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Photo: Tzvika Tishler
Yehoshua's message unnerving to some
Photo: Tzvika Tishler
Yaron London

The brutal truth

Why are Israelis uncomfortable with Yehoshua's message to Diaspora Jews?

Author A.B. Yehoshua stirred up quite a storm last week when he told the American Jewish Committee that one’s identity is crafted by his environment and the country he lives in, rather than by religion. Israeli Jews, he said, experience their Jewish identity in every action and interaction, whereas diaspora Jews experience being Jewish only a small percentage of the time.

 

For this reason, responsibility for Jewish continuity lies squarely on Israeli shoulders, said Yehoshua.

 

Traumatic message

 

I understand why Yehoshua's American audience was traumatized by this message, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out why so many Israelis have slammed his comments on the Internet.

 

He said nothing that was not part and parcel of traditional Zionist belief: In the modern period, there is no way for the Jewish people to continue its existence in exile. It must become like other nations, whose identity is bound up with a unique language and political independence in a land where it can control its own destiny.

 

Traditional Zionism believed that most Jews who live outside this country and do not play a part in its cultural development will either be destroyed or assimilate. The history of the past 200 years shows that this has indeed been the case, although this trend cannot be said to necessarily continue in future.

 

Paralyzing fear

 

Therefore, I have tried to understand what about Yehoshua's words bothers his detractors. This has been no simple task, because most of them suffice with name-calling or words of praise. But I think I've figured it out: People are afraid of the notion that Israeli Jews could become stranded on an isolated Jewish island.

 

This fear gives rise to a list of assumptions: Since the way of life dictated by Jewish law (halacha) sustained our people for many generations, it can be assumed that we must cling to this way of life in order to survive.

 

If the yearning for Zion, which has its roots in our religious tradition, is the basis upon which the Zionist ethos rests, then Zionism has no other interpretation apart from the religious. If the Jewish people has always maintained a link with its exiles, it can be assumed that that link will always remain.

 

If the Jewish people successfully managed to survive for thousands of years, it will apparently survive forever. Yehoshua rejects these notions, and so he is subjected to a verbal stoning.

 

Linear logic

 

A word that may give some insight into the thought-process of those throwing the stones: This is linear thinking, according to which the past fires an arrow whose path moves from the past directly to the future. Therefore, what has always been is what will always be.

 

The problem is that this line can be drawn according to the beliefs of the artist. Using a different starting point, one can come to the conclusion that if most people connected to the Jewish nation have been lost over the years, then we can assume that the rest will eventually be lost as well. We can say that all over the world religion is losing its power to determine identity, and so here, too, religion will lose its ability to determine our identity.

 

Once upon a time, long before the realization of the Zionist dream, when we believed normalization of the Jewish people would put an end to anti-Jewish hatred, when we were confident in our abilities and in the positive future that lie ahead, we were not afraid of becoming an isolated island.

 

Now, we quake with fear, and that fear is deceptive. Our withdrawal from simple Zionism was caused by circumstances that forced us to lean on financial and political support from foreign Jews. You cannot ask for help from people who don't want to connect to you.

 

But the time will come when you've got to be honest, to say that his choice to remain in exile will bring about his destruction. At first you lie out of politeness and self-interest. But once the lies have been internalized, you really do begin to doubt the fundamentals of your faith.

 

This would appear to be the reason that so many Israelis deny (to themselves) the brutal truth: We will remain alone, and alone we will carry the ensuring the continued existence of our people. There will be no other Jews.

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.07.06, 10:55
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