http://fresnozionism.org/archives/991 A pro-Israel voice from California's Central Valley Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:56:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://fresnozionism.org/archives/991#comment-6245 Shalom Freedman Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:06:45 +0000 http://fresnozionism.org/archives/991#comment-6245 I agree here completely on the theoretical level. One of the most distressing realizations I had when I first came to Israel many years ago is that the ideal of Jews relying on Jews, on total Jewish self- sufficiency seemed to stop when it came to the hardest kind of low- paying jobs. Here there is something to say for the idea that in 1967 we in our great victory 'lost something'. We received a very large pool of cheap labor and began to make use of it. It has hurt us deeply. and led to a clear violation of the 'Zionist ideal'. But there is another question related to it. If we have a large minority population living in a Jewish state we are obliged to provide them opportunities for employment and material success in life. We cannot simply exclude them from jobs. If they flock into certain areas of work which Jews do not particularly want to do we cannot forbid them this. In fact we are obliged to treat them fairly. In any case - if one wants there to be Jewish labor only in a Jewish state- one will have to have borders in which there is a completely Jewish population. I actually would like to see something like this happen. But how one could draw security borders in which there was say less than five percent of an Arab minority is another question? To do this morally would mean 'sacrificing ' land, and taking a different kind of security risk. As it is now however we are living in a very imperfect reality, and my suspicion is that we will be doing so for a long time to come. I agree here completely on the theoretical level. One of the most distressing realizations I had when I first came to Israel many years ago is that the ideal of Jews relying on Jews, on total Jewish self- sufficiency seemed to stop when it came to the hardest kind of low- paying jobs. Here there is something to say for the idea that in 1967 we in our great victory ‘lost something’. We received a very large pool of cheap labor and began to make use of it. It has hurt us deeply. and led to a clear violation of the ‘Zionist ideal’. But there is another question related to it. If we have a large minority population living in a Jewish state we are obliged to provide them opportunities for employment and material success in life. We cannot simply exclude them from jobs. If they flock into certain areas of work which Jews do not particularly want to do we cannot forbid them this. In fact we are obliged to treat them fairly.
In any case - if one wants there to be Jewish labor only in a Jewish state- one will have to have borders in which there is a completely Jewish population. I actually would like to see something like this happen. But how one could draw security borders in which there was say less than five percent of an Arab minority is another question?
To do this morally would mean ’sacrificing ‘ land, and taking a different kind of security risk.
As it is now however we are living in a very imperfect reality, and my suspicion is that we will be doing so for a long time to come.

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