The problem, Benny Morris, is Zionism
[it’s impossible to imagine this appearing in a US newspaper]
Jerusalem Post - January 29, 2007
The problem, Benny Morris, is Zionism Yakov M. Rabkin
Benny Morris is an honest man. He was one of the first to expose the
history of Zionist dispossession and expulsion of the Palestinians.
He later honestly regretted that the ethnic cleansing had not been
radical enough: The United States had done a better job in cleansing
the country of its previous inhabitants.
Recently he published a heart-rending prophecy of doom to the effect
that the entire Zionist enterprise in the Land of Israel is facing
annihilation from an Iranian nuclear strike. His article (”This
Holocaust will be different” The Jerusalem Post, January 18) is not
pleasant to read. It contains graphic violence. But it must be read.
Benny Morris, professor of history at Ben-Gurion University, compares
Israel’s current predicament with the Holocaust. His depiction of the
tragedy of European Jews is blood-curdling. Dismissing Israel’s
presumed nuclear arsenal as “unusable,” he is truly desperate as he
contemplates missile strikes against Israel’s population centers and
estimates that the casualties may reach the number of victims claimed
by the Nazi genocide.
Morris appears to perpetuate the prophetic tradition that inspires
quite a few Jews these days. Some denounce Israel’s treatment of the
Palestinians; some question the Zionist nature of the state; all
believe that they are speaking truth to power. They propose
solutions, advocate positions and defend opinions.
Morris does none of the above. He mourns the country he chose to live
in and in which he has raised family. He does not say how to save the
inhabitants of the State of Israel. In this sense, he may be closer
to the authors of Greek tragedies than to the Bible prophets, who
invariably point to a way out. This is why the Book of Jonah, in
which repentance averts catastrophe, is read on the Yom Kippur, the
Day of Atonement, when Jews stand in awe of divine judgement.
MORRIS’S FATALISM is explicable. Zionism has been a rebellion against
Diaspora Judaism and its cult of submission, humility and
appeasement. It has been a valiant attempt to transform the humble
Jew relying on divine providence into a intrepid Hebrew relying on
his own power. This transformation has been an impressive success.
Israel has acquired the mightiest military in the region, but this
has brought her neither peace nor tranquillity.
Morris could have concluded his essay by quoting a Bible prophet: for
it is not by strength that man prevails (Samuel I 2:9). Intimately
familiar with the history of the creation of modern Israel, he could
have proposed ways to recognize the injustice done to the
Palestinians for the sake of establishing and expanding the Zionist
state. He could have called on his compatriots to seek ways to
correct the injustice and thus assuage the grievances of the
Palestinians that have plagued Israel throughout her history.
Morris would then be pointing a way out of the violent impasse. As it
stands now, his prophecy may only legitimize military strikes against
Iran and further escalation of violence in the region. Once again
Israel may come out victorious, but the Israelis will continue to
live in fear of the next enemy.
Several Jewish thinkers have warned of this predicament. One of them
prophesied during the War of Independence in 1948: And even if the
Jews were to win the war, the “victorious” Jews would live surrounded
by an entirely hostile Arab population, secluded inside ever-
threatened borders, absorbed with physical self-defense. And all this
would be the fate of a nation that - no matter how many immigrants it
could absorb and how far it extended its boundaries - would still
remain a very small people greatly outnumbered by hostile neighbors.
This warning came from Hannah Arendt who understood the perils of
establishing a state against the will of local inhabitants and all
the surrounding nations. Secular and Orthodox thinkers alike feared
that Ben-Gurion’s version of Zionism would endanger both physical and
spiritual survival of the Jews.
NOWADAYS, when no Arab state poses a military threat to Israel it is
Iran that many Israelis fear. Just next to Iran, which is as yet far
from acquiring a nuclear potential, lies Pakistan, an unstable regime
with a strong Islamist movement and a real, not imaginary, nuclear
arsenal. Just as Arendt prophesied, there may be no end to
existential threats if Israel stays its course. Benny Morris may have
indeed written a Greek tragedy, a fatalistic turn of events that
neither humans, nor gods, can alter.
Fatalism, just as multiple gods, is alien to Judaism. A Jewish
reference to the eternal hatred of the nations is the talmudic
saying: “Esau hates Jacob.” Yet some rabbis, including Rabbi Naphtali
Zvi Berlin (the Netziv), emphasize that in the future the two will
love one another deeply, as did Rabbi Judas the Prince and the Roman
Emperor Antoninus.
In the light of this interpretation it is easier to grasp why many
community leaders took their inspiration from the story of Esau and
Jacob before negotiating with unfriendly authorities: They were
attempting to turn an enemy into a friend.
This is what the anti-Zionist rabbis of today claim they are doing
when they travel to Iran and embrace President Ahmadinejad. Unlike
Benny Morris, they are trying to find a way to prevent a tragedy from
coming true. They may not succeed, but they should not be condemned
for trying.
The author is professor of history at the University of Montreal. His
latest book is A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition
to Zionism.