-Caveat Lector- > http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.05.24/oped1.html > > > MAY 24, 2002 > > > Bigotry in Print. Crowds Chant Murder. Something's Changed. > > By PAUL BERMAN > > Fears that only yesterday seemed absurd or silly begin > to seem reasonable and more than > reasonable. Thoughts that might have seemed > inconceivable even two months ago become > not just conceivable but spoken out loud. Crowds chant > utter wildness on the street. In this > way, the clouds grow blacker before our eyes. Very small > clouds, you may say. Still, the > transformation takes place at stupendous speed. Not > everyone notices. The failure to notice > constitutes a small black cloud in itself. > > In Washington last month, a crowd of demonstrators > gathered to celebrate the modern protest > rituals of the anti-globalization movement. Only, this > time, the radical opposition to > globalization turned into radical opposition to Israel. > A portion of the crowd chanted, > "Martyrs, not murderers." I suppose that many of the > individuals in that part of the crowd > would have explained that, in mouthing their Ms, they > intended only to promote the cause of > Palestinian rights, which is surely a worthy cause. But > their chant was not about Palestinian > rights. It was about mass murder. > > I doubt that the streets of Washington have ever seen > such an obscene public spectacle, at > least not since the days of public slave auctions, > before the Civil War. Three months ago, I > imagine, the demonstrators themselves would never have > dreamed of shouting such a slogan. > I don't want to suggest that everyone at the > anti-globalization demonstration shared those > sentiments. But everyone at the anti-globalization > demonstration willy-nilly ended up shoulder > to shoulder with people who did feel that way. > Anti-globalization protests have never been > like that before. > > That same month, in New York, the annual Socialist > Scholars Conference assembled at the > East Village's venerable Cooper Union, where Abraham > Lincoln gave one of his most famous > speeches. The Socialist Scholars Conference is an annual > meeting of a few thousand people, > most of them intellectuals of some sort. The conference > has always resembled an ideological > bazaar, with every ridiculous left-wing sect selling its > sacred texts, side by side with sober > European social democrats and American liberals. > > But this year a novelist from Egypt sat on one of the > panels and stated her approval of the > suicide bombers. To be sure, most people at the > Socialist Scholars Conference would > condemn random mass murders. But there is nothing new in > condemning mass murder. This > year, the new event was that someone supported it, and > the rest of the participants, the rank > and file Socialist Scholars, sat in comradely assemblage > as the argument was advanced, and > someone even spoke out in the panelist's defense. The > newness in this event has to be > remarked. > > II. > > I could cite a dozen other instances where, in the last > few weeks, someone in a city like New > York or Washington, London or Paris, has argued or > chanted in favor of mass murder � > someone who has never done such a thing in the past, in > settings that have never heard such > arguments before, or at least not in many years. What > can explain the sudden development? > It is a consequence, of course, of the Israeli incursion > into the West Bank � or, rather, a > consequence of how the Israeli incursion has been > interpreted by an immense number of > people all over the world. > > One of the most prominent of those interpretations has > looked on the incursion as Nazism in > action, which is to say, as an event of extreme and > absolute evil, requiring the most extreme > and absolute counter-measures. In the last few months, > Israel itself has been routinely > compared to Nazi Germany, and Ariel Sharon to Adolf > Hitler. Exactly why large numbers of > people would arrive at such a comparison is not > immediately obvious. In its half-century of > existence, Israel has committed its share of serious > crimes and even a few massacres (though > not lately, as it turns out). But the instances of > Israeli military frenzy or criminal indiscipline > are not especially numerous, given how often Israel has > had to fight. > > There has never been a hint of an extermination camp, > nor anything that could be compared > in grisliness with any number of actions by the > governments of Syria, Iraq, Serbia and so > forth around the world. Israel's wars have created > refugees, to be sure; but Nazism's specialty > was precisely not to create refugees. If Israel > nonetheless resembles Nazi Germany, the > resemblance must owe, instead, to some other factor, to > some essence of the Israeli nation, > regardless of the statistics of death and displacement. > > The notorious old United Nations resolution (voted up in > 1975 and repealed in 1991) about > Zionism and racism hinted at such an essence by saying, > in effect, that Israel's national > doctrine, Zionism, was a doctrine of racial hatred. But > why would anyone suppose that, like > Nazi Germany, Israel has been built on a platform of > hatred? The founding theorists of > Zionism in the 19th and early 20th centuries did not > escape the prevailing