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PARTISAN REVIEW
Ultimately Aron's cold analytical glance was the best translation
of a philosophy of limits predicated on a historical sadness and on
the feeling that man's worst instincts were constantly just beneath
the surface. He viewed human affairs with detachment and perfect
rigor. No social, economic, or international contradiction ever es–
caped him. The result was a watertight opus whose inability to tran–
scend contemporary reality doomed it to a static relevance.
Aron may have often been right when others were wrong, but
in his clarity he conveyed more than anyone else the limits of French
and even European maneuver.
David Twersky
III. LETTER FROM ISRAEL:
AFTER LEBANON
Looking at a map of Israel, any map, I see how the lines
have changed over the years, like the face of a middle-aged man you
haven't seen since adolescence. There are no markings to indicate
that there was once an international border between what is now
called 'judea" and "Samaria" and the State of Israel. It is a frighten–
ing and unnerving war, and the collective public projection of power
is a stronger force than an "international boundary." The war the
Arab states forced on Israel in
1967,
the famous Six Day War, re–
cedes into history. Like any decisive war, it created new conditions
which helped shape the issues for many years to come. Few Israelis
now relate to the West Bank as the sovereign territory of another
nation-state. As the Israeli occupation gradually lengthened, so that
it is now almost as long as the previous
1948-1967
stage, attitudes
hardened. The guiding doctrine of the Israeli government today,
that Judea and Samaria will remain forever a part of the land of
Israel, was in
1968
the exclusive point of view of a growing bu t still
very marginal fringe on the extreme right and within the Yeshivot of
a wing of orthodox Zionists.
Israeli culture has been taken over, as it were, the elusive
center captured by the margin. In order to perpetuate this altered
state of national awareness and perception which serves as the ideol-
