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Can There Be Such a Thing as an Israeli Hero?
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Astronauts, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bradley Burston, Heroes, Idf, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Judaism, Palestinian Territories, Rosh Hashanah, Talmud,
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The full post appears on Haaretz.com.
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In Israel, where vitriolic self-criticism is the norm, we have become accustomed to living without heroes. As statesmen, our once-admired military leaders have often proven to be inept, corrupt, narrow of vision, devious of execution.
There are exceptions, of course, none more exceptional than astronaut Ilan Ramon, who lost his life in the last flight of the Columbia space shuttle nearly seven years ago. Another might have been Ramon's son Asaf, a young pilot who had set out to follow in the footsteps of his father, and who was killed in a training accident this week.
Can there be such a thing as an Israeli hero? Much of the world appears to have come to believe that there cannot. Many molders of opinion, whether journalists, human rights activists, or present or former world leaders, indicate with unequivocal conviction that Israelis -- and, in particular, all Israelis in uniform -- have lost their right to be considered extraordinary human beings.
There is an element of racism in this, especially in the implication that Israelis as a whole are so belligerent, brutal and insensitive to Palestinians, they have lost their very humanity -- if, in fact, it ever was humanity to begin with.
Following Asaf Ramon's fatal crash, a Haaretz reader from Switzerland wrote in response, "Every Israeli should learn from him how to crush your head on some Hebron rock. Your war and death cult ist [sic] simply disgusting."
There is a sense that the transgressions of Israelis are so grave that they have lost their right to grieve over their own very real tragedies. At the same time, there is a sense that Israelis have also lost all right to take pride in themselves, in their accomplishments, or even to believe in their own future.
On the far left, in Israel and across the world, there is a sense that the only heroes among the Jews are those who function as patriots exclusively of the Palestinian cause -- those who believe that the Palestinians have every right to a state, but that the Jews, if they ever had such a right, have long since shown themselves morally unworthy.
The Jewish far right has also made a mockery of the word hero, exalting those who shoot innocent Arabs and burn their crops, battle IDF soldiers and brand them Nazis.
Perhaps the time has come to ask, as the Talmud asks, "Who is a true hero?" The sage Ben Zoma responds that the true hero is the person who succeeds in conquering the basest of impulses, the worst of human instincts.
In an age of quietly tyrannical political correctness and instant-messaging, the complex heroism of individual Israelis may have no place. Israelis themselves have by and large learned to hide it, to dismiss it, to denigrate it.
Three days before Asaf Ramon was killed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from his Likud to put on a display of toughness, told party leaders, "We have proved time and again that we are willing to make concessions for peace, but we won't delude ourselves -- we are not willing to be freierim."
The word Netanyahu used, a word for which the English translation "suckers" is an anemic equivalent at best, is at the heart of the secret heroism of Israelis.
There is no small element of tragedy in the circumstance that hardline Israelis are often so desperate to act so as to avoid "coming out a freier" that in the end, they cause themselves, their loved ones, and their country tremendous harm.
And there is no small element of irony in the fact that the most truly heroic of Israelis fit precisely the mantle of "freier." People who give of themselves for the sake of others, people willing to do the work when no one else is, people of genuine honor, profound and silent self-esteem, people who see moral complexity without allowing themselves to be paralyzed by cynicism or seduced by simplicity.
Ilan Ramon was a hero not despite his complexity but, in many respects, because of it. In an interview he gave soon after returning as one of eight Israel Air Force pilots who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 -- an interview which was released to the public only many years later -- he said:
You go around on the street just like any person, and you come upon the people of the Land of Israel -- shoving, yelling, and all manner of things of that sort -- you know what you're headed for, and you often ask yourself, are you willing to give everything you've got for these people, because you live among these people.Of course, in the end, you do give, because you give not because of all these people, but because of the people close to you.
On Monday, as preparations were underway for the burial of Asaf Ramon beside his father's grave, Netanyahu's voice on Army Radio was that of a different man, the very human brother of an army officer and fellow member of a commando unit, who gave his life in 1976 leading a mission to rescue 100 hostages held in Entebbe, Uganda.
Netanyahu's voice was that of another kind of silent Israeli hero, a member of a family who has lost a loved one. His voice was that of the Israeli who knows most intimately, that it is the freier who, in the end, is responsible both for Israel's survival and for its moral compass.
