'If Arabs in Israel will be Israelis like Israel's Jews are Israelis, what will define the Jews?'
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Defining national identity through hatred
Op-ed: Both Jews and Arabs are addicted to conflict, because without their fellowman's hostility their identity would weaken.
The research institute of the University of Chicago ranks the world's countries according to their citizens' level of national pride. Israel is regularly in the top 10, not far from the United States which tops the list.
This shows that it's not the objective situation that determines the citizens' level of national pride, but other factors, and mainly the severity of the conflict their country is in. The conflict may be violent or ideological, and may even be a sports conflict. The researchers found that while the citizens of the European community do not excel in their national pride, their pride increases during the UEFA Cup soccer games' season.
Alongside the US – the strongest and richest country in the world – is Venezuela, which is in a desperate economic situation, has crime spreading on its city streets and whose political system is collapsing. Its citizens' national pride is not undermined in light of their country's poor achievements.
Nationality
After scorching criticism, prime minister defends his 'Jewish state' basic law proposal, saying existing legislation gives full expression to Israel's democratic nature, but not its Jewish nature.
So is the case with the Israelis' national pride: It reaches its peak when the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball club succeeds in the Euroleague. The fact that the team's key players are not Israeli is not important, because Maccabi is a symbol, and symbols are objects on which one can throw whatever the soul desires and cannot be expressed. A flag, an anthem, a military parade, a slogan, an awareness-building photo, or a personality which allegedly embodies the "national characteristics" – all these are crutches the national identity leans on.
The identity-strengthening symbols are not created by chance. They are created by symbol engineers, who are usually politicians and people working in their service. They are designed against fellowman, as a person or a group of people have no identity but against the others. "We" are "not the others," and without a diagnosed fellowman we cannot boast a clear identity.
Zionism was established as an opposition to anti-Semitism, the national Palestinian movement was established as an opposition to Zionism, and Israeliness is an opposition to the Arab opposition. If the distinction between Jew and Arab is blurred as a result of a moderation of the conflict between Jews and Arabs, it is unlikely that Israel's Jews will manage to strengthen their identity and it is unlikely that the Palestinians will succeed in nurturing their uniqueness. This shows us that both are addicted to conflict, because without their fellowman's hostility their identity will weaken.
How the minority shapes the majority
How wonderful for the Jews that not all of Israel's Arabs fled and were driven away in the War of Independence. They harass us in with their mere existence, but the pain makes the body present. We need them in order to examine the essence of Israeliness and the meaning of citizenship in a state which defines itself as "Jewish and democratic." In other words: The minority shapes the majority through the majority's attitude towards the minority.
The more the Israelis' confidence in their identity weakens, the more they split into hostile factions according to their ethnic descent, religious faith and economic situation, the more they praise the symbols of their Jewish identity. They invent multiple tricks in order to distinguish between "us" and "them," label the Arabs, engage in multiple "price tag" maneuvers, invent laws whose sole purpose is to set up fences between the two groups, and renounce the principle of citizenship which brings the residents of one territory together under one definition: Israelis. If the Arabs in Israel will be Israelis like Israel's Jews are Israelis, what will define the Jews?
In this framework we must also understand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new initiative to push for the enactment of a law defining Israel as a Jewish state. I doubt that he believes this law has any purpose in itself, as words will not change the reality in which the Jewish majority designs the depiction of the Israeli society.
He needs this law in order to satisfy the weak Jews who support the right-wing parties, those who are not sure of their identity and need to strengthen it by inflaming hatred towards others. The independence did not free the Jews from the need to be hated in order to be Jews.
