ROBERT S. WISTRICH
R eshaping Israeli Identity
As in most of the Western world today, historical revisionism is in fashion
in Israel. Established views of the past are being criticized, reassessed, or
openly debunked. The heroic view of the Israeli War ofIndependence as
a struggle of the few facing the many, or of a uniquely peace-loving Zi–
onist movement against intransigently hostile Arab enemies, has been
challenged by a new generation of Israeli historians; so, too, have the al–
leged "myths" that over half-a-rnillion Palestinian Arabs voluntarily fled
Palestine in 1948 (or expected to return in the wake of conquering Arab
armies) rather than be expelled from Israel by force. During the past dec–
ade it has become a commonplace of much Israeli historiography to
question and undermine these and the other "myths" at the core of Israeli
self-perception, those which created the structures of thinking and propa–
ganda that long shaped Israeli policy. With the war of 1948 (and virtually
all
of Israel's subsequent wars), the heroes of Zionism and Israel have also
come in for a battering.
The visionary and charismatic founder of the movement, Theodor
Herzl, has been reduced in stature to a highly narcissistic, conflict-ridden,
neurotic personality. The revered founding-father and first Prime Minis–
ter of the Jewish State, David Ben-Gurion, has been accused of inactivity
and indifference during the Holocaust, of favoring the "transfer" of Arabs
out of Israel in 1948, and of subsequently squandering opportunities to
achieve peace with surrounding Arab states. The indomitable Golda Meir
is today frequently execrated for her total inflexibility towards the Pales–
tinians, while the legendary Moshe Dayan has been debunked as a selfish,
womanizing megalomaniac. The cherished image of the early pioneers
and hardy Zionist warriors like Joseph Trumpeldor (along with the myth
of Tel-Hai where he died in defense of the Galilee) has also suffered, as
has that of the 1948 generation and of Israel's leaders since her independ–
ence. Whether it be the defenders of Masada and the revolt of Bar–
Kochba nearly two thousand years ago or Operation Entebbe in 1975,
the Maccabees or Palmach, Joshua or Ariel Sharon, it would appear that
many Israelis have no further need of larger-than-life heroes, least of all
role models of reckless bravery or military prowess.
The assault on "heroic" idealism did not, of course, begin overnight
and probably has its roots in the attitudes of the skeptical generation that
came of age in the 1960s. The disillusion generated by the scarring trau-
