God of the New Testament. And the God of the New Testament can be just as wrathful as the one in the story of Noah and the flood.

Q. How does your study of Jesus affect your own faith?
A. The more I study the New Testament, the better a Jew it makes me. I recognize the irony there. Jesus takes what’s already in the Jewish tradition and rephrases it in a way that’s engaging, profound and inspirational. I see the Jewish tradition reflected in Jesus’ words.
—Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
—Published by Harper San Francisco

~Other Voices ...

By Rabbi Dow Marmur
“All I can do is to describe Israel…
with much hope for the next 60 years and beyond.”
Between Depression and Craziness

Sever Plotzker is one of the most significant journalists writing in Israel’s mass circulation daily newspaper, Yediot Achronot. He invites his readers to think back to Israel’s Independence Day ten years ago, when Israel was 49 years old. He asks rhetorically if they could imagine what has happened in the country, and to it, in the last decade. Here are his points:

*In the last decade Israel has experienced a repetition of two of its previous wars: the second intifada and the second Lebanon war. Both have been bad for Israel. Yet, during the last ten years the country’s population has grown from 5.5 million to 7.2 million. 70% of those who live here say they’re satisfied.

*In the last decade Israel has had five governments, six Prime Ministers and seven Ministers of Finance. Yet, in the same period some 50 billion dollars have been invested here by foreigners.

*There are 45% more cars now on the roads than there were a decade ago, but 25% less traffic accidents. And 30 million Israelis travel by train each year within the country.

*Oil has gone up from $10 a barrel to over $60. Yet, the national debt ten years ago was seventeen billion dollars. Now Israel has a surplus of some 37 billion dollars.

*Israeli high-tech companies earn annually some 150 billion dollars worldwide.

*Two seasoned generals who became Prime Ministers did the unexpected, perhaps the unimaginable: Ehud Barak took Israel out of Lebanon and Arik Sharon took Israel out of Gaza. Yet, peace is more elusive than ever.

*The country has now half-a-million more poor citizens than it had a decade ago. Yet, right-wing parties (ostensibly favoring the rich) have never been more popular than now, whereas left-wing parties (the champions of the poor) have never been so much down-in-the-dumps as now.

*The average per capita income is $22,000 and inflation down to zero. Shekel interest rates are higher than dollar rates. Output is about 70 billion dollars a year. Yet, the morale in the country is low.

*The mood of the people here vacillates between depression and craziness.

On a few occasions I’ve spoken to groups, not all of them friendly, visiting the country. It has rarely been a wholesome experience, for them or for me. A member of a group I addressed recently wanted to know what I think about the prospect of Israel disappearing within a relatively short time. This is a fear that even some Israelis occasionally express. However, because I view the establishment of Israel as the greatest event in Jewish history since biblical times, I find the question impossible and offensive. In view of the kind of survey reported above, which bodes well for Israel’s future, all I can do is to describe Israel in vacillating confusion, yet with much hope for the next 60 years and beyond.

—Jerusalem 24.4.07 (Independence Day).
The writer is Rabbi Emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.

By Gideon Levy
Israel Doesn’t Want Peace
Israel avoids the most basic prerequisite for any just peace
—an end to the occupation!

The moment of truth has arrived, and it has to be said: Israel does not want peace. The arsenal of excuses has run out, and the chorus of Israeli rejection already rings hollow. Until recently, it was still possible to accept the Israeli refrain that “there is no partner” for peace and that “the time isn’t right” to deal with our enemies. Today, the new reality before our eyes leaves no room for doubt and the tired refrain that “Israel supports peace” has been left shattered.

It’s hard to determine when the breaking point occurred. Was it the absolute dismissal of the Saudi initiative? The refusal to acknowledge the Syrian initiative? The revulsion at the statements made by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, in Damascus, alleging that Israel was ready to renew peace talks with Syria?

Who would have believed it? A high-ranking US official says Israel wants peace talks to resume and instantly her president "severely" denies the veracity of her words. Is Israel even hearing these voices? Are we digesting the significance of these voices for peace? Seven million apathetic Israeli citizens prove that we are not.

Entire generations grew up here weaned on self-deception and doubt about the likelihood of achieving peace with our neighbors. In our younger days, David Ben-Gurion told us that if he were only able to meet with Arab leaders, he would have brought us peace in his time. Israel has demanded direct negotiations as a matter of principle and Israelis have derived great pride from the fact that their daily focus on ‘peace’ has concealed their state’s lofty ambitions. We were told that there was no partner for peace and that the ultimate ambition of the Arabs is to bring about our destruction.

