Thread by @PYMundGenealogy

Oddly this thought was prompted by a fight with a stupid troll yesterday, but an implicit assumption of theirs has been bugging me... do people not realize that it's possible for one's Jewish identity not to centre around Israel? Like, not to care about the state?
1/x

Some Jews centre their identities around moral principles or historical heritage; these can make Israel a core of their identity or a major obstacle to the ideal world, depending on their views.

Some Jews centre their identities on their religious beliefs...
2/x

Our beliefs are famously subject to many interpretations - some of us find Israel and Zionism to be core to their prayer, their view of the immediate future, some quite the opposite... but some Jews with religion at the core of their identity are sorta neutral re Zionism...
3/x

... so Israel is at most a political opinion, not a core identity issue. And among us - many, most these past decades, lean centre-right politically, which makes support for Israel part of its worldview (though not quite like a Zionist in the strict sense); some farther...
4/x

... Left might have opposition to Israel not as a central feature, but part of a universal left-wing framework.

But a Jew, like me, whose identity is religious above all, and whose politics don't make an opinion on Israel part of its core platform - you can just not... care ?
5/

I don't mean not care about anything related to Israel - quite the contrary - but it's never about the State per se.
I care about the State of Israel, in that regard, as much as I care about Estonia.

And my menorah has as little to do with Israel, for or against, as Estonia.
6/x

I care about:
- Israel as the home of a large proportion of the world's Jews
- as the home of much of my family
- as the location of my sacred sites
- as the home of my Rebbe and his shul
- as the graveyard of my ancestors
And in all this, I care for the state...
7/x

... only in as much as all that is tied up with it, whether I like it or not - I'd care just as much if it were Czarist Russia.

I also care about Israel in that I know that antisemites are made and inflamed around grievances, often legitimate, around Jews and groups of Jews
8/x

... and in this I care about Israel as much as I care about AIPAC or Jeffrey Epstein: I care about myself and other Jews and how we'll be viewed.

9/x

I also care about Palestinians, in Israel's control and in the diaspora:
- I care about humanity in general (trite, I know)
- I care about peoples who have been mistreated
- I care especially about Palestinians, bc I consider them a sister people to ours, for many reasons...
10/x

- I care because I have Palestinian friends

But I *don't* care about them because of Israel. I don't say “not in my name” - did I ever say it was in my name? Why should I need to disavow a half-baked idea of some of my people? I care that Israel has set up so many Jews...
11/x

... for success at Palestinians' expense & vice versa, but my care doesn't come from a sense of *responsibility* for Israel. I neither feel support for the state that I should be culpable for its crimes nor a duty to fight it.

The State means nothing to me, for good or ill.
12/x

This frustrates me about a portion of the Jewish Left whose political ideals I share: fighting for Palestine is a good cause, more power to you! Please don't make Israel your negative Jewish identity, though: don't apologize for your menorah, keep Israel out of your menorah!
13/x

Care for things for their own sake. And mind you - I can understand a religious Zionist perspective too! (With a bit of willpower and leadership it can also become pro-Palestinian, IMHO, but I'm going to stay in my lane.) Or a religious anti-Zionist perspective.
But...
14/x

... if you don't have a view on Israel as core to your conception of your Judaism, why? Support it because you think it's necessary for Jewish safety. Maybe your wrong, but it's a good reason. Oppose it because it's an apartheid state. Maybe etc, but etc.
...
15/x

Care for Palestinians for their own sake. (No reverse here - go jump in the lake if you don't care.)
It's fine to have a little ulterior motive about Jewish safety, Jewish image.

But for God's sake, literally, don't *adopt* a state as the centre of your identity either way
16/x

I rankle at an American or Canadian flag in a synagogue - despite my duty-driven ideas of (reasonable) loyalty towards the countries bound by their own laws to protect you - how can I not roll my eyes at an Israeli flag in the same? What are you doing in shul?
17/x

Did you come to pray? To be prayed for? Who invited you here? My ancestors shuddered at hanging a clock on a shul wall, because it has no integral place in synagogue architecture; I revile the flag there because it's out of place, like an advertisement at a funeral.
18/x

Anyway, all this because someone called me a “Hasbarah troll” which is both infuriating and funny.

19/19

That and an undying annoyance at the “not in our name” framing, the most self-defeating of slogans.

https://twitter.com/PYMundGenealogy/status/1734226036311662626

@threadreaderapp unroll

(per request, I hope this is how it works)