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Mourning becomes Israel (C&P) Long
HAIRY
Member Posts: 23,606
Mourning becomes Israel: The role of victimhood in the Jewish psyche
By Uri Avnery*
1 February 2004
Two ceremonies on the same day, but what a difference!
At an Israeli air force base, the bodies of three soldiers killed on
the Lebanese border were ceremonially repatriated. The bodies had been
held for three years by Hizbullah (the Party of God), who also freed a
rather shady Israeli businessman they had detained in Beirut. In
return, the Sharon government released 429 prisoners - Palestinian,
Lebanese and others - and returned to Lebanon the bodies of 60 Lebanese militants buried temporarily in Israel.
The Lebanese prisoners who were released by Israel arrived at Beirut
airport at exactly the time the bodies of the three soldiers arrived at the Israeli air base. Television created a virtual reality: the viewer could be present at both ceremonies simultaneously. By a simple
movement of the finger, one could switch from Israel to Lebanon and
back in a split second.
In Israel it was said that the deal was unbalanced. That it encourages
the kidnapping of more Israelis, in order to secure the release of more
prisoners. That it boosts the prestige of the Hizbullah leader, Hassan
Nasrallah, enormously. That Sharon is using it in order to divert
attention from the corruption affairs in which he and his two sons are
involved.
All true, but all missing the main point.
It's not about three bodies. The huge difference between the two
ceremonies reflects this. It was not just a result of the different
circumstances.
In Beirut there was an outpouring of joy. All the highest officials of
the Lebanese state were there, as well as the leaders of Hizbullah - a
movement officially designated by the US government as a terrorist
organization. While a Lebanese army band played marches, everybody
hugged and kissed everyone else. Al-Jazeera TV brought the scene live
to tens of millions of viewers throughout the Arab world.
The Israeli ceremony was entirely different. A scene of mourning and
tears. The live prisoner, who returned with the bodies, was spirited
away. The three simple boxes covered with the national flag (Orthodox
Judaism forbids caskets) were lying in front. Opposite them sat a row
of personalities with faces suitably grief-stricken for such a
dignified ritual. Behind them, there sat hundreds of politicians,
generals and the members of the bereaved families. The president of
Israel, the prime minister, the minister of defence and the chief of
the General Staff made speeches that were remarkably alike, as if one
and the same person had written all four. They spoke about "Jewish
morality" and the "Jewish soul". They declaimed the old saying "He who
saves one Jew is as if he has saved the whole world", meaning the lone
businessman who was returned. ("One Jew", not one human being, in spite of the fact that one of the three fallen soldiers was not a Jew at all, but an Israeli Arab). The fallen soldiers defended our lives. The cruel enemy threatens to destroy all of us.
That morning, 10 Israelis were killed and about 50 wounded in a suicide bombing in the heart of Jerusalem, a few dozen metres from the official residence of the prime minister. Throughout the day, Israeli TV broadcast the pictures, together with the news about the prisoner swap. It became all one story: the bodies in Jerusalem and the bodies returning from Lebanon, the moaning of the wounded and the tears of the bereaved families as the bodies of their loved ones arrived.
The next morning, the main headline of Yediot Ahronot, by far the
largest-circulation newspaper in Israel, proclaimed in huge letters:
"The day of tears". Its competitor, Ma'ariv, displayed an equally huge
headline: "Sad and painful".
The message was self-evident: the Jewish people are suffering. But the
Jewish people are alive. They try to kill us, but we move on. We are a
moral people, no one is as moral as we. We redeem our brothers and
sisters in captivity, whatever the price (429 live prisoners for three
bodies and one adventurer). As the old saying goes: "The people of
Israel are responsible for each other". Thus behaves a long-suffering
people, the nation of victims.
The Jerusalem attack reminded us again that the cruel enemy wants to
annihilate us, as it had always been. He kills us because we are Jews.
(The army announced that there was absolutely no connection between the attack and the fact that, a day before, the army had killed eight
Palestinians in Gaza, including one 11-year old boy and three other
civilians.) Palestinians kill Jews, and there is no difference between
them and the Crusaders who butchered the Jews on their way to the Holy
Land, the Spanish inquisition, the Russian pogroms and the Holocaust.
We are, have always been and will always be the victims.
