The Moral Imperative

"Let me get this straight: Israel just killed humanitarian workers in international waters, and the author has the nerve to call that provocation? Unbelievable."

So writes one individual in response to one of the many journalistic attempts to defend Israel's position in the recent Gaza flotilla affair.

Let's be clear: we are losing the PR battle. Badly. Read the international press, read the talkbacks all over the Internet, witness the worldwide demonstrations, listen to international government statements, watch the TV coverage. It all points in one clear direction: Israel is either becoming, or has already become, morally bankrupt.

Those of us who know Israel well know that such a perception is far from the truth. The country has its faults certainly, and many of the concerns that are being expressed by its close friends around the world are entirely legitimate. Israel needs to clean up its act in all sorts of ways. But, let's not deny that the country is also in an impossible situation that no other nation state could better tolerate or manage. It is being goaded time and time again by those who wish to destroy it, and the tactics that are being employed against it are becoming increasingly clever, sophisticated and dangerous. Yet all of our attempts to re-write the headlines are failing. And miserably so.

Why? In short, because we are operating in defensive mode. Time and again, the headlines are written and the storyline is sealed before we have time to present our version of reality. And when the initial victims of the story are starving Palestinians or abused human rights activists, we do not stand a chance. There is right and wrong in this world, and those deserving the most support are people denied their human rights and attacked by military force. In the eyes of the world, those people are not us.

It is time to change strategy. It is time to move into attacking mode. Not with weaponry, tanks and the pursuit of terrorists, but with wisdom, courage and the pursuit of justice. It is time to write the story that we want to tell, generate the headlines that we want to generate, show the images that we want to show. It is time to respond to Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer’s cry to Diaspora Jewry to tell Israel why it has erred and what to do about it. And, most importantly, it is time to reclaim and live the human rights agenda as a core part of our heritage, our values, and our fundamental way of being. Some of us may well have been trying to do that, but the world’s reaction to the Gaza flotilla affair demonstrates more clearly than ever that we have completely failed.

What does an attacking strategy based on the moral imperative entail? Here are my suggestions:


1) A National Moral Ombudsman

In response to all the criticism that has been levelled against the Israeli government and the IDF in recent years (think Gaza flotilla, think Operation Cast Lead, think Lebanon 2006) Israel should establish a new position of National Moral Ombudsman. It should be held by someone of great standing in the Jewish and wider worlds – perhaps a Nobel Prize winner. Or perhaps it is better structured as a committee of several such people. Either way, the job is (a) where possible, to ensure that all moral issues have been appropriately considered prior to any military action, and, without necessarily having a veto, to approve or disapprove such action accordingly; and (b) where not possible, to examine all of Israel’s military activity on moral grounds after the event and, as a matter of course, publish the findings.

Inevitably, some will argue that this happens anyway - it's the role of the Supreme Court and/or the State Comptroller - and they may well be right. But we need to create a new position or bolster the existing ones for two main reasons: first, Israel needs to make a clear statement about just how seriously it takes its moral responsibilities; and second, it needs to put in place appropriate mechanisms that will limit the possibility of it succumbing to the all-too-real temptations and dangers of unnecessary force.


2) An international Jewish humanitarian aid initiative

It appears that whilst the aid provided by Israel meets the UN-set minimum guidelines of 1,800 calories per-person per-day, it lacks sufficient protein and, as a result, malnutrition is a serious issue. Let me just clarify that: under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the State of Israel is legally responsible for Gaza, and whilst the people of Gaza are not starving, they are becoming sick in part because the quality of aid we are providing is insufficient.

So let's recruit world Jewry to help solve the problem. Let's work with the Israeli government to create a new international Jewish humanitarian aid initiative or organization. There are several of these already, but we need them either to come together, or to build a new one. Let’s build an international Jewish effort – in close collaboration with the Israeli government and the UN – to ensure that the UN’s recommendations about both the amount of aid and the quality of aid are met. We cannot fully control how (or indeed whether) that aid is appropriately distributed (Hamas or others may choose to undermine our efforts), but let’s make sure that we - the State of Israel and the Jewish People - are doing all in our collective power to ensure that the people of Gaza are receiving enough food of sufficient quality, and let's put a clear and unambiguous end to any suggestion that this is not the case.


