Yoram Hazony, The Jewish State:а The Struggle for IsraelТs Soul

 

Reviewed by Prof. Paul Eidelberg

President, Foundation for Constitutional Democracy

 

Yoram HazonyТs, The Jewish State:а The Struggle for IsraelТs Soul, is an important source of information, especially for Jews in the Diaspora unfamiliar with IsraelТs anti-Zionist academic elite.а HazonyТs thesis is that this elite, notably Martin Buber, Gershom Solomon,а and Hugo Bergman as well as such authors of fiction as Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, and David Grossman, became Уthe countryТs spiritual leadersФ and, in the process, subverted the Zionist aspirations of Theodor Herzl and the Labor-Zionism of David Ben-Gurion.

 

HazonyТs compilation of academics that opposed a Jewish state is impressive.а But who except УoutsidersФ will be surprised to learn that IsraelТs secular universities, above all the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, have ever been controlled by anti-Zionist, not to say irreligious intellectuals?а These secular academics are the mentors of IsraelТs left-wing journalists who still dominate the print and electronic media.ааа

 

Now called Уpost-Zionists,Ф these alienated Jews are engaged in eviscerating the Jewish state.а If their anti-Zionist or pro-Arab stance has become more strident in recent years, it is only because their political patrons, the Labor and Meretz parties, have become increasingly dependent on the Arab vote on the one hand, and more intimidated by the burgeoning Jewish religious vote on the other.а But there is nothing new about the mentality of IsraelТs intellectual elites, which the present writer analyzes in depth in Demophrenia:а Israel and the Malaise of Democracy (1994).а Indeed, Chapter 2 of that book reveals the seeds of post-Zionism, which were planted not only by Buber, but by HazonyТs Zionist heroes, Herzl and Ben-Gurion!

 

HerzlТs epoch-making tract, The Jewish State, does not even mention Zionism.а The term appears in his utopian novel Altneuland (1902), where Herzl summed up his Zionism in these words:а УWe shall found a state where matters of faith and the synagogue will once and for all be excluded from the public domain!Фа Herzl's Altneuland thus describes a Jewish homeland devoid of Jewish culture.а Whatever the differences between the noble Herzl and IsraelТs decrepit post-Zionists, it can hardly be denied that his Zionism, pathetically shallow, provided no solid intellectual foundation for a Jewish state.

 

Much the same may be said Ben-Gurion, who seemed oblivious of the contradiction between his being a political Zionist, i.e., a nationalist, and being a Marxist, i.e., an internationalist. Internationalism, however, precisely describes IsraelТs post-Zionists.а Admittedly, Ben-Gurion championed the Law of Return and uttered the oft-quoted statement that the Land of Israel belonging to all the JewsЧnow abhorrent to post-Zionists.аа Nevertheless, certain contrary facts need to be noted.а Thus, once the armistice lines following the War of Independence were drawn, Ben-Gurion expressed the belief that Zionism was now obsolete.а Consistent therewith, he opposed the incorporation of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza after the Six- Day War of June 1967.а

 

Also, Ben-Gurion could never quite transcend the democratic egalitarianism of the age, which prompted him to say that an Arab also has a right to become President of the State of Israel!а This would certainly follow if Israel ceased to be a Jewish state and became a Уstate of its citizens,Ф the goal of post-Zionists.а

 

Whatever else one may say of Ben-Gurion, his political Zionism was bereft of Jewish culture, a precondition of Jewish nationhood.а Indeed, without Jewish culture, the State of Israel will be incapable of resisting its internal and external Arab enemies; it will become a post-Zionist graveyard.а Here a word from Isaac Breuer is in order.а Although he admired Herzl, Dr. Breuer, a rabbi, philosopher, and jurisprudent, maintained that only observant Jews can be true nationalists, that political Zionism is not only a distorted form of Jewish nationalism, but by having "turned the Torah into a mere religion, a matter of private conscience," it has become "the most terrible enemy that has ever risen against the Jewish nation."аа HazonyТs study of the Jewish state does not reach the deeper levels of IsraelТs malaise.а

 

While he discusses the German intellectuals who founded the Hebrew University and who opposed a Jewish state, he fails to probe the philosophical doctrines that shaped their mentality.аа He makes no reference to German historicism, or its offshoot, cultural relativism, which Buber, Bergmann, and other German-educated academics imbued Israeli higher education.а Buber put it quite simply:а "There is no scale of values for the [world-historical] function of peoples.а One cannot be ranked above another.Ф