doctrines of their > own time, but their theories were chiefly theories of > Jewish national revival and self-defense. > They were not theories about the inferiority or > hatefulness of anyone else, not even Judaism's > worst enemies of the past, the Christian churches of > Europe. Why, then, the accusation about > hateful essences and Zionist doctrine? This is something > that is very rarely explained. > > In these last weeks, though, one of the world's most > celebrated writers did stand up to discuss > the hateful essence and its nature. The writer was Jos� > Saramago, the Portuguese novelist > who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1998. Saramago > was part of an international group > of writers who traveled to Ramallah to observe the > Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat's compound. > And, having observed the situation, Saramago came up > with the same comparison as Breyten > Breytenbach and any number of other people, lately. (It > is fairly amazing how many > otherwise serious writers have ended up choosing the > same tiny set of images to apply to the > Jewish state.) The situation at Ramallah, in Saramago's > estimation, was "a crime comparable > to Auschwitz." To the Israeli journalist who asked where > the gas chambers were, Saramago > gave his much-quoted reply, "Not yet here." But he also > explained himself more seriously and > at length in the April 21 issue of El Pais, a Madrid > newspaper read and respected all over the > Spanish-speaking world. > > III. > > Israel, in Saramago's view, has pursued immoral and > hateful policies during its entire history. > And why has Israel done so? Perhaps for the same reasons > that other countries have pursued > hateful, immoral, expansionist policies? Not at all. > Saramago traced Israel's policies to biblical > Judaism. He pointed to the story of David and Goliath, > which, though commonly pictured as > a tale of underdog triumph, is actually the story of a > blond person (David's blond hair seemed > to catch Saramago's attention) employing a superior > technology to kill at a distance a helpless > and presumably non-blond person, the unfortunate and > oppressed Goliath. Today's events, in > Saramago's fanciful interpretation, follow the biblical > script precisely, as if in testimony to the > Jews' fidelity to tradition. He writes: > > The blond David of yesteryear surveys from a helicopter > the occupied Palestinian lands and > fires missiles at unarmed innocents; the delicate David > of yore mans the most powerful tanks > in the world and flattens and blows up what he finds in > his tread; the lyrical David who sang > praise to Bathsheba, incarnated today in the gargantuan > figure of a war criminal named Ariel > Sharon, hurls the 'poetic' message that first it is > necessary to finish off the Palestinians in > order later to negotiate with those who remain. > > Saramago must have been ablaze, writing these lines. > > Intoxicated mentally by the messianic dream of a Greater > Israel which will finally achieve the > expansionist dreams of the most radical Zionism; > contaminated by the monstrous and rooted > 'certitude' that in this catastrophic and absurd world > there exists a people chosen by God and > that, consequently, all the actions of an obsessive, > psychological and pathologically exclusivist > racism are justified; educated and trained in the idea > that any suffering that has been inflicted, > or is being inflicted, or will be inflicted on everyone > else, especially the Palestinians, will > always be inferior to that which they themselves > suffered in the Holocaust, the Jews endlessly > scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it > incurable, and they show it to the > world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the > terrible words of God in Deuteronomy: > 'Vengeance is mine, and I will be repaid.' Israel wants > all of us to feel guilty, directly or > indirectly, for the horrors of the Holocaust; Israel > wants us to renounce the most elemental > critical judgment and for us to transform ourselves into > a docile echo of its will. > > Israel, in short, is a racist state by virtue of > Judaism's monstrous doctrines � racist not just > against the Palestinians, but against the entire world, > which it seeks to manipulate and abuse. > Israel's struggles with its neighbors, seen in that > light, do take on a unique and even > metaphysical quality of genuine evil � the quality that > distinguishes Israel's struggles from > those of all other nations with disputed borders, no > matter what the statistics of death and > suffering might suggest. > > Saramago, shrewder and more sophisticated than the > crowds in the Washington streets or the > panelist at the Socialist Scholars Conference, did > condemn the suicide bombers. He did so in > two throwaway sentences at the end of his essay, > sneeringly, with his own expressive ellipsis: > > Ah, yes, the horrendous massacres of civilians caused by > the so-called suicide terrorists.... > Horrendous, yes, doubtless; condemnable, yes, doubtless, > but Israel still has a lot to learn if it > is not capable of understanding the reasons that can > bring a human being to turn himself into > a bomb." And so, the deliberate act of murdering random > crowds turns out to be the fault of > the murdered � or, rather, of the monstrous and racist > doctrines of their religion, which is > Judaism. > > I don't want to leave the impression that El Pais is a > newspaper full of editors and writers > who share those views. The newspaper right away > published a commentary by a philosopher > named Reyes Mate, who carefully explained that Nazi > analogies tend to downplay the true > meaning of Nazism, and a second commentary by the > American writer Barbara Probst > Solomon, a regular correspondent for El Pais, who > skillfully pointed out that Saramago had > written an essay not about the actually existing Israel > and its policies but about "the Jew that is > roiling around in his head." There was, then, a balance > in El Pais: one essay that was > anti-Semitic, and two that were not. > > Still, something was remarkable in seeing, in this day > and age, a fulmination against Judaism > for its intrinsic hatefulness, written with the savage > energy of a Nobel Prize winner, published > in one of the world's major newspapers. Surely, this, > too, like the crowd in Washington and > the panel discussion in New York, marks something new in > our present moment. > > IV. > > You may object that, in pointing to the anti-globalists > in the Washington streets and the > Socialist Scholars in New York, I have focused on a > radical left whose spirit of irresponsibility > isn't news. As for Saramago, isn't he renowned for his > Stalinist politics, for being a dinosaur > from the 1930s? But the new tone that I refer to, the > new attitude, is anything but a > monopoly of the radical left. In this age of Jean-Marie > Le Pen there is no point even > mentioning the extreme right. For the new spirit has > begun to pop up even in the most > respectable of writings, in the middle of the mainstream > � not everywhere, to be sure, and > not even in most places, but in some places, and not > always obscure ones. The new spirit has > begun to pop up in a fashion that seems almost > unconscious, even among people who would > never dream of expressing an extreme or bigoted view, > but who end up doing so anyway. > > A peculiar example appears in an essay called "Israel: > the Road to Nowhere," by the New > York University historian Tony Judt, which ran as the > lead article in May 9, 2002, issue of > The New York Review of Books. Professor Judt is a > scholar of French intellectual history, > well-known and much-praised (by me, for instance, in a > review in The New Yorker) for his > willingness to examine, among other themes, the moral > obtuseness of Jean-Paul Sartre and his > followers a half-century ago. In his new essay Judt > blames Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for > failing to understand that, sooner or later, Israel will > have to negotiate with the Palestinians, > who cannot be expected to abandon their hope for > national independence. Judt despairs of > Sharon, but he calls on the United States to play a > larger role, and he does hold aloft a hope. > Everyone in the Arab-Israeli struggle has suffered over > the years, but Judt points out that in > recent years the world has seen many examples of enemy > populations reconciling and living > side by side � the French and the Germans, for instance, > or, on a still grander scale, the > Poles and the Ukrainians, whose mutual crimes in the > 1940s surpassed anything that has > taken place between Arabs and Israelis. > > That is the gist of his essay, at least ostensibly, and > it seems to me unexceptionable, if > perhaps a little one-sided. > > V. > > But the remarkable aspect of Judt's essay is not the > ostensible argument. It is the set of > images and rhetorical devices and even the precise > language that he has chosen to use. His > single most emphatic trope is a comparison between > Israel and French Algeria, and between > the current fighting and the Algerian War. A discussion > of French Algeria begins the piece, > and French Algeria pops up repeatedly, and its > prominence in his argument raises an > interesting question, namely, Does Israel have a right > to exist? The Algerian War was fought > over the proposition that French Algeria, as a colonial > outpost of the French imperialists, did > not, in fact, have a right to exist. Most of the world > eventually came to accept that > proposition. But if Israel resembles French Algeria, why > exactly should Israel and its national > doctrine, Zionism, be regarded as any more legitimate > than France's imperialism? > > That particular question can be answered with a dozen > arguments � the nativist argument > (Zionism may have been founded to rescue the European > Jews, but in the past 50 years it has > mostly ended up rescuing the native Jews of the Middle > East instead), the social justice > argument (the overwhelming majority of Israel's Jews > arrived essentially as refugees), the > social utility argument (if not for Israel, which > country or international agency would have > raised a finger on behalf of the supremely oppressed > Jews of Ethiopia and many other > places?), the democratic argument (democratic states are > more legitimate than undemocratic > ones) and so forth. > > But it has to be recognized that, starting in the 1960s, > ever larger portions of the world did > begin to gaze at Israel through an Algerian lens. Arafat > launched his war against Israel in > 1964, in the aftermath of the Algerian War but well > before the Israelis had taken over the > West Bank and Gaza, and his logic was, so to speak, > strictly Algerian � a logic that regarded > Israel as illegitimate per se. The comparison between > Israel and French Algeria has served as > one more basis for regarding Zionism as a doctrine of > racial hatred � a doctrine, from this > point of view, not much different from the old French > notion that France had every right to > conquer any African country it chose. Judt cannot share > that view of Zionism, given his > expressed worry about Israel's survival. Someone who did > share the view would regard > Israel's demise as desirable. > > Still, his essay emphasizes the Algerian analogy. And > then, having underlined that > comparison, Judt moves along to the argument that in > recent times has tended to replace the > one about French Algeria, now that the Algerian War has > faded into the past. The newer > argument compares Israel to the white apartheid Republic > of South Africa, where a racist > contempt for black Africans was the founding proposition > of the state. Back in the days of > apartheid, friends of social justice around the world > had good reason to regard the white > Republic of South Africa as illegitimate. > > Judt, on this note, observes that, "following fifty > years of vicious repression and exploitation, > white South Africans handed over power to a black > majority who replaced them without > violence or revenge." And he asks, "Is the Middle East > so different? From the Palestinian > point of view, the colonial analogy fits and foreign > precedents might apply. Israelis, however, > insist otherwise." But are the Israelis right in their > insistence? He says, "Most Israelis are still > trapped in the story of their own uniqueness" � his > point being, presumably, that the Israelis > are wrong. But then, if Israel does in some profound way > resemble apartheid South Africa, > would it be right to boycott the Zionist state, just as > South Africa was boycotted? One does > not boycott a state merely because of some objectionable > policy or other. Nobody boycotts > Turkey because it mistreats the Kurds, nor Egypt because > it drove out nearly its entire Jewish > population. > > But if a state is racist by nature, if racism is its > founding principle, as was the case in > apartheid South Africa, then a boycott might well be > justified, with the hope of abolishing the > state entirely. Now, Judt cannot possibly regard Israel > as any more comparable to apartheid > South Africa than he does to French Algeria, given his > concern that Israel continues to exist. > Still, he does note that a new movement is, in fact, > afoot to boycott Israel. He writes, "The > fear of seeming to show solidarity with Sharon that > already inhibits many from visiting Israel, > will rapidly extend to the international community at > large, making of Israel a pariah state." > Do the "many" who feel inhibited from visiting Israel > merit applause for their moral > consciences? Or should those people be seen as so many > Jos� Saramagos, smug in their > retrograde bigotries? Judt refrains from comment, but > his tone implies that he regards the > "many" as more reasonable than not. > > He does say about some future resolution of the > conflict, "There will be no Arab right of > return; and it is time to abandon the anachronistic > Jewish one." That is a curious comment, in > the context of these other remarks. The Arab "right of > return" means the right of Palestinians > to return to their original, pre-1948 homes in Israel, a > right that, if widely exercised, would > bring about the end of Israel as a Jewish state. That is > why, if Israel is to survive, "there will > be no Arab right of return." But what is the Jewish > "right of return"? That phrase can only > mean what is expressed and guaranteed by Israel's Law of > Return, to wit, Israel's > commitment to welcome any Jew from around the world who > chooses to come. > > What would it mean for Israel to abandon that > commitment? It would mean abandoning the > Zionist mission to build a shelter for oppressed Jews > from around the world, which is to say, > Zionism itself. It would mean abandoning Israel's > autonomy as a state � its right to draw up > its own laws on immigration. Judt cannot be in favor of > Israel doing any such thing. But those > throwaway remarks and his choice of comparisons and > analogies make it hard to know for > sure. > > VI. > > His essay, all in all, seems to have been written on two > levels. There is an ostensible level that > criticizes Israel, although in a friendly fashion, with > the criticisms meant to rescue Israel from > its own errors and thereby to help everyone else who has > been trapped in the conflict; and a > second level, consisting of images and random phrases > (the level that might attract Freud's > attention), which keep hinting that maybe Israel has no > right to exist. It is worth looking at the > religious images and references in Judt's essay. There > are two of these, and they express the > two contradictory levels with a painful clarity. > > In his very last lines, Judt urges the Israelis to treat > the Palestinian public with dignity and to > turn quickly