Jewish prayers for Egypt's uprising
Many Jews from around the world support Egyptian self-determination because of
Judaism's own historic past with Egypt.
Michael Lerner Last Modified: 01 Feb 2011 12:46 GMT
Jews recount at Passover their own history with the Pharaoh of Egypt -
sympathies to the current Egyptian struggle run deep [Getty]
Ever since the victory over the dictator of Tunisia and the subsequent uprising
in Egypt, my email has been flooded with messages from Jews around the world
hoping and praying for the victory of the Egyptian people over their cruel
Mubarak regime.
Though a small segment of Jews have responded to right-wing voices from Israel
that lament the change and fear that a democratic government would bring to
power fundamentalist extremists who wish to destroy Israel and who would
abrogate the hard-earned treaty that has kept the peace between Egypt and
Israel for the last 30 years, the majority of Jews are more excited and hopeful
than worried.
Of course, the worriers have a point. Israel has allied itself with repressive
regimes in Egypt and used that alliance to ensure that the borders with Gaza
would remain closed while Israel attempted to economically deprive the Hamas
regime there by denying needed food supplies and equipment to rebuild after
Israel's devastating attack in December 2008 and January 2009. If the Egyptian
people take over, they are far more likely to side with Hamas than with the
Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Yet it is impossible for Jews to forget our heritage as victims of another
Egyptian tyrant - the Pharaoh whose reliance on brute force was overthrown when
the Israelite slaves managed to escape from Egypt some 3,000 years ago. That
story of freedom retold each year at our Passover "Seder" celebration, and read
in synagogues in the past month, has often predisposed the majority of Jews to
side with those struggling for freedom around the world.
To watch hundreds of thousands of Egyptians able to throw off the chains of
oppression and the legacy of a totalitarian regime that consistently jailed,
tortured or murdered its opponents so overtly that most people were cowed into
silence, is to remember that the spark of God continues to flourish no matter
how long oppressive regimes manage to keep themselves in power, and that
ultimately the yearning for freedom and democracy cannot be totally stamped out
no matter how cruel and sophisticated the elites of wealth, power and military
might appear to be.
Many Jews have warned Israel that it is a mistake to ally with these kinds of
regimes, just as we've warned the US to learn the lesson from its failed
alliance with the Shah of Iran. We've urged Israel to free the Palestinian
people by ending the Occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.
Israel's long-term security will not be secured through military or economic
domination, but only by acting in a generous and caring way toward the
Palestinian people first, and then toward all of its Arab neighbours.
Similarly, America's homeland security will best be achieved through a strategy
of generosity and caring, manifested through a new Global Marshall Plan such as
has been introduced into the House of Representatives by Congressman Keith
Ellison.
In normal times, when the forces of repression seem to be winning, this kind of
thinking is dismissed as "utopian" by the "realists" who shape public political
discourse. But when events like the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt occur, for a
moment the politicians and media are stunned enough to allow a different kind
of thinking to emerge, the kind of thinking that acknowledged that underneath
all the "business as usual" behaviour of the world's peoples, the yearning for
a world based on solidarity, caring for each other, freedom,
self-determination, justice, non-violence and yes, even love and generosity,
remains a potent and unquenchable thirst that may be temporarily repressed but
never fully extinguished.
It is this recognition that leads many Jews to join with the rest of the
world's peoples in celebrating the uprising, in praying that it does not become
manipulated by the old regime into paths that too quickly divert the hopes for
a brand new kind of order into politics and economics as usual, or into
extremist attempts to switch the anger from domestic elites who have been the
source of Egyptian oppression onto Jews or Israel which have not been
responsible for the suffering of the Egyptian people.
We hope that Egyptians will hear the news that they have strong support from
many in the Jewish world. We are not waffling like Obama - we want the
overthrow of Mubarak, the freeing of all political prisoners, the
redistribution of wealth in a fair way, trials for those who perpetrated
torture and other forms of injustice, and the democratisation of all aspects of
Egyptian life.
Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun, chair of the interfaith Network of
Spiritual Progressives, and rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley,
California. You can read more about the Global Marshall Plan here.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