 

It is in this light that we are to understand why this Hebrew University professor and his colleague, Dr. Judah Magnes (the university's first president), favored a bi-national Arab-Jewish state in the Land of Israel.а Thus, in 1947, they declared in a joint statement before the Anglo-American Inquiry Commission:

 

We do not favour Palestine as a Jewish country or Palestine as an Arab country, but a bi-national Palestine as the common country of two peoples.... Palestine is not just an Arab land like any other Arab land, or just a Jewish land.а For one thing, it is a Holy Land for three monotheistic religious, of which twoЧJudaism and ChristianityЧhad their origin here, while the third, Islam regards Jerusalem as next in holiness to Mecca and Medinah.

а

Notice that Buber and Magnes purvey each of these three claims to the Holy Land as self-justifying.а Such is their cultural relativism that they do not consider the possibility that the Jewish claim might be more valid than that of Christianity or of Islam.а They surely knew that in the past 2,500 years, none of the peoples or nations that conquered or occupied the Land of Israel ever established a national dominion or functional capital in this strange land.а Surely scholars of their repute knew that Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Koran.а Juxtaposing this truth with the paramount significance of Jerusalem in Judaism, and given their own admission that "Islam regards Jerusalem as next in holiness to Mecca and Medinah," one would think that Buber and Magnes would assert the priority of the Jewish claim over that of Islam and Christianity.а Besides, until the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish restoration of Palestine, no national claim had ever been made to the land by any national group other than the Jews.а Yet they conclude by saying:а "We regard the historical rights of the Jews and the natural rights of the Arabs as ... of equal validity.Ф

 

By failing to emphasize the cultural relativism or egalitarianism that has permeated IsraelТs intellectual elites, Hazony obscures the world-historical significance of the Уstruggle for IsraelТs soul.Фа At stake in this struggle is the question of whether Israel is the God-bearing or Truth-bearing nation.а Be this as it may, relativism, as I show in Demophrenia, has eroded Jewish national pride and Jewish national purpose, for which we look in vain among IsraelТs political leaders.аа (Recall that Ehud Barak once said, in effect, that if he were an Arab heТd be a terrorist!)

 

ааааааааааа HazonyТs study of the Jewish state ignores the fact that cultural relativism underlies the post-Zionist attempt to transform the Jewish state into a Уstate of its citizens.Фа Here relativism reinforces contemporary democracy, whose egalitarianism empowers IsraelТs Arab population and thereby threatens the Jewish state.а A candid and in-depth analysis of the democracy-versus-Jewish state issue is crucial to any serious study of Israel.

 

ааааааааааа Hazony approaches this issue by citing Tel Aviv university professor of philosophy Asa Kasher, a post-Zionist.а Kasher, it should first be noted, was commissioned by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to revise IsraelТs Soldiers Code of Ethics.а And so he did by removing every reference to УJudaism,Ф Zionism,Ф and УEretz Israel.Ф The resulting Soldiers Code of Ethics could then be used by any state that lacked any sense of national identity!а But such a code would be appropriate to no state on this planet!аа It could only be used by a universal and presumably democratic state (precisely KasherТs objective).а It should be noted, however, that in August 2000, when the Knesset elected Moshe Katzav rather than Shimon Peres as IsraelТs president, professor Kasher informed Mr. Katzav in a Ma'ariv article that he does not recognize him as his presidentЧa pretty commentary on KasherТs post-Zionist mentality! This mentality, which parades as democratic and universalistic, is a facade for elitism based on nihilism.ааа

 

Hazony does not probe the dire consequences of KasherТs post-Zionism. He cites uncritically KasherТs (pallid) definition of a Jewish state:

 

A Jewish state, in the full sense of the term [sic!] is a state in whose social coloration there is found the clear expression of Е the Jewish identities of its citizens.а In a УJewish and democraticФ state this social coloration is not created by force, nor in the law, but rather through the aggregation of the free choices of the citizens.

