Challenging Israel to "Handle the Truth"

This morning I read an Opinion piece on the Al Jazeera Web site. I suspect there are readers that know by now that Al Jazeera is a source that is not afraid to deliver news that goes against the grain of some of the more “traditional” news sources. The author is Jeremy Corbyn, currently representing Islington North in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The title of the article says it all: "Israel will never stop me speaking up for Palestine."

Some readers may recall that my first job after receiving my Doctoral Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). was at the Technion, which proudly proclaimed itself the “Israel Institute of Technology.” This turned out to be a good start to my teaching career, since I had the liberty of creating the plans for all of the computer science classes I taught. (Computer Science was not a Department at MIT. My degree was in Applied Mathematics, and my Advisor was Marvin Minsky, Head of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.)

After teaching computer science in Israel for two years, I now had the credentials to secure on Assistant Professorship teaching Computer Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Towards the end of the spring term, I decided that I wanted to check out Israeli “neighbors” that could not be visited to Israelites. Working with a travel agent, I planned a tour beginning in Cairo and then moving on to Amman. I could then make the move from Amman to Jerusalem through a series of bus rides (which included crossing the Jordan River). As I discovered, the Israeli “world view” was decidedly different from that of its neighbors.

Decades have now passed, but Corbyn’s article makes its clear that the relationship between Israel and its neighbors has not changed very much. If anything, Israeli governance is now more authoritarian than it was at any time during my two-year appointment there. On the other hand, there never seemed to be any tensions at the University of Pennsylvania that would divide Israeli students from those that had moved to the United States from countries such as Jordan and Egypt. Mind you, the United States itself is hardly a country in which we can all “get along;” but I do not think I ever encountered overt hostility on the Penn campus. 

Jack Nicholson’s “truth” outburst in A Few Good Men (from the Wikipedia Web page for the movie)

All this reminds me of the climatic moment in the movie A Few Good Men. Anyone who has seen that movie will probably remember Jack Nicholson’s outburst at the climax: “You can't handle the truth!” To be fair, the truth is often very difficult to handle (which is probably one reason why denial plays such a strong role in political discourse). This reminds me of the Preface to Martin Buber’s book Ten Rungs: Hasidic Sayings. He cites a single line from Deuteronomy: “Justice, justice, shalt thou follow.” He then asks the reader: “Why is the word ‘justice’ repeated?” Buber’s answer is elliptical but meaningful: “injustice as a means to justice renders justice unjust.” 

I am sure that there will be many that will disagree with me; but, as far as I am concerned, "speaking up for Palestine" is an act of justice worthy of attention in these times!