HUFFINGTON POST
by Gil Troy
October 2, 2014

The New York Times on September 22, claims that rabbis have a hard time speaking to their congregants about Israel these days. Really? Is it that difficult to talk about Israel in the same multidimensional, sophisticated, loving yet critical way we talk about America? Here’s one way to do it….My friends, reports claim that, increasingly, rabbis fear talking about Israel to their congregations. Let me be clear: not this rabbi and not this congregation.

Treating Israel as radioactive is a form of delegitimization. Our enemies — and we do have enemies — win every time we avoid discussing an entire country, in all its complexity, because it has become “too hot to handle.” Although both Left and Right are responsible, the Left is guiltier. Forgive the candor. False moral equivalences may help me keep my job but will cause me to lose my soul.

Part of the reason why Israel has become so polarizing is because radical leftists only discuss Israel in political terms and only as critics. This occupation preoccupation, and the popular caricature of Israel as “Bibiland,” dominated by right-wing, religious, reactionaries, becoming increasingly ultra-Orthodox, anti-Arab and intolerant, distorts and demonizes a diverse democracy as complex as America or Canada.

Too many also echo the ugly, extreme words used to criticize this country trying to survive in a harsh neighborhood. Vilifying words like “apartheid” do not apply in this case of clashing nationalisms. Blood-libelous words like “genocide” — which Mahmoud Abbas used so dishonestly at the UN this week — are absurd given how much the Palestinian population grows annually. While I lament every life lost, 1,000 dead Palestinian civilians in five weeks of fighting an enemy hiding among civilians reflects Israel’s remarkable military discipline not mass slaughter……

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