Suddenly it’s Syria.
Somewhere between a rumor and a demarche, there’s talk of peace. Turkey’s the broker; so far, Bashar Assad seems willing and Ehud Olmert seems eager.
Never mind that we’ve seen this movie before, and that the same pesky details that doomed earlier efforts are likely to doom this one as well. (And this time the United States is no longer the sponsor and goad; it is, at best, aloof, reluctant to affirm Syria even tangentially.)
Consider instead the fate of an agreement in the off chance the two governments agree, with or without an American blessing. It is virtually certain that any comprehensive agreement would have to be put before the Israeli electorate. And it is doubtful that more than a third or so of Israelis would vote in favor of returning the Golan to Syria.
Peace with Syria not overwhelmingly endorsed? A peace that would leave only Lebanon among Israel’s immediate neighbors out of the circle of peace? How and why can that be?
From time to time in this space, I’ve made passing reference to the post-traumatic stress disorder that afflicts Israelis (and the Palestinians, too). It may be a bit of a stretch, but there is a growing literature that suggests that not only individuals, but social institutions, can suffer from PTSD. Thus, for example, Loren and Barbara Cobb, in an article entitled “The Persistence of War,” argue that “specific symptoms of untreated PTSD are particularly troublesome for the social institutions of a society suffering from epidemic levels of these disorders. These symptoms are: hypervigilance, emotional numbing, denial and avoidance, seeing the world in black and white, magical thinking, and apocalyptic thinking.”
They go on to quote Dr. Jonathan Shay, widely regarded as among the giants in the study of PTSD: “Democratic process entails debate, persuasion, and compromise. These presuppose the trustworthiness of words. The moral dimension of severe trauma, the betrayal of ‘what’s right,’ obliterates the capacity for trust. The customary meanings of words are exchanged for new ones; fair offers from opponents are scrutinized for traps; every smile conceals a dagger.”
In the American military experience, PTSD most often arises when a soldier has witnessed the deaths or terrible wounds of his or her comrades. That happens in Israel, too, of course.
But in Israel, whole societies are the witnesses, and the word “post” is, alas, premature. The traumas are very much ongoing, and we do not yet have the clinical vocabulary to comprehend them.
For Jews, the great trauma is, of course, the Holocaust itself, the systematic and ultimately incomprehensible slaughter of one-third of world Jewry. That left a wound that will never quite heal, but that might by now have formed a bearable scab.
But mini-traumas ever since have picked at that scab, rendered the wound ever-raw. The excruciatingly painful list of suicide attacks, the hateful rhetoric, Sderot and the entire aftermath of the withdrawal from Gaza, and now, around the corner, Iran.
And then there have been and are the politicians who whether out of conviction or for purposes of dreadful exploitation pick at the scab and refresh the trauma. For Menachem Begin, Beirut was Berlin and Yasser Arafat was Adolf Hitler; for Benjamin Netanyahu, this is 1938, Tehran is Berlin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Hitler. It was ever thus, it will ever be thus, hence it is here, now: They hate us. “Never again” may be our common oath, but “always, everywhere” is our common belief. The wound will not heal.
And the Palestinians? Betrayed by the corruption of their own leadership, theirs is not only the Nakba of defeat and displacement in 1948 and again in 1967; it is daily humiliation both thoughtless and intended, new bypass highways for the Jewish settlers in their midst, still more than 500 checkpoints and barriers to clog or block their own roads and travel, a security fence that slices and snakes through their fields and their farms and their villages and their cities, reminding, reminding, insulting.
Over Gaza, a sky from which at any moment death may be launched; in the streets of the West Bank, raids and roundups. Ongoing trauma, ongoing disorder. The wounds will not heal.
The Palestinians say: Without justice, there will be no peace. The Israelis say: Without peace, there will be no justice. Both sides are stuck with their wounds and their traumas; they need not only diplomacy, they need therapy. Their empathic capacity has been battered. They cannot place themselves in the shoes of the other, nor can they see themselves as the other sees them.
The Oslo Accords, the Clinton parameters, the Taba agreement, the Geneva document, the Arab League proposal, the Road Map — whoever thinks that a real peace awaits only a tweak here and twitch there, whoever imagines there’s a dazzling breakthrough formula just around the next corner or the one after that, isn’t listening, doesn’t hear the fear, the hurt, the awful memories and the terrifying premonitions.
Maybe that is what Olmert meant when he remarked some months back that these days, he feels himself more Jewish than Israeli. (Or maybe he just meant that these days, he’s feeling persecuted.) One of the hazards of being Jewish is that for us, premonitions are based on memories.
For a brief while, the popular catchphrase of the Sharon era — “we have no partner for peace” — was set aside. Negotiations, however haltingly, had begun. Now, the slogan’s back, full throat. For all the pride and the joy in Israel’s 60th birthday, hope for a pacific future has withered, replaced by denial and avoidance.
