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PARTISAN REVIEW
various origins decode the messages they believe the producers of
Dallas
are transmitting to them; how "the book" is transformed in the electronic
age; and how terrorism is used as both message and medium. The intensity
of personal involvement, the mix of people, and the sheer volume of
information thrown at us, distinguished this meeting from most of the others.
The session on fundamentalism, by experts on its Christian,Jewish, and
Moslem branches, dealt with the different features of groups within each of
them in terms of their views of the past and the future, and in terms of be–
lievers' expectations of actualizing these "realities" in the present. Christian
fundamentalism, we learned, is the only one that does not aim to challenge
the state, although it expects to influence laws pertaining to family issues,
abortion, or creationism. Jewish fundamentalism has many variations. The
Netureikarta, for example, who see themselves in the middle of the Mes–
sianic period, believe that the study of the Torah alone is protection for the
existing Jewish state. This pits them, among other things, against Zionism,
which advocates protection by means of a police force. The Netureikarta
accept violent protest: they have no problem with throwing stones at cars
that travel on the Sabbath-while refusing to serve in the military or to raise
funds for Israel's defense. (A few of them felt close enough to Khomeini to
pay their respects at his grave.) The Gush Emunim, on the other hand, con–
demn the reality of the Jewish state because it is not religious, and because its
secular government lacks sanctity and thus interferes with the coming of the
Messiah. Actually, those who a few years ago blew up the Mosque thought
they were accelerating the move toward redemption.
Moslem fundamentalists also perceive themselves in a state of siege.
Islam cannot accept challenges by insiders, especially by men such as Salman
Rushdie, and by all others who accept modern values, we were told-even
though Islam approves of specific innovations. Ideally, it seems, Moslems
prefer to spread the word by education rather than by violence, but decide
also upon the conditions under which the use of violence and vengeance are
legitimate. Usually such conditions are linked to economics, and tend to occur
when economic expectations have been dashed. Therefore, fundamentalism
did not take hold
in
oil-rich countries with small populations, and
in
Iran alone
was able to seize state power. Again, the presence of these fundamentalist
beliefs were discussed as explosive forces threatening Israeli democracy.
At the farewell dinner, I overheard someone propose that Israel might
be divided as "successfully" as Berlin, by means of a wall, with or without a
no-man's land. Since I had just flown to Israel from Berlin, I could not help
but ponder on the gaping differences. After all, in Berlin Germans live on
each side of the wall and neither side has ever threatened to get rid of the
other. Were the West Bank to be separated by a wall, these Americans
