The riots in Akko
Photo: Eran Yofi Cohen
It’s because we’re Jewish
Impotence in face of Akko Riots a reminder that Jews do not make good rulers
Jews don’t know how to rule. This is clear to anyone observing the Israeli chaos. After all, too much time has passed since Jews were in power, and we completely forgot the meaning of sovereignty and the way to impose order. The last time Jews were in power was in the Hasmonean era, and even back then the situation wasn’t glorious.
And so, to this day, we constantly wait for someone else to come and do the job for us. Perhaps the Americans will try our crime families. The multinational force will surely fight Hizbullah on our behalf, and Micronesia will attack Iran’s nuclear reactor. I even heard people aspiring for the return of the British Mandate.
For example, it was hard to miss the sense of public satisfaction when reputed mobster Ze’ev Rosenstein was extradited to American. “Now he will find out what a real prison feels like,” the talkbacks said. “In America it’s no joke.” We are so jealous of the gentiles because they “play no games.” Often I ask myself why we cannot just send a regiment of Hebrew mounted police to put Akko in order. Why can’t we dispatch a Zionist platoon to punish the drug dealers in Lod? Or why can’t we construct a small-scale Alcatraz on an island in the Sea of Galilee? Of course we can, we simply don’t want to do it. And what do you mean “why not?” It’s because we’re Jewish. And Jews simply don’t do some things.
First of all, we feel unpleasant about it. Especially when it comes to minorities. After all, we too used to be a minority and we were persecuted everywhere. So how can we do the same to a glass-shattering mob chanting “butcher the Jews”? And if an impassioned mob surrounds a horrified family, are we supposed to fire rubber bullets at them? No, my friends. Fascism won’t pass. We’re simply not like that.
Yet this reality is not limited to national affairs. When it comes to fighting crime, we also have excellent excuses for our importance. After all, we’re merciful people. How can we execute baby rapists and child killers? Jew’s don’t kill. However, if Singapore, for example, a democracy that has the death penalty, will demand the extradition of Israelis who killed their children, we won’t object. Perhaps we will even be a little happy, somewhere deep in our merciful Jewish heart.
We do not have the self-confidence of the kings of Israel or the power of the Hasmoneans. We are much more similar to the customs of the Diaspora Jew, the kind who tells a Yiddish joke when things are really bad, or at most reads some psalms. But, heaven forbid, he will not undertake an overly aggressive act.
Therefore, it is very difficult for us to grasp that we are the ones who are required to exercise power in practice. We have still not internalized the fact that the responsibility for running the Jewish State is exclusively ours, and therefore we shall always keep on hoping that someone will do the dirty work for us. After all, we have foreign workers doing all our manual labor. Why shouldn’t it be the same when it comes to our security?
And so, until the foreign worker plan is approved, we shall continue to hope that “someone will put this house in order.” And when will that happen? Who knows. Perhaps when Napoleon conquers Akko again.
