Imagining Israel in 2024: Only Tel Aviv Remains
In his explosive new novel, Right of Return -- not yet published in English -- the celebrated Dutch novelist Leon de Winter breaks a taboo it is very hard imagining anyone I know in mostly politically-correct American Jewry breaching. Through the critical device of fiction, he sees the once utopian dream of a Jewish state deteriorating into a truncated dystopia in the real world of the Middle East.
De Winter is no glib pundit. A staunch friend and defender of Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her fight for the rights of Muslim immigrant women, he comes from a family of Orthodox Jews who, thanks to a Catholic resistance network in the Netherlands, escaped capture by the Nazis and certain death in the camps during World War II. And he is a life long "admirer of the Zionist project" whose novels, such as Zionoco and God's Gym (published by Toby Press in the US), are about the search for Jewish identity. Yet, he can't shake the historical anxieties that make his nights sleepless. Thus this novel.
Here is my recent conversation with Leon de Winter:
Nathan Gardels: For those of us who have not had the opportunity to read your book, Right of Return, which imagines Israel in 2024, what is the picture you paint?
Leon de Winter: I describe an Israel that is basically the area of larger Tel Aviv, with the northern part of the Negev, including Dimona. The North is gone, the South is gone, Jerusalem is gone. The country fell apart because of external pressure -- continuous rocket bombardments -- that caused families to leave, and because of internal erosion: the Israeli Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox Jews moved away from the secular Jewish heart of the nation. Those with a criminal record, those who are old, and another group fascinated to be part of an apocalypse, and those who just want to stay and defend the country no matter what happens, were left behind.
But this is all background, the setting. The main focus is on Bram Mannheim, originally a Dutch Jew who makes Aliyah when he is eighteen and becomes at a young age a celebrated professor. He teaches history of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University. But tragedy hits when, in 2008, he has moved to Princeton with his wife and young son to become a professor there. His 4-year old son disappears. Just like that. His marriage collapses, his life stops, and he turns into a madman, a psychotic transient wandering around in the USA. His old father finds him and brings him back to Tel Aviv. And in 2024 Bram runs a little bureau that helps parents of children who have disappeared as well, in this Jewish ghetto-city called Israel. And after a devastating attack, apparently executed by a young Jew who has disappeared in the same period as Bram's child, Bram starts to hope again, starts to think that, maybe, his son is still alive, just like these other Jewish boys, a group that seems to have been kidnapped and trained to become Muslim suicide killers, Jewish kids who will come back to Israel to kill their parents.
Gardels: Your book has caused a huge stir in Germany, where it has just been published. Some critics charge that your dark vision of the future abets an increasing chorus of voices that argue the founding of Israel was a mistake in the first place.
Leon de Winter: Let me first be clear about my personal loyalties (which are not always identical to my loyalties as a novelist): I am an admirer of the Zionist project, of the historical necessity, to use a Marxist phrase, to create a safe haven for European Jews as a reaction to 19th century anti-Semitism. It has been a breathtaking adventure -- but it did not happen in a geographical or cultural or historical vacuum. It happened when the Islamic world was slowly awakening from the enormous blow executed by giant European forces, beginning with Napoleon's easy march into Egypt in 1798, and by the search by Arab and Muslim intellectuals for their own answers to the question why their universe collapsed. There have been very strong arguments for the case of a Jewish state in Palestine (a name given to the region by the Romans -- until recently, there has never been an Arab tribe called the Palestinians), but now, decades later, if it would have been up to me, I would have picked another region, like the former Dutch colony Surinam, or Montana or New Mexico. Or better: a region with some oil and gold in the ground.
Just like the United States of America, Israel is the expression of an idea, and as such, it can be discussed, its existence can even be denied -- contrary to China or France, which are historical entities and not per se intellectual concepts. But Israel is there, I love to visit it, I admire it, I am moved to tears when I hear its national anthem or see its fighter jets, and at the same time I deeply worry about its future. It would have been so much easier if it would have been created right after World War Two in what soon after became the German Democratic Republic. Wouldn't that have been a nice way for the Germans to repay some of their debt to the Jews?
Gardels: How do you respond to critics who say you are harming Israel by spelling out a dim future for the Jewish state?
