Walzer repeatedly appeals to Israelis - both the citizen committed to a shared social project and the sovereign committed to high-level international politics. “I think the sense that people have been expressing in the last few days - that ‘the whole the world is against us’ - that is not the perception, not the standpoint of the citizens of a sovereign state,” he says. “That is the galut (diaspora) mentality and you don’t need that. You have friends in the world. You have strategic allies that are not quite friends, like Egypt, and you have real friends like the United States, and you need to behave in a way that builds on that friendship.”

…

In the meantime, says Walzer, Israel’s conduct is damaging its relations with the Jewish community in the United States: “The crucial problem for Zionists in America is the problem described very well by Peter Beinart in the New York Review [of Books] - that as Israeli politics has moved to the right, there has been an alienation of many liberal Reform and Conservative Jews and also unaffiliated Jews so that if you went to the Israel Day parade in New York just a week ago, you would have found that 70 percent of the people there were Orthodox and that comes from just 10 percent of the American Jewish population. So there is a process of alienation, which I think is dangerous for Israel and it does have something to do with the absence of institutions representing center and left Israeli politics in the United States. I think Beinart is right, that American Jewish leaders have fallen into a mode of defensiveness and apology that doesn’t resonate with younger liberal Jews.“

Emphases mine. Full article at Haaretz.

Great Gaza Global Bounce, by Yoni Goodman, for UNWRA

Closed Zone, by Yoni Goodman, for Gisha

Lift the seige on Gaza, by Alex Simone, for B’Tselem

Right, guys? Right? Guys?

BDS isn’t going to get us anywhere.

Here is the official multimedia recap of my Israel trip last week with links to Flickr, YouTube and bloggings here and elsewhere. I will update this page as more videos are uploaded and blog posts written.

7/5/10

• Old City walkabout (photos)

7/6/10

• Protest against home demolitions outside Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat’s home (photos & video + blogged)

7/7/10

• Tour through East Jerusalem, including Shiekh Jarrah and Silwan (photos & video coming)
• Seeing Budrus in Ramallah  (blogged)

7/9/10

• Meeting Dov Hanin, top MK of Hadash, in the Knesset (blogged)
• Sheikh Jarrah protest  (photos & video coming)

7/11/10

• Strategizing in the Breaking the Silence office (photos)

7/12/10

• Visit to Bil’in and Nebi Sahleh villages in the West Bank, run in with settler teens  (photos & video + blogged)
• Drive through southern West Bank around Hebron (photos & video coming)

7/13/10

• Protest in Dahamash in Israeli city of Ramle (photos & video coming)

7/14/10

• 30 mins in Notre Dam (photos)

Finally, my favorite pics of my Jerusalem peeps are here, includes some repeats, and the Flickr photo sets listed conveniently in one collection here.

Not only has public land allotted for the village been appropriated by Israel to build this settlement, but much private land has been taken as well. And what land is nearby, Palestinian construction and even inhabiting is prohibited to maintain the buffer zone. All of this is ostensibly to protect the settlers, but serves the settlement’s expansion because private land left “untended” reverts to Israel’s control within a year. Essentially, Israel blocks Palestinians from their land for security reasons, then steals it because Palestinians can’t access their land. It’s the insanity of the occupation, ensconced in law.

In Nebi Sahleh, the catalyst for forming a non-violent protest committee in the style of Budrus was the buffer zone’s prohibition of their accessing the town’s privately-owned spring. The town appealed to the Israeli High Court and achieved marginal victories upholding their ownership and rights to access, yet find the Israeli military still prohibiting it.

Furthermore, the Civil Administration zoned the plot an “archeological site” and thus blocked any development by the Palestinians. But while visiting Nebi Sahleh to meet the organizers of their committee, we stopped by the spring to witness settler teens digging a swimming pool in this so-called archeological site with pitchforks and shovels! See the video below for what happened when the settler guard arrived and called the IDF on us:

After a week and a half, I’ve reached the end of this journey. My airport shuttle hurtles through Jerusalem neighborhoods, swooping up bleary-eyed 2 am passengers airport-bound. The hills are as black as the night sky, making the highway down from the Jerusalem hills look like a rollercoaster in outer space. House lights on opposite hills become arms of the Milky Way, orbiting past. By divine providence, the radio is playing “Streets of New York” by Alicia Keys and I can’t help but smile. Time to go home.

I am reinvigorated, recharged, galvanized anew. Unlike my first visit, I come away not with a feeling of embattled loneliness but crackling excitement. Being a great activist is greatly about being a great storyteller — and I come away with both inspirational yarns and disturbing anecdotes. Doing this work requires finding hope, however small, in the actions of tzadikim on the ground here. The prognosis is bad, the occupation’s steamroller crushes lives daily, and the politics are ugly. But aside from newfound urgency, I bring back with me new plans, projects and connections that will turn the tide.

Activists on the ground are so utterly bereft of hope. They see their country continue to appropriate Palestinian land day to day, settlements rise despite the freeze, and the Israeli public remain apathetic if not outright hostile. They know they are few in number. But what they can’t see from their individual trenches is the vast community doing this work together. The percolations of a “new left” bubble out and reach our ears in the Diaspora. They are coming out of dormancy, asserting themselves with vehemence despite their limited numbers. And they’re winning small but important victories.

Meanwhile, the increasing number of Diaspora Jews who’ve been to the territories and maybe even made a Palestinian friend slowly but surely reach important echelons of communal leadership at home. There is a sleeper effect, waiting. And the sudden advent of J Street has altered the status quo in Congress, still yet to actualize its full potential. And I know of similar J Street projects now budding across the furthest reaches of Diaspora Jewry.

And what the activists on the ground cannot see is themselves: fighting the most important battles, standing up for Jewish-Arab equality, flexing democratic muscle, refusing to lay down the cause even when it is unpopular. They do not see how inspiring they are. They do not know how crucial it is for us out here to see them fighting in there. When the country seems to be striving as hard as possible to scuttle our connection, what saves my belief this country is worth saving? Them. Their laughing in the face of adversity, their 14-hour work days fighting for someone else’s rights. Scrappy, sunburned, impulsive, single-minded.

Out here in Diaspora, we owe them every ounce of matched passion. If they can sacrifice so much, then so can we. The State of Israel is not core to my being nor to my Jewish identity, but its progressive leaders are exemplars of a vision I am chasing for all societies. Their example fuels me. Can we inspire them in turn? Can I? Do they need — as I do — reinforcement by example? It is only fair to give them back what they gave me in spades: a sense of fraternity for those of us who live and breathe this issue.

They are all saying these days that a change will not occur within Israeli society, but must come from another player. The status quo is rooted in all parties — America, Europe, Israel, Palestine — and if but one of them shifted, we could break free. American Jewish communal politics is key and symbolic communities abroad like JCall are important. Our role is crucial. After the crash of post-Oslo, we are rebuilding, reconvening, reviving. For what are you waiting for?

New purpose, new projects, new people. These are what I’m bringing home to New York City. I came here and rolled up my sleeves, and as I return home, those sleeves are still up. In more ways that one, it’s time to get back to work.

Peace out, Jerusalem.

(And more after-the-fact posts about my trip coming still. Cross-posted to Jewschool.)

In Ramle, Israeli city where Dahamash neighborhood is located. Several hundred bused in from other cities and non-violent committees.

This lovely building and its sterile wait room are where Palestinians come when summoned by the military. Also, this is where land appropriation notices are posted. Seven days notice are all that’s given.

See here the public street where it turns Jew-only at the barricades, just a block from the Machpela, Abraham’s Tomb.

So much for democracy.