A Relaxing Summer — Not!

by Rabbi Donald Rossoff

Summer is supposed to be a time to relax. However, for those of us who care deeply about Israel, this was a less than relaxing summer.

It started with the Gaza flotilla disaster, Israel's encounter with the ship which sailed from Turkey with the expressed aim of breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza. I say it was a disaster because nine people died and many more were seriously injured. It was a disaster because Israeli intelligence did not adequately prepare Israeli soldiers for what to expect. It was a disaster because Israelis officials were not proactive enough to tell what actually happened there, giving the first word to the knee-jerk critics who would delegitimize Israel at each opportunity (and make some up when none existed). It actually fell to the BBC, hardly a pro-Israel news source, to create and air a special documentary report on the incident and what lead up to it, to get Israel's story out in a comprehensive and compelling way. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4594E-9PnEg)

The only thing that was good about it is that it failed to break the blockade to Gaza, even as it changed some of its contours. Those who call for the total lifting of the blockade puzzle me. Based on past experience, if there is a way for Hamas to obtain missiles and rockets and other weapons of destruction, then they will obtain them. And if they obtain them, it is reasonable to say that they will use them. Much like the defense barrier which Israel has put in, the blockade is a terrible thing, something which should be ended as soon as possible. But for now, that is not possible. For as bad and disruptive as the blockade and the barrier are, the terror, murder, and mayhem they prevent are worse. The blockade and the barrier save lives. It is tragic that they must be there, but be there they must until they are no longer needed.

This summer saw the arrest of Anat Hoffman of Women of the Wall who, while praying at the Kotel, not doing anything contrary to the ruling of the courts, was still taken away in an embarrassing scene for questioning. Frankly, I think there are more important issues than the Western Wall, except for the fact that it has proven to be a microcosm of a much larger problem in Israel – the growing hegemony of ultra-Orthodox groups which would turn the modern democratic Jewish state into a medieval Jewish theocracy.

This was also evident in this summer's misguided attempt in Israel to emend the Conversion Law which, while being helpful to some of Israel's immigrants, would also have redefined who is a Jew in ultra-Orthodox terms. It would have given ultra-Orthodox rabbis the power to rescind the conversion of those who were not living according to the ultra-Orthodox understanding of Jewish law on a scale virtually unprecedented in Jewish law. With the intervention of the leaders of American Jewry, the attempt was put aside — for now. Their retrogressive designs for Israeli society have not been thwarted, just turned back for the time being. What will preserve the Jewish democracy for the future is a caring and informed Israeli electorate, an Israeli Supreme Court which, despite some of the social forces swirling around them, will uphold the basic principles and rights articulated in the Israeli Declaration of Independence, and an involved and credible world-wide Jewish community.

And of course, over the summer, Iran moved even closer to nuclear weapons capabilities. If the 20th century taught us anything, it is that the unthinkable is doable, and that when madmen tell you what they are going to do, believe them.

People who care deeply about Israel don't get to relax much. The ongoing threats to democracy from within, and the security, indeed existential threats from without, don't take time off.

Although I have to say, for a few moments last month at a Tel Aviv beach, standing in the waters of the Mediterranean and watching the incredible sunset, I was able to not think about any of it and bask in the beauty of it all.

Rabbi Donald Rossoff is rabbi at Temple B'nai Or in Morristown.

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