3) Create “Habitat for Humanity” in Gaza

Habitat for Humanity is an American charity that enables volunteers to build homes for, and in partnership with, the impoverished. So let’s set up a similar initiative with and for the people of Gaza. Let’s recruit Jews from Israel and the Diaspora, together with Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere, to rebuild Gaza. Let’s partner with the PA, the State of Israel and the UN and pull in architects, engineers, town planners, builders, plumbers, electricians, painters and decorators to do what needs to be done. There are all sorts of security concerns associated with such a venture of course, but any attempt to sabotage an effort like this is likely to be seen as utterly contemptible. And maybe, just maybe, by working on such a project together, a whole set of new relationships might emerge which would dramatically alter perceptions on both sides of the current divide.


4) Up the ante on the Gilad Shalit campaign

Let’s involve every synagogue, every JCC and matnas, every Jewish school, every Jewish organization throughout the Jewish world in this one. Let’s encourage them to send, or, if possible, personally deliver a small aid package every single day to either the United Nations, the International Red Cross or the Hamas government, with a simple request that it be delivered directly to Gilad Shalit. Let’s generate maximum press, let’s monitor exactly what happens, and let’s see if we can’t change attitudes and opinions throughout the world. But fundamentally, let’s free Gilad Shalit. We did it for Soviet Jewry; now let’s do it for him.


5) Create a “No Hate Speech” certificate

Similar to a kashrut certificate in kosher restaurants, and along the same lines as the Tav Chevrati certificate that is now being awarded to Israeli restaurants, cafes and wedding halls that abide by certain guidelines regarding workers’ rights. In this instance, the no hate speech certificate would be awarded to Israeli and Jewish public bodies – charities, NGOs, Israeli government institutions, educational institutions – that abide by a new set of guidelines concerning the manner in which other people (Jews and non-Jews) are spoken about or represented. To gain the certificate, organizations would have to commit to a no hate speech agenda; certified organizations would be listed as “kosher” on a specially-created website, and would be entitled to use the no hate speech kite mark on any of their publications or publicity.


6) Establish an online dialogue initiative

Every Israeli, every Jew, every Palestinian and every Muslim with a Facebook page should seek to build social links with one another on Facebook. Let’s use the Internet tools that exist to bridge divides, establish links and encourage dialogue. And let’s sing about that from the rooftops. Let’s put advertisements in the international press, sponsored by major Jewish organizations, the Israeli government and Israeli NGOs, saying and demonstrating as clearly as possible, “We Want To Talk.”


Those are my ideas. Some are more practicable than others, and no doubt many people will put up all sorts of barriers to prevent them from gathering steam. You may knock them down with pleasure, but in doing so, come up with better ones that similarly abide by both of the underlying principles in each case: first, the absolute centrality of the Jewish moral imperative within each initiative; and second, the public relations exercise designed to highlight the centrality of the Jewish moral imperative within each initiative.

If we want to see a secure Israel, a supported Israel and a successful Israel, we have to do three things: (1) publicly announce that we are on the side of justice; (2) demonstrate precisely how we are on the side of justice; and (3) genuinely be on the side of justice. We have to overcome our fears, our insecurities and our prejudices, and we have to take some courageous steps that are fundamentally grounded in Judaism's moral imperatives - to be a goy kadosh, a mamlechet kohanim and an or l'goyim. Security will come by building relationships with others, support will come by creating opportunities to partner in shared moral endeavour, and success will come by having the courage to live up to our most fundamental values. We can do no more and no less.


