I am not indigenous

written by Jihadi Jew and Bad Hijabi on June 3, 2024

I wrote something a little controversial, said Lee in a DM this morning.

[Christopher Hitchens speaking about the Israel-Palestine conflict at Munk Debates, 2010 in this audio clip.]

Everyone in the civilized world has roughly agreed, including the majority of Arabs and Jews and the international community, that there should be enough room for two states for two peoples in the same land. I think we have a rough agreement on that. Why can't we get it? The UN can't get it. The US can't get it. The Quartet can't get it. The PLO can't get it. The Israeli parliament can't get it. Why can't they get it? Because the parties of God have a veto on it and everybody knows that this is true. Because of the divine promises made about this territory. There will never be peace, there will never be compromised, there will instead be misery, shame and tyranny and people will kill each other's children for ancient books and caves and relics. — Christopher Hitchens

I immediately thought of this clip when I read Lee’s post (See below the line).

I think everyone deserves to see and ponder the words Lee has written. I am not qualified to opine on the rightness or wrongness of this or anything that Lee writes, that is not the connection I have with him. I post his stuff here because it is compassionate, nuanced, well thought out, and because it makes me think about stuff I thought I had figured out. Revisiting things I feel certain I know to review that knowingness is a part of intellectual honesty and rigour. Part of learning involves inculcating a sense of humility. This requires the work of balance.

I think of Lee as the teacher who is a shepherd who is also himself being shepherded — imagine a scenario like Inception, a lesson within a lesson. He himself is no guru, simply a guy with a gift for teaching and expressing himself. A teacher co-regulates his students as part of his job, otherwise his students will not grasp the lesson. People employ black and white thinking in particular when it comes to Israel and Jewish identity, I think that’s a function of threat state mentation. Remember we are not at our best cognitively when possessed by fear and helplessness! I think a person can only appreciate this post when they are in the chill (ventral vagal) zone of their nervous system. When I allow myself the grace to release the emotional noise, I find that things appear differently and I can reach a different conclusion about familiar facts. Lee has the power to change my mind because he has fostered a sound and safe social connection with me, he does not abuse it by attempting to manipulate me. He is compassionate and generous and firm and straight, equal measures of all. I am a stubborn dragon and I only change my mind when it makes sense and when I am free to do so. Adapt to survive—this defines the essential core of intelligence, intellectually adaptability.

Remember, reader, this is one person’s offering, and you are free to respectfully disagree with, to ignore, to converse with, the author etc. When I shared the rethinking Zionism piece by

Salomé Sibonex

with Lee, he told me it resonated with him. I have said before and will say again here I get a bit annoyed that Americans sitting in the comfort of their American homes feel entitled to take on big topics like the validity of Zionism right now, at a time when Khamenei is lusting for a war and another pogrom, and probably bookmarks posts like that. So I have mixed feelings about Salomé’s piece. That said, it does perhaps need the asker of uncomfortable questions to ask, what is Zionism now that Israel is an industrialised and successful nationstate?

What’s the difference between Israeli nationalism and zionism? That’s a question for thought that just popped into my head now, not anything to devise crafty new insults over — Shhhhhhhhh and think for yourself. Groupthink blocks our capacity for intellectual clarity and rigour. What if you could stop chasing clout and you chased G-dcentric values instead? You get to choose! Isn’t that cool?

Whilst I’m here, can I just ask whether Saudi Arabia still had all that antisemitic stuff in its school books and lessons when it decided to buy Pegasus from NSO Group to trap Khashoggi? So, like, Saudi Arabia did not boycott à la BDS Israel whilst, in America and Canada, useful idiots did just that? Ummm, make it make sense, please? Fun Fact: Saudi Arabia did business with Israel before officially normalising Israel.

Are there rules for Arab nations and other rules for the west? Why is that? Can anyone who is smarter than me explain it to me like I’m five years old? Was Pegasus a part of the Israeli diplomatic effort to woo Arab tyrants? Look, reader, it seems to me that doing business with Israeli tech companies in a bid to spy on and punish Saudi dissidents and any Arab or other journalists or dissidents who dare to investigate scandals and corruption and to question leadership means Saudi Arabia “normalised” Israel years ago. We dupes are like the Anglican Marines in Dr. Who, tricked into waging a war against no enemy on a barren planet to fulfil the whims Villenguard’s AI Algorithm in the current season’s episode 3, Boom.

Incidentally, as someone with a south asian heritage, I often draw comparison between India to whom Hindus belong ancestrally, and Israel, to whom Jews belong ancestrally. Islamists forced the partition of the Indian subcontinent and history can tell you how awful that turned out for human beings on the ground. Cyril Radcliffe drew a line for Lulu Mountbatten and millions suffered to hold Radcliffe’s line. Jinnah died and left no one to fill his impossible mythical role to carry out his vision for Pakistan, which did not get fulfilled. Jinnah hid his terminal status from everyone, leaving a vacuum. He set in motion a terrible fate for his own people, then left a power vacuum and left in charge people spiritually incapable of carrying out the task they faced. We are here now, uncomfortably so. I cannot help see, through the comparison with the India partitioning, that different rules apply to different peoples.

Remember the Cloud Atlas quote—with every decision today we birth the future, just as past decisions birthed the present. I sort of understand Lee’s position, knowing him personally now, having had enough conversations with him to know a bit of his heart, and I don’t disagree with him. Lee is an American Jew from Chicago who grew up in Philly and travelled the world from the age of 14. His surname means white man. Why does he need to be indigenous also? What would that serve for him?

