A deplorable
misunderstanding, Or Shut up, you bastard!
By Uri Avnery
23 July, 2004
Gush - Shalom
In
a dramatic television broadcast, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin,
called upon the million Russian emigrants in Israel to return at once
to their homeland, in view of the growing danger to their security there.
That did not happen,
of course. But it is easy to imagine what would have been the reaction
in Israel if Putin had indeed made such an appeal. Or if the president
of France, Jacques Chirac, had called upon the French-speakers in Israel,
the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from France and North Africa,
to move to France, where their life is not threatened by suicide bombers.
The Israeli media
would have gone berserk. The Knesset, in an emergency session, would
have denounced the outrageous anti-Semitic outburst of the president
of Russia and/or France. The politicians would have tried to outdo each
other in condemnations of the inadmissible interference in the internal
affairs of Israel. The Foreign Office would have ordered the return
of the ambassador in Moscow and/or Paris for consultations.
What happened was,
of course, the reverse. It was the Israeli Prime Minister who called
on the French Jews to leave their homeland as soon as possible
and come to Israel, in view of the alleged anti-Semitic
wave in France. The French government and media reacted exactly as their
Israeli counterparts would have done.
One of every hundred
Frenchman (and Frenchwoman) is Jewish.
A deplorable
misunderstanding, the official French spokesman intoned. Meaning,
in non-diplomatic language: Shut up, you bastard!
Profound commentators
all over the world tried to guess the hidden motive of Ariel Sharon.
Was this a veiled warning to France not to vote in favor of the judgement
of the International Court in the UN General Assembly? (France voted
for it anyhow, compelling all of Europe to follow suit.) Was he doing
a favor to President Bush, who detests Chirac?
The truth is much
more simple. It is impossible to guess Sharons intention, because
he had none. It was an inconsequential speech before an inconsequential
audience. Sharon wanted to say something that would give him five seconds
on TV, and he got them. Everybody was satisfied: the TV stations, the
Prime Minister, his audience and the general public. Everybody, that
is, except the French.
In Israeli ears
it was an unimportant, routine statement. Israeli leaders miss no opportunity
to call on every occasion upon Jewish communities to drop everything
and come to Israel. If there is a sign of anti-Semitism anywhere, this
is an automatic response.
If there is a misunderstanding,
it is mutual. It could be called, in the vogue phrase, a clash
of civilizations: the French-European and the Israeli-Zionist.
In the French view,
the French Jews are French. The republic is not based on religion or
ethnic origin. The way the French see it, every citizen is a partner
in the republic and French culture whether Christian or Jew,
Alsacien or Breton, North-African or Corsican. This is the basis of
the Republique.
And along comes
the Prime Minister of a foreign country and has the cheek not
to say chutzpa to attack the very foundations of the republic
and sow discord among its citizens. That is the gravest assault on France,
barring an outright military attack.
In the Israeli
view, it looks quite different. According to official doctrine, Israel
is the State of the Jewish People. The Jewish People
consists of all the Jews in the world, irrespective of whether they
live in Brooklyn, Barcelona or Bratislava.
Every child here
learns that all the Jews in the world will come to Israel sooner or
later. They will have no choice, since the Goyim (Gentiles) hate the
Jews, and so the anti-Semites will come to power in all countries in
due course. Israel exists in order to offer them a haven when they are
compelled to flee, once the inevitable comes about.
This explains the
ambivalent reaction of the Israeli establishment to any anti-Semitic
event anywhere. The natural reaction is, of course, one of anger and
condemnation. But there is also another reaction, a hidden one that
borders on satisfaction: Here, we told you so. Now it is happening.
We were right all along.
Both reactions
lead to the cry: Come, brothers, before it is too late! It rather resembles
the good boy-scout in the joke, the one who helps the old lady to cross
the road, whether she wants to or not.
So Chirac is furious,
Sharon is obdurate and repeats his call, and in the middle stand the
poor French Jews, who just want to be left alone.