ROBERT WISlRICH
Israel Past and Future
Edith Kurzweil:
Welcome to what promises to be an interesting evening
with Robert Wistrich, Professor ofModem European and Jewish History
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. One of his recent books is The
Shaping of Israeli Identity. Myth, Memory, and Trauma,
edited with David
Ohana. Robert will begin by speaking about Israeli identity, a very cen–
tral issue related to the discussion of recent events, to the aftermath of the
assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and to the peace talks. I am sure you will
ask him many questions. I myself would like to get a sense of the predic–
tions about the upcoming elections. I would like to know not only what
the polls predict but what he believes a victory by Labour or the Likud
government would bring in its wake and how each of the outcomes
might or might not influence the ongoing peace talks. Also, I would like
to get a sense of what Israelis feel or fear were they to give up strategic
positions on the Golan Heights, whether or not they worry about reset–
tling former hijackers and terrorists in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Robert Wistrich:
I think this is an appropriate moment to consider what is
undoubtedly a crossroads in Israel's history, possibly even a critical turn–
ing-point. Twenty-four hours ago I gave a lecture in London on the
anniversary of the publication of Herzl's
Judenstaat,
which first appeared
in Vienna on February 14, 1896. So we are one hundred years on from
that momentously important tract which inaugurated the history of politi–
cal Zionism. If we look at the longer perspective, then not only are we
are talking about a century of Zionism but also that in two years' time it
will be exactly fifty years since the creation of Israel as an independent
state.
Let me begin by trying to delineate a few things about the current
mood and atmosphere in Israel a few months before the coming elections.
Despite the Rabin assassination, the suicide bombs, the fanatical ter–
rorist violence and anxiety about Palestinian intentions, most people
living in Israel know that things are getting much better economically. In
many ways the country is booming. It has experienced an unprecedented
emigration from the former Soviet Union. Indeed, over five hundred
thousand ex-Soviet Jews have come in the last six to seven years; they
Editor's Note: This discussion took place on February 20,1996 in New York Ciry.