After that came the occupation, followed by terror, Yasser Arafat, the failed second Camp David Summit, and the rise of Hamas to power. In our wildest dreams, we wouldn’t have believed that the day would come when the entire Arab world would extend its hand in peace and Israel would brush away the gesture. It would have been even crazier to imagine this Israeli refusal blamed on not its wanting to enrage domestic public opinion.

The world has been turned upside down and it is Israel that stands at the forefront of refusal. The policy of refusal of a select few, a vanguard of the extreme, has now become the official policy of Jerusalem. The historic decision is ours, and we are fleeing from this crossroads and from these initiatives as if from death itself.

“Peace is now no more than a threatening wound,
with no one still talking about the massive social benefits it would bring in…”

Terror, used as the ultimate excuse for Israeli refusal, only helps Olmert keep reciting, ad nauseum, “If they [the Palestinians] don’t change, don’t fight terror, and don’t adhere to any of their obligations, then they will never extract themselves from their unending chaos.” As though the Palestinians haven’t taken measures against terrorism, as though Israel is the one to determine what their obligations are, as though Israel isn’t to blame for the unending chaos Palestinians suffer under the occupation.

Israel avoids the most basic prerequisite for any just peace—an end to the occupation. Of all the questions asked during his Passover interviews, no one bothered to ask Olmert why he didn’t react with excitement to the recent Arab initiatives, without preconditions? The answer: real estate. The real estate of the settlements.

A leading figure in the Labor party said that “it will take five to 10 years to recover from the trauma.” Peace is now no more than a threatening wound, with no one still talking about the massive social benefits it would bring in development, security, freedom of movement in the region and by establishing a more just society.
—Levy is a columnist for Ha’aretz, Jerusalem

By Sonja Karkar, Women for Palestine
Partition and Theft:
How Palestine Became Israel’s Land

For Palestinians, theirs is not the land of conquest, but the land of their roots going back to time immemorial. Such a lineage does not rely on a biblical promise like the Jewish claim that God promised the land to Abraham and his descendants and is, therefore, the historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel. It belongs to the people of Palestine by the simple fact of their continuous residence repeated through birth and possession going back to the earliest Canaanites and even those people living there before recorded history.

If a religious basis is sought, then the Palestinians can lay claim to being the descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael who is regarded the forefather of the Arabs. But actually, Palestinian rights are enshrined in the universally accepted principle that land belongs to its indigenous inhabitants. Thus, the modern day struggle for this land by European Jewish immigrants, who have no connection with Palestine other than through their religion, is a colonial enterprise that seeks sovereignty for an “external Jewish population” to the exclusion of the indigenous Palestinians who, regardless of faith—Jewish, Christian, or Muslim—have lived together for centuries.

Although eager to accept the UN Partition Plan of 1947 which recommended that 56% of the land be set aside for a Jewish State, 42% for an Arab state, and 2% for an internationalized Jerusalem and its surrounds, the world has not said a word about the land that was seized by Zionist terrorists before the State of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948. Through a series of shocking massacres, the territory assigned to the Jews suddenly became 77% resulting in more than 750,000 Palestinians being forcibly expelled and dispossessed of their homes, personal property and their homeland. The Jewish State then came into being without waiting for the United Nations Commission—prescribed in the Partition resolution—to hand authority progressively over to the Jewish and Arab leaders for their respective states.

Daily, Israel is taking a bit of land here and a bit of land there,
to make all of Palestine “Israel’s Land.”

Effectively, the new state of Israel was not only created in violation of the very resolution which Israelis now look to as giving them sovereignty, but it continued to violate it. The Arab state imposed by the UN Partition Plan without consultation and in contradiction to the UN charter—which should have upheld the majority indigenous Palestinians’ right to self-determination—has since been deliberately and methodically whittled away by Israel, leaving nothing but isolated non-contiguous parcels of land to some four million Palestinians.

Around 170,000 Palestinians remained in what became Israel, the largest number of whom resided in the Galilee area, originally a designated part of the Arab state under the Partition Plan. These Palestinians also became the victims of Israel’s land grab policy. Over 438,000 acres were confiscated and a further 400,000 acres were marked for confiscation. After Israel won the 1967 war, the total territory of Palestine came under Israel’s rule. It annexed East Jerusalem, and began implementing its Jewish settlement program with a vengeance.

