Appealing to my Tribal Instincts

Before the election, I received some mail from former New York Mayor Ed Koch encouraging me to vote for George W. Bush and to join a group called the Republican Jewish Coalition. I've never met Ed Koch, nor have I ever registered as a Republican or asked for any Republican organizations to send me mail. However, I do happen to have a very common Jewish last name. Mr. Koch felt that it was necessary to tell me, an assumed fellow Jew, that if I care about Israel, I should be casting my vote for George W. Bush.

Now, of course, I do care about Israel. A branch of my father's family lives outside of Tel Aviv, and I've spent a large part of my adult life learning about the history of the Jewish state. Like a lot of Jews, I started off from the position that Israel was right in this conflict because the people I'm related to, no matter how crazy, cannot possibly be wrong about something so important as war and peace. Of course, after repeatedly getting my ass handed to me in online discussion forums by people who actually knew what they were talking about, I eventually came to the realization that in the world's greatest clusterfuck, there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides.

Our President, on the other hand, hasn't reached a point where he sees the conflict for the complicated situation that it is. Bush has used language that shows a respect for the idea of a Palestinian state, but so far, it's been nothing but talk. The United States stands by Israel even when the entire rest of the world does not. And when the greatest opportunity to make real progress towards a Palestinian state became available, after the fall of the Taliban and the retreat of Al Qaeda, we attacked one of Israel's enemies instead. Our power in the world, along with Bush's unconditional support, allows the Israeli government to be able to do whatever they want and laugh at the United Nations' rebukes. They've become our spoiled child who has no real incentive to be responsible with their actions. And for that reason, the Israelis know that they can get away with walling the Palestinians into a non-viable state, rather than doing the responsible thing and building a wall that supports a realistic two-state solution, something that a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians hope to see.

Living in the United States has certainly been helpful in my ability to understand this issue in the proper context, and to be able to place blame on the Israeli government whenever it's deserved. If I'd been surrounded by other Jews with a similar upbringing all this time, no one would've challenged my thoughts enough for me to break away from my earlier belief that Israel was a victim that deserved our unconditional support in everything they did. This difference is evident in the fact that only 22% of American Jews voted for Bush, but 62% of Israelis would have.

This kind of tribal mentality is a universal trait for all ethnic groups, but all too often, it opens the door to a hypocrisy among those that find benefit from playing the victim. Take David Horowitz for example, who has criticized the idea of black reparations because it's "one more attempt to turn African-Americans into victims", but then writes an article on Israel whose title starts out "Why Israel Is The Victim". Many Republicans accuse Democrats of playing favor to the black community so much that African-Americans no longer feel compelled to be responsible, even while those same Republicans support doing the same with Israel.

Any group of people can come up with a long list of ways they've been victimized over the years, but it takes courage to rise above that and understand that the future should not be about getting retribution from the past, but about doing what you can to make sure there are less victims in the future. The United States has always been the bright light showing the world how to do that. And now, I wonder if Ed Koch wants to keep it that way, or if it's time for all of us to divide back up into our separate groups.