344
PARTISAN REVIEW
Benvenisti is deeply disturbed by the degree of animosity
generated among the North African and Asian immigrants towards
the paternalistic egotism of the European Socialist Zionist elite. But
even more is he shocked by the moral and political consequences of
the unexpected passage of a growing number of hostile Palestinians
under the rule of a Jewish society totally unprepared for such
dominance . The 1967 war, he says, turned the original ethos and
meaning of "moledet" from a "Jewish perception of the 'chosen peo–
ple' crystallized against the background of humiliation , scorn, hate
and alienation of the Diaspora" into the "sinister domineering
significance" of the same precepts, but transferred into a situation "in
which the Jews are the majority ruling another nation and the
Zionist ideal of moral superiority of the Jewish state is replaced by a
concept of superior moral claim based upon and justified by Jewish
suffering."
The perception of the inevitable negative consequences of this
transformation has made Benvenisti an outsider to both his own
socialist elitist society and that - populist and expansionist - of the
"new Israelis." It pushed him to devote time and thought to a
meticulous study of the factual changes taking place in the occupied
territories . This ongoing study has now become a classic ingredient
of all political debates in Israel and, in light of the recent Palestinian
troubles , a remarkable piece of political prophecy. The left sees in it
the proof of the vital necessity of disentangling Israel from a corrupt–
ing colonial situation, while the right finds in it support for the suc–
cess of the irreversible process of undeclared annexation promoted
by the Likud governments . (It is currently believed that Benvenisti's
study has also influenced King Hussein's decision to involve himself
more actively in the search for a negotiated end of the Israeli occupa–
tion .)
O 'Brien's forecasts for Israel are pessimistic , since he foresees in
the future a long, protracted , almost indefinite state of siege.
Benvenisti's analysis reaches even gloomier conclusions. Of course ,
both may be right. The worst can always happen. It would be
unrealistic and irresponsible to underrate the dangers of a persistent
Arab rejection of the Jewish state's right to exist, all the more so in a
time when Moslem fundamentalism reinforces pan-Arabism's deep–
rooted hostility towards Zionism. It also would be unrealistic and ir–
responsible to underestimate the corrupting influence of a colonial or
semicolonial state of military administration on the Israeli demo–
cratic system, or the dangers facing the state in the wake of its