(Also published on Haaretz Makom)

Media Commentary on the Gaza Flotilla

Aside from all the stuff about the boats, the activists, the aid, the terrorists, the IDF, the weapons, the Israeli government, the Turks, the UN, etc., etc., one of the most extraordinary things about this whole affair has been the struggle to win the PR battle. Here is a selection of articles that I have seen (thanks to everyone who shared these with me, especially Jono Rose, who deserves a major chunk of the credit for this as he posted several of them on Facebook, and also to Doubi Schwartz for pointing me in the direction of a handful of others). This began as an exercise in collecting together a number of articles that struck me as interesting; it has become a means of recording media coverage of the whole affair. Just for the record, I don't agree with every view expressed; I have simply tried to include as many different perspectives as possible.


Margaret Atwood, “The Shadow over Israel” (Haaretz)

Gershon Baskin, "Israel's Gaza policy has strengthened Hamas" (Jerusalem Post)

Peter Beinart, "Israel's Indefensible Behavior" (The Daily Beast)

Aluf Benn, "Israel needs national enquiry into deadly Gaza flotilla clashes" (Haaretz)

Andrew Bolt, “Boatloads of bloody-minded pacifists” (Daily Telegraph, Australia)

Bradley Burston, "The Second Gaza War: Israel Lost at Sea" (Haaretz)

Nick Cohen, "Sympathise with Israel, but not the blockade" (The Guardian)

Robi Damelin, "In response to the recent events" (unpublished)

Alan Dershowitz, “Israel’s Actions Were Lawful Though Probably Unwise” (Hudson New York)

Editorial: Israel and the aid covoys: How to make enemies" (The Guardian)

Editorial: “Turkey’s Erdogan bears responsibility in flotilla fiasco” (Washington Post)

George Friedman, “Flotillas and the Wars of Public Opinion” (Stratfor Global Intelligence)

Thomas Friedman, “The Ballgame and the Sideshow” (NY Times)

Thomas Friedman, “When Friends Fall Out” (New York Times)

Leslie H. Gelb, "Israel Was Right" (The Daily Beast)

Jeffrey Goldberg, "On the Disappearance of Jewish Wisdom, Far Out At Sea" (The Atlantic)

Marc Gopin, “A note on the disconnect of world opinion and parochial Jewish opinions on the Flotilla tragedy, and what the future holds” (Unpublished)

Daniel Gordis, “The Storm Ahead” (Unpublished)

Hanan Greenberg, “Hamas refuses to allow aid into the Gaza Strip” (YNet)

David Grossman, “The Gaza flotilla attack shows how far Israel has declined” (Guardian)

Amos Harel, “Straight Into The Trap” (Haaretz)

Harris, Shabi and Beaumont, "Gaza flotilla attack: A week that changed Middle East politics" (The Observer)

Donniel Hartman, “Using Prepared Scripts after Gaza Flotilla Seizure Perpetuates Hateful Rhetoric (Shalom Hartman Institute)

Charles Krauthammer, "Those Troublesome Jews" (The Washington Post)

Bernard-Henri Levy, “Recent entries in my diary” (Haaretz)

Charles Levinson and Jay Solomon, “Israel’s Isolation Deepens” (Wall Street Journal)

Gideon Levy, “Israel has no opposition and no alternative” (Haaretz)

Michel Oren, "An Assault, Cloaked in Peace" (New York Times)

Amos Oz, “Israeli Force Adrift At Sea” (New York Times)

George Packer, “Israel takes the bait” (The New Yorker)

Ilan Pappe, "The deadly closing of the Israeli mind" (The Independent)

Ethan Perlson, "Bibi's unlikely new fan club" (The Daily Beast)

Anshel Pfeffer, "In its hour of need, Israel was let down by the Diaspora" (Haaretz)

Political Desk, IRGC Navy ready to escort Gaza-bound aid convoys (Tehran Times)

Robert L. Pollock, “Erdogan and the Decline of the Turks” (Wall Street Journal)

Queen Rania of Jordan, “Hardliners are now the face of Israel” (The Independent)

Seth Rose, “Israel had no choice over Gaza flotilla” (Guardian)

M. J. Rosenberg, “Lying About the Gaza Flotilla Disaster” (Political Correction)

Ari Shavit, “Fiasco on the High Seas” (Haaretz)

Jacob Shrybman, "Debunking the Gaza Siege Myth" (Huffington Post)

