JERUSALEM: “Peace and “Zionism are two powerful concepts with histories that are inextricably tied up in the Arab-Israeli conflict. In trying to resolve the conflict, we tend to avoid talking about both peace and Zionism…and for understandable reasons. However, I want to suggest that their unification in the form of a new peace ideology, committed to fulfilling the historical and indeed prophetic vocation of the Jewish people as a voice for peace in the world, might create the positive motivation for peace inside Israeli society for which the Middle East has been waiting.
Peace is a value espoused by Jewish prophets and philosophers from Isaiah and Ezekiel, to Rabbi Nachman of Breslav, Rav Kook and Martin Buber who writes, “Our purpose (i.e. of the Jewish People returning to Zion) is the great upbuilding of Peace. According to Kant, perpetual world peace is the very purpose of the modern state. Everyone seems to want peace. And yet, people go to war over peace all the time and Israeli society seems unable to garner a consensus that peace is in its best interest. Since the heyday of the peace movements in the 90’s, so much blood has been spilt and so many homes have been destroyed that it should come as no surprise that people in the Middle East have lost their faith in peace. The word “Shalom has become a turn-off; when I tell people I have written a book about it they ask, “Is it a horror story or science fiction?
Zionism has a shorter but similar track record. It is responsible, perhaps more than any other modern Jewish idea, for reinvigorating Jewish life. And yet, only a few decades after the State of Israel’s establishment, being a Zionist has become problematic. Zionism today has proven itself unequal to the challenge of generating passion and commitment among many of the world s Jews. But, more poignantly perhaps, it seems that the inspirational plan of the Jewish people to return to the land of its ancestry has lost its luster in the eyes of many Jews inside Israel itself. More poignantly still, for many people around the world (and to the chagrin of many Jews) Zionism is unquestioningly associated with such horrors as racism, colonialism and apartheid.
And yet, what I wish to propose is that Peace and Zionism are two Jewish values of lasting and crucial importance to Israeli society and the world that are waiting for renewal. Combined they provide each other with a new lease of life. First, the debate about Zionism today has stalled because the purpose of the Jewish State is no longer clear to many. I suggest that we broadly redefine Zionism as the ideological framework or context for a renewed discussion of Israel’s purpose. Second, let s consider peace, not as a strategic concern of the state of Israel, but as a rich and deep Jewish idea that might play a central role in defining the ideological purpose of the Jewish State.
My experiences inside Israel have taught me that this reframing of the idea of peace is very constructive. By opening a discussion that explores the actual meaning of peace within an ideological and religious framework, my colleagues and I have been able to engage and bring together both religious leaders from the settlements and secular liberals who are constructively debating their respective commitments and concerns for Israel, peace and the Middle East.
I believe the successes of these discussions underline just how crucial it is that we move the discussion of peace away from the language of interest-based compromise and into the realm of Jewish Zionist ideological purpose. If we do this, we can include in our discussions about peace those visions of peace that flourish in the teachings of rabbis in the settlements whose convictions about it are rooted in a deep Jewish tradition and whose voices have yet to be heard on this issue. We can bring them into the discussion that, at the same time, engages and acknowledges the visions of peace articulated by liberals, secular humanists, labour Zionists, post-Zionists, Haredim, Ashkenazim, Mizrachim, Palestinians and everyone else with a stake in shaping Israel’s future.
Ultimately, my case for peace is that – if we frame it correctly – peace can become the new horizon, the new platform for ideological debate and the new Zionism. There is indeed hope that an Israeli society engaged constructively in building an ideology of peace is an Israeli society that – united – will find the way to actually make peace.
Dr. Alick Isaacs is a scholar at the Shalom Hartman Institute and teaches at the Hebrew University s Melton Centre for Jewish Education in Jerusalem. His forthcoming book “A Prophetic Peace deals with the meaning of peace in Jewish thought. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews)
