It has been decades now since I submitted to my good friend Teddy
Kollek a detailed plan for a shared Jerusalem. However, as he quite
right¬ly pointed out, it is easy to devise a formula but more
difficult to tailor it to existent patterns of feeling and thought.
Today, however, it would seem that the climate of opinion has
changed: instead of the extreme idea of occupying all Biblical
lands comes the concept of sharing the land with those who have an
equal claim, having lived here for the last 2,000 years. Three
generations after the Holocaust, Jewish opinion is more fluid and
open-minded.
A wonderful evolution occurs between periods of utter subjugation
and those of independent self-determination. Options and
alternatives multiply and, therefore, choice (if any) is no longer
stark and brutal, as between life and death. It is no longer black
and white, but must rather depend on subtle differences of opinion,
value, vision and reasoning with heart and head, with intuition and
wisdom, engaging both strength in defense and magnanimity in
behavior.
Most Jews would probably agree with me (an old throw-back Hassid)
that their status as God's chosen people might appear open to
debate.
Perhaps we survived because the persecutor needed us for his
purpos¬es and we seem to have accommodated him. We were
presented in dif¬ferent guises: as killers of God - the
Christians' Jewish God; a "race," which we are not; dedicated to
the Ten Commandments, which we gen¬erally obeyed; until we
also became a nation-state.
Status Symbol
From then on we fought and toiled to acquire and hold territory
large enough to constitute a respectable little state, complete
with flag, lan¬guage, army, atom bomb - today's status symbol.
We can, therefore, indulge in everything which makes a state great
- even in killing. At this juncture we have conquered and held the
capital city, Jerusalem, which is the envy of all peoples of our
neighbors and of the world, not to speak of all peoples of the
monotheistic religions. Small wonder that the Jews, ingenious
people as they are, always seem to continue to find ways to be
persecuted.
We are altogether too aware of the danger of growing Islamic
resent¬ment, particularly in the expanding strength of the
fundamentalists. Israel could find itself on the very edge of the
most violent confrontations. This is one possibility.
The other "scenario," as the Americans would put it, is equally
bleak: the remote one of Christian and Muslim joined on the only
possible com¬mon ground to defeat Israel.
Israel must make friends with her nearest people, her actual
co-¬dwellers. It urgently needs a genuine Arab friend, and who
better quali¬fied than the Palestinians, among the most
open-minded in the contem¬porary Arab world?
Sharing with a Friend
How much wiser and far-sighted it would be to share the land with
those who love and covet it as much as we do. A friend doubles the
joys and divides the pains, shares the defense and the sacrifices
required.
When my father left Russia to grow up in Jerusalem at the turn of
the century and later went to the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv,
he frater¬nized with his Arab neighbors quite naturally,
played with their children, and was treated free by an Arab
dentist. Is it too fanciful to hope for such a relationship to be
restored?
Israel may have to bear yet many violent reprisals, as will the
Palestinians, because the past atmosphere of distrust, pain and
revenge does not disappear overnight. But both the sensible and
those blessed with foresight on both sides will have to be
committed to peace and with patience, not allowing anything to
undermine the reciprocity of goodwill and mutual aid.
Conditions for the Peace Process
The tragic fate of Palestinians under Israeli military domination
has called forth among the Israelis many wonderful voluntary groups
determined to redeem the image of Israel by defending the
Palestinians in the military courts, by teaching their children
during the periods in which schools were closed, by carrying
messages from prisoners to their families, and by many good works
which have created an indispensable condi¬tion for the peace
process. For the peace process is not simply the prerogative of
politicians but is posited on the selfless work born of
compas¬sion, guilt and good sense. Unless the heart and mind
of the majority in both peo¬ples can join in spirit these
wonderful vol¬untary bodies, the peace process may indeed
falter.
The Jews have left it very long, I pray not too long, to say to the
Palestinians, "You and we are willing to die for our land, let us
live for it instead, and if we should ever have to face an enemy,
defend it together."
Reciprocity
There is no way to negotiate reciprocity. Reciprocity is trust, it
is mutual service, respect, care, attachment and independence. One
can negotiate on money, territory, goods, resources, commerce, but
not on spontaneous and automatic reciprocity; mutual help and
mutual gratitude are not negotiable.
The Jewish people of Israel must understand that a shared Jerusalem
means an undivided country, one without guarded borders; a shared
Jerusalem means no enemies or borders, the beginning of a Semitic
feder¬ation, the dream of King Hussein, as he told me, when we
sat together in his garden in Amman.
Israel should aim to create, to join and pursue as many
international and intercultural organizations as possible: a
Semitic federation of cul¬tures and states; the European
Community; and, because Israel's origins lie in the Balfour
Declaration, the Commonwealth of Peoples associated with the
British Crown; it should also foster its relation with the U.S.A.;
and of course, with the U.N. and with the UNESCO.
Exclusivity is the bane of trust and stability; it is
self-condemnation to obsession and fears, the road to madness, the
embracing of the principle of death in the illusion that it can
serve life, a reversion to fundamental¬ism whether religious
or political.
No, I want my Israel to be of good conscience, generous and strong,
singing and dancing with joy and love, in the spirit of wisdom,
under¬standing and knowledge, and with faith, hope and charity
- all Biblical attributes.