ROBERT WISTRICH
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Israel from the Holocaust experience and to detach Israeli identity from
Jewish history and world Jewry.
Post-Zionism began as an essentially academic revision of Israel's
history, but I think it can be linked with some wider cultural trends.
Broadly speaking, I would say that current fashion involves the slaugh–
tering of virtually all the sacred cows which have ever existed since the
founding of the Jewish state.
Some of this revision is hannless enough, some of it less so. It
in–
volves the debunking of almost every important statesman or leading
military figure in the Israeli pantheon. The Israeli heroes of yesteryear
have turned out to be men or women with feet of clay. I find it hard to
think of one who has not been greatly reduced in stature. Significantly,
for the new generation, the once-respected leaders of the country seem
much less attractive as role-models than do popular singers, actors, come–
dians, or sports heroes. You might say that this is a sign of Israel's
normalization - a phenomenon that one can observe in other countries.
Mter all, this has been commonplace enough in the Western world for
many years. Perhaps Israel is simply coming of age, exhibiting a more re–
laxed outlook. Perhaps, too, this is even a healthy development, for what
could be more natural than the aspiration to enjoy a peaceful, untroubled
existence without the burdens of endless struggle? But there is a price to
be paid for such a debunking of Israel's past - the most dangerous being
the loss of the reality principle. Despite postrnodernist and post-Zionist
rhetoric, reality is not merely subjective, and history is not only the
imagined construct of the historian. Facts are stubborn, and Israel is trans–
parently not yet at peace. When people begin to confuse their
understandable wishes for reality, they are likely to be in for a rude awak–
ening. In the case of Israel, the temptation to accelerate the peace process,
to plunge ahead by gambling on a "new Middle East," contains many
internal as well as external·risks.
This is particularly evident when one looks at what has been taking
place since 1992, with the accession of a liberal-left government. Its dia–
logue with the PLO and reliance on Mr. Arafat's promises as well as its
negotiaions with Syria have been very divisive domestically. If this were
not enough, the tragic assassination ofMr. Rabin highlighted the abysmal
lack of communication and mutual respect between religious and secular
elements in Israeli society. The assassination has spelled out the terrible
costs of the continuing polarization within the Israeli body politic which
produced the climate of defamation that ultimately made such an act pos–
sible.
The personal biography of the late Prime Minister of Israel is of
course well known. He was deeply involved at every important cross-