Cynics will say that all this is nothing but a propaganda spin designed to further Sharon's aims. It is not the Palestinians who are the victims, but we. When we kill Palestinians, build the monster wall, demolish homes and uproot plantations, we do it only for our own
protection, because a nation of victims must defend themselves against
those who arise to destroy it.
This is indeed spin, but behind the propaganda a real psychological
need is hidden. The rituals of bereavement, the rites of mourning and
the sense of being victims, around which so much of Israeli life
revolves, are deeply rooted in the national psyche. The ceremony at the air force base expressed this vividly. It united the "People in Israel" and connected it again with Jewish existence throughout the ages.
Zionism was supposed to put an end to all this. It was supposed to turn us from a passive into an active people, from a helpless, suffering people into a nation that has taken its destiny into its own hands. On the face of it, we have succeeded. We have set up a strong state, we have immense military power, but reality has not changed our consciousness. It has remained the consciousness of a helpless, suffering people, waiting for the Cossacks to set upon us at any minute.
Psychologists can probably explain this. The Jews have become
accustomed to being victims. This is a perception that is being
inculcated in children in Israel by hundreds of different methods, from the national holidays to visits to Auschwitz.
A known reality, even a bad one, confers a sense of orientation. One
knows where one is, who is the enemy, how to defend oneself. Any change from one reality to another upsets this security, it creates a feeling of insecurity and uncertainty, one feels like a person who has
unwittingly entered a foreign land, without maps and signposts. A
frightening experience.
Those in our country who talk about a "Jewish state" - as opposed to an
"Israeli state" - mean this, too. The commander of an armoured division
reveals that he is the son of Holocaust survivors, but continues to
enforce the oppressive occupation. At the ceremony for the bodies of
the fallen soldiers, dignitaries speak of the Jewish soul. And all feel
that they are members of one big family, united in suffering and
mourning, connected to former generations.
Nonconformists may argue that we have long since become a nation of
occupiers, that the appellation "nation of victims" now belongs to our
neighbours. Such talking revolts the national psyche; it is upsetting
and infuriating. It hurts the sense of belonging.
There is only one nation of victims. If somebody else wants to claim
this crown of thorns for himself, we will bash in his head.
*Uri Avnery is an Israeli journalist, writer and peace activist.
Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men" Burke
By Uri Avnery*
1 February 2004
Two ceremonies on the same day, but what a difference!
At an Israeli air force base, the bodies of three soldiers killed on
the Lebanese border were ceremonially repatriated. The bodies had been
held for three years by Hizbullah (the Party of God), who also freed a
rather shady Israeli businessman they had detained in Beirut. In
return, the Sharon government released 429 prisoners - Palestinian,
Lebanese and others - and returned to Lebanon the bodies of 60 Lebanese militants buried temporarily in Israel.
The Lebanese prisoners who were released by Israel arrived at Beirut
airport at exactly the time the bodies of the three soldiers arrived at the Israeli air base. Television created a virtual reality: the viewer could be present at both ceremonies simultaneously. By a simple
movement of the finger, one could switch from Israel to Lebanon and
back in a split second.
In Israel it was said that the deal was unbalanced. That it encourages
the kidnapping of more Israelis, in order to secure the release of more
prisoners. That it boosts the prestige of the Hizbullah leader, Hassan
Nasrallah, enormously. That Sharon is using it in order to divert
attention from the corruption affairs in which he and his two sons are
involved.
All true, but all missing the main point.
It's not about three bodies. The huge difference between the two
ceremonies reflects this. It was not just a result of the different
circumstances.
In Beirut there was an outpouring of joy. All the highest officials of
the Lebanese state were there, as well as the leaders of Hizbullah - a
movement officially designated by the US government as a terrorist
organization. While a Lebanese army band played marches, everybody
hugged and kissed everyone else. Al-Jazeera TV brought the scene live
to tens of millions of viewers throughout the Arab world.
