Not Such A Light Unto The Nations

[Violet_Crumble]

by Michael Lerner
June 01, 2006
Ha’aretz

.B. Yehoshua is still fighting the good old Zionist fight of the 20th century to convince world Jewry that they really ought to be living in Israel in order to have an authentically Jewish life. However, the challenge posed to world Jewry in the 21st century is a dramatically different one, and it is one which neither Yehoshua nor many of his critics are ready for.

Whether you approach an understanding of life from an economic, political, technological or ecological point of view, the central truth of the 21st century is that we live in an increasingly interconnected world. And whether it is looking at the possibility of nuclear proliferation and war, or an impending environmental catastrophe, more people are coming to understand the central moral insight of our time: that our well-being, as individuals, families, religious communities and nations depends on the well-being of the entire world, and on the well-being of the planet itself.

So there is no "individual solution" for you or me as people, and there is no "national solution" for Israel or the Jewish people that doesn't depend on providing for the economic, cultural, political and spiritual fulfillment of everyone else.

This is the central survival issue facing humanity today, and it makes the old 19th century nationalism and the 20th century struggles about Jewish identity seem like relics of an ancient past.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=10366

[Tom Joad]

1. That's my neighbor.

I work with several people from Tikkun in our effort for a saner US policy toward Palestine/Israel.