Diaspora?
My sister visiting Israel from England bought me a book of the collected works of our uncle Bernard Kops that was published for his 80th birthday. Leafing through it I came across a poem entitled "Diaspora," that starts "How sad that I have found nowhere, that I have found no dream, and that I come from nowhere and go nowhere." While this is hardly elevated poetry, it had an immediate meaning for me.
Many years ago, probably in the 1970's, I remember that Bernie was given a free escorted tour of Israel by the Tourism Ministry. As an influential British Jewish writer it was appropriate that they invite him, as they did many others. However, the result was unexpected, for Bernie wrote an article in the Jewish Chronicle that lambasted Israel, and called it a dumping ground for the worst sons and daughters of the Diaspora.
This strange idea came about from the fact that our mutual cousin, Martin, who was a ne'er do-well, on drugs and without any profession, was sent to Israel by his father to make good, and ended up living on the beach in Tel Aviv starving. The Police contacted his father and he had to fly out to rescue his son and take him back to London. So if anything, Israel was the opposite of Bernie's characterization, getting rid of the worst of the sons of the Diaspora. In this respect it is also interesting to compare the short novel "Lovingkindness" by Anne Roiphe, that I highly recommend, about how Israel can restore dignity to some Jews.
Yet, Bernie was (and presumably still is) very left-wing, and it was his duty to lambast Israel as an imperialist, colonialist entity that persecuted the poor native Palestinian Arabs. This he did. He gave it to them! But, he missed the point, he saw everything but understood nothing.
This little article is dedicated to my friend Eddie, who formulated the truism that "leftists don't really believe we belong here." That certainly seems true of Amos Oz's pathetic passivity in the face of Arab aggressiveness.
I am certainly no Bible-inspired Orthodox believer, but I know that the Jews have a historical claim to this land, that precedes and supersedes those of the Arabs. The fact is that in the 7th and 8th centuries the Arabs, inspired by Islam, conquered all the lands now called the Arab world, including Israel, and de-judaized it, simply by forcibly converting the Jews and Christians living here, or killing them. To me this does not constitute a legitimate claim.
To those who say well, that was a long time ago, I say so was the Bible. And then of course there are more modern Jewish claims like the Balfour Declaration and the UN recognition of the State of Israel, that leftists usually treat as some form of colonialism (as if the Muslim conquest wasn't colonialism or imperialism).
Bernie is quoted in the book as saying "I never felt at home in Israel, I'm a European, But, it has to survive, even if their Governments are all mad." What all of them? But, it doesn't seem that he is very much at home in Britain, either, being constitutionally anti-establishment, or Europe either. According to that poem above, in which he continues, "how sad that I have found nowhere, that my son has no festival." That is the price you pay for rejecting Judaism, Zionism and everything meaningful that makes a Jew a Jew.
Many years ago, probably in the 1970's, I remember that Bernie was given a free escorted tour of Israel by the Tourism Ministry. As an influential British Jewish writer it was appropriate that they invite him, as they did many others. However, the result was unexpected, for Bernie wrote an article in the Jewish Chronicle that lambasted Israel, and called it a dumping ground for the worst sons and daughters of the Diaspora.
This strange idea came about from the fact that our mutual cousin, Martin, who was a ne'er do-well, on drugs and without any profession, was sent to Israel by his father to make good, and ended up living on the beach in Tel Aviv starving. The Police contacted his father and he had to fly out to rescue his son and take him back to London. So if anything, Israel was the opposite of Bernie's characterization, getting rid of the worst of the sons of the Diaspora. In this respect it is also interesting to compare the short novel "Lovingkindness" by Anne Roiphe, that I highly recommend, about how Israel can restore dignity to some Jews.
Yet, Bernie was (and presumably still is) very left-wing, and it was his duty to lambast Israel as an imperialist, colonialist entity that persecuted the poor native Palestinian Arabs. This he did. He gave it to them! But, he missed the point, he saw everything but understood nothing.
This little article is dedicated to my friend Eddie, who formulated the truism that "leftists don't really believe we belong here." That certainly seems true of Amos Oz's pathetic passivity in the face of Arab aggressiveness.
I am certainly no Bible-inspired Orthodox believer, but I know that the Jews have a historical claim to this land, that precedes and supersedes those of the Arabs. The fact is that in the 7th and 8th centuries the Arabs, inspired by Islam, conquered all the lands now called the Arab world, including Israel, and de-judaized it, simply by forcibly converting the Jews and Christians living here, or killing them. To me this does not constitute a legitimate claim.
To those who say well, that was a long time ago, I say so was the Bible. And then of course there are more modern Jewish claims like the Balfour Declaration and the UN recognition of the State of Israel, that