The Israeli ceremony was entirely different. A scene of mourning and
tears. The live prisoner, who returned with the bodies, was spirited
away. The three simple boxes covered with the national flag (Orthodox
Judaism forbids caskets) were lying in front. Opposite them sat a row
of personalities with faces suitably grief-stricken for such a
dignified ritual. Behind them, there sat hundreds of politicians,
generals and the members of the bereaved families. The president of
Israel, the prime minister, the minister of defence and the chief of
the General Staff made speeches that were remarkably alike, as if one
and the same person had written all four. They spoke about "Jewish
morality" and the "Jewish soul". They declaimed the old saying "He who
saves one Jew is as if he has saved the whole world", meaning the lone
businessman who was returned. ("One Jew", not one human being, in spite of the fact that one of the three fallen soldiers was not a Jew at all, but an Israeli Arab). The fallen soldiers defended our lives. The cruel enemy threatens to destroy all of us.
That morning, 10 Israelis were killed and about 50 wounded in a suicide bombing in the heart of Jerusalem, a few dozen metres from the official residence of the prime minister. Throughout the day, Israeli TV broadcast the pictures, together with the news about the prisoner swap. It became all one story: the bodies in Jerusalem and the bodies returning from Lebanon, the moaning of the wounded and the tears of the bereaved families as the bodies of their loved ones arrived.
The next morning, the main headline of Yediot Ahronot, by far the
largest-circulation newspaper in Israel, proclaimed in huge letters:
"The day of tears". Its competitor, Ma'ariv, displayed an equally huge
headline: "Sad and painful".
The message was self-evident: the Jewish people are suffering. But the
Jewish people are alive. They try to kill us, but we move on. We are a
moral people, no one is as moral as we. We redeem our brothers and
sisters in captivity, whatever the price (429 live prisoners for three
bodies and one adventurer). As the old saying goes: "The people of
Israel are responsible for each other". Thus behaves a long-suffering
people, the nation of victims.
The Jerusalem attack reminded us again that the cruel enemy wants to
annihilate us, as it had always been. He kills us because we are Jews.
(The army announced that there was absolutely no connection between the attack and the fact that, a day before, the army had killed eight
Palestinians in Gaza, including one 11-year old boy and three other
civilians.) Palestinians kill Jews, and there is no difference between
them and the Crusaders who butchered the Jews on their way to the Holy
Land, the Spanish inquisition, the Russian pogroms and the Holocaust.
We are, have always been and will always be the victims.
Cynics will say that all this is nothing but a propaganda spin designed to further Sharon's aims. It is not the Palestinians who are the victims, but we. When we kill Palestinians, build the monster wall, demolish homes and uproot plantations, we do it only for our own
protection, because a nation of victims must defend themselves against
those who arise to destroy it.
This is indeed spin, but behind the propaganda a real psychological
need is hidden. The rituals of bereavement, the rites of mourning and
the sense of being victims, around which so much of Israeli life
revolves, are deeply rooted in the national psyche. The ceremony at the air force base expressed this vividly. It united the "People in Israel" and connected it again with Jewish existence throughout the ages.
Zionism was supposed to put an end to all this. It was supposed to turn us from a passive into an active people, from a helpless, suffering people into a nation that has taken its destiny into its own hands. On the face of it, we have succeeded. We have set up a strong state, we have immense military power, but reality has not changed our consciousness. It has remained the consciousness of a helpless, suffering people, waiting for the Cossacks to set upon us at any minute.
Psychologists can probably explain this. The Jews have become
accustomed to being victims. This is a perception that is being
inculcated in children in Israel by hundreds of different methods, from the national holidays to visits to Auschwitz.
A known reality, even a bad one, confers a sense of orientation. One
knows where one is, who is the enemy, how to defend oneself. Any change from one reality to another upsets this security, it creates a feeling of insecurity and uncertainty, one feels like a person who has
unwittingly entered a foreign land, without maps and signposts. A
frightening experience.
Those in our country who talk about a "Jewish state" - as opposed to an
"Israeli state" - mean this, too. The commander of an armoured division
reveals that he is the son of Holocaust survivors, but continues to
enforce the oppressive occupation. At the ceremony for the bodies of
the fallen soldiers, dignitaries speak of the Jewish soul. And all feel
that they are members of one big family, united in suffering and
mourning, connected to former generations.
Nonconformists may argue that we have long since become a nation of
occupiers, that the appellation "nation of victims" now belongs to our
neighbours. Such talking revolts the national psyche; it is upsetting
and infuriating. It hurts the sense of belonging.
There is only one nation of victims. If somebody else wants to claim
this crown of thorns for himself, we will bash in his head.
*Uri Avnery is an Israeli journalist, writer and peace activist.
Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men" Burke