The day after my recent My Turn on these pages addressing the latest Israeli/Palestinian mess, I received an email from the secretary of the newly appointed Israeli Consul-General to New England. Apparently, Ambassador Meron Reuben had read my op-Ed and wanted to contact New England “journalists” who could give a more balanced view of the State of Israel. I was somewhat amazed that a foreign diplomat would read a hometown newspaper, much less a guest editorial from someone he knew nothing about.
While I sensed that his goal was to promote Israel, it’s not every day one gets such an opportunity so I answered his email. I made it clear that I wasn’t an official journalist in the true sense of the word; that I now lived in New Mexico and that I had my own sharp criticisms of Israeli policy. No matter, he wanted to schedule a friendly Zoom chat which I spent a week agonizing over. I Googled him and discovered that he was born in South Africa in 1961, moved to Great Britain as a child and eventually in 1974 to Israel. As a diplomat, He was Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations in 2010-2011 and has held posts in Mexico, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia and Chile, the last earning him the “Order of Bernardo O’Higgins,” Chile’s highest civilian award. To be honest, that cracked me up so I had to learn about him (Chile’s version of Simon Bolivar.) Reuben has a partner named David and two grown daughters, one an art student and the other serving in the IDF on the southern border of her country.
Despite my awkwardness with Zoom calls, it was a frank and rewarding conversation. Both of us expressed concern over what I call the double standard (and often hypocritical) condemnations of Israel and the subsequent rise in anti-Semitism, especially on social media. He told me that during a recent concert of the Israeli band, “Yemen Blues” in Northampton, the group was subjected to heckling. I wasn’t surprised and told him that for some reason, so-called “peace activists’ in Western Massachusetts target Israel while ignoring worse examples among other recipients of American military aid like Saudi Arabia, currently murdering over 100,000 Yemeni with our tax dollars. While criticism of Israel does not always equate anti-Semitism, the fact that Jews are being singled out while others gets a free pass, makes me feel that there is something dishonest and two-faced about Palestinian sympathizers who rail about Israeli “Imperialism.”
I wonder how white members of the Franklin County peace community would react if descendants of the Pocumtuck Indians knocked on their doors, condemned them as “European colonizers” and demanded they hand over the keys to the house. Would they pack their bags and go back to Europe? Of course not.
Reuben admitted, however, that some of his country’s policies are abhorrent but like many of us, he loves his homeland, faults and all. We agreed with David Ben-Gurion’s admission that not establishing an Israeli version of separation between church and state was a tragic error as the religious right has undue influence in Israeli politics.
We didn’t completely see eye to eye. After I made it clear that were it up to me, I’d eject every Israeli settler and settlement off the West Bank, he countered that Israel did that in Gaza and got Hamas terrorism as a reward. We did agree that in today’s climate of echo chamber tribalism, Americans of all stripes, especially young people hooked to the Internet, no long care about facts. Reuben further decried the situation in American academia, once a bastion of critical thinking; that has now degenerated into ideological intolerance.
At one point we discussed the charge that Israel is practicing “genocide,” — a careless word used by those who obviously don’t know its meaning — in the occupied territories which elicited a sardonic chuckle. If the Palestinians were the victims of genocide, we agreed, they wouldn’t be alive to shoot rockets or launch incendiary balloons into Israel. According to UN and Palestine Authority figures, the Palestinian population has substantially enlarged since 1967. (I checked.)
At the end, I emphasized that my goal wasn’t to be a mouthpiece for the Israeli government, and he assured me that wasn’t his as well. I’m fine pushing back on some of the more blatant and deceitful misinformation about Israel but know that in the end, Israel and its Palestinian neighbors are going to have to figure out for themselves how to live together.
Daniel A. Brown lived in Franklin County for 44 years and is a frequent contributor to the Recorder. He lives in Taos, New Mexico with his wife, Lisa and dog, Cody. He invites constructive comments only at dbrown1793@gmail.com.