GUEST COMMENTARY: The prisons we make for ourselves

(UNDATED) In the midst of the public relations war mounted by all sides in the Israel/Hamas conflict in Gaza, I have been particularly intrigued by comments coming out of the Vatican. The diversity of opinion is remarkable, ranging from the truly grotesque to the genuinely sagacious. On the one hand, Cardinal Renato Martino has compared […]

(UNDATED) In the midst of the public relations war mounted by all sides in the Israel/Hamas conflict in Gaza, I have been particularly intrigued by comments coming out of the Vatican.

The diversity of opinion is remarkable, ranging from the truly grotesque to the genuinely sagacious. On the one hand, Cardinal Renato Martino has compared Gaza to a concentration camp, which is both inaccurate and ugly. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, meanwhile, told Vatican Radio that “Hamas is a prisoner of a logic of hatred, Israel of a logic of trusting in force as the best response to hatred.”

One could argue each of those claims. But regardless of which side one supports, I am quite certain that we all could learn from reflecting seriously on Lombardi’s words. Whether Catholic or not, pro-Israel or pro-Hamas, Lombardi could teach us all a thing or two.


The most persistent prison in both Gaza and in Israel exists in the minds of Gazans and Israelis themselves. That’s not to say that the two sides are equally responsible-morally, politically or otherwise-for the mess. I don’t believe they are.

It simply means that in this war, as in most wars, the two sides are more alike than either would care to admit. In this case, each side is imprisoned not only by the bombs that rain down on each of them, but by spiritual/intellectual paradigms which help define their identities as nations.

The majority of both Israelis and Gazans are locked into identities which actually perpetuate this conflict almost as much as the actions taken by either side. This has nothing to do with who is right or who is wrong. This is about the collective spirit of two communities, the inner lives of two nations.

Israel suffers-understandably so, in the wake of the Holocaust and decades of threats of annihilation by many of its neighbors-from an almost utter inability to entertain any security arrangement that relies on anyone who isn’t Jewish. It is a post-Holocaust symptom of thousands of years of anti-Semitism in which we imagine that nobody can reliably participate in our defense.

“We are in this alone” goes the argument. It hampers the imagination and limits the horizon of options for making peace.

Why for example, could Israel not imagine appealing to the world, before going to war, to rid Gaza of the rockets that rained down on Israel in the thousands? Well, for one, the global community didn’t really care about those rockets landing in Israel in the first place. If they had, they would have pushed harder to stop them.


Hamas, meanwhile, has even more inner work to do than Israel to rid itself of the core belief that they are always the victim, even when they are victimizing others.

Hamas is eternally in resistance mode because they would not know how to operate any other way. Forget about victimizing Jews and Israelis; Hamas is killing its own people by the dozens, if not the hundreds, in the midst of this war. Why? Because their leaders argue the resistance must continue on all fronts, including against Palestinians who do not support Hamas. This should be astounding, but unfortunately it’s not.

Despite claiming to be a religious movement, Hamas barred thousands of faithful Muslims from going on the recent Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Why? Because the list of Hajj pilgrims had been compiled by their West Bank rivals, Fatah, not Hamas. When asked how they could justify this kind of religious tyranny, the answer was, “Resistance.” These are people who seemingly do not know how to take yes for an answer, even when it comes to helping their own citizens fulfill one of Islam’s five sacred pillars.

So perhaps both sides might consider Lombardi’s assessment about prisons-both those in which others have placed them, and those in which they have placed themselves.

Even more importantly, they must consider why they remain within those prisons-and whether or not they really want to get out.

(Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the author of “You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right,” and is the president of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York.)


KRE/DEA END HIRSCHFIELD

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!