I come from a family with a macabre history where both my grandparents on my mothers side went through the concentration camps. I had a great aunt who survived Auschwitz, Uncles I never met who died fighting for the Resistance after the Nazis caught up with them for blowing up a section of rail line in Poland that was being used to transport prisoners to camps and also as a supply line. Because of this, I grew up around survivors, I even married a man who's father spent a year in Uncle Joey Stalin's Siberian Summer Camp all because of the class he happened to be born into. Suffice to say, I know the real definition of terms like Ghetto, Work Camp, Concentration Camp, Gulag; and when I read in the news about what is going on in Gazza and the West Bank I know what it really is. The fact that other Jews are choosing to overlook the reality of the situation to serve some twisted Zionist ideology, is sick and unforgivable.
Zionism didn't start out like this, it wasn't synonymous with hatred and intolerance, it was moulded into that by successive generations of lunatics. As soon as the idea for a nationalist state came about all rationality disappeared. The worst thing is that before the idea for everyone to leave Europe and go to the promised land (and I don't mean Brooklyn for my fellow New Yorkers) came about there were practically no Jews in then Palestine/ now Israel. In fact a far more logical place for Israel would have been Kiev or Bialystock, but no, someone wanted sand sea and surf and now all of us are paying for a mentality that dictates that tropical breezes and coconuts are everything. I think northern Europe would have been far superior, ok so the Sephardic Jews would have frozen but would that really be so bad.
This leads me to another point. I am a Polish Jew. I eat Borscht, and pierogie, and kugels. My family speaks Yinglish for the younger generation and straight Polish, Yiddish, and a few other languages if you're my Bubbie. I think Poland is finally starting to not be embarrassing after the last idiot president died in that plane crash. Most imporantly I know that Poland wants it's Jews back and I'm not afraid. My interests and tastes, outside of my Anglophile interests of Doctor Who and slagging of Manchester Shitty, are Slavic, Central European... Polish. And I know that if you really look hard at English, or French or Italian Jews, yes they are Jewish but they are citizens of their country first and religion second. We are a kaleidoscope of different ideas and traditions, we eat different foods, celebrate things differently and yet we are all united in the fact that no one can stand Moroccans. Israel works against our kaleidoscope mosaic of differences and eccentricities. Israeli culture and society is an attempt to melt us all into one proto Jewish culture all the same, with no differences, we're even supposed to decorate with the same hideous 1970s inspired décor. I mean as a culturally Polish woman what the hell am I doing putting pomegranates on the table for Rosh Hashanah? . This is Sephardic... I think. Why have I been eating falafel and food that's more Lebanese and Persian than European. I don't know how to prepare this stuff. And that's what Israel has done to us, it dictates our culture far too much. In fact Israeli culture has taken over to such an extent that traditions that go back hundreds of years in some areas are in danger of being lost. It's sad enough that the Nazi's melted down huge amounts of Jewish metal objects and burned down synagogues and designs, but to replace all that history with utter shite is an insult to that grand and noble history.
When I was ten my mother took my brother and me on holiday to Israel for an entire month during the summer. It was nice, warm, Mediterranean, nice people; but it didn't call to me the way I was told it would. Jerusalem didn't feel like some kind of be all and end all holy epiphany. Tel Aviv where my relatives live, just felt like any other city. In fact, it was too hot, too sandy, too dry, because my body wasn't used to that sort of weather I actually collapsed in front of the Wailing Wall from heat stroke and dehydration because my mother was unaware of how much water you need in the middle of the desert. The reality is I am a pale skinned Central European and as I now go through the process of collecting the documentary evidence I need to claim my Polish citizenship I am discovering something new. When I typed Rozwadow the town my Bobbie comes from into google maps and saw the satellite image of the ghostly outline of the old Jewish section of the town against the still lived in Christian side, my heart leapt, for the first time in my life that satellite image sang to me like no other image I have seen and called home to me. I know now, that there is nothing that binds me to the middle east. Nothing there really means anything to me, it's just a holiday destination like Athens, or Cairo, or Rome.
Israel further pisses me off with it's electoral system. For instance in the last election 24% of the population voted and Netanyahu wasn't actually elected. He formed a coalition with a bunch of ultra right wing lunatic parties in the dead of night, including the Israeli National Socialist Party. The fact a Jewish Nazi party exists in Israel in my mind is terrifying. The fact that since 1948 there has never been a majority government is staggering. At least if I'm getting screwed by a government I should have been stupid enough to elect it. This government by the way, has been ignoring protests from it's people in the Israeli version of the Arab Spring because since Intifada, the government has put so much emphasis on the military, and security that's it's forgotten to maintain funding to schools, hospitals, and has overseen a massive economic gap between rich and poor. A gap which is only getting worse as more countries finally get fed up with the hypocrisy of the Israeli government and businesses pull out of the economy due to the embarrassment of doing business there. All this is down to a democratic system based on lists. no constituencies just lists. there were something like 36 parties in the last election 4 separate green parties on my last check and almost every party is represented in Knesset. It's insane, no wonder nothing can be fixed. The government is in a downward spiral of paranoia, fear, and lies and who know how much further there is to go down.
This insanity on the part of the Israeli government is causing a ricochet effect across the west and in places where Jewish people live. Whereas the more educated echelons of society can wrap their head around the idea that the Israeli government does not represent all Jews and that people like me don't agree with it all. There is an angry right wing in Europe and in North American of ill educated, ruffians like that idiot that shot those kids in Norway. They believe Israel and Jews are one in the same and that if you are Jewish you automatically support everything Israel does. Because of this, Israel is converting Anti Israeli sentiments into Anti Semetic behaviour. In turn this harms us and destabilizes our communities outside of Israel. In short when Israel does something vicious and stupid, it is Jewish people outside the country who may not support what is going on that feel the brunt of the anger.
No one in their right mind with an objective view, looking at the facts would support Israel. It's embarrassing and ridiculous. And just because a country is democratic, or claims to be, doesn't mean it can't commit atrocities and human rights violations. In my mind one country for all Jewish people is ridiculous. We are all different and more representative of our native countries then of some place in the middle of the desert.
For all these reasons I cannot support the country I was raised to believe represented me. The reality is Israel has as much bearing on my life as Timbuktu. I come from a cultural heritage that is old and deep, and we should all be embracing our differences not striving to destroy our culture through homogenization. I further cannot support any state guilty of human rights abuses, and if I am honest, do not believe Israel has a long term future if it continues on it's current path. It's not ours and it never should have been given to us.
Happy Chanukah and Gut Shabbes!
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