Even the prospect of peace with Syria does not gladden the heart or raise the spirits. So take a day for celebration, and then back to the wound.
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There will never be peace until the Arabs let go of their hate. It's as simple as that. Olmert wants to sign a meaningless piece of paper that gives the Arabs land for nothing in return. If the Arabs thought they could they would not hesitate to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews there. An evil adversary will not be impeded by an agreement or treaty they signed. Does Chamberlin ring a bell? Israel does not have any serious peace partners
Either middle East people are lovers of peace or haters of peace.I think that Israelis are the worst haters of peace in the Middle East,their love to evil,to wars is infinite.Arab nations especially Syria has honestly started peace talks with a zionist entity like Israel to establish an everlasting peace in the Middle East,but Israeli leaders and Israeli policy makers are using their security,and their national security to excuse their intrasigence,and to state that they hate peace,Israeli leaders are Zionist bigots who are interested in bloodshed,terrorism.I would like to raise a simple question:Why are the Jews who call themselves holocaust survivors? or those who are haunted with Munchen Symptom are commiting holocaust against Palestinians in the holy Land of Palestine.Waiting your insight,and in depth answers
I have been of the opinion for many years that some Jews, individually and collectively, but especially in the US, may suffer from a Holocaust PTSD. This is neither an accusation nor an excuse, but a plain fact. Some American Jews who are genuinely kind, humane people will call another Jew a traitor if he even suggests that taking the humanitarian crisis of Palestinians into consideration, or seeking a means of securing Israel's security through something other than a brute show of strength, be considered. Some have dealt with the Shoah through a life lived compassionately; some through tzedaka, outreach and spiritual exploration; and some have coped with it by being ever on the lookout for the next destroyer of the Jews. The prognosis for the Jews and Israel is not good if paranoia is the psychological safe house of those who wield power and influence. Thank you, L. Fein, for broaching what could be the first step in the healing of our national psyche, on Israel's 60th birthday--biz a hundert un tzvansig!
zionist two-state 'solution' and "land for peace" codes,clearly prove that they will not ever allow a second state on 'their' soil. as we can see from recent maps, there is no seond state on them. and, of what's left of it, is in shards and gettting smaller daily "giving land fo peace" is also an illusion and an afront to humnan intelligence. it implies that jews are giving their own land for peace; while in fact the land that jews are 'giving' to pals is legally and morally palestinian land. the shiboleth also implies that palestinians must stop their moral and legal obligation to resist occupation and by this give jews peace. to make matters worse, IOF/US decides when the vile/treacherous pals are sufficiently peaceful to swap 'land for peace'. and, i assume, pals know the ruse! thakn u.
there is no antisemitism, since one can only be against what ashkenazim or sephardim do or say. after all, all or most zionists, be they sephardim or ashekenazim vigorously reject not only what we nonzionists do or say but actually treat us as inferiors; case in point being palestinians. violence or opression in the west is perpetrated against ashkenazim or an euroasian-khazaro-semitic people. some of these people have little semitic blood. in fact, i see ashkanazim who look polish. sephardim are pure semites. some of them may be pure jews; others may have intermarried w. other semite. be it as it may, there are few if any reports ab. oppression of jews in former ottoman empire nor in africa. actually, ottomans have allowed sephardim and ashkenazim to settle in palestine, sarajevo, and elsewhere. in any case, nonzionists like me do not pay any attention to the cry "antisemitism" thanx
If this were a conflict about land, it would have been solved years ago. Palestinian identity is about the negation of a Jewish state. Palestine cannot become a nation without the end of Israel. To require the Palestinians to make peace with Israel means to give up their identity. As it is said during the Passover Seder, "In every generation, they arise to destroy us". Mr Fein is suggesting that we ignore 3000 years of history and take his assurance that it will be ok
according to torah, most or all prophets were hebraic. yet not one of them had predicted (nor can any of them predict anything)the three shoahs which befell israelities, judeans, and euroasinsemitic peoples. fourth and final holocaust may not be that far around the corner. in connection with a probable fourth and last shoah, it is the fact that the right to bear arms is yet another universal right, that ab. 12mn ashkenazim, sephardim, and mizrahim appear to be oblivious of. am i mistaken to guess that most ashkenazim (the superiors of mizrahim) reside in western lands? yet w.o. ashkenazim people and their christian supporters, a state for jews only or mainly wouldn't have been ever set up. even so, ashkenazim/sephardim people had to obtain a country of their own by warfare and numerous acts of terrorism. now u'v got the tiger by the tail. and u do not want to let go. u want more, much more; the appetite comes with eating. serbs have behaved as zionists up to now. serbs got mighty hungry after quick and easy victories. but their greed for more was serb undoing. after conquest of ab. 70% of bosnia, they wanted sarajevo. so they bombed civilians. and guess what hap'd? the world, which had supported them (US until '94), was sickened by their behavior and they finally bit the dust. much of the world is now sickened by waht zionists do. thank u