For many years I wore the uniform of the IDF with pride, specifically because of the heroic freiers with whom I served. I learned that for every story making world headlines, and justifiably so, in which IDF men are accused of undue violence against Palestinians, there are easily scores of unreported incidents in which IDF commanders, enlisted men and reservists, marshaling their creativity and their individuality and their humanity, have aided and refrained from injuring Palestinian civilians, often endangering their own lives in the process.
But the secret heroism of Israelis is by no means confined to the military. Large numbers of Israelis work tirelessly, heroically, to help pave the way to a common future with the Palestinians. Many Israelis have opened their hearts to helping refugees from foreign genocides. Their stories go largely unnoticed abroad, in no small part because it takes work to make a people long marketed as villains, into flesh and blood fellow humans.
...
In a post-modern world, many of Israel's true heroes may have no place. Abroad, extremists of the right and left are often singled out for recognition as heroes, while the people who simply get up in the morning and keep the state safe are dismissed as fence-sitters or dupes.
In a post-modern world, we have come to believe that self-defense, self-esteem, compassion, love of country and love of peace are issues of the left and the right. It is the true hero, though, who realizes that all of these together are parts of the same whole, the conquest of our lowest impulses for the sake of our best version of a reflection of the heavens.
It may be all too true, that the best of us go young. I have spoken with Palestinians who say the same thing. For those of us left to grieve, there is a constant impulse to give in to revenge, to fury, to callousness. Heroism may be nothing more than defying all of these, and seeking, in our feeble way, to follow the example of our best and our lost.
Follow Bradley Burston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bradleyburston
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Thank you for a well written article -
I also thank the posters as they line up to bash it based on their myopic view.
I thank them because it shows how hard peace is to achieve -
but when there is peace it will be worth savoring!
The Whislte Blower of Israel's WMD Program, Mordechai Vanunu exemplifies what a true hero is, but like the prophets before him-Israel refuses to listen!
Vanunu told me: "The Israelis have 200 atomic weapons and they accuse the Palestinians and Muslims of terrorism. The Dimona is 46 years old; reactors last 25 to 30 years. The Dimona has never been inspected and Israel has never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty but all the Arab states have.
"The world needs to wake up and see the real terrorism is the occupation and the Palestinians have lived under that terror regime for 40 years.
"The only way to peace is peace; the only way is nonviolence. The only answer to Israeli nuclear weapons, their aggression, occupation and oppression, and the wall and refugee camps is to answer them with truth and a peaceful voice.
"When I became the spy for the world, I did it all for the people of the world. If governments do not report the truth, and if the media does not report the truth, then all we can do is follow our consciences. Daniel Ellsberg did, the woman from Enron did, and I did.
"The United States needs to wake up and see the truth that Israel is not a democracy, unless you are a Jew."
2005, 2006, 2008 Video interviews with Vanunu @ VANUNU ARCHIVES:
http://www.wearewideawake.org
At what point did any Israeli get up and make a speech claiming that Israel will annihilate the Palestinian nation using nuclear weapons?
Did any Muslim or Arab ever say much about the wholesale extinction of Israeli Jews?
When Israel declared statehood did any Arab nation say lets talk about this?
In 1967 when the Syrian high command invited the Arab world to come have lunch in Tel Aviv for free, did Israel say the equivalent when it easily could have about Damascus?
The residents of the area pre 1900 were poor people who rarely lifted a finger to reclaim any of the swamp lands or the desert. They had no reason to do any better. They were subjects of a Turkish empire and had no desire to undertake any activity to improve their lot. They never created a Palestinian nation.
No sane human who has studied life in Arab and/or Muslim countries in the middle east would ever throw his lot in with the local Arab populace.
When Israel declared statehood, the Jewish militias had already been "ethnically cleansing" as much of Palestine as they could, for MONTHS. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs had already been driven from their homes, and the militias (now restyled as the IDF) were still advancing. In such circumstances, what kind of TALK should the victims of this aggression, and their sympathetic fellow Arabs in adjacent states, have tried to undertake? When someone is shooting at you, its a little late to negotiate.
Vanunu is not a hero. He gave his word and then broke it, becoming a traitor in the process. He is not a person who can or should be believed. He is not a hero.
In 1973 I spent my 19th birthday on the Golan trying to do my part to stop the onslaught of the Syrian army. I am not a hero, but I was surrounded by men who are heroes. I was in the presence of men who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, gave the last full measure of devotion. Vanunu is not and will never be that sort of person. He is not nor will he ever be a hero.
Arabs and Jews share the same God don' t they? They share the same creator of their land is it not?
So one may ask, "God! what is going on here?"
