Rabbi Peter Kessler
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Good morning. I am honored to be standing at the pulpit of Market Square Presbyterian Church. I wish to thank my good friend, Pastor James Brown for the invitation to join with you this morning. He came up with the brilliant idea that we switch pulpits one weekend – he would deliver the sermon at my congregation, Temple Ohev Sholom on a Friday evening, and I would be with you the following Sunday morning to do the same thing. I only hope my remarks will be as enlightening to all of you as Pastor Brown’s were when he spoke to my congregation this past Friday evening.
Before I speak about the creation of the State of Israel and express my views on the prospect for peace in the Middle East, I’d like to talk a little bit about being neighborly. After all, we’re neighbors here, having both the church and the synagogue located on 2nd street, even though we are a few miles apart. Many of us are both neighbors and friends here. As I look out on the congregation I see many people that I know, perhaps not by name, but certainly by sight. We live in close quarters here in Harrisburg, and we certainly take the time to be very respectful of each other. One of things I love most about living in our community is the fact that we tend to notice each other around here, and take the extra moment or two to really care about each other. I may not know each of your names, but I’m sure I’ve held the door for one or more of you at Boscov’s as you entered behind me, or smiled and thanked one or two of you for holding the elevator for me at Harrisburg Hospital or at Holy Spirit. We may not know each other very well, but we’ve seen each other in line at the Giant or in the parking lot at the West Shore Farmer’s Market, and when we see each other, we smile at each other, and are kind to each other.
Now that we’ve established that we’re neighbors and friends, let’s take a moment to learn something more about Israel. Israel is the holiest place on the face of the earth for all of the three major world religions. It is essential that everyone who wishes may feel at home in the Holy Land. And when I say everyone, I mean that sincerely. Christians have the right to live comfortably and to walk to their holy shrines in peace, Muslims have the right to establish their homes and be able to worship at their holy sites without disruption, and Jews have the right to live and worship in the peace and safety of their homeland as well.
And I truly believe that when the State of Israel was established in November of 1947, the wise diplomats of the newly formed United Nations had this idea in mind. You may remember what the world was like following World War II. (I don’t, but I was born just a few years later so the concept of post World War II isn’t all that foreign to me.) More than 600,000 Jewish refugees were still wandering around Europe in 1947. They were the lucky ones who were able to survive the Holocaust. But they weren’t very lucky as they had no homes in which to return, very little food, and no prospects of finding a country that would welcome them. No one wanted these refugees – not even the United States. Every country at that time was so busy trying to get back on their feet after the war, that they were too busy taking care of themselves to worry about who was going to take care of the refugees.
Eventually, the plight of the refugees became the problem of the refugees.
Fortunately, the United Nations finally came to their aid. The countries that formed the UN decided to take a vote to see if the Balfour Declaration of 1917 – the British document that guaranteed that a Jewish State would be formed on the land that the British occupied known as Palestine – would come to fruition. The vote was not any easy one for the United Nations. While small groups of Christians had always lived in the Holy Land, the vast majority of the population of pre-Israel Palestine was comprised of Jews and Arabs, people who, at times, didn’t really get along too well.
I’m not exactly sure why the Jews of Palestine and the Arabs of Palestine didn’t get along very well, but I could venture a guess or two. One reason was because of our ancient writings. I read this morning from the Torah that God gave the land to Abraham and his descendants. The problem is that the Jewish people believe the land belonged to the descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac, while the Arab people believe the land belonged to the descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael. But Palestine in 1947 didn’t belong to anyone but the British - and they hardly wanted to be in the middle of a land dispute between two nations that have been arguing for generations. And who could blame them.
The Jews and the Arabs both wanted the land and they both needed the land in order to survive. A compromise had to be reached, and so the United Nations established the Partition Plan of 1947 to divide the country into two sections. One section would be governed by the Arab people, the other by the Jewish people. Each could set up his own country and hold elections to form his own government.
The Jewish section was much smaller than the land they previously occupied, and over 75% of it was desert. But because there were 600,000 refugees in Europe that needed a home, the Jews of Palestine accepted the plan. They held a general election, formed a government, and established the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. This State of Israel, while a homeland for the Jewish people, didn’t have a national religion nor was it set up as an exclusionary country. It was and still is a democracy with a government established by the people, and for the people – much like our own government here.
The Arab people never accepted the partition Plan of 1947. They refused to form a government. They felt they were cheated. The Israelis believed that the Arab people simply wanted the entire land for themselves, but many of the Arab people really felt that they United Nations had no right to divide what they considered was their land. But whatever the case, on the day that Israel declared independence, their Arab neighbors attacked, vowing to throw the Israelis into the sea.
The rest of the history of Israel is familiar to most of us sitting here. The Israelis were victorious, and when the dust settled with the Armistice of 1949, Israel occupied more land that it previously was granted in the Partition Plan. In addition, the newly formed government of Jordan annexed the area known today as the West Bank, being granted that land from the Arabs of the former Palestine as a part of a peace agreement.
The sad realization following the War of Independence was that there were now 720,000 Arab refugees who lost their land due to the altercation, and due to the annexation by Jordan. They had no place to go. They became refugees.
Israel’s Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion offered each of those refugees full Israeli citizenship but most fled to the areas occupied by their Arab brethren, hoping to be acclimated into their society. But this was not to be. They lived instead in squalid refugee camps, where many of them, and their children, and their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren continue to live to this very day.
