Mayor Steinberg: I do not recognize the Israel I love. I feel compelled to speak up

If my Jewish community expects me to speak out when Israel is in peril, as I always do, then my entire community expects me to speak the whole truth about the tragedy occurring today in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Hamas deserves our condemnation, and Israel has a right to defend itself against rockets and external attacks. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote earlier this week, Hamas is “an organization without a shred of democratic fiber that is dedicated to destroying the Jewish state and imposing a Tehran-like Islamic regime in Palestine.”

And yet Friedman goes on to say that Netanyahu, his far-right followers and the police went way too far in antagonizing and cracking down on Palestinians in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy days at the end of Ramadan, fueling rage across the country.

I am a proud American Jew who loves Israel, takes pride in its birth and is passionate about the continued imperative of a Jewish homeland amid unending, worldwide anti-Semitism.

But the settlers who shout “death to Arabs” cannot be of the same faith that taught me that our people were once the stranger. The right-wing Israeli government whose official policies encourage massive settlements beyond the 1948 boundaries of Israel and conscript millions of Palestinians to inferior status is not a government I can respect. I cannot be selective in condemning overt discrimination and prejudice.

I am not naive about the plight of a Jewish state in a still hostile region. Survival is paramount. But fighting to take the homes of Israeli Arabs who have lived in them for decades has nothing to do with security. Expanding settlements well beyond secure borders in the name of some extreme Biblical prophesy is antithetical to Jewish values and negates any possibility of peace.

Whether Israel has a true partner for peace among Palestinian leadership is almost beyond the point. That old argument makes it too easy to dismiss grave injustices. Israel can both defend itself and not oppress innocent people. It must never be one or the other.

I write not expecting that the words of one Jewish American mayor will change much. But we live in a wonderful, diverse community here in Sacramento. We have built many bridges among our Jewish and Muslim neighbors. We have helped each other during times of tragedy and hardship.

We must speak truth if for no other reason than those friendships and those bridges matter.

The story of the Jewish people is one of hope, heartbreak and a fight for the best of human values. Our Torah teaches us to treat the stranger as one of our own, for we were once strangers. In fact, we have always been strangers in lands that told us we were less than human.

How can the government of a Jewish state not see its neighbors, the Palestinians, as people who seek what we once sought and deserved?

I want to be proud of my Jewish homeland again.

Just 10 days ago, Israel was on the verge of a new historic governing coalition with Israeli Arab Islamists, a party that Friedman describes as nonviolent and focused on getting more jobs and resources for Israeli Arabs.

How can we not speak out in hopes for such a future? A future where Hamas and the Israeli right wing hold power and perpetuate these terrible events is hardly a future at all. Change is never impossible. Our common and hopeful faiths are based on the idea that life is precious and that human beings can change. We must never accept as given what we are seeing in the holy land.

Salam. Shalom.

This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.