No, Arabs and Jews do not worship the same deity.
Moslems should not be confused with Arabs.
Moslems, Jews, and Christians all recognize the God of Abraham as the one true God.
I'll tell you what's going on. The Arab caliphate (among other empires) stole the land of Israel from the Jews, who have been living there for thousands of years. The Jews are taking that land back from the Arab imperialist colonizers.
Yuodo not provide an adequate explanation for the immigrant population of Israel - most of whom come from Europe.
Arabs are Christian, Moslem and Jewish.
Semites.
Children of Abraham. All of them.
Whereas is.raelis are mostly european converts to j.udaism claiming a slice of Abraham's pie for themselves.
About half the Jews who live in Israel today are from Middle Eastern origin. Many of them were expelled from Arab countries after 1948. Those Jews who come from Europe had nowhere else to go. Even the U.S. turned many Jews away due to immigration limits.
Jews do not prosyltize as have Christians and Muslims. No one is ever invited to join nor threatened with death if they refuse.
Of course, history tells us that Jews were so delicately treated in Europe that maybe everyone was anxious to convert. (Just like every immigrant tried very hard to be accepted as a field slave in southern cotton plantations in the USA prior to the civil war. )
Does any of you bigots out there ever think anything through before you start typing nonesense?
European converts?
So when the Romans expelled the Jews after the destruction of the Temple, the Jews went out into the world and.... de-materialized? Or maybe they.... moved to other countries, like maybe Europe (I hear Spain, er, 'scuse me, Andalusia) was popular.
Maybe they even moved to Europe and maintained their traditions?
This really is too much for you, isn't it?
"In a post-modern world, we have come to believe that self-defense, self-esteem, compassion, love of country and love of peace are issues of the left and the right. It is the true hero, though, who realizes that all of these together are parts of the same whole, the conquest of our lowest impulses for the sake of our best version of a reflection of the heavens."
I found this entire article to be absolutely wonderful. Especially the bit above. Thank you, you've truly touched me today.
MosheDayanHero - i think in the midst of all that Israel has endured she must NOT lose her voice. Right now it's hard to hear the Song of Israel with the noise of perpetual war. I believe the writer of this article is concerned about rediscovering Israel's sweet voice. A voice that says to the world that we will REALLY find a way to peace.
As an American and a supporter of Israel, I too am concerned that Israel is becoming a hardened and troubled state of herself. She must be careful because there will come a point when too much apathy may prevent either side from ever recognizing each other as "human" ever again.
"all that Israel has endured"
What about all that Israel has inflicted?
As usual you attack Israel with no facts, nothing of substance and you seem to be comfortable doing so.
The harm that Israel has inflicted upon its enemies was the result of those enemies attacking first, so they deserve it.
Was any Israeli action a spontaneous outburst of good old fashioned hatred as those peaceful Arabs are known to commit or was it a response to murderous actions by the Palestinians?
Should Israel cease defending itself and allow the Palestinians to massacre them wholesale?
You know for a fact that they will.
Israel endured Arab attacks and threats for 25 plus years, and the Zionist settlers 30 years before that. In the past 30 years, Israel has inflicted probably more than it has continued to endure (think suicide bombing). There are no clean hands in this fight.
But your response to Sonni saddens me. Her post is not pro-Israel or anti-Palestinian. It is a beautiful humanistic prayer for the mutual humanity of Palestinians and Israelis alike. Why not affirm her spiritual truth, as opposed to seeking a point for dispute.
Not looking to argue with you. Way too much argument on this board already.
I'm not Jewish and as far as I know there are no Jews or Jew blood anywhere in my lineage. I did spend a few months in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait though. When I look at the middle east I see that I have nothing in common with arabs, nothing at all. Now israelis, with the exception of the ridiculously religious ones, I see a lot of common ground. When I ask myself who in the middle east has the most in common with the American lifestyle, with Democracy, with freedom, with tolerance I dont ever think of arabs but I do think of Israelis. Gee...I wonder why?
Coz most is.raelis are from europe?
Ever wondered that?
So why then are they forcing themselves on mid eastern people.
p.s. the arab countries you visited, not even arabs themselves would find much commonality with.
Taxi, I swear, you make the same argument over and over again and when proven wrong, you ignore it and go to a different article and make the same incorrect statement.
At the end of 2008, 70.7% of the Jewish Israeli population had been born in Israel. Most Israelis are Israelis...
But if you're talking about lineage, well then:
50.2% of the Jewish Israeli population are considered Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews...which are Jews from the Middle East and Africa.
47.5% of the Jewish Israeli population are considered Ashkenazi Jews, which includes Europe and North America.
Israeli hero---
Danny Lewin--- a mathematician who served in elite Sayeret Matkal.
Working for IBM, Ph.D. at MIT. Did some great work developing very important algorithms for Net traffic,.
The intersection of Main and Vassar Streets in Cambridge is called now "Danny Lewin Square." One of the most important figures of Internet development.
Lost his life aboard Flight 11 on 9/11. Heroically tried to prevent the takeover.
Lt. Col Yoni Natanyahu, Israeli hero. Died in the line of duty while saving hundreds of innocent civilians from Palestinian terrorists.
A hero.
Israeli heroes list is very long: from Ben Gurion to Moshe Dayan to Sharon to Weizmann to Yoni Natanyahu.
Not to mention Avigdor Kahalani, who saved Israel heroically stopping 1400 Syrian tanks with 180 of his own. And Eli Cohen ( Mossad).
Sorry to disappoint you.
Funny how your hero list is exactly as long as my 'war criminals' list.
Crykee!
Every name on your list is on mine too!
Strangely enough America's founding fathers were on the British list of war criminals.
Surely the guys who sent troops to Vietnam to stop the vietnamese from attacking and overtaking North America might have been considered by someone somewhere to be war criminals. What say about the guys who lied that Iraq had WMDs in 2003? Are any of them war criminals?
I can easily come up with a list of war criminals and I can work up a plausible rationale for it, especially when the criminals are trying to protect themselves from attack by benevolent opposition which calls them deragatory names as a mark of respect.
For 20 centuries Christians have murdered Jews with impunity. Are any of them war criminals? How about the Muslims who murdered Jews and Christians? Are any of them war criminals?
A freedom fighter and a terrorist are the same person. In the middle east freedom fighters are struggling to regain a Palestinian nation that never existed.
The area in question was never under the control of its citizenry other than perhaps during the times when its overlords chose to ignore it. Before WWI it was an Ottoman cotrolled area, afterwards it was controlled by the British. At no time in mankind's history was there ever a nation that called itself Palestinian. There was never a Palestinian court, a navy, an army, an embassy, a judicial system nor any other part of an infrastructure that would indicate nationhood.
Ben Gurion is a hero and someone who thought Israel should give back the captured territories.
"Many molders of opinion, whether journalists, human rights activists, or present or former world leaders, indicate with unequivocal conviction that Israelis -- and, in particular, all Israelis in uniform -- have lost their right to be considered extraordinary human beings.
Talk about a straw horse of an argument. The only substantiation of this statement in the entire article is that an anonymous swiss web surfer flamed inappropriately.
The point of this article seems not to review criticisms of Israel external to Israel, but to continue to warp, discredit and marginalize any such criticism inside of Israel, no matter what the criticism might be.
The entire world is not wanting every Israeli head crushed. Since this is not true, it is also not true that the whole world's opinion in this respect is racist.
Accusations that the whole world is racist against Israel are preposterous.
Amos Oz is a legitimate hero. He talks truth and common sense. Abbas Eban was a hero for speaking out against the cryptic-ethnic cleansing agenda of Begin and Likud.
Rabin was also a hero after he created conditions.. He was killed by the same sort of people who now rule Israel.
There are great number of decent human beings in Israel. Why have they elected war criminals ever since Sharon?
So call me a anti-semitic. Even though my critique of Israel was learned from intelligent Jews. Even though I married a Jew.
Well said Fireslayer.
I am also married to a Jew, my husband was born in Israel adn served in the IDF. Many posters call me anti-Semitic, and he becomes a "self-hating" Jew if we express any dissent from Israeli policies. I wish Israel (and those supporters who seem to believe that Israel can do no wrong) could understand that many of the Israelis who are considered heroes by many are men and women who have spoken for peace.
Can Israelis be heroes? Yes. But heroism is not considering yourself better or more deserving than others, or stealing what lttle some have for yourself. Heroism is acknowledging that everyone is human, errors can be made, and working towards correcting those errors, irregardless of obstacles in your path.
Gila Svirsky. is another Israeli hero. She co-founded Women In Black and has suffered incredible abuse and persecution from Israelis. Still she will go down in history as a hero and a very powerful woman.
And I am looking forward to meeting her on her US speaking tour. Why doesn't Israel elect her Prime Minister?
No one really cares if you're antisemite, or not. Although I've never hear an anti-semite to acknowledge the fact.
What you need to remember that Israel is a terrible enemy and a very good friend.
The list of self- proclaimed enemies who have been crushed by Israel is very long.
And the list of its allies who peaceably trade and exchange culture, tech innovation and arts to mutual benefit is even longer.
You're right-- many people are so disgusted by the Israelis that they are no longer considered human. This is something I find disturbing, not only due to parallels of historical anti-semitism and their portrayal of Jews in general as "subhuman" but also because "dehumanizing the other" is precisely what they accuse Israelis of doing to Palestinians.
When I lived in Beer-Sheva, I've met Israelis who felt that "no matter what we do, everybody will hate us-- so why not do whatever we want?" They also feel frustrated because Palestinian dehumanization of Israelis (like the famous "only pigs and monkeys were killed today" after the Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem) goes completely unremarked.
When the criticism is so one-sided, is it any wonder why Israelis eventually give up and mark off all criticism as "bog-standard anti-Semitism" and ignore it?
sad but true.
It really doesn't matter what the Israelis do, they will be vilified, particularly by the extreme, anti-semetic left.
Which includes over 300 members of the United Nations and every human rights group on earth,? yep, 7 billion people on earth and according to Israel 6.9 billion of them are "anti-semitic".
Technically the left is not supposed to be anti-Semitic, it is against leftist ideals of tolerance and equality. Those extreme leftists who hate Israel have been brainwashed by the Arab media.
And what of those of us who acknowledge that Israelis are human, and Jews have a place in the Middle East, we just don't believe that Jews have the right to force Arabs off the land which their families have owned for generations? Do not forget that Jews lived in the Middle East with Christians and Arabs for centuries with the rancor we see today. I am not stating that there were never any atrocities (it has happened too many times to too many groups in the world's history to be ignored), but why are the Jews the only group which should be acknowledged as having had atrocities done to them?
The real problems for Jews in the Middle East began with Zionism. The Zionists demanded all of what they considered their "homeland", irregardless of who's home was on that land and irregardless of the fact that these people's families had been there for generations.
Israel did not ask for, welcome or initiate the 1947-48 war -- it fought to survive the attacks by Palestinian militia and the onslaught by each of the border Arab states. But for that war, the UN partiton boundary would still exist .
Israel did not ask for, welcome or initiate the 67 war. the Arab nations massed their armies on the borders, and Egypt closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli ships and threw out the UN peacekeeping troops. But for that war, the green Line would still be the border
Post-67, PLO's terrorism and Arab states' refusal to accept Israel gave Israel no real peace option.
That history doesn't make Israel right today, but it explains how this situation came about. Not because of Israeli colonialism. Not because of ethnic cleaning. Not because of racism. Not because of theft of land.
There should be an independent Palestinian state . To the extent Likud and Netanyahu resist that road to peace, many Zionists join you in criticizing them. But to the extent the PA, and even moreso Hamas respectively resist and refuse that road to peace, why do you not join in criticizing them. And to the extent someone unfairly condemn sIsrael in vitriolic terms dripping with hate and demonization, I must criticize them.
This isn't about pro-Palestinians v. pro-Zionists. It's about those on both sides who are willing to make the necessary compromises for peace v. those on each side who hate and demand victory and vengence.
I'm a "two-stater" myself and think that respectful negotiations are the superior choice, so you won't find much argument from me. I lived there for 4 years, I'm a Jew myself, and I love the land and it's people, but as a historian I am fascinated by the Arab and Islamic world and their great achievements.
I don't think atrocities should be ignored, nor should we fixate on any one side's suffering, either. Obviously, attacking Israel and Israelis left and right is not the way to fix things.
Alysheba3...what is your answer then? Kick the Israelis off land that their families have owned for generations? Like it or not, Israel is over 60 years old. 70% of the population was born in Israel. It is their home and their identity.
Of course there can be a thing as an israeli hero
But due to their highly aggressive pro-war stance they are looked down upon in most of the world, so there is much to overcome
Let me ask you this, is there such a thing as a Taliban hero?
or a Palestinian Hero? a Hamas hero?
Probably better to ask Is there such a thing as a Palestinian human being?
Is there such thing as a Palestinian?
Many Israelis will tell you "no, they dont exist"
I am an Israeli and I do not know of a single person who would fit your profile.
Thank you for a beautiful and meaningful column. I suspect it will unfortunately fall on deaf ears, on both the right and the left, but that fault will be ours, not yours.
Shana Tova
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