Palestinians are further away from seeing a solution than ever before. Daily, Israel is taking a bit of land here and a bit of land there, to make all of Palestine “Israel’s land.” The problem then will be…what to do with five million Palestinians with no land? There are only a few possible, but criminal, solutions—population transfer, collective imprisonment, apartheid, and/or ethnic cleansing. Alternatively, Israel can disengage from the West Bank to the 1967 borders or agree on a single, democratic state for all. Without a just solution, the struggle for Palestine’s land will continue.

—Sonja Karkar is the founder and president of Women for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia. http://www.counterpunch.org/karkar03312007.html

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By Shelly Paz, The Jerusalem Post
“A few women, dressed in American uniforms and armed
with laser target rifles, acted as Hizbullah fighters.”
New Facility for Urban Warfare Training

Earlier this year the Israeli army unveiled an Urban Warfare Training Center (UTC) in a mock city that simulates an Arab town, four months after the second Lebanon war ended. The city is located on a southern military base. From a distance, it looks like any Arab urban center.

Around 500 structures were built for a maximum capacity of 5,000 residents. “Just like in every real city we built mosques, a Casba, and even a refugee camp,” said Lt.-Col Arik Moreh, the second in command of the Tactical Training City. Arab music was played in the background throughout the entire exercise, to get everyone in the mood.

In the center some of the houses’ walls have holes, an imitation of those soldiers leave behind after breaking into houses and taking them over. “This place was built as close as possible to reality. The density of the houses, the stores, a central plaza,” said Moreh, adding that the exercise included mainly cadets from a commanders’ course.

During the exercise, 350 soldiers were spread out in the fake town, some playing the role of civilians while a few women, dressed in American uniforms and armed with laser target rifles, acted as Hizbullah fighters. “This is a routine breaker,” said two of the women following a short demonstration in which soldiers broke into a house—successfully, of course.

“Usually we are Hummer operators but this exercise is fun because you have a chance to shoot these laser rifles,” the girls explained.

“The main difficulty of such urban combat is to keep track of the location of each and every soldier, because as soon as the forces get into a town like this, they disappear in the houses and become invisible,” said Moreh.

Parts of the UTC are still under construction and will open in July 2007. Both regular and reserve units will train there and practice possible scenarios of urban fighting, from kidnappings to various terror activities and ambushes.

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Education in 40 Years of Occupation (1967-2007)

The International Committee on Education and Occupation (ICEO) invites Palestinian, Israeli, and international educators working in schools, universities, community organizations, the arts, and peace education to attend an Educators’ Forum on Education in Forty Years of Occupation (1967–2007), August 23–26, 2007 at
Talita Kumi School, Beit Jala (near Bethlehem), Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Forum topics include the development of Palestinian and Israeli education during 40 years of occupation, the impact of occupation on Palestinian education, the education of Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, racism or peace education in Israeli and Palestinian both in and outside the schools, the psychological impact of education in occupation, textbooks, and related issues.

ICEO is a collective effort of Palestinian, Israeli and international educators who seek to encourage an internationalist approach to creating educational practices that support liberation from occupation. ICEO recognizes that education is not only victimized by occupation but also reproduces the power relations and oppressive consciousness that cause and perpetuate occupation.

See web site for details: http://iceo-pal-isr.org
Contact us for more information
Sami Adwan, sadwan[at]bethlehem[dot]edu
Howard Davidson, howardsdavidson[at]yahoo[dot]com
Nurit Peled-Elhanan, nuritpeled[at]gmail[dot]com

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The protesters also criticized the difficulties created by the checkpoints, and the limitations they impose on the Palestinians’ freedom of movement. One of the signs at the protest read, “The roadblocks are ruining the Palestinians’ lives,” while another poster aimed to juxtapose between the native-Americans, whose lands were stolen by the newcomers.

“The Indian wars are not over, Ms. Rice. We are still here too,” the sign said. Rice responded by reiterating the US commitment to the Road Map. “My work is going to be best targeted, I think, in these next months on trying to accelerate progress on the Road Map, which after all would lead us then to a Palestinian state and to helping the Palestinians and Israelis think through the political horizon,” she said.

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