Socialism beyond the Green Line

[Classical_Liberal]

Socialism beyond the Green Line
By Avirama Golan

From the outside it is hard to gauge how stormy the ideological debate inside the settlements is - should, for example, the struggle against the disengagement plan continue under Hanan Porat's slogan of "I have love," or should the tables be turned. Still, in parallel to these discussions, other fundamental arguments are developing, which are much more interesting.
The settlers' elite is one of the only groups in Israel whose angst over their social and cultural identity constitutes the crux of their spoken and written activities. Within this struggle are important coded keys that allow the interpretation of the processes that are experienced by Israeli society as a whole.

Two articles recently published reflect the awakening of a new discourse among the settlers: one, by Yosef Yitzhak Lifshitz, "Is Judaism Socialist," appeared in Tchelet, issue No. 17 and the second, by Baruch Kahane, "Settlement is Left," was in the August issue of Nekuda.

Lifshitz dwells extensively on the Christian world view, which glorifies poverty, and concludes that socialism canceled the rights of ownership and is therefore Christian, in other words, anti-Jewish.......

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462534.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. There is no word in Hebrew for "charity"...

Do-gooders will find it hard not to become excited by Kahane's article. His interpretation of religion is problematic, because Judaism, like every religion, is surely not socialist, and therefore holds charity holy and therefore seeks to preserve the existing social hierarchy; it is also anti-universalist in its identification of the nation of Israel as a "chosen people."

There is no word in Hebrew for "charity," instead we use "good deeds" which is not the same thing. Judaism, and in particular the prophetic writings, are a condemnation of moral and ethical depravity, a significant portion of which is the lack of social justice. It is this drive for justice, which places individual as well as collective responsibilities on the observant, that is at the core of Judaism.

It should not be a surprise that all great Socialists were Jews, from Marx to Trotsky (their atheism was a rejection of the state sponsored religion that was so prevalent in their day-read Lenin's Socialism and Religion for a polemic on that topic).

The term "chosen people" is often misunderstood by the non-Jew as a term indicating some sort of privilege or exclusivity. It is nothing of the sort! It has been described as a burden. The Jewish people were given the Torah to keep, not to ourselves, but to the world. Israel has an even higher burden, for she is commanded to be a "light unto the nations" by keeping Torah.

Modern Jews have rejected the mythological components of Judaism, while many ultra-religious Jews have rejected Judaism's call for justice and ethical living. In that respect, Judaism is not unlike her sisters Middle Eastern religions in that it is finding its theological foundations under the stress of modern science and enlightenment, and this is turn is feeding an anti-scientific reaction among the strict adherents of the tradition.

This is a very interesting article that will take some time to digest.
:)

[papau]

2. Interesting mix of obvious truth and political opinion - a grain of salt

may be needed.

:-)

[Classical_Liberal]

3. I disagreed with that part of this piece too

I've traditionally been attracted to the Liberation Theology movement, and you can find calls for social justice in both testaments. I posted on this topic recently.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1828846

One component of Liberation theology relates to social justice but the other half of it flows out of the renewal movement that seeks to reveal the "Jewish Jesus", and look at him in the light of the prophets like Isiah. The same things that you observed can be said of fundamentalist Christian republicans.

However, the reality that cannot be denied is that the settlers and the fundy allies in the US are completely in bed with neoliberal thugs like Netenyahu, which is more of the reason I found the article interesting.

[Gimel]

4. Tzdaka is charity

"good deeds" might be translated at "Mitzvot" which are performing commandments.