Ma'ariv, June 9, 2007
40 years, 4000 years, does it matter?
"Citizens, in the name of honor, in the name of our heroic Arab fatherland, in the name of history, past and future: we are entering today a battle for freedom, valor, honor and salvation. We shall stand before the Israeli aggressor and we shall wipe him out, in order to remove the stain of the imperialist Zionist entity. Brothers, free fighters from Gaza, Sinai and Sharm-al-Shech, brothers, heroes from the Lebanon and Syria, start marching on Tel-Aviv." This is how the Egyptian radio station began its broadcast to the Arab world on June 5, 1967, the day the Six-Day-War broke out.
This week, as I was leafing through an American magazine, I stumbled upon the best ever definition for "politically correct", a vile notion that corrupts dialogue and thought. "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."
I need this definition when the Iranian president declares that the days of Israel are numbered. One week ago the British academia decided to call for a boycott against Israel, which doesn't take me by surprise. Nor does it surprise me that members of Israeli academia acted as catalysts. Samuel Johnson said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Yes, and humanism is the last refuge of a traitor. Ironically, the first blood libel incident against the Jews documented in the Christian world took place in Norwich, England. Norwich Jews were accused of murdering 11-year-old William. One of the main characters in the story was unsurprisingly a converted Jew, Theobald of Cambridge.
The blood accusation later spread to the continent and the persecutions started. The passage of time left no mark either on the perpetrators or the renegade Jews. During the Defensive Shield operation, members of the Israeli academia signed a petition calling on the world to intervene and stop the ethnic cleaning of the Palestinians by Israel. It is not by chance that at the very same time Israeli PM Ariel Sharon was sipping Arab children blood in an Egyptian TV series. When Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was kindly asked to take that program off the air, he replied: "Not all Jews are the same." Jewish self-hate is undoubtedly a very deep and unprecedented psycho-historical phenomenon.
The root of self-hatred
German Jewish philosopher Theodore Lessing published The Jewish Self-Hatred (Der Judische Selbsthass) in the 1930's. He was murdered by the Nazis in 1933. Lessing claims that the highly developed Jewish sense of morality is the key to the pathological self-loathing. An individual is not interested only in knowing the reason behind the disaster that strikes, they want to know why. Most humans will shift the blame onto someone else, usually the enemy. The Jew accepts his own guilt because he perceives every misfortune as punishment which brings him closer to salvation.
This self-blame is the result of thousands of years of persecution. The claim is supported by Masechet Shabbat (13,72): "Pray tell, rabbis, who wrote the book of fasting? They answered: Hanania ben Hizkiyahu and his followers who loved misfortunes (meaning misfortunes that can be atoned for, as well as the miracles for which they can praise the blessed Lord). Then said Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel: We also love our misfortunes, but what to do, for if we were to write them down, we would not have the time (Rashi comment: because they were aplenty)."
An additional reason for self-loathing is the gentile background. Victim demonizing is a frequent psychological process useful for overcoming conscience qualms over trespasses. The individual seeks a reason to justify his misfortunes (e.g. the attitude towards the expelled Gush Katiff residents). Two thousand years of Christian love must have done something to the Jewish soul, else why would the Jews themselves believe that they deserve their persecution. In Lessing's words: "In order to turn a man into a dog it is enough to repeat calling him 'You, dog'!".
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, but the public atmosphere dictated by the media swings between lament and grief. At times it seems that the Israeli elite regret our victory. Any person in their right mind would ask: "Are they sane? What would have happened to us if we hadn't crushed our enemies? Where would we have been had the intentions of our Arab enemies materialized, as expressed by Egyptian president Nasser in 1965, during his speech in Hilwan: "Our goal is the destruction of Israel. During the first summit we set two objectives. The immediate one – to complete the unification of the Arab forces, and the national objective – to annihilate Israel."
The tale of stupidity and ignorance
My TV set is tuned to channel 10 broadcasting "What we lost in the Six Day War". I go ballistic. Some of us, the "older ones", remember the battle cries of the crowds rallying in the main squares of Cairo and Damascus, days before the war broke out and liberated parts of our land. PLO leader at the time Ahmad Shukairi coined the phrase "Men to the sea, women to us". This became the legitimate, public chant of the blood thirsty Arab mobs, a battle cry of the tribal Arabs who used to slaughter all males and enslave all women. This barbaric cry is still popular with the Palestinians, both within and without the Green Line (remember the October riots?): "Haibar, Haibar, ya yahood, Jaish Muhammad Sawfa ya'ud", meaning "Haibar, Haibar, oh Jew, Muhammad's Army is coming for you." (Haibar was an oasis inhabitant by independent Jewish tribes until Muhammad treacherously attacked them, slaughtered all the men and enslaved all women and children).
How better to conclude this discourse on stupidity and ignorance than by mentioning a painful episode from our more recent history: remember the Fager rockets landing in Afula, Beit Shean and Haifa during the second Lebanon? What did the Hezbollah call them? Haibar rockets.
Jerusalem the GoldenOn the eve of the Six Day War, Naomi Shemer wrote her "Jerusalem the Golden" classic, one of the finest examples of renewed Hebrew song. Well, during many a conversation with educated people, I was surprised to find out how few of them knew what inspired this beautiful anthem. Masechet Avot de Rabbi Nathan describes how Rabbi Akiva rewards his wife Rachel for her faithfulness and support through thick and thin, with a beautiful piece of jewelry named Jerusalem the Golden, an engraving of the city of Jerusalem, ruined and deserted by her Jewish residents. The gorgeous engraving was a memento of the city's lost grandeur and an expression of the hope for deliverance. And to complete the puzzle, in the Midrash Rabba Eicha, we read how Rabbi Akiva and the sages traveled (climbed) to Jerusalem and spotted a fox in the ruins of the Holy of Holies. While the sages wept, Rabbi Akiva burst into laughter. The sages were bewildered, but Rabbi Akiva explained: "As long as the prophecy of ruin was fulfilled, so shall the prophecy of salvation be fulfilled."
And behold, Naomi Shemer was composing her beautiful song during the Six Day War waiting period without the slightest suspicion that Jerusalem was soon to be liberated. Those whining today about our victory in the battle field are the same ones that criticized Naomi's lyrics, mostly "the dry water wells, the empty market place". Amos Oz, the one with the beautiful bangs and pure soul reprimanded: "What does she mean by the dry water wells and empty market place? It was full of Arabs. What does she mean no-one was going to the Dead Sea? With my own eyes I saw Arab women heading for the Dead Sea all the time." Naomi Shemer replied in the documentary produced in her honor: "This claim is really infuriating and offending. As if a man who misses his beloved should seek comfort with this psychiatrist, Amos Oz, who would reassure him: Don’t worry, your beloved is not alone, she is in bed with another man. For me, a Judenrein world is a dead planet, and the Land of Israel without Jews is empty and deserted."(illustrations: Jerusalem and East Jerusalem painted in 1842 by British artist David , of all names, Roberts)