Now there have been many wars in the Holy Land since 1948. But no matter the outcome, no matter the war, Israel is always the one willing to exchange land for peace. And there are times when there is a relative calm across Israel, but not very often, and certainly not in the past several years.
What has happened in the past several years, and what are the prospects for peace in the Middle East? There are many opinions to be sure, but this morning I’d like to give you mine.
What is happening to the Palestinian people is dreadful. They live in squalor. They have little or no chance to find employment so they can feed and clothe their children. But the saddest part of the plight of the Palestinian in the Holy Land today is the fact that after they finally had been given the right to vote to form a government of their own, after waiting for almost 60 years, they have elected a terrorist organization to head a very shaky form of government. Terrorist organization isn’t a term I invented for Hamas. It is the term by most democratic countries, including our own, to describe this organization that is bent on the destruction of the State of Israel.
In 1947, the Jewish people took what they were given by the United Nations, even though it never was what they wanted for themselves, and formed a government and moved on. The Palestinian people didn’t do that for 60 years, and now that they are ready to move on, they have, in my opinion, hitched their wagon to the wrong star.
It breaks my heart, it really does, and I know that it breaks the hearts of the Israeli people as well to see that this huge group of people – who number now in the millions – have voted for a government that will never accept the existence of their Israeli neighbors and have no intention of ever working toward peace.
This is not to say that the Palestinian people who are crowded into Gaza, languishing in refugee camps in the West Bank, or living a bleak existence in east Jerusalem don’t want peace – I think that every person who breathes wants peace – it’s just that they cannot find it in their hearts to recognize that they must live side by side with the Israeli people or be forced to continue to live their bleak existence as it is - in squalor with no hope of pulling themselves out of their impoverished existence.
This isn’t a secret, but I think that it is something that many of us tend to forget. As Americans, we are well-acquainted with the idea of democracy, and the hope that nations live side-by-side one another in peace. We make it known that we have no tolerance for a government that excludes other people, and have, in the past, refused to aid nations that disrespect their neighbors.
Now, you may say that Israel disrespects the rights of the Palestinian people by not allowing them free movement from one area of the West Bank to another, when they need to transverse the Land of Israel. But the government that was elected by the Palestinian people makes it well known that it is their mission is to destroy Israel. The make it well-known that they have no intention of recognizing Israel’s right to exist. They make it well known that they despise the United States and our form of democracy. I would be very wary of someone crossing my front lawn who has publicly made me aware that they seek my destruction. I would prefer that they stay on their own lawn, and would probably erect a fence to make sure that things stayed status quo.
The Palestinian people may feel neglected when they see the paved superhighways of Israel just outside their borders. Why does Israel have superhighways and they do not? Because the Israelis have elected a government that trades with other nations, and receives aid from other countries. Why don’t the Palestinian people receive aid from other countries? Because they have elected a terrorist government – and many nations in the world have no intention of dealing with such a government.
Now please don’t think that the Jewish people (the Israelis) hate the Arab nations. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Even after the War of Independence, and the Six Day War of 1967, even after land was traded for peace only for Israel to be attacked yet again, Israel maintains peaceful borders with both Egypt and Jordan. Not only peaceful borders, but lucrative trade agreements exist between the Jewish and the Arab nations. They are good neighbors – they take care of each other – they recognize each other. They may not pray in the same way, and they may not even like each other very much – but they respect each other’s right to exist.
So I think that is the message I’d like to leave you with this morning. Israel already recognizes the rights of the Palestinian people in their quest for their own country. The Israeli government continues to support the idea of the 2-state initiative that has been proposed time and time again. Israel desperately wanted not to be put into the position of having to erect a 25 foot wall between her and her neighbors. The Israelis only want the Palestinian people to recognize them! Recognize their right to exist! Recognize their right to live in peace.
What would happen if we decided, one sad day in the future, that we wouldn’t recognize each other either? What would happen to our community if we decided not to recognize each other’s right to live as we wish, to worship as we wish, and to be friends with one another? Even worse, what would happen if we decided that we wanted to destroy the people who lived right next door to us? We would do what the Israeli’s did – we would erect a fence – a wall – a security barrier – call it what you wish, but we would do something to keep us in and to keep them out.
Sadly, this is nothing new. While we hoped it would never happen, it has happened, and will happen, again and again and again. It happened in China with a Great Wall being built 2000 years ago to protect its inhabitants. It happened again in the 17th and 18th centuries with other walls and fences being built to keep undesirables out of many European countries. It is even happening right now in Texas and Arizona and New Mexico to separate us from them.
It’s a terrible thing while a wall has to be built, but sometimes building a wall is the only way to survive.
The security fence in Israel is a terrible thing. But if you were being attacked day and night by a people who refused to recognize your right to exist, and made public their desire for your destruction, what choice would you have?
What do I think the prospects for peace are in the Middle East? I’ve said for years that I am not optimistic. There are many, many hurt feelings on both sides. But I do know this for sure – there will never be peace in the Middle East if one side refuses to recognize the right of the other to exist. It is impossible. Both sides have to compromise, and the Israeli government has made it clear that they are ready for a 2-state solution. I only wish that the Palestinians felt the same way.
Thank you for inviting me to speak this morning. You may agree with me, or you may not, but I really appreciate the fact that we can, and do, invite each other into our homes to express our opinions. That’s what neighbors and friends do, and I am so very grateful that we live in a community where we can do just that. I look forward to holding the door for you when we meet at the mall, or saying hello at the West Shore Farmer’s Market, or when we meet on 2nd Street. And I look forward for our two faith communities to continue our dialogue together so we can do our part and try our best to heal the world.