Brian Stelter, “Videos Carry On The Fight Over Sea Raid” (New York Times)

Amir Taheri, "Propoaganda war latest: Tehran 3 Israel 0" (The Times)

Joshua Teitelbaum, “Turkey is calling for a jihad against Israel” (The Guardian)

Khaled Abu Toameh, “Turkey’s Support of Hamas Worries PA” (Jerusalem Post)

Michael J. Totten, "So How About That Blockade?" (Commentary)

Leon Wieseltier, "Operation Make The World Hate Us" (The New Republic)

Michael Sean Winters, "Judging Israel" (National Catholic Reporter)

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, message to his community (New North London Synagogue)

Yagna and Liss, “Israeli Arab MKs face growing wave of death threats” (Haaretz)



Associated Press, “Egypt Restricts Marriage to Israelis” (Jerusalem Post)

The Daily Mash, "Israel Just Making it Easier for Guardian Readers to Look Good"

Haaretz service: Turkish paper releases ‘censored’ photos of beaten Israeli commandos (Haaretz)

Times Online, "Gaza flotilla deaths: The World Reacts"

Turkish press: ‘Censored’ photos of beaten Israeli commandos (Hurriyet)



And here's one from me: Time to write A New Story

Time to write A New Story

It really was a no-win situation from the outset. What do you do with a flotilla of ships carrying activists bent on bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, but determined, above all, to score a public relations victory against Israel’s blockade? Turn them away? Then Israel stands accused of preventing humanitarian aid from reaching Gazans, and the parallels with historical episodes like the St. Louis or the Exodus are easily, although spuriously drawn. Offer them the chance to dock at an Israeli port? Then they probably refuse, and, if forced, the parallels with historical episodes like the St. Louis or the Exodus again are easily, and again, spuriously drawn. Allow them in? Then the blockade is broken, running the risk of armaments entering the territory, and Israeli civilians being put in danger. Risk face-to-face confrontation? Then people are killed, Israel stands accused of bungling operations and using disproportionate force, the UN goes into overdrive, and a raft of international condemnation comes sailing in, docking happily at every major media portal and outlet across the world.

You have to admire the organisers of the flotilla for that. The purpose of the exercise was only ostensibly to bring humanitarian aid to Gazans; it was really designed to score a public relations victory by telling a story. And the story is a compelling one: the innocent Gazan people need humanitarian aid which the guilty Israelis have been refusing to give them. So the innocent, well-meaning social activists tried to break the blockade and bring the aid themselves, and in response they were met with extreme Israeli brutality which resulted in several fatalities. It’s a great headline-grabbing story, and it achieves perfect full-colour black and white results: Gaza = oppressed, denied, victim; Israel = violent, inhumane, murderer. Viewed from a certain perspective, this whole episode was a brilliantly scripted reality TV show, which ensured that, however the story unfolded, the result was in the bag from the moment the flotilla set sail.

This time, at least, Israel was prepared. They knew about the flotilla weeks in advance, so they had plenty of time to plan. And plan they clearly did. They played through the various scenarios, and were determined not to lose the PR battle. They filmed an Israeli Naval officer addressing a ship and offering to let it dock in Ashdod. They filmed the Israeli troops as they landed on the ships, and quickly released the footage of them being quite viciously attacked. They had footage from the air, footage from the sea, they added explanatory subtitles in English, and got it out to the waiting international media within hours. But, in spite of all this, the condemnation kept coming.

On Facebook, Israel’s supporters also went quickly into overdrive. Armed with Israel’s film footage (quickly available on YouTube), they shared it with friends, found new footage on MEMRI TV, wrote articles and blogs, shared insights, passed comments, etc., all of which was designed to quickly re-write the narrative. But, in spite of all this, the condemnation kept coming.

Why? Why is it that, whatever Israel does, it is condemned? Even when the footage seems to be crystal clear, it makes no difference. They attacked us, yet we are criticized for trying to defend ourselves???