With the exception of an added sentence at the end and a few footnotes and some minor stylistic editorial changes from me, the words below the line come from Lee Weissman’s mind and heart. The cornerstone and heart of this piece is his wisdom, not my clever way with words. Constructive comments from people not in fight or despair mode are welcome, the only way to peace is through this messy stuff, I’m afraid. Note, I am very much following the lead of the teacher here, which is Lee.

---

I am not indigenous.

For God's portion is this people;

Jacob, God’s own allotment.

[God] found them in a desert region,

In an empty howling waste.

[God] engirded them, watched over them,

Guarded them as the pupil of God’s eye.

-Devarim (Deuteronomy) 32:9

Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch understands these verses to say that with the formation of Bnai Yisrael, God created a new kind of community. Not a tribe defined only by blood, or custom, or place. A voluntary community of believers, joined together by an idea and a mission to serve the One true God.¹ He points out that this took place in a desert, in a “nowhere” land to remind us that the mission is always independent of place.² Our Torah, our way of life, our values are portable. Our Torah was given in a desert, outside the Land of Israel, precisely so that no one can ever say that it is "indigenous" knowledge, that its wisdom is tied down to one place. It is not a tribal inheritance, it is an independent wisdom which we must choose to embrace.

Indigenous movements have sprouted up all over the the post-colonial—imperialist world. Amazonian Indians, Native Americans, Aboriginals all seek to protect sacred homelands, fragile ecologies and even more fragile folkways of life. In Europe (as well as places like Fiji, etc), “indigenous” identities have been used to marginalize “immigrant” groups who may have been present for many hundreds or even thousands of years. Jews and Roma people consistently suffer as non-indigenous outsiders.

Indigenousness has become part of the jargon of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well. Palestinians claim to be the indigenous people of the Holy Land. Jews claim the same. The briefest look at anthropology or history sends the whole thing sideways very quickly. The name “Palestine” is from “Pilishtim” the name of Phoenician settlers. All sorts of people settled in Palestine. Greeks, all kinds of Arabs, and of course, Jews who had converted to Islam or Christianity and some who hadn't.

As for Jews, the Torah is clear that we are not indigenous to the Land of Israel either. Abraham was from Iraq. He, himself refers to himself as “stranger and resident alien.” When Bnai Yisrael re-enters the land, it is populated by named Canaani tribes. (Including Indo-Aryan Hittites, who for sure are not “indigenous” to the Levant). Of course, modern Jews come from all over. The majority of Israelis now descend from people who came from North Africa, Persia, Iraq and the Levant. Others came from Eastern Europe. Again the facts are complex. Yemeni Jews are closely related genotypically to Ashkenazi Jews who likewise carry Middle Eastern DNA. Converts may have no Middle Eastern DNA at all.³ Jews are genetically and culturally both parochial and cosmopolitan.

Now we face ridiculous situations. We have Palestinian farmers with a long history of belonging to the land—going back many generations—arguing with recent American immigrants from Long Island⁴ or Brooklyn about who is more “indigenous.” The Arab speaks through the dirt beneath his feet and under his fingernails and under the fingernails of the grandfathers who tended the land before him. The Jew speaks through his faith identity and through his interpretation of his holy book. Authentic commitment and passion exists on both sides.

Forgive me, everyone, but I believe that this is the ONE piece of land where this [indigenous identity + claim to the land] argument is least appropriate. This land did NOT get set aside for the “indigenous.” (The geography itself, the bridge between Asia and Africa, on the Mediterranean, smack between the great empires of Mesopotamia and Egypt, make it a terrible place for the whole concept of indigenousness.)⁵

This land exists for believers in a mission, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to create a just society ruled not by the sovereignty of human beings but ruled by God and administered by human beings infused with Godcentric morally + ethically sound wisdom, and not nationalist fervour. The Nationalist vision of a “normal” nation has failed and will always fail. The Land rejects it.

Our only hope is to set aside our claims to ownership and let ourselves, all of us, together be owned by our Creator. The land belongs to God, and we belong to Him. We are guests in this life, which he gave us. Nothing, absolutely not one thing, belongs to us. We belong to things and places and to God, He does not belong to us.

1. Bad Hijabi’s Note: what if God’s tribe is a fabric not a gang, and what if that fabric cannot be held together with human threads, but requires spiritual threads to weave it?

2. Bad Hijabi’s Note: Lee mentioned in class this morning that the emptiness of the desert in which Jews received the Torah signifies the emptiness of humility, of an open heart waiting for God, stripped away of all worldly and egoistic desires and designs.

3. Bad Hijabi’s Note: Razib Khan has written about the genetic origins of the Jewish people, his substack is well worth the paid subscription. I recommend Razib because he rejects identitarianism.

4. Bad Hijabi’s Note: You can pick your narrative when it comes to this stuff, for example Jacob or Justin Fauci, Gnasher Jews reports this and Middle East Eye reports this. How can anyone possibly make sound decisions about this stuff when the reports about one situation and person are so far apart? I constantly feel as though forces on both sides are at work manipulating me to sway my thinking, and it angers me a lot.

5. Bad Hijabi Note: I smile when I read this because I imagine G-d intended this situation as part of the refining process humans must endure when they follow Him. The enormous challenges associate with peacefully coexisting on that piece of land clearly pose an intentional test to humans, like a sort of audition, in particular for those who purport to love and follow G-d.