Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, claimed in an “>supporters such as devout anti-Israel activist, Noam Chomsky, and a record of “>says,” “you have a situation where Hamas is sending missiles into Israel – a fact – and you know where some of those missiles are coming from. They’re coming from populated areas; that’s a fact.” So he knows that Hamas shoots from within populated areas, yet chooses to blame Israel for shooting into these areas.
If it sounds complicated, it is. The love-hate relation toward Israel is something that every Jew feels, and it stems from the very root of our nation.
As I wrote in ““>CNN Presidential Democratic Town Hall in South Carolina, Mr. Sanders said:
“Every great religion in the world… essentially comes down to ‘Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.’ What I have believed, and I believed it my whole life … that we are in this together. That’s not just words. The truth is that at some level when you hurt, when your children hurt, I hurt, I hurt! And when my kids hurt, you hurt. I believe that what human nature is about is that everybody in this room impacts everybody else in all kinds of ways that we can’t even understand, it’s beyond intellect. It’s a spiritual, emotional thing. So I believe that when we … say that that child who is hungry is my child, I think we are more human than when we say, ‘Hey this whole world is me, I need more and more, I don’t care about anybody else.’ That’s my religion; that’s what I believe in. And I think most people … share that belief—that we are in it together as human beings. …So we have got to work together, and that is what my spirituality is about.”
Clearly, the “memory” of the importance of unity is very active in Mr. Sanders. But how does it explain his alienation from Israel? The answer is simple: He simply doesn’t see that Israel is spreading the spirit of unity and brotherhood, so he feels alienated from it. He may express it by objecting to Israel’s policy or actions, but underneath it lies the unsaid expectation from the state of Israel to be “a light unto nations,” to spread unity and brotherhood. Saying that “that child who is hungry is my child” makes us more human than when we say, “I don’t care about anybody else,” is as close as you can get to saying “We must cover our egoism with unity and brotherhood and become “as one man with one heart.”
Being anti-Israel doesn’t help Mr. Sanders’ cause. It will not bring unity or brotherhood, nor make the world a better place. However, we should use it as a reminder of what Jews should do in this world, and that is to bring unity and brotherhood to all mankind.
We will not be able to do this until we cover our crimes with love, and show the world an example of how this can be done. As Sanders said, “everybody … impacts everybody else in all kinds of ways that we can’t even understand, it’s beyond intellect.” And when we impact kindness on one another, we are indeed more human than when we impact hatred, which is regrettably what Sanders is doing toward Israel at the moment.
If we want to put an end to the Middle-East conflict, we the Jews must first put an end to our internal conflicts and unite above them. Our rekindled unity will spread like ripples in a pond as we demonstrate how we can truly “Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.”
