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I wholly disapprove of what, you say and vfill defend to the death your right to say it. � Voltaire to Helvetia*.
JANUARY 13, 1961
Offle*
VOL. XLIIJ, NO. 15 Gtrtoral*
The Israelis and Zionism
�Y MOW! BAR-NATAN, ISRAELI CORRESPONDENT Of THE JEWISH FRONTIER, OF NEW YORK
I heard a sUry the other day about a distinguished visitor to Israel, a man who plays a prominent part in the work of the World Jewish Congress, who was deeply disturbed at what he was told by a five-year-old sabra (native-born). "You're not a Jew," declared the tot. "You don't live in Israel." "There's the attitude of the Israeli for you!" said the visitor.
He might have been told, of course, that he shouldn't take too much notice of the prattle of children. There was another child of
my__acquaintance, who said one
day, "When I grow up, I'll be like Grandma. My hair will go all white, all my teeth will fall out, arid I'll talk Yiddish!"
But, even apart from that, it would be as well to beware of generalizations. Not all the sabras are cast in the same mold, and the native-born are far from being the whole of Israel. Two-thirds were born abroad, and these include a bewildering variety of types, from the pre-State veterans to the newcomers from Morocco and Iraq, from the kibbutznik to the capitalist
Another warning I should like to have given our distinguished tourist was: don't take the Israeli too literally. We have heard ad nauseam of the sabra habit of using the word "Zionist" for any kind of religious or moral preaching. Actually, the term no more implies a considered view of Zionism than the derogatory use of such words as "preaching" itself signifies an antagonism to religion. It is not the Movement that is the target of these light-hearted arrows, but some of its exponents, who repeat its slogans without themselves being prepared to live up to them, and bore the young people because they are boring in themselves.
There are certain signs, too, of a shift in the attitude of the younger generation to their elders. Take, for example, one of the most irreverent spokesmen of the young Israeli, Dahn Ben Amotz, a penetrating and infuriating mocker at established slogans and ways of thought. HuT there has always been something self-deprecatory in his mockery. In an interview a short time ago, he began a remark by saying, "When I was � if you will excuse the expression � in the Pal-mach. . . ." That did not mean that he despised the Palmach and its heroic role in the War of Independence; he was expressing his distaste for the people who thought they could indefinitely live on the glories of the past. I have never heard a young fellow scornfully **ying "Zionut" when Ben-Gurion was speaking about the Messianic vision or the need to build the Negev.
Some time ago Dahn Ben Amotx helped to edit a program called ThoM Wen the Days," made up of tongs and recollections of the last two generations. When he was fti&ed about his motives for collaborating In this ventare, his first reply was a typically cheeky "sa-tealsm": "Well, I've never made any money out of these old-time ehormsec, and I thought it was tim* I did." Bat he went on to say aotttething rather revealing, more or IMS fa theee words:
Ton know, IV* done a lot of laughing at theee old people, hot yov mast admit they had some-ttaf., They made innumerable
speeches about draining the Hula, but then they actually went and did it, and there you are � the Hula is drained." The program itself, which was put on in Tel Aviv's largest hall, was a roaring success, and the young people flocked to listen, with enjoyment and a certain amount of respect, to the "Zionut" of their elders.
We should be careful, therefore, not to confuse a natural and healthy contempt for humbug and platitude with an antagonism to Zionism itself. The question arises, however: what kind of Zionism? And here I think we may say that there is something like a central Israeli point of view. It is by no means unanimous � there are deviations on both sides of the center � but there is a typical viewpoint, which is derived from the actual position of people living in the country called Israel.
Before going on to discuss what it is, however, it may help to make things clear if we first survey the untypical views. On the one hand, we have the attitude expressed in its extremist form by the much-publicized "Canaanites." These are the most uncompromising anti-Zionists, the people who deny that there is any bond whatsoever between Israelis and Jews outside. Their philosophy might be expressed in the words of the old drinking song: "We're here because we're here because we're here!" (a lyric which, I believe, owes nothing to Gertrude Stein).
They utterly deny the significance of religion in_ Jewish life, and indeed everything connoted by the term "Jewishness." For them, the Israeli Arab is more their brother than the Jew who lives in New York, and they aspire to become completely merged in a ^Middle East federation or commonwealth, an all-embracing Semitic union, in which the Israelis will play a dominant part by virtue of their superior education and energy.
The Canaanite movement as such is almost extinct, but its ideology still exerts some influence through the popular scandal-sheet Haolam Hazeh, as well as through the "New Regime" movement of Eliezer Livneh, Isaiah Leibovitz and Shmuel Tamir, which denounces all fund-collecting abroad as "Schnorr" and demands that Israel should live entirely on its own resources.
At the other extreme we have those who have swallowed entire what may be called the American view of Zionism, as typified by my friend David Krivine's article in the last issue of Israel Seen From Within, Krivine not only accepts, but apparently welcomes, the fact that only a tiny minority of Jews from the Western democracies are coming to settle in Israel. He regards it as the basis of a new synthesis, which has great advantages for the Jewish people as a whole.
