for college students by college students
“As with any ideological conflict,
progress can only be
achieved by reasonable
cooperation and compromise
between parties of dissenting opinion.”
continued from page XX
continued from page 113
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The political left is full of
young, passionate leaders
searching for peace in
the Middle East. They are
undoubtedly assets to moral
righteousness in securing
Israel’s prosperity. Many within
this branch of the political
spectrum desire for Israel
to exist as a Jewish and
democratic state.
For Israel to ethically maintain
a Jewish majority without
obstruction of immigration and
forcing emigration (according
to Dr. Wahid Abd Al-Magid,
Al-Ahram’s Arab Strategic
Report editor, Arabs could
become Israel’s demographic
majority as soon as 2035),
many on the left believe there
needs to be an established,
sovereign Palestinian state. To
remain a true democracy, Israel
must guarantee full democratic
rights to Jewish Israelis as well
as Arab Israelis, even at the risk
of losing the country’s Jewish
identity to an Arab-majority
population.
The left’s commitment to
humanitarianism leads many
of its ranks to aim to preserve
both a Jewish and democratic
identity for Israel, but if not
both, it views the latter as
necessary. We desire for this
to be seen not as a willingness
to sacrifice a Jewish identity,
some treasonous thought or
an anti-Israel stance; rather,
we see this as the highest form
of dedication to the Jewish
homeland, a commitment with
mindfulness to the line between
humble patriotism and blind
nationalism.
In the pro-Israel lobby, the
left is in unfamiliar territory.
According to a study by
the Pew Research Center
in 2016 of political ideology
demographics relative to the
Israel-Palestine conflict, only
34 percent of Democratic-
leaners sympathize more
with Israel as opposed to 72
percent of Republican-leaners,
and much fewer on the left
are found to sympathize with
Israel and Palestine (3 percent).
Much of this tilt can arguably
be attributed to the allure of
patriotic sympathy for Israel
and the demonization of
interest in a two-state solution.
If the left is honest in
proclaiming a pro-Israel
identity, it must remain
diligent in disapproval from
further-right sections of the
political spectrum. As with any
ideological conflict, progress
can only be achieved by
reasonable cooperation and
compromise between parties of
dissenting opinion.
It is unreasonable for the
left to expect the right to
sacrifice its political positions
entirely; likewise, the right
cannot require total conformity
from the left to be accepted
and validated in the pro-Israel
lobby.
All parties must be receptive
to humble discourse to avoid
a philosophical civil war, which
some may see as an effective
tool in the fight to delegitimize
the State of Israel.
As the left seeks its niche
in the pro-Israel lobby, it must
commit to answering the same
questions we seek answers
to with honesty and humility:
How do we maintain the State
of Israel? How do we keep
Israel democratic? How do we
keep Israel Jewish? How do we
address the necessity of Arab
and Jewish-Israeli states?
And most importantly, how
do we circumvent extraneous
political differences to
strengthen a unified force of
pro-Israel advocacy? @
Jack Mullen, a junior from Royal Oak, is
majoring in Elementary Education at Wayne
State University.
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May 25 • 2017
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