I met Micah Sifry in 2007 at the Personal Democracy Forum, when I was drawn into the world of new media. It wasn't until the dawn of the first Trump regime that we reconnected, as part of a group response to the trauma of what felt like an American abyss. At that time, Westchester and the Bronx were one congressional district, and folks had gathered to start an Indivisible group. Our district has since been redrawn, and we now represent both 15 and 16. Full disclosure: Sifry and I are members of the group's Steering Committee. In the past, we visited Rep. Eliot Engel's office to discuss issues related to Israel, which, in retrospect, now seem relatively simple.
Knowing Sifry to be on the cutting edge of tech, government, and organizing, I was interested in digging into his book, When Doves Try, which retraces his interviews with Israel's Peace Now movement from 1978 to 1983. I had also seen his slide presentation from his 2024 trip to Israel on a "study and solidarity tour" organized by Americans for Peace Now.
Sifry gives the backstory of his initial trip to Israel. He was 5 years old, visiting his mother's family and his "Israeli cousins." It was 1967, right after the Six-Day War. Sifry relates that it wasn't until almost a decade later that he noticed inequities in Israeli society, as well as "casual racism" from his cousins, which didn't sit well with him.
In the 1970s, Sifry joined Hashomer Hatzair, a movement for young Jews steeped in a Socialist-Zionist ethos. His second semester of college was spent living on Kibbutz Shomrat. He found himself seriously considering making aliyah with colleagues from Hashomer Hatzair to a kibbutz on Israel's border with Lebanon.
During the summer of 1982, Sifry, using Kibbutz Adamit as a base, traveled throughout the country to interview the activists spearheading Israel's peace movement. His presence coincided with Israel's invasion of Lebanon.
When he wasn't working on the Kibbutz's farm, Sifry was speaking with those leading the peace movement and journalists covering the action. In real time, during meetings, he observed debates about the incursion into Lebanon and the viability of refusing to serve in the army. The latter concern tapped into Sifry's internal conflict about military service. While finishing his senior year at university, the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camp massacres took place.
Sifry continued writing about the origins of the Peace Now movement and the parallel evolution of Gush Emunim, the settler movement, which was gaining traction in the Occupied Territories. It became his senior thesis, and a well-placed mentor sent it to Victor Navasky, the editor of The Nation magazine. Sifry snagged an internship at the publication. It was one of those examples of how life plans can change in a flash. He continued his work as a journalist in the United States; a move to Israel didn't transpire.
Explaining to readers why he put together a book on Israel and Palestine, Sifry boils it down to three top motivations. It connected to his work as an organizer; he saw potential connections to the American pro-democracy movement; and it fed his desire to complete his documentation of the Peace Now movement -- which was dedicated to achieving social justice in "the land."
Drawing on his "fascination" with the birth, growth, and tribulations of peace movements, Sifry conveys how, during the 1980s, a group of Israeli Jews launched an initiative to encourage their co-citizens to take a deep look at their entrenched mindsets. They issued a call to let go of the endless reliance on military solutions to solve all problems, and rejected Menachem Begin's belief in the "Greater Israel" scenario. Sifry doesn't gloss over the Labor Party's role, which contributed elements of "Begin-light" through their actions and appropriations of Palestinian lands. Sifry cites Ahad Ha'am, Judah Magnes, and Martin Buber as examples of those offering a different version of Zionism, one grounded in mutual compromise between the two peoples.
In his prologue, Sifry outlines what he characterizes as his "Biases and Assumptions." He affirms his commitment "to the concept of Zionism as a movement of Jewish national self-determination." Nevertheless, he adds, "I deplore, however, the racist and militarist forms it has taken from early on." He underscores, "Self-determination cannot include the oppression of another people." Sifry qualifies "unquestioning support for Israel" as "deeply corrosive to Jewish values." In parsing these terms, Sifry, allowing that the term Zionism has become equivalent to the concept of "Jewish supremacy," states, "then I reject it and would call myself a post-Zionist or a non-Zionist." He also criticizes the "binary" thinking that too many bring to the situation.
Through taped interviews with the leaders of Shalom Achshav/Peace Now conducted between the summer of 1982 and the winter of 1983, along with material from Israeli publications, Sifry builds the story of Peace Now's founding and evolution. There are footnotes on almost every page, citing pamphlets and publications, including Ha'aretz and The Jerusalem Post. Sifry additionally draws on his 2023 article in The New Republic, "What Can Americans Learn from the Israeli Protests? A lot."
Beginning with the Officers' Letter of March 7, 1978, signed by 348 Israeli reserve officers and soldiers calling upon Prime Minister Begin to choose "the path of peace" over the goal of "borders of the Greater Israel," Sifry follows a timeline based on a thread opening with a group named "Movement for a Different Zionism."
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