Letters from clueless, right-wing Zionists

When I first moved to Israel in the summer of 2002, I was a fresh convert of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic Jewish sect. I had, over a year before, tossed away my left-wing, egalitarian Jewish ideologies to make room for what I thought was the “most holy and complete” way of living as a Jew. I went to live in Israel wanting to complete my transformation into the most perfect Jew. As I was living in Jerusalem for 15 months, I honed my centrist ways as I befriended some centrist Zionists who had also made Aliyah (meaning, “To go up; rise”) from various English-speaking countries. My favorites were the South Africans, who while they were in their homeland considered quite liberal, but when they arrived in Israel, developed a more Biblical stance to “The Land”.

I decided to make Aliyah last year and moved near the Golan Heights. All my Zionist Jewish friends were so pleased! I had finally left Islam and returned to my people! What they did not know was that during my time in the Deen of Islam (and by living in the Bay Area for 3 years), I had completely shifted into a left-wing Socialist. So when I came out with all of my progressive rhetoric and informed them that I was leaving Israel because I couldn’t live in Israel the way that it is now, most of my Zionist friends decided to berate me and “knock some sense into me.”

One of those friends posted a comment on my Facebook wall about the Rae Abileah video that I posted. Here’s a link to pretty much how right-wing Zionists feel about Rae or any other Jewish leftist (The comments are what seem to reflect what is really in the hearts of most Israelis right now):  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4073646,00.html

I’ve since deleted her responses in anger because they were full of trite, religious and emotional drivel and I decided to have no more debating on my FB wall.

Then this friend writes me a letter but she titles it, “I don't even know if you will read this, but…” Hell! Why write me when you presume that I’m not going to read it? I’ll tell you why. It’s because it wasn’t intended on being a “personal” letter. She then took this letter, made it a Facebook note for all of her friends to see. She had to prove that she got some lefty good. The point is, she and other Zionists who don’t know any Arabs themselves, yet think they know “how Arabs work.” They are extremely naïve and seem to think that the world is all about them. It seems very much the way that the German people felt about themselves during WWII. Zionists feel superior to all, especially Arabs/Muslims. When you’re basing your political ideas on religion and emotion, then saying that it’s not politics, you’re really not thinking things through. You live in a State that’s part of, you know, the world. King David is dead as well as all the other kings that we Jews had. Get over it and live in today and save your own asses by acting like world citizens, not subjects to a king that isn't here!

I responded to this friend of mine in kind. I let her know that once you throw emotion and religion into and she followed up with another clueless letter. This is a part of the letter.:

I didn't say that it was hypocritical to express your thoughts; on the contrary, I confirmed my belief that it is of the most utmost importance to do so. I believe, and I don’t think I could have put this clearer, that your viewpoint is hypocritical and would urge you to understand the situation and the land better. I specified that it is hypocritical to support democracy but at the same time support terrorism and a people who deny basic human rights to their people.

Who in the world says that I’m supporting terrorism? Who says that just because I support Palestinians having their own state makes me a terrorist supporter? Israel says that it’s a democratic state but it increasingly seems only for Jews, and that’s only for Jews who agree with Likud, I guess. Of course, this friend had to preface her letter by giving me every detail of how her parents went to jail during the apartheid movement. This to me proves that somewhere in her mind, she knows that her right-wing ways and her repetitive taglines are steeped in racism on the need to oppress. Otherwise, why preface a letter trying to derail a lefty with your former lefty status in South Africa. This person also resented me insinuating that Israel is an apartheid state. So why then throw up your family’s sufferings in a former apartheid state?

Here’s what the latest angry right-wing friend, who is about to make Aliyah, had to say to me. This is after I posted a link to New Jewish resistance on my Facebook wall:

XXXX,
I'm done. I've tried to be patient, but I can't stand it and I'm about to lose my temper. How dare you support this New Jewish Resistance CRAP against the Jews? HOW DARE YOU!!!!! You took NBN's money (which you need to pay back), went to Israel AGAIN and then turned against the government and our people. I"m so angry I could spit nails. I have a right to be angry. And now, you're promoting this CRAP????? NO MORE! Either you stop or I'm walking.

Seriously now, I have to censor myself so you can feel better about being my Facebook friend? I have to censor myself because you don’t agree with me? What about being in a democracy, and supporting democracy? Didn't Netanyahu even say that in a democracy I had the right to criticize him and feel safe about doing that? Why are my friendships with right-wing Jewish Zionists mainly conditional? It's a very disturbing trend and continues to open my eyes to the mind of people who would rather oppress Palestinians than look for a way to come up with a viable compromise. Why is there so much resistance against this? Why are logical, concrete, fact-based conversations so looked down upon by most right-wing Zionists? I will be looking into that more in the coming week and will share with you some of findings.