Talk by Maj. Jonathan Levny 2-Apr-2000

(I took especially good notes because I was resopnsible for today's diary entrees.  In this page, my comments are in this Arial font, while what I heard from Maj. Levny are in Varaible width.  Of course, I am responsible for the content of this page.)

Jonathan Levny was the Solicitor General of the Israeli Army (IDF) for Samaria, which is the a good part of the west bank.  In that position, he was the top lawyer of an army of occupation.  He is also the Chairman of the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism.
I want to make my own points about this discussion.

  1. In June of 1967, Jordan and her allies Lebanon, Syria and Egypt initiated a war of aggression against Israel.  Israel defended herself, and as a result, captured four signifigant chunks of land: the Golan Heights, the west bank, the Gaza strip, and the Sinai pennisula.  The Sinai has been returned to Egypt under the terms of a peace treaty, and both Israel and Egypt have profited.  Although the West Bank has not been returned to Jordan, portions of the land are now under Palestinian control, and the Palestinians are profiting.  Until the land is returned to Jordan, or annexed into Israel, or turned over to the Palestinian Authority, if ever, the IDF is still an army of occupation.
  2. Throughout history, armies have occupied countries. Famous examples are from World War II.  Before the war, Germany occupied Chzecheslovakia.  After World War II, the allied nations of The United States, France, England, and the Soviet Union occupied Germany (the Soviet Union continued to occupy East Germany until the 1980s).  However, Jewish history is replete with examples of foreign powers that occupied our country: the Greeks, the Romans, the Turks are just examples.
Israel is faced with a paradox: on the one hand, it wants to be a democracy and so it wants its laws and policies to represent the will of the people; and on the other hand, it wants to be a Jewish State and so it wants its laws and policies to reflect Jewish values.  To deal with this paradox, it has recognized certain organizations as being authoritative.
The lack of recognition might be a blessing in disguise.  The Orthodox have synagogoes while the reform have congregations.  The difference is that a congregation is a community.  So each time the Orthodox attack us, we get bigger, because the unaffilated are looking for a different kind of religious experience and that's what we provide.  So there has been a tremendous upswing, with new congregations.  The problem is gthat we don't have enough Rabbis, kindergartens, and schools.

Israel is a constitutional country without a formal constitution.  Like the United States, Israel has a legislature and a legal system and an executive.  Israeli citizens enjoy all of the legal protections that Americans enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of religion (but more on that in a moment), freedom of movement and association, the right to bear arms, the right of the accused to counsel, the right to petition the government for the redress of greivances, all Israelis have these rights.  These rights are protected by the Israeli Supreme Court.  The court has two roles: it is the final court of appeal in criminal and civil cases, and it is the court of Justice of first instance where the rights of people are aggreived.  This has a couple of implications: 1) that the legislature, the Kenesset, can overrule the Supreme Court; and 2) The Supreme Court has a wide variety of sources it can look to for guidance when making a ruling.
One right that the Israelis do not enjoy is separation of religion and state, what we in America call separation of church and state.  And therein lies the paradox: Israel guarantees religious freedom for everybody except the Jews!  A Christian or a Muslim or even a Jew for Jesus who wants to marry, divorce or die is at liberty to do so, however he or she wants to.  However, a Jew must be recognized as a Jew by the religious authorities in the Interior Ministry to marry, divorce or be buried in Israel.  For me personally, this is an issue as my wife's conversion might not be recognized, ergo my children might not be recognized as Jewish.  Currently, my wife's conversion is recognized, because it was done in the United States.  Curiously, Israel's Law of Return unconditionally recognizes her and my chldren as Jewish, so my wife and children may emigrate to Israel. You can live with non-separation of state and religion if there is equal opportunity for all.  Israel almost has that.  But there are time when every Israeli just gets fed up: fed up with the wars, fed up with the weather, fed up with traffic, and that is when the Supreme court goes in.

Later in the trip, we will meet a Rabbi who is running an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) which is protecting the rights of Arabs in occupied territory, and an Arab Lawyer who is also protecting the rights of Arabs in occupied territory.

After we left HUC, we went to the Zion gate of the old city, which is on the south side near the west, and we did some archeology.


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