Whenever I get into a discussion about the United States’ military aid to Israel, sooner or later the expression “shared values” with Israel is introduced.
This catchphrase is used by our New Hampshire senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, along with many other members of the U.S. Congress. For example, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, has written, “The relationship between the United States and Israel is a special one that is rooted in shared values.” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a New York Democrat, has written, “We must maintain the enduring bond between the United States and Israel. Our shared values . . . set our partnership apart.”
However, those values are seldom listed. “Shared values” trips over the tongue easily, laden with assumptions and lacking clarity. Pressing for specificity, the top two common values revealed are “democracy” and “security.” Therefore, it behooves us to discern the ways democracy and security function in our respective countries.
For example, Israel struggles to be a democracy that includes privilege for some religious and ethnic groups. It is most clearly articulated in the insistence upon being a “Jewish State.” It is true, this understanding of democracy for a privileged group may be shared by some in the United States that cling to white privilege, supremacy or even to white Protestant privilege. However, American democracy is understood to empower every citizen with a voice, a vote and the freedom to run for an elected office; no matter who they are or from where they originated.
It is difficult to demonstrate that Israel and the U.S. have a shared understanding of the value of democracy.
Of even more concern is the way each country enforces security as a prime value. Because of its geographical position in the Middle East and its contention with Palestinians, Israel places a primary emphasis on security. “Israel has more surveillance companies per capita than any other country. Israel maintains the broadest police database of citizen contact information and the only biometric database of citizen fingerprints among Western democracies” (Deadly Exchange, Researching the American-Israeli Alliance and Jewish Voice for Peace, September 2018).
This value of the dominance of security over individual rights and privacy, accepted by Israeli citizens, is contrary to culture and civic convention in the United States. However, the practice of security as a shared value with Israel is quietly being inserted into the policies of U.S. security agencies, including state and local police forces. “To date, thousands of law enforcement officials from across the country have been sent to Israel to meet with military and police forces, and thousands more have participated in conferences, trainings and workshops with Israeli personnel.” These exchange programs with Israeli police and the IDF “instill (in U.S. law enforcement) militarized logics of security into the civilian sphere, normalizing practices of mass surveillance, criminalization, and the violent repression of communities and movements the government defines as threatening” (Deadly Exchange).
Evidence of this infiltration of repressive practices into the United States, in the name of security, is affecting people and situations close to many of us.
The general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, Rev. John Dorhauer, wrote about a colleague in ministry: “The Rev. Kaji Dousa, a U.S. citizen (born in the United States), has had her global entry revoked and her passport liberties restricted because of her commitment to embody her faith and serve the church as a Christian minister. . . . She has been unjustly targeted and labeled as an instigator for (her) ministry to those languishing at our southern border.”
Rev. Dousa is not alone. Nicole Ramos, the refugee director and attorney for Al Otro Lado, a law center for migrants and refugees in Tijuana, Mexico, has experienced travel restrictions. She has discovered a government dossier about her that includes personal details as specific as the car she drives, her mother’s name, and her work and travel history. Also, 10 journalists, seven of whom are U.S. citizens, a U.S. attorney and 48 people from the U.S. and other countries are listed in a secret database labeling them as organizers, instigators or their roles “unknown.” Some had alerts placed on their passports, according to NBC News.
Closer to home is the “My Turn” article by Joel Berman, “A man of peace, detained as an enemy of America” (Sunday Monitor Forum, March 10). This Palestinian Muslim man was prevented from visiting the U.S. by Homeland Security. He was to come to New Hampshire, along with an Israeli colleague, to tell their story of growing from enemies to recognizing a common humanity with mutual aspirations. People of New Hampshire have been denied the opportunity to meet and interact with this Palestinian Muslim with a story of reconciliation.
Here in New Hampshire, lawyers and human rights advocates witness regular unjust treatment of refugees living among us. Every time a refugee is ask to report to ICE, he or she is interviewed privately, isolated from family and friends. They are subject to arrest and deportation without further contact with family, perhaps because of something like a traffic ticket. Also rights of U.S. citizens are being compromised with interior border patrol checkpoints, including in New Hampshire. Deep ties between U.S. and Israeli officials are attempting to normalize a shared value of security that is more important than civil rights. But this dominance of security is contrary to the temperament and integrity of most Americans, not a shared value with Israel.
There are genuine shared values among many Jews, Muslims and Christians in Israel, Palestine and the United States. Among them are care for those in need, empathy, justice for all human beings, love of neighbor and hospitality to the stranger. Shared values like these set standards for the evaluation and improvement of the troublesome notions of democracy and security that have justified U.S. military aid to Israel. They are “shared values” worth embracing, celebrating and putting to work.
(The Rev. John Buttrick, United Church of Christ, lives in Concord.)