Don’t call me “Pocahontas”
I did the DNA test, I know exactly where my ancestry came from. From Mom’s side, 24% of my genes come from Ireland and Scotland, and 16% comes from England. That’s 40% total. The other 60% is from Dad’s side, European Jew. The more recent Jewish relatives came from Alsace in the mid-1800’s, the province strategically placed between France and Germany. I have cousins who have walked the cemeteries of small Alsatian towns, finding distance Dahlman graves.
Mom was Roman Catholic, barred from the Church for marrying my father. Dad was a non-practicing Jew, he went to synagogue for funerals, but that’s about it. We were raised in the Episcopal Church, as close as Mom could get to the Catholic Church here in America, but I don’t espouse any specific religious belief now.
Ethnic Jew
So, as far as Judaism is concerned, I’m not. The religion “runs through the mother,” so since Mom wasn’t Jewish, I’m not considered a part of the “chosen people.” But as far as society is concerned, as a person of Jewish heritage, I am often considered Jewish. I’m an “ethnic” Jew (at least 60%) not a “religious” Jew.
As a person of Jewish ancestry, I have studied the history, and particularly the recent history, of Jews. It started with the Diaspora, when Jews were driven from the Jerusalem by the Roman Empire in 152 AD. Since that time, Jews have prayed to return to the Holy Land, saying (in Hebrew) “L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim,” next year in Jerusalem.
Jews were persecuted in Europe far before Hitler and World War II. In the mid 19th Century, about the time my great-grandfather Isaac came to America, the Zionist movement gained influence in Jewish Europe, encouraging them to return to the Holy Land, Palestine, to re-establish the nation of Israel. At the time, Palestine was a province of the Ottoman Empire, and Jews from Europe began to settle there.
Twice Promised Land
During World War I, the British were fighting against the Ottoman Turkey as well as Germany and Austria. Desperate to drive the Turks away from the Suez Canal, the British military promised local Arabs power over the area after they won. But the British were also desperate for Jewish support during the war, financial support in particular, and promised that Jews could settle there after the War in the Balfour Declaration. It was the “twice promised” land.
After World War I, Palestine became a part of the British Empire. Both Arabs and Jews expected the British to live up to their promises. More Jews came to Palestine, and the Palestinian Arabs did not get the control they expected. The British maintained sovereignty. The Jews saw the British as the enemy, and Arabs saw Jews and British as invaders. Then World War II began.
The Enemy of My Enemy
During World War II, Hitler made it clear his intentions for Jews, and Jews in Palestine saw no alternative. They fought with the British. Arabs, on the other hand, saw German actions as an opportunity to end British control and remove Jews, and took a more neutral stand. When the war ended, the world saw the Holocaust, the genocide Nazis inflicted on the Jewish people, and international support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine grew. While the British struggled against it, the United Nations ultimately authorized the creation of Israel in 1948.
The Arab nations surrounding Israel immediately attacked. Arab leaders ordered the Palestinian Arabs to evacuate, to return after the Jews were conquered and removed, “driven into the sea.” This was the beginning of the diaspora of Palestinian Arabs from their homeland, unable to return while Israel existed. And this was the beginning of the modern Middle East today; after four wars against Israel, the nation still stands, and the Palestinians still wait.
A Democratic Jew
I am an ethnic “Jew,” aware of the conflicted history of the founding of modern Israel. I support Israel, not just because of my ethnicity, but because it is “the light of Democracy” in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes. But just because I have Jewish ancestry and support the concept of the nation of Israel, doesn’t mean that I blindly back everything the current regime in Israel does.
Today’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu, administers a plan of military domination of Palestinians. He constantly provokes them, and they respond, giving him greater excuse for suppression. He denies a “two-state solution,” the bedrock of American policy towards the area for the past half-century. Not only are his actions creating violence, but also a potential new era of terrorism as another generation of Palestinians grows up without hope.
Yesterday, the President of the United States stated:
“In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people, and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Trump told reporters outside the White House Wednesday, “and only weak people would say anything other than that.”
A Message to the President
First of all, Mr. President, who the Hell are you to determine what loyalty to Jewish people is? Who believes you have that power, other than that obscure American commentator who called you the “…the King of Israel. They (Israeli Jews) love him like he is the second coming of God.” Do you think that all Jews are diehard Netanyahu fans, or even diehard Israel fans? Isn’t that the definition of bigotry: determining that “all people” who are Jews believe the same thing?
Weak people, Mr. President, are folks who cannot stand opposing viewpoints. Weak people, Mr. President, can’t defend their own views without resorting to personal insults. I’ve taught sixteen year olds how to do this, but clearly you aren’t able to intellectually defend your views.
You are using religious bigotry to further your personal political gains. Even your friend Sheldon Adelson can’t be happy about that, though you surely will get more millions from him when the time comes.
As a 60% Ethnic Jew, Mr. President, I can support Israel without supporting the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. And as a 100% American, I can support our nation without supporting you.