 

Hazony understands Kasher to mean (in HazonyТs words) Уthat a СJewish and democratic stateТ is one in which the people are Jewish and the state is a universalist democracy.Фа Hazony comments:а УIn other words a СJewish and democratic stateТ is a non-Jewish state.а Yet one would be hard-pressed to demonstrate that KasherТs definition is unreasonable; the term simply has no prior tradition to which one can turn for guidanceФ (p. 50).а This is sheer nonsense!

 

ааааааааааа As presented by Hazony, the substantive term УstateФ has two adjectives, УJewishФ and Уdemocratic.Фа Now, a state may be УJewishФ and a state may be УdemocraticФ; but it is simply illogical to say that a state which is Jewish and democratic is a Уnon-JewishФ state, unless the term УJewishФ is (arbitrarily) emptied of any Jewish content.а Even if the term УJewishФ is reduced to JudaismТs universalist principles (of which more in a moment), the term might as well be eliminated from any description of the State of Israel.а Hazony has succumbed to KasherТs post-Zionist sophistry.

Our author might have pointed out that KasherТs calling a state УJewishФ because its citizens have УJewish identitiesФ is questionable.а A state is Jewish if its laws and institutions and goals are Jewish.а To this extent, modern Israel is only a pallid version of a Jewish state!а Apart from Jewish national holidays, the Torah has been very much relegated to the home and the synagogue.а IsraelТs Supreme Court employs English and American jurisprudence in deciding countless social, economic, and religious issues.а The countryТs political institutions are also devoid of distinctive Jewish character.а Moreover, only 20% of the stateТs education budget is devoted to Jewish education, despite the fact that roughly 80% of the stateТs Jewish population is more or less traditional, or have, in KasherТs language, УJewish identities.Фаа

 

ааааааааааа Hazony examines only superficially Chief Justice Aaron BarakТs post-Zionist agenda, whereby the УJewishФ and УdemocraticФ aspects of the state are understood at Уthe highest possible levels of abstractionФ in order to reach the desired unity.а More sophistry!а Barak (like Kasher) wants to reduce Judaism, or so it seems, to its УuniversalistФ principles.а However, examination of his decisions indicates that what permeates BarakТs mentality are the democratic principles of freedom and equality.а He is especially disposed to indiscriminate egalitarianism, which ensures equal political rights to Jews and Arabs alike, but therefore to loyal and disloyal citizens, hence to Arab citizens and Arab Knesset Members whose votes are hastening the demise of the Jewish state!аа

 

Hazony does not question BarakТs intellectual integrity.а He does not show that Barak and other post-Zionists are very selective about JudaismТs universalist principles.а Consider the Seven Noahide Laws, whose universalist principles were affirmed in 1991 by a joint resolution of the American Congress!а These principles, which include prohibitions against blasphemy and adultery, are conveniently ignored by Barak in his post-Zionist zeal to reach the Уthe highest possible level of abstraction.Фа At that level he beholds the normless freedom and equality of contemporary democracy.

 

In contrast, Judaism (like classical American democracy) derives freedom and equality from manТs creation in the image of God.а Therein is the only rational source of human dignity and the only solid foundation for a Jewish state.а Unfortunately, Hazony does not provide a Torah understanding of a Jewish state, so that we might better understand the Уstruggle for IsraelТs soul.Фа That struggle was foreordained in the opening sentence of IsraelТs Declaration of Independence, which tacitly denies the Covenant at Mount Sinai by stating that the Jews only became a people in Eretz Israel.а Therein, in my judgment, is the most important cause IsraelТs post-Zionist malaise.а As I have shown in Demophrenia and elsewhere, the Sinai Covenant of Life has been superceded by the Oslo Covenant of Death (the brit et mavit mentioned in Isaiah 28).

 

Hazony concludes with the pious hope that a few intellectuals will somehow complete the original Labor-Zionist enterprise.а But as I have shown, that enterprise was fatally flawed at the outset.а Political Zionism was a limited enterprise, spiritually and even territorially.а To clinch the point, after IsraelТs greatest military victory in the June 1967 war, a national unity government had not the vaguest idea, let alone a policy, of what to do about Judea and Samaria, the heartland of the Jewish People.а Indeed, the government offered to return the territory gained in the war for peace!

 

Can Israel survive post-Zionism?а Much will depend on a rigorous Jewish, philosophical, and institutional analysis of IsraelТs malaise.аа Such an analysis will be found in my latest book Jewish Statesmanship:а Lest Israel Fall.а