from war to peace negotiations. And, in > order to give a pungency or fervor to his > exhortation, he concludes by quoting a famous rabbinical > remark, "And if not now, when?" > He ends, that is, on a warm note of Judaism, which is > plainly a sympathetic tone to adopt � > a call for Israel to adhere to Judaism's highest > traditions of morality and good sense. Yet, at > another point he strikes a Christian note, and of the > weirdest sort. > > Judt wonders about Sharon, "Will he send the tanks into > the Galilee? Put up electric fences > around the Arab districts of Haifa?" Judt complains that > Israel's intellectuals are not mounting > a suitable opposition to this kind of aggression. He > describes the intellectuals and their failure > to oppose in these words: "The country's liberal > intelligentsia who, Pilate-like, have washed > their hands of responsibility." That is, Judt compares > Israel's liberal intellectuals to Pontius > Pilate, who took no responsibility for killing Jesus. > That is a very strange phrase to stumble > across in an essay on the Middle East. Freud's eyebrows > rise in wonder. The phrase is worth > parsing. If Israel's liberal intellectuals are Pontius > Pilate, who is Sharon? He must be the > Jewish high priest who orders the crucifixion. Who is > Jesus? He can only be the people whom > the high priest is setting out to kill � namely, the > suicide bombers. Surely Judt cannot mean > that the Palestinian terrorists are God. > > But then, it does seem odd that, a couple of lines down, > Judt turns to the word "terrorist" and > doubts its usefulness. "'Terrorist,'" he writes, "risks > becoming the mantra of our time, like > 'Communist,' 'capitalist,' 'bourgeois,' and others > before it. Like them, it closes off all further > discussion." Words do turn into meaningless slogans. > Still, is it so unreasonable, at a moment > when the astounding series of mass murders in Israel is > still going on, to speak of "terrorists," > that is, of people who deliberately set out to kill > randomly? The suicide bombers are, in fact, > terrorists, by any conventional definition of the term. > Judt cannot mean to let those people off > the hook, and in one portion of his essay he sternly > condemns them. Yet in the passage that > follows the remark about Pontius Pilate he ends up > commenting, "terror against civilians is the > weapon of choice of the weak." Presumably he means that > the Palestinian bombers are weak > and have had no alternative way to claim their national > rights � though he doesn't explain > why the "weak" would have turned to their "weapon of > choice" precisely in the aftermath of > former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer to create the > Palestinian state in Gaza and on > almost all of the West Bank. > > About Jos� Saramago, I do believe, on the basis of the > essay in El Pais, that the winner of > the 1998 Nobel Prize has gotten hung up on the Jew > roiling in his head, in Barbara Solomon's > phrase. Not for one moment do I believe anything of the > sort about Tony Judt. I can imagine > that Judt chose to write about Pontius Pilate for the > simplest and most natural reasons. The > notion that the suicide bombers are sacred figures > fulfilling a divine function, combined with > the notion that Israel's Jews are evil demons, has swept > the world in the last few months. > Even the notion that the Jews are guilty of deicide, > which is Christian in origin, has in recent > times spread to the Muslim world. The new young > president of Syria expressed that very > notion to the Pope, on the occasion of the Pope's visit. > > But, once these ideas have been picked up by events and > have been sent flyin > > Losing control of his own rhetoric and nothing worse > than that was, in Judt's case, surely the > error. For just as most people in the anti-globalism > movement would never chant in favor of > suicide bombers (even if some people did chant in > favor), and just as most of the Socialist > Scholars would never support the terrorists (even if one > of the honored panelists did), and > just as a modern, high-minded newspaper like El Pais > would not care to publish antisemitic > demagoguery (even if it did publish such a work), Judt, > I am confident, had no intention of > indulging in anti-Zionism and certainly no intention of > sacralizing the terrorists or demonizing > the Jews (even if that is the inference of what he ended > up writing). > > Yet it is the unintended inferences that seem to me the > most frightening of all. To go out and > fight against bigots and racists of all sorts, the > anti-Semites and the anti-Arab racists alike, > seems to me relatively simple to do, even in these > terrible times. It is not so easy to put up a > fight against a wind, a tone against an indefinable > spirit of hatred that has begun to appear > even in the statements of otherwise sensible people. > > But that is what we are up against. The little accidents > and odd behaviors do add up. The > new wind is definitely blowing. A few months ago no one > was chanting for murder. In those > days it was pretty unusual to stumble across diatribes > against Judaism or anti-Semitic phrases > in the intellectual press. But look what has happened. > Something has changed.
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