Self-Lacerating Israeli Authors

March 21, 2012 By 6 Comments

In a long article published by the UK anti-Israel newspaper The Guardian, David Grossman writes that the Jewish State must be saved not from Iran’s nuclear rockets, but from its own paranoia.

“It is Israel’s fears, not a nuclear Iran, that we must tame,” states Grossman in his new shrill self-condemnation. According to Israel’s literary icon, a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities “would be a wild bet, likely to disfigure our future in ways I dare not even imagine. No, I can imagine it, but my hand refuses to write it.”

One should begin to suspect that the international success of Grossman and other Israeli self-lacerating writers has more to do with their talent for Israel bashing than their literary gifts. The sycophancy, abasement, and degradation of these writers’ exercise in moral equivalence are not only a repugnant insult to the truth, but an affront to all Israelis.

There is a growing chasm between the pretension of the “good conscience” of Israel’s writers, as shapers of popular opinion, and the realism of Jewish history. A psychological sickness is driving the Israeli writers to toe the line with the worst emotions of global public opinion (it’s now the turn of Iran).

These writers are victims of a “Stockholm Syndrome” in which hostages come to identify with their captors.

As the Guardian’s article shows, the gap between these authors and the guillotine threatening Israel grows larger every day. They have adopted self-disgust as a passport to world recognition and respectability.

The late Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the left’s guru, referred to Israelis as Judeo-Nazis. This promptly made him a widely quoted celebrity throughout the world.

The desire to curry favor with the gentile world is not a new phenomenon in Jewish life. Through many centuries of exile it was an integral part of the Jews’ survival technique.

But it is a humiliating trait which life in a sovereign Israel was supposed to eradicate.

Amos Oz got in touch with Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian terrorist leader convicted of murdering five Israelis and planning several terrorist attacks. The Israel Prize recipient sent the murderous, unrepentant terrorist one of his books with a personal inscription wishing him a speedy release from prison: “This story is our story. I hope you read it and understand us better, as we attempt to understand you. Hoping to meet soon in peace and freedom.”

The sanctimonious Oz and Grossman, whose son Uri, sadly, was killed in the Second Lebanon War, have been able to create a kind of paradigm: Israel must end its role of “occupier,” “striker,” and “oppressor” if the siege is to end.

It seems as though their conscience as intellectuals hasn’t been shaken by the Twin Towers’ attacks, by the 1,800 Israeli civilians slaughtered in terror attacks, by a decade of rockets on southern Israeli cities, by Iran’s atomic death cult and its apocalyptic anti-Semitism.

Shortly after the IDF Gaza operation, Grossman called for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the IDF, paving the way for the biased Goldstone’s report. He then urged dialogue with Hamas.

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About

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book, "A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism."

  • maria

    "It seems as though their conscience as intellectuals hasn’t been shaken by the Twin Towers’ attacks…"
    The article's author is right. It is worse even that they earn living by betraying his own people, his own children actually. It is easy to do as Israel is only democratic state in ME and freedom of speech aka "all allowed" is not punished as it is in Muslims country. For 10% less that that "writer" did denigrating Israel, in any muslims country he would be immediately killed. He is traitor, coward nobody. Unfortunately he make enormous harm to Israel and overall, Jews. Question is what should be done to deprive them to be benefited by their evil deeds? Goldstone was ostracized by Jewish community and he had to admit that he was not just to Israel in his disgraced report.

  • MichaelLumish

    A good treatment of Jewish "Stockholm Syndrome" is Kenneth Levin's "The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions Of A People Under Siege"

    Israel Thrives
    http://karmafishies.blogspot.com/

  • kentatwater

    While I think there is some truth in explaining the self-destructive stand some Israeli leftists take by attributing it to a sort of siege mentality, brought about by decades of attack from all sides, I think it's mostly explained by political ideology. After all, with the exception of the Neturei Karta, the vast majority of those advocating taking the suicidal Chamberlain route are leftists. (In their case, their anti-Zionism is explicit and religiously based.)

    Generally speaking, when a leftist weighs his political ideology against other considerations, such as preservation of the Jewish people, or more generally, admitting core left wing policy positions are objective failures, political ideology wins. This is why left wingers like Alan Dershowitz are so rare and surprising.

  • maria

    That "writer"-vilain pretend that he does not know that Palestinians is concocted by KGB nation, there was never such a nation but it was just Arabs from different countries. For instant, terrorist #1 Arafat was born in Egypt and his mother was Egyption. Arabs of Palestine as the most actually Muslims are cool-blooded kids murderers.
    He does not know how those Arabs unhuman killed Fogel family? No condemnation. Now it is the same Muslim unhuman killed intentionally kids in France. At the stake our civilization existense and our children existense as Muslims are barbarians with goal to conquer the world. They gave us, all infidels, non-muslims only one choice "Convert or die". All those who support them, who blame Israel are mostly on Islamists oil money payroll. No doubt. Some are just naive, stupid and ignorant. Jews were always the first victims but than all others had the same fate. Those who perished Jews were punished by G-d.

  • Ghostwriter

    Sadly,that's nothing new. It seems that Israel has its own versions of Barbara Kingsolver,Noam Chomsky,and others like them. What's even worse is that their own countrymen LISTEN to them. Most Americans tune out Chomsky and his pals.

  • Hank Rearden

    Leftism is everywhere and always destructive. It does not, it cannot build anything. It feeds off the financial, intellectual, moral and cultural capital built up by conservative societies and groups and dissipates it, all the while imagining that it occupies a superior moral position. In the last two decades, Leftism has turned into a death wish as it refuses to confront the evil and aggression of Islamism. To give the Muslims credit, they do not conceal their objectives. For years, Yasser Arafat was invited to, and treated as if he deaired a "peace process." Offering peace to Arafat was almost an insult. He didn't want PEACE, he wanted VICTORY! This is not peculiar in history; it is the norm. Peace is dictated by the victors. These Israeli authors that attack Israel are pathetic – they do not know one of the essential elements of being a grown-up: you have to choose a side. You may be finished with war, but war is not finished with you. These people should be shunned because they do not care if your wife or your children are murdered in their homes. They weaken the national will, which is critical to survival.