Ira Chernus  
PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 2000

"For the sin which we have committed by stubbornness,
And for the sin which we have committed by silence."

This is the confession we Jews should recite as we gather on Monday to observe the holy day of Yom Kippur.

When we recount our sins and ask God’s forgiveness, it is all in the first person plural: "Forgive US, because WE have sinned." According to an old Jewish proverb: "All Jews are interconnected with one another." Each one of us is responsible for the deeds and misdeeds of the whole community.

This Yom Kippur we have a tragic misdeed to acknowledge, or to deny at our peril. Two months ago, Israel and Palestine stood on the brink of real peace. Now they have fallen back into the old familiar routine of violence and counter-violence. And we have been stubbornly silent.

The violence began when Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, made a risky political calculation. He decided to let Ariel Sharon, the leader of the conservative opposition party (Likud), visit the holiest site in Jerusalem. It is the mountain that once held the ancient Jewish Temple and now holds two of the most sacred Muslim mosques. Normally no Jews go up on that mountain; it’s a concession to keep the peace with the Palestinian Muslims.

The question of who will control that mountain is a big stumbling block to the peace talks. Perhaps Barak wanted to show the Palestinians that he will not back down on this issue. Perhaps he was trying to curry favor with the opposition, so that they would support whatever deal is finally struck.

Whatever his motive, he set in motion events that led to days of anti-Israeli violence by Palestinians. Israeli police moved in with unusual force (perhaps to show the Palestinians what awaits them if they unilaterally declare an independent state). There were far more Palestinian than Israeli casualties. The greatest casualty is the peace process. It was already in deep trouble. Now it may never recover.

Over the past few months, as peace seemed so close and then began to recede, I have waited to hear the U.S. Jewish community stand up and cry out for peace. After all, U.S. Jews have spent half a century saying that they wanted, above all, peace and security for Israel. Here it was, almost a done deal. A strong push for peace from U.S. Jews might have clinched the deal. Yet they have been virtually silent.

The reason is pretty clear. The Jews can not decide how much to give up for the sake of peace. Some would allow the new Palestinian state full control of East Jerusalem, including the sacred Temple Mount. But most would not. "Jerusalem must remain undivided, under full Jewish control," is the slogan of the day. The challenge to Barak was to find a way to give Palestinians some appearance of shared control in Jerusalem, while not giving up any real Jewish sovereignty. So far he has failed, and once again blood runs in Jerusalem’s streets.

Why not share Jerusalem, get peace, and stop the killing? Why be so stubborn on this issue? Most Jews will tell you that Jerusalem is too sacred, too central to Jewish religion, to give up. Historically this is just not true. Judaism survived precisely because Jews decided that they did not need full political control of Jerusalem. When the city was captured in biblical times, first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans, Jews found a way to live full and satisfying spiritual lives while others ruled their holy city. Today’s demand for Jewish control does not come from religious dictates.

It comes primarily from modern nationalism. It is the same motive that led the U.S. to fight in Vietnam, the British to fight for the Falkland Islands, the Russians to fight for Chechnya. There is no real threat to the nation’s security; Israelis will obviously be physically safer with a shared Jerusalem and an end to the killing. But there is a great threat to the psychological feeling of security. If you are not stubborn—if you really compromise—you lose your feeling of control. You lose your feeling of national power. Zionism was born out of the Jews’ desire to be a "normal" nation. And normal nations in the modern world don’t compromise. They don’t dare show any hint of softness. They stand and fight.

U.S. Jews know that the continued fighting and killing is tragic. Some feel that it may be time to share Jerusalem. But the fear of Jewish weakness is a nagging voice in the back of many minds, and in the forefront of many others. Caught between a longing for peace and a psychological impulse to stubbornness, the U.S. Jewish community is conflicted, confused, and therefore silent.

Of courses too many Palestinians are stubborn and silent too. But on Yom Kippur we don’t excuse ourselves by blaming others. We confess:

For the sin which we have committed by stubbornness,

And for the sin which we have committed by silence.

