Mature love is to love in the face of imperfection. After years of living together, facing ups and downs, partners will invariably gaze at one another and realize that, notwithstanding the blemishes each sees in the other, so much of the original "chemistry" remains between them, making it worthwhile to continue their adventure.
Twenty years of living in Israel has transformed me into this kind of mature lover. In Israel's Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers of the Jewish state acquiesced wholeheartedly to the elevated ethical bar set by the Hebrew prophets: God demands higher, not lower, standards of goodness from Israel; the higher the privilege, the graver the responsibility. Sixty-one years after its establishment, Israeli society wrestles continuously with these Herculean expectations.
Two incidents highlight how complex the challenge is to fully actualize the nation's sacred compass. First are allegations that Israeli combat soldiers killed unarmed civilians in Gaza because of loose rules of engagement. Although an internal Israel Defence Forces investigation has shown these allegations to be rumours and hearsay, the world press has had a field day reporting these claims as "eyewitness accounts."
Sadly, the country has largely itself to blame for the damage done to its reputation, for having seeded a culture of malicious and pernicious gossip manufactured, not by outside critics in this instance, but from within the IDF itself. Pogo hits the mark, yet again: We have met the enemy and he is us!
The second incident, equally menacing, is the brouhaha swirling around T-shirts worn off base by increasing numbers of enlisted soldiers. These shirts depict and glorify scenes of violence against Arab civilians. The IDF has censured these shirts as "not in accordance with our values, tasteless, unbecoming and are to be condemned."
Alas, although these T-shirts project anger and frustration, they disclose that what is considered abnormal today might no longer be so tomorrow. From an educational perspective, the shirts point to a radicalization process taking shape within Israeli society.
Unfortunately, the calm that never arrived after Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005 has led to a further shift rightward and, with it, according to several professional studies, increased callousness toward the country's Arab minority. I am convinced these incidents represent the aberrations of small numbers of soldiers. More critical, in the long run, is the need to temper these streaks of violence through more concerted educational efforts stressing tolerance and pluralism.
It may be true that, in comparative shopping at an ethical mall, Israel comes out, as I believe it does, as a good country in a bad neighbourhood. Yet, this gives little comfort to the majority of Israel's citizens and to supporters worldwide, who know that the country's spiritual DNA commands it "not to wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Should this lesson ever dim, there is the ever-present memory of the Jewish state rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the Holocaust, after 2,000 years of powerlessness.
It has always been clear to me that Israel fights not because it wants to but because it has to. Its outstretched hand aimed at political compromise has been rebuffed time and again. As a nation that toils under conditions of war, it does not always get it right. Israel's bind is muddled at times because, to be blunt, it is hard to remain moral, even most of the time, when confronting a non-moral enemy. This is surely one of the biggest challenges facing the Jewish state in light of its biblical pedigree.
There is a rabbinic teaching that has become entrenched in the Israeli-Jewish psyche: "Do not hesitate to initiate a pre-emptive strike against enemies who threaten to take your life." This "never again" rule of thumb is, I believe, balanced by Israel's army and governmental agencies, acutely aware of walking the tightrope, trying to balance cries for security with the prophetic charge to uphold human rights. I know this to be so, because of the watchful presence of guards on the country's ramparts: the IDF itself, multiple government commissions of inquiry, and Israel's renowned High Court of Justice.
My critique flows from a mature love, and a profound yearning for Israel's potential to evolve as an ethical exemplar, bearing in mind that Israel is the only authentic democracy in the Middle East. The litmus test, I am certain, will always be its pledge to wrestle with an ever-present paradox: concern for the distinctiveness of its people's survival and security, while never losing sight to nurture faith in the universality and oneness of humanity.
Harvey Meirovich, a native Canadian, is currently a rabbi at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto. He resides in Jerusalem, where he teaches at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.
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