Robert S. Wistrich
ISRAELI LETTER
The orgy of denunciation that has greeted Israel's actions
during the recent Lebanese war, and in particular the concerted
campaign to brand Zionism as a new type of Nazism, confronts Jews
everywhere with a difficult challenge. The accusations are not in
themselves novel-indeed, for many years Soviet and Arab anti–
Zionist propaganda has sought to stigmatize the Israelis (and those
who identify with them) as "heirs to Hitler" -but never before have
they obtained such a sympathetic hearing in the Western media.
There is no doubt that this campaign has been politically motivated
and that it is part of a persistent, remorseless strategy by the enemies
of Israel to undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state, its moral
basis, and the support it still enjoys among Jews and non-Jews alike.
The campaign would not have enjoyed such resonance, however,
were it not for the more long-term shift that has been taking place in
perceptions of Israel and the Jewish people by the outside world.
If
one is to combat the new anti-Zionism effectively, it is imperative to
understand the deeper reasons for this shift and the extent to which
one can hope to bring about a fairer and more sympathetic attitude
toward the
raison
d'etre
of the Jewish state. In particular, it is impor–
tant to focus our attention on the uses and abuses of the Holocaust
trauma, not only by the enemies of Israel, but also, at times , by its
supporters.
The Lebanese war, it must be admitted, has seriously eroded
the image of the Jew as an underdog or persecuted victim, an image
that reached its peak in the aftermath of the Holocaust but began to
disintegrate after Israel's lightning military victory of 1967. In the
eyes of the world David has now become Goliath, the oppressed Jew
has become the oppressor of Palestinians, the paradigmatic victims
of history have become ruthless victors . As a result, contemporary
anti-Semitism centers on the theme ofJewish arrogance, and hatred
ofIsrael expresses itself in the name of the "wretched of the earth,"
the humble, the suffering, and the vanquished. But the new anti–
Semitism is still sufficiently embarrassed by the term
Jew,
with its
emotive historical associations of Holocaust and mass murder, to
avoid its use where possible . Zionism, especially in its current incar–
nation, has in this sense been a godsend, for it makes possible a