"For the sin which we have committed by stubbornness,

And for the sin which we have committed by silence."

This is the confession we Jews should have recited last week on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

When we recount our sins and ask God’s forgiveness, it is all in the first person plural: "Forgive US, because WE have sinned." According to an old Jewish proverb: "All Jews are interconnected with one another." Each one of us is responsible for the deeds and misdeeds of the whole community.

This Yom Kippur we had a tragic misdeed to acknowledge, or to deny at our peril. Two months ago, Israel and Palestine stood on the brink of real peace. Now they have fallen back into the old familiar routine of violence and counter-violence. And we have been stubbornly silent.

The violence began when Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, let Ariel Sharon, the leader of the conservative opposition party (Likud), visit the holiest site in Jerusalem. It is the mountain that once held the ancient Jewish Temple and now holds two of the most sacred Muslim mosques. Perhaps Barak wanted to show the Palestinians that he will not back down on this issue. Perhaps he was trying to curry favor with the opposition, to save his tottering government. Whatever his motive, he set in motion days of anti-Israeli violence by Palestinians. In response, Barak authorized unprecedented force. When a Palestinian mob in Ramallah returned violence for violence, he launched a direct attack on Palestinian president Yassir Arafat’s headquarters.

In the jargon of U.S. military strategy, this is known as escalation dominance: whatever level of violence the opponent uses, we escalate so massively that the opponent sees no hope of winning. The Israelis are using escalation dominance to tell the Palestinians that they can not win, either in the streets or at the negotiating table. The message of Israel’s rockets is that Barak’s final offer really was final: no more concessions; take it or leave it. Blaming Arafat for the violence, which is clearly beyond his control, is one more way to weaken him and insure Israeli dominance in the final status talks.

Over the past few months, as peace seemed so close and then began to recede, I have waited to hear the U.S. Jewish community stand up and cry out for peace. After all, U.S. Jews have spent half a century saying that they wanted, above all, peace and security for Israel. Here it was, almost a done deal. A strong push for peace from us might have clinched the deal. Yet we have been virtually silent.

Now, as Israel makes its bottom line violently clear, U.S. Jews are unsure how much to give up for the sake of peace. Some would allow the new Palestinian state full control of East Jerusalem, including the sacred Temple Mount. But most would not. "Jerusalem must remain undivided, under full Jewish control," is the slogan of the day. Why not share Jerusalem, get peace, and stop the killing? Why be so stubborn on this issue? Most Jews will tell you that Jerusalem is too sacred, too central to Jewish religion, to give up.

Historically this is just not true. Judaism survived precisely because Jews decided that they did not need full political control of Jerusalem. When the city was captured in biblical times, first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans, Jews found a way to live full and satisfying spiritual lives while others ruled their holy city. Today’s demand for Jewish control does not come from religious dictates.

It comes primarily from modern nationalism. There is no real threat to the nation’s security; Israelis will obviously be physically safer with a shared Jerusalem and an end to the killing. But there is a great threat to the psychological feeling of security. If you are not stubborn—if you really compromise—you lose your feeling of control. You lose your feeling of national power. Zionism was born out of the Jews’ desire to be a "normal" nation. And normal nations in the modern world don’t compromise. They don’t dare show any hint of softness. They stand and fight.

U.S. Jews know that the continued fighting and killing is tragic. Some feel that it may be time to share Jerusalem. But the fear of Jewish weakness is a nagging voice in the back of many minds, and in the forefront of many others. Caught between a longing for peace and a psychological impulse to stubbornness, the U.S. Jewish community is conflicted, confused, and therefore silent.

Of courses too many Palestinians are stubborn and silent too. But on Yom Kippur we don’t excuse ourselves by blaming others. We confess:

For the sin which we have committed by stubbornness,

And for the sin which we have committed by silence.


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