I find this attitude somewhat difficult to understand. Let us take a totally Utopian assumption, that fifty thousand American Jews per year, a characteristic cross-section of the community, old and young, rich and poor, should one day take it into their heads to come over here to live and play an active, personal part in the building of Israel. There b no need to en. large on the tremendous effect that would have on the material prospects of the country and the
lift it would give to the morale of its people.
I have no doubt that it would have a vitalizing effect on American Jewry itself; it would certainly not in any way weaken its bonds with Israel � quite the contrary. And it would- involve no danger whatsoever of. the liquidation of the American Diaspora, In fact, the synthesis would be more intimate than before.
Of course this is a visionary as-sumptipn in> present conditions, and it may be contended that we should face, the facts; namely thai Western Jewry is not coming and has no intention to come. But for any movement worthy of the name, surely the facing of facts is not a terminus but a starting-point. Great movements face facts in order to change them. There is room for thought and discussion on the best method of transforming the situation, and there is no guarantee whatsoever of success, but a supine submission to the status tquo is a sure sign of stagnation.
What is most noteworthy, however, is the contrast between Krivine's theory and his practice. He, too, was born and brought up in a Western country, but apparently he was not content with the blessings of the "New Diaspora," and left to settle in Israel. The number of those who have done likewise is not large, it is true, but there are several thousands of them. They have shown by their actions their belief that there is something better for the Jew than even the freedom and tolerance of American and British democracy.
It is important to bear in mind that by no means all of these Israelis, who were once Americans and Englishman, are hot-headed, self-sacrificing idealists. Many, of course, are Zionists, who regard settlement in Israel as the logical outcome of their principles. A very large number, however, are quite ordinary people who have seldom or never been near a Zionist meeting, but have come to the conclusion that Israel is the right place for themselves and their children. "Anglo-Saxon" immigrants naturally believe that what they have done others can � and should � do. That is why they are generally staunch supporters of the Ben-Gurion view of Zionism.
You will find more sympathy for the attitude of Western Jewry among~~^jeople who came from Eastern Europe or the countries of the Middle East. Those who have been impelled to aliya by suffering and persecution find it easier to understand the reluctance of Jews living in comfortable circumstances to abandon their homes and their business. In fact, almost every "Anglo-Saxon" will have found himself at one time or another taking part in this kind of conversation:
"Where do you come from?"
"America."
"Oh, how nice, But what made you come here!"
This, of course, is aiTanti-Zloniat attitude. It regards living in Israel as a misfortune, at beat an unavoidable necessity, rather than a privilege. It leads straight to the .point of view I heard expressed three years ago at the Ideological Conference in Jerusalem by Professor Oscar Handlin:
"Although I personally feel, as I said earlier, that a whole Jewish life can be led in America, I would be delighted to help any American Jew who felt that he could live a better life as an individual and as a Jew in Israel, and I know that this is the predominant sentiment among American Jews. If there are Jews in Russia who want to come to Israel, we will help them come if we can. If there are Jews in Russia who want to come to America, we will try to get them in there. If there are American Jews who want to come to Israel^ we will help them come, and should there be Israelis who want to come to America, we will try to do that, too."
The last point aroused a giggle of uneasy laughter, but I think it is the logical conclusion of all that went before; in fact, it is the logical conclusion of American Zionism. If life in America is so good and satisfying, why should its privileges be withheld from Israeli Jews? And of course, we have our yordim, or emigrants, who decide that life in Israel is too hard and try to make a go of it in America, Canada or elsewhere.
It is natural that yerida should be frowned upon in Israel, but it is rather surprising that it should be regarded with such uneasiness, not to say censoriousness, by Jews abroad. After all, why not? Doesn't it show that some Israelis, at least, have a proper appreciation of Diaspora Jewish values? Why should it be any less virtuous to settle in America than to stay in America?
Fortunately, the vast majority of Israelis prefer to stay in Israel. If ever most of them change their minds, if they reach the conclusion that the Diaspora and Israel are of equal value, that you can be just as good a Zionist in New York as in Tel Aviv, then all the donations and the friendship and the passionately platonic love for Israel will be of no avail. Israel will begin to lose its most active and energetic people, and Zionism will die.
The point was admirably expressed by David Ben-Gurion in his classic essay, "Israel and the Diaspora," in the Government Year Book for 1957. Imagine, he said, that the Zionist Organization contained the entire Jewish people
without exception, but not a single Zionist had come to settle in Israel. Obviously, the State would .never have been established,
On the other hand, suppose the name "Zionism" had never existed, but masses of Jews had come to settle here, built an independent economy, revived thd Hebrew language and culture, and attained sovereign independence, In that
case, would not the Jewish State have arisen? Qf course, as he safs himself, the picture ii largely ar-tlficial and abstract, but it makes what appears to me an incontrovertible point.
And there should be no mistake
- about it: this is the central Israeli
view of Zionism, for if the people
of Israel held any other View, they
(Continued on Page Eleven)
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