Leon de Winter: Would it be more realistic if I had written a novel describing how in 2024 the Jews are going on vacation in Mecca, how the Saudi princes will enjoy their stay in the fancy suites of the Tel Aviv Hilton, how the Jordanian desert will blossom and the slums of Cairo have been transformed into wealthy suburbs and in the Middle-East there is nothing but peace and joy and happiness? I just continued and enlarged the present trends. Very realistically, I did my job. I fear that Israel will not see it first centennial. Not because of a lack of vitality or commitment, but because after many decades in a region where they have been met with violence, wars and hatred, the Israeli's Jews will conclude that they love their children more than their country.
Gardels: What prompted you to write such a book?
Leon de Winter: Sleepless nights.
Gardels: What needs to happen -- or not happen -- by 2024 for your vision not to come true?
Leon de Winter: Preferably, a miracle. The arrival of the Messiah would be a nice surprise, don't you agree? If that's not possible, a civil revolution in the Arab world would also be a nice event -- sorry, this is also part of the miracle solution. I mean: there is no solution. This is an old, tribal, atavistic conflict. There aren't that many of these conflicts in our present world anymore, but they have been fundamental in the development of our world: the fight over land. In the past, these conflicts were solved very simply: one group exterminated the other group. End of conflict. We don't accept this kind of problem management anymore, with good reason. We ask for sanity, compromises. But this conflict is being defined by two groups with very strong demands and traditions. They exclude each other's idea of reason. They have to give up some elements of claims they consider sacred. Time, more time, would help, if the Iranian people succeed in transforming the Shiite revolution into a civil revolution -- that would be an amazing event, with wide-reaching consequences for the whole world.
Gardels: You have said you wouldn't live in Israel. Why? How has Israel changed?
Leon de Winter: I don't want to live there because I feel that other countries have the right too to have stubborn, difficult, always-complaining Jews like me as their citizen.
Gardels: Where do you expect most Jews to live in 20 years? Back in Europe? The US?
Leon de Winter: In my novel, the Jews still living in Tel Aviv all want to go to Moscow, like in a Chekhov play. Putin is president of Russia for the third time. In 2024, he is considered the main statesman in the world. Russia is rich, in the main Russian cities Jews are playing in the symphony orchestras again, there are fancy restaurants, the streets at night are full with lights and ladies in mink coats and elegantly dressed men on their way to the theatre, and they have wonderful little cakes, 'petits fours,' in café's with chandeliers. Despite the old Russian anti-Semitism, there has been a strong bond between Jews and Russia -- there is a melancholy that Russians and Jews share, a sense of the dramatic flow of time, and a longing for a faraway land, behind the horizon. So, the Jews in my novel dream of going home to Moscow.
(c) Global Viewpoint Network.
Hadas Ziv: Goldstone's Report -- Israel's Missed Opportunity
We are so intoxicated with victimhood, manipulated by our leaders, that we let it ruin our lives, blind our eyes to the evils that we commit, to the possibilities for peace that we miss.
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Israel will disappear sooner as the Iranians get theire nuke,or later when the Arab pressure increases and it shows ,since 1973 the israeli teritories are shrinking contineuosly, first Sainai and then West bank and Gaza a bit later the Golan hights which Israel must abandon to Syria after a while Al Quds or (Jerusalem-East),in 2020 the north will be in majority Arabs . and changing names of the Arab towns will not help as" Natanyahoo" thinks.
So it`s better for them to go back to Russia and Poland where they originally came from and love theire kids there, I found the Israelies made this future by theire own hands and the hatered that they developed in the region will ultimatly turns against them.
The bad reputation of Arabs in the west which is an israeli made also makes the Arabs more determined to think of eliminating Israel by any available mean
As someone who believes that the Palestinians have the moral argument when it comes to who should occupy the Holy Land, let me say in very strong words their is no way in HECK that Israeli Jews (or a significant minority of its people) would ever long to be in Russia. Like many fanatical Arabs, I think that most Israeli Jews value their country and their self promoted historical ties to the land than they do the lives of their children.
I do agree with the suggestion however, that it will take the Messiah (Jesus for me) to restore order. But he should be the principal entity to restore order, since it is my belief that he (God) was the one who began the Arab/Jewish conflict when he gave the birthright to the younger Issac (of whom Jews claim as their descendent) over the older Ishmael (of whom Arabs claim as their descendent). This was an undeserved precedent which has caused over 3000 years of hate and jealousy.