The condemnation keeps coming because of the power of The Story. The dominant narrative surrounding the Palestinians, Gaza, humanitarian aid, occupation, check points, human rights abuses, has Israel clearly cast as the bad guy. That casting is certainly not without some justification. The Israeli response to the threat posed by the flotilla may well have been inappropriate and disproportionate. That it was bungled is completely self-evident. The Israeli actions in Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 could be similarly criticized. But there are two sides involved in this conflict, and its rights and wrongs are far from being black and white. It remains complex and nuanced, and neither party has justice exclusively on its side. Quite simply, it’s messier than that.

But Israel’s consistent mistake is to try to fight back against The Story. Every time the conflict escalates, the same pattern emerges. The pictures quickly tell The Story. The Story makes it perfectly clear who is in the right and it isn’t Israel. So immediately, the Israeli government, the military, social and political commentators, not to mention the army of Facebook activists, go into reactive defensive mode, trying to tell a different story. And each time they fail because The Story won the battle from the first moment it was told.

Perhaps it is time to change tactics. Instead of reacting to events and going into defensive mode to try to fight back against The Story, maybe it’s time to go into proactive and attacking mode and write The New Story. Maybe it’s time to take our fate into our own hands. Maybe it’s time to stop feeling powerless, and to create our own new sources of power. Maybe it’s time to put an end to the endless condemnation that seems to come with greater and greater force from every corner of the globe. (Blimey, that almost reads like a speech from the First Zionist Congress...)

I suggest taking the offensive on three fronts. First, there is a PR battle to be won. But it won’t be won by simply trying to defend ourselves against The Story. We need to actively create The New Story. We need to write our own script, and create ways to make it live and breathe on an international scale. The villains in The New Story should not be difficult to construct: in general, the world isn’t exactly fond of Islamic extremists, and there are, after all, one or two living in our backyard. And it’s not as if we don’t have a few good men of our own. It’s just that we can’t afford to wait for earthquakes in Haiti to unveil them; we have to put them in front of the camera as often as possible, in motion pictures that are of our own making, not in response to those made by others.

Second, and far more importantly, we need to go on the moral offensive. Going into attacking mode needn’t only involve helicopter gunships, M-16s and rubber bullets. It could also draw on Judaism’s moral imperatives. There are probably countless ways to take the moral high ground, and I have no doubt that others could come up with better ideas than this, but how about a vast international effort – involving Jews in the Diaspora and Israel working in partnership with as many Palestinians as possible – to rebuild Gaza? How about joining together to construct new homes, schools, hospitals, community centres and industries in the area, in order to change the face of the region? How about turning a conflict based on "us" and "them" into a cooperative venture based on "us"? Idealistic nonsense? Perhaps, but I seem to remember that’s what they called Zionism a hundred or so years ago too.

Come to think of it, maybe an effort of this type would end up becoming The New Story. Maybe it would demonstrate that Israelis and Diaspora Jews can in fact come together with the Palestinian people to undertake a massive project to solve the century-old conflict. Maybe it would generate a totally different set of headlines in the international media. Maybe it would alter the discourse at the United Nations. Maybe it would sideline Hamas and reveal its members to be the bigoted extremists that at least some of them are (particularly if they try to undermine the efforts). Maybe it would bring new cause to the Jewish world, and help to foster a renewed sense of energy and collective spirit in the Jewish people. Maybe it would create opportunities for genuine dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, and create an unprecedented sense of understanding and mutual respect. Maybe it - or a similar type of project - is worth a try, if only to attempt to engineer a shift from Israeli reactive powerlessness to proactive power.

Oh yes – I nearly forgot. The third front. Look, I know Israel didn’t qualify, and even though the USA did, most Americans barely noticed, but I want to suggest that we all watch the World Cup this summer. If we do, we are likely to notice that few, if any teams, play with all eleven players in defence. The reason for this is that doing so would result, at best, in a draw (that’s a “tie” if you’re American). The message is clear: you don’t win anything if you only concentrate on defence. That’s why most, if not all teams, dedicate at least a few players to attack as well. That way, they have a fighting chance of actually scoring a goal or two. We Jews may just have something to learn from that. Just a thought.