Israel Reinterpreted

Friday, May 21, 2010

Israel Reinterpreted

While I was in Israel last week, a debate erupted in The Jerusalem Post and then the blogosphere about Ambassador Michael Oren’s invitation to be commencement speaker at Brandeis University. Apparently, some Brandeis University students objected to the selectionof Oren because they disagreed with the current Israeli government’s management of the ongoing conflict. Daniel Gordis, among the my most eloquent conservatives I have ever read, saw this as an opportunity to challenge the loyalty of jewish students on American campuses. It’s a pretty powerful piece. Of course, it took one day to find out that Gordis had massively overplayed his hand.

Enter Ilan Troen, the Chairman of the Israel Studies Program at Brandeis, to set the record straight. Turned out Gordis had hijacked the small protest at Brandeis to inflame the passions of Israelis and American Jews who have bought into the mistaken black and white narrative of us vs. them.

To be sure, I witness plenty of misguided anti-Israel sentiment in multiple political circles and have sensed some of these discussions to be tinged with anti-semitism. These incidents are more than unpleasant — they are frightening.

However, these periodic conversations obscure the reality of modern Israel and modern American Jewish life. Things are not black and white. They are gray. I think gray should be celebrated.

In my office in Jerusalem, there are 20 people who voted many different parties into the Knesset across Israel’s wide political spectrum. Some believe in a two state solution and some think the country will never have peace. But they are united in their efforts to make AnyClip a great company and in their loyalty towards each other. Despite Milluim (mandatory annual military reserve duty) their lives are not dominated by middle east conflict. They are trying to figure out how to improve search or create metadata for films. When they are not working, they hang out with their kids, play basketball, and go to the movies. To a large degree, my Israeli colleagues are just like us.

And increasingly so is Israel. Make no mistake, there is an intimacy among Israelis that must originate in that unique national purpose, the shared military service, and a society that lives through continuous wars. But despite those differences with American life, many, many Israelis have moved way beyond the simple Hatfield/McCoy narrative to see themselves as part of a broader global society.

At the annual JVP meeting last week, I met limited partners from Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium. Portfolio CEOs talked knowledgeably about doing business in India, China, Indonesia, and Brazil. This economic expansion can’t really happen if the whole world is trying to destroy Israel as some on the right would have us believe.

Recently, a friend of mine joined a delegation of Israeli officials and business people to open the Israel pavilion at the World Expo in China. He reported that China treated his colleagues as if they were heads of state stopping traffic for their motorcades and closing major tourist attractions so the Israelis could have private walk-throughs. This was not for security purposes, but done to show respect and a sign of Israel’s rise as a global economic power.

Lost in the bipolar coverage that portrays Israel as a militant, colonial power or as the place that protects Jews from the next genocide attempt is the reality that the country is growing, changing, adapting, and making a net contribution to global civilization. This should be explored and even celebrated. Those that stick to the ancient narrative do modern Israel and Israelis a disservice.