Interesting way of looking at the conflict. You might catch some flak from the anti-religion folks around here, but not me.
Moshe,
Those PTA moms have big pocketbooks & they are choosing to boycott any number of businesses, divest their portfolios, esp, advocating for their big pension funds to divest; they are also overwhelming their college alumni associations, reps in Congress & the like. Yes, it adds up to Israel's free ride coming to an end sometime in the 1st quarter of the new century.
" I fear that Israel will not see it first centennial. Not because of a lack of vitality or commitment, but because after many decades in a region where they have been met with violence, wars and hatred, the Israeli's Jews will conclude that they love their children more than their country. "
This is where de Winter's argument totally falls apart. Jews have been persecuted, tortured and murdered for centuries. Jews don't give up so easily and especially when they have the tools/armaments to back them up and Israel does. Democracies are not throw-away countries where you give up and just walk away and Israelies understand that no matter what the cost. Anxiety fo Israel comes from within and notfrom external sources. The othodox and right-wing are no better than the opposing arabs in Gaza who would emand all of Israelie territory and don't want Jews in the neghborhood, Jews who have been there since biblical days. If arabs have the right of return, the same should apply to Jews. There's enough secualr Jewry though in Israel to counter the orthodox etc and provide for checks and balances with any right-wing government. Isreal is here to stay. Get used to it.
But what does he say about the Israeli military? Did the personnel of the world's 4th - 2009 anyway - largest military with its nuclear cpapbility resign, abscond, get to Russia first? What happened to the weaponry - did it fail, was it sold, had it already been used up?
And what of the ecological nightmare that threatened to engulf Israel for many years prior>
Lots of big gaping holes - incredulous.
"We don't accept this kind of problem management anymore, with good reason."
That's why the onslaught against Lebanon & Gaza are not particularly auspicious introductions to the 21st century for the state of Israel.
Repeated Hezbollah actions against israel including invasion, kidnapping, ambushes and killing of Israelis.
After action in Lebanon--nice and quiet.
10,00 rockets in a few years from Gaza. Following the Isralei action--nice and quiet.
Get it?
This is Middle East, not a PTA meeting in Oklahoma.
Interesting moshe - why only todya your acolyte lonely god was screeching about Israelis using nuclear wepons to prevent a one state solution - so your 'silence' might encapsulate more than your little mind could envisage - get it?
A successful and thriving Jewish state drives so may people crazy. May suggest fantasy football to relieve your stress? Israel is here to stay and anyone who can't handle it should seek counseling.
Bingo.
An economy that requires huge subsidies from the U.S., whose politicians can't venture abroad because most of the world considers them war criminals, and who requires such a large expenditure of money for propaganda and military apparatus to sustain itself is hardly 'a successful and thriving state.'
At best, it's an artificial edifice doomed to collapse when the money that props it up stops. Mr. Gardels is an accurate depiction of the future of Israel if it stays on it's present course.
Where's your evidence that Israel's economy "requires" anything from the US? It's got the strongest economy in the Middle East.
Must have pretty low standards of what you consider a "successful and thriving state.".
De Winter summarizes his work.
" Everyone should be able to say whatever they want to say -- even if it's absolute nonsense."
http://www
"In my novel, the Jews still living in Tel Aviv all want to go to Moscow."
That was the funniest line. LOL.
From a related Leon Winter interview:
"SPIEGEL: In "The Right of Return," Jewish children are transformed into Muslim terrorists to spread fear and desperation throughout Israel. That's not especially realistic, either. Actually, it's more like introducing a new level of anxiety…
De Winter: Exactly, the ultimate horror. "
http://www
Reminds me of that famous Monty Python Cheese shop sketch
Mousebender:It's not much of a cheese shop, is it?
Wensleydale: Finest in the district, sir.
Mousebender: Explain the logic underlying that conclusion, please.
Wensleydale: Well, it's so clean, sir.
Mousebender It's certainly uncontaminated by cheese.
I guess there are no Sephardi Jews in Mr. de Winter's novel/fantasy.
Truly fascinating.
And encouraging?
I've been to Russia (including Moscow) a few times. From what I always hear about Israel, Moscow seems far safer.
Personally, I've always fancied Bagdad over Moscow - but I am the non conformist.
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