Freedom under fire: Israel and the lessons of 9/11
For a glimpse of life under constant threat of terrorist attack, travel to Sderot--the now-famous Israeli town that has endured thousands of rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip a few miles away.
During my brief visit there last month, Sderot was enjoying a rare period of relative calm thanks to a truce declared in late June. Nevertheless, the inhabitants stay on edge, wondering where the next indiscriminate projectile will land and whom it will kill or maim. Despite the ceasefire, a rocket exploded in the town a few days before my arrival.
What is remarkable, however, is the aura of normalcy in Sderot--a hard-fought mayoral contest, schools in session, shops open for business. Still, evidence of vigilance abounds. Bomb shelters dot the landscape at every bus stop and in every park. Kindergarten children don’t go outside for recess because the 15-second warning of incoming rockets wouldn’t give teachers enough time to get them back inside the fortified buildings.
When I asked Achlama Peretz, a college administrator and candidate for major, how the citizens of Sderot coped with the daily stress, she replied: “We have no choice but to keep living our lives as best we can. We must do so because Sderot has become a symbol of resilience and freedom for all Israelis.”
For Americans debating how to balance freedom and security in a post-9/11 world, Sderot--indeed all of Israel--offers a case study in how to combat terrorism while simultaneously maintaining a commitment to freedom of expression in Israeli society.
Full disclosure: I was in Israel as a guest of Project Interchange, an institute of the American Jewish Committee. Traveling with me were representatives from seven other Washington-based organizations ranging from the National Association of Evangelicals to the American Civil Liberties Union.
This was no propaganda tour. Our hosts made sure that we met with Jews and Arabs representing a broad spectrum of opinion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and the many other challenges facing the State of Israel.
In fact, despite knowing the old joke about “two Jews and three opinions,” I was taken aback by the wide diversity of views among Jewish Israelis about the Palestinian question, the actions of the Israeli government, the settlements, religion-state relations, and many other hot-button issues. Add to the mix the Palestinian and Israeli Arab voices we heard, and the result was exposure to a robust, intense discussion about the future of the Israeli experiment in democracy.
I can honestly say that I have never spoken to citizens of any nation (including my own) as self-critical as the Israelis we met. As one Israeli human rights leader told us, there is more criticism of Israel in Israel than in America.
Dissent and debate in Israel appear to be part of what it means to be patriotic – and Israelis are intensely patriotic – not an affront to flag and country. Free speech is not something to be feared or managed, but rather the lifeblood of Israeli democracy.
What most impressed me, however, weren’t the words we heard but the actions we saw: Many thousands of Israeli Jews in hundreds of human rights groups working to improve civil rights for Israeli Arabs, Ethiopian immigrants, Bedouin women, and Palestinians in the occupied territories.
This is the Israel we don’t know. With all of the images of war and conflict, and the legitimate debate about Israeli policies, the news media tell us far too little about Israelis standing up for the rights of others and working to build a democratic society in a hostile, dangerous neighborhood.
If Israelis can uphold free speech, value dissent and work for human rights in a nation where every day is a potential 9/11, then so can we.
Charles C. Haynes is senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001. Web: firstamendmentcenter.org. E-mail: chaynes@freedomforum.org.
Sep 28, 2008 at 1:12 p.m.
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While I respect Charles Haynes’ good intentions to promote a better human rights record in post-9/11 America, I must take issue with his use of Israel as a model example to promote his point.
He should have had the forethought to step across the border, less than a mile away from Sderot, into heavily populated Gaza, to get an even more powerful example of ‘resilience’ and ‘grit’. Israeli airstrikes with state-of –the-art weaponry have killed and injured hundreds more Palestinians than Palestinian homemade ‘qassam’ rockets have killed or injured Israelis. The material devastation Gazans have incurred is beyond comparison. Is this not terrorism, too?
Bomb shelters, I might add, are a luxury in Gaza. So are food, clean water, and electricity, due to the Israeli freeze of Palestinian assets. All economic roads to Palestine, you see, go through Israel. Gazan and West Bank residents are suffering terribly as Israel daily usurps Palestinian human rights.
So, by omission, Haynes puts blame for all of Sderot’s misery on Palestinians. This is neither fair nor factual. The Israeli government plays a huge role.
Don’t get me wrong, the violence on both sides is abhorrent, but Americans must know all the facts, not selected ones. We must find a way to get beyond the blindly pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. As Haynes correctly states, dissention about Israeli policies is more possible in Israel than in the United States, but, actually, it is possible almost anywhere but here. An American politician, for example, who dares to publically criticize Israeli policies, is committing political suicide. This is not right.
Mr. Haynes is also correct about the numerous human rights groups that exist in Israel. They know the history of Israel's creation at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians and are dedicated to finding a just and final peace with them. We Americans should take their lead so the people of all Israeli and Palestinian towns like Sderot can finally have a chance of a normal life.
Sep 22, 2008 at 9:28 a.m.
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There have been many Jews throughout history who have gone against their own people: during the Shoah; during the Inquisition; during the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. It's nothing new.
Sep 17, 2008 at 11:04 a.m.
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no....How do you know that I am not Jewish? You must be republican to call a Jew a hater. Your prejudice is outrageous, it is people like you who have ruin this Country by diminishing our ideals. CUFI.com is a powerful organization and don't you forget it.
Sep 16, 2008 at 6:23 p.m.
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It's amazing that obvious jew-haters such as "Enough" show up even in the most non-jewish of places, the Janesville Gazette website.
Israel has made peace with many of her neighbors, by the way--the ones that were smart enough to do so after being obliberated in several wars that they themselves started with the Israelies.
Terrorist states like Syria never got with the program.
Sep 15, 2008 at 3:25 p.m.
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CUFI.com is a very strong lobby in Congress. They control the Congressional decisions for action in that area. Do they have too much power over our Government. Olmert as it turns out is corrupt. A corrupt head of Government is not an ally. But just another disgrace.
Sep 14, 2008 at 6:48 a.m.
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Thank you, Mr. Haynes, for describing life in Israel as those of us who live here know it. Israel wasn't 'given' to us. We first built it up, starting at the turn of the 18th century; but even long before that we returned to our Homeland. The main reason for such a large Arab population here is that Jewish settlements (kibbutzim;moshavim) drew in large numbers of Arabs from surrounding ares. Those that had been living here were felaheen (peasants living on and working land owned by absentee Arab landowners). The Balfour Agreement was long before World War II. It also included what is known today as Jordan (which is a totally made up country). The British went back on their agreement by ignoring Arabs coming in illegally and turning back Jews trying to escape from the Holocaust.
Sep 13, 2008 at 2:49 p.m.
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The only way Israel could make friends with their neighbors is if Israel were completely removed from the map. The majority of the reason why fighting is constantly happening is simply because Israel exists, and exists as a free zionist state. Israel's neighbors hate the fact that the land was "given" to them after WWII, and hate Judaism.
Sep 13, 2008 at 2:13 p.m.
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Such praise of Israel. Why I ask simply, can't they not make friends with their neighbors?
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