The Israeli Psyche and the World

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday April 15, 2002 16:15 by Michael Toben - none toben at mail dot biu dot ac dot il

This short article describes the subjective feelings of Israelis as they are subject to a terror war and a media onslaught.

The Israeli Psyche and the world
By
Michael Toben

Most Israelis are not well acquainted with the European political scene nor the American one, so they tend to interpret events in terms of Israeli politics and whatever knowledge they have of the historical background of the events and countries. The Holocaust is the reality that fills the Israeli’s psyche and floods the imagination with images that we hate and share. They are never far away in the collective memory.

In Israel, one is not supposed to make comparisons with the Holocaust in Israel. We are always reiterating that those events were unique but the Israel psyche has incorporated into it the Holocaust. Thus, a nation that declares war on Israel is in our minds one of those that carry forth the work of the enemies of Israel of yesterday. Those that support our enemies are collaborators and therefore anti-Semites. You do not reason with such people.

Today, we face a European onslaught of organized anti-Israel demonstrations in some cases accompanied with violent attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions. This confirms our perception of the world. We perceive ourselves as the righteous and innocent party. After all, we offered the Palestinians a state and, what over half of the people believe, half of our country. What more could they reasonably ask for? But, no, they wanted it all. They want all of us to return to the Ukraine, or wherever we hail from. Meanwhile, they have adopted a policy of suicidal murder aimed at children, women and men, until we start moving.

Israel’s response was to follow the American lead and make the war on the terrorists. Here we made a mistake. While we may be no larger than Wales, the Europeans call us the Goliath and the Palestinians with their Arab allies, David. (We find this offensive, since after all David is one of our heroes, not theirs.) So, while it is it ok for the US to attack Afghanistan, bomb them back into the Stone Age, it is unacceptable for us following a seder-night blood bath to use tanks to attack their terrorist centres. Bush and Powell’s demand that we desist is puzzling and leaves us a feeling of being let down by our friends. This too rings a bell.

The axis between the old Socialists, anti-globalization, Greens and their skin-head fellow-travelers, with the Palestinians and Islamic Fundamentalists arouses memories of all those parades and demonstrations that took place not so long ago in Europe in which we were depicted as the source of evil and destined for destruction. Again, we feel betrayed. ‘Don’t the Europeans know that Barak and President Clinton offered the Palestinians a state?’ we repeat to ourselves.

There was a lot in the press about those refusing to serve in the army if they were to be sent to the West Bank. The numbers are really very small and isn’t it wonderful that there are those we have such a well developed sense of morality that they are ready to go to jail for their principles – even though according to most- they are a little confused? On the other side of the coin, the morale and show-up rate of the present call-up has been outstanding. The people truly felt this war was imposed on them and it was essential if they were to protect the home front.

Meanwhile, the world press insinuated that this was another round in the personal war between Sharon and Arafat. Sharon was the imperialist tank riding rough-shot over the defenseless Palestinians. Interestingly enough, the Israeli army discovered tens of small bomb and arms factories in every town they took. In addition, they found sufficient weapons to arm the whole population. Yet, no one outside of Israel and America shows any understanding for the ‘cleaning-up operation’. So why did we take the offensive? Because we live by the saying; ‘Never again’.

We fought as clean a war as is humanely possible, avoiding the use of artillery and bomber planes to reduce ‘collateral damage’, and now we are being accused of massacres, bloodbaths, ethnic cleansing, mass graves, etc. We are really babes when it comes to propaganda. We face a despotic ruler who is in a tight spot. He has never been very careful about the truth, and follows the dictum of the one who said the more often and the louder you repeat a lie, the more people will believe it.

So, we are in trouble again. We imagine the whole of Europe is against us, when in truth the whole of Europe has never been involved in anything except perhaps a football match, nevertheless we do feel deeply betrayed. This reinforces another Jewish archetypal concept: Israel stands alone and only God is her real ally. It isn’t really surprising that we are a little paranoid.

What of the future? Well, our economy is suffering; we all expect new taxes and budget cuts. So, what’s new? Well, the truth is we did feel that we were close at one time to resolving the problem with our neighbours. Our hopes were roused and so the disappointment is all that greater that once again we find ourselves at war. We, the older generation, had always hoped that we would live to see the peace, but now we are becoming resigned to a grey reality. The Mashiach looks like he is not yet ready, or should I say that we are not quite ready for him, but who knows we hope and pray, just as our forefathers did.
Ramat Gan, Israel. 12.4.02