If love is, in fact, blind, then Rabbi Brian Lurie’s “love affair with Israel,” as he calls it, caused him to be partially blind to the plight of Israeli Arabs.
So writes Lurie in the current issue of JTS Magazine, the journal of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Conservative movement’s seminary in New York.
In a regular feature of the magazine called “Forum,” a question is asked and two opposing viewpoints are presented.
The latest question is: “Should American Jewish philanthropy fund services and programs for Arab Israeli citizens?”
Lurie, who lives in Marin County, answers with an emphatic yes.
Morris Amitay, vice president of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and former director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, answers with an equally emphatic no.
Lurie, who served as executive director of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation for almost 18 years and headed United Jewish Appeal for five, writes that while he initiated programs that aided Israeli Arabs, “I never saw their plight as a preeminent Jewish concern.”
He has now come to believe that the very future of Israel will be determined by how it treats its Arab citizens.
It was largely the riots that took place in Israel by Israeli Arabs in October and the way they were handled by the police that convinced him, he writes. At the time, he began to “fully appreciate the American Jewish community’s complicity in the plight of the Israeli Arabs.”
That 13 Israeli Arabs were killed by Israeli police “has contributed to a climate of fear” among them, he writes. “They are afraid for their lives.”
Israeli Arabs — like Israeli Jews — live in constant fear for their security, Lurie writes. Many are afraid to visit Jewish towns.
“It is not acceptable to have the entire population feel this way,” he writes. “The founding principle of any nation-state is that the nation will protect the individual.”
Lurie, who recently returned from a trip to Israel after writing the piece, called the condition of the Israeli Arab “the most important internal problem facing Israel today.”
When asked why money should go to a population whose loyalty to the Jewish state is now suspect, he responded, “I can’t think of any issue more Jewish.
“We’ve always understood what it is to be a minority,” he said, “and even if none of that were true, it’s for the well-being of Israel itself. If this is a Jewish state, it has to have Jewish values, and this is a Jewish value.”
Lurie also pointed out that Israeli leaders of all political parties had acknowledged that Israeli Arabs do not have equal rights, and that the government itself has already pledged funds to try and alleviate the problem.
Amitay stands on the other side of the fence. His position: Precisely because Israeli Arabs’ loyalty to the state of Israel is suspect, American Jewish charity dollars should not go to social services that serve them.
“Events in recent months surely demonstrate that there are more worthy recipients of special assistance in Israel than those who wave Hizbollah flags and consider themselves Palestinians rather than Israelis,” he writes.
During his tenure from 1974 to 1980 as director of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, the status of Israeli Arabs was “not an issue,” he said by phone from his Washington, D.C., office.
But with the outbreak of the new intifada, he writes, it clearly is.
“Just as the recent election in Israel signified a basic change in direction, Israel is also approaching a moment of truth with regard to its Arab citizens.
“How do you deal with ‘citizens’ who deny their flag, their national anthem and their Independence Day?” he asks. “How could an Arab Knesset member, Ahmad Tibi, serve as an official adviser to Yasser Arafat?”
Furthermore, Amitay said, Arab Knesset member Azmi Beshara’s trips to Syria should disqualify him from serving in the government. Israeli law bans citizens from traveling to enemy countries without permission from the Interior Ministry.
“Israel needs to move more decisively against Arab members of the Knesset who are taking part in what would be considered in our country or other Western countries, as treasonous activities.” The Arab minister should be put to trial, Amitay charged.
The former AIPAC director justifies the lack of social services for Israeli Arabs because, unlike Jewish Israelis, they don’t pay their dues to the state by serving in the Israel Defense Force or performing any kind of national service.
Israeli Arabs, he writes “cannot openly display their contempt for a Jewish state and demonstrate support for Israel’s sworn enemies and expect the Jewish Diaspora to reward them.”
Amitay did say that when American Jews visit Israel, they should “visit all elements of the population.
“There is some justification for their grievances,” he said, “but there are legitimate ways of expressing them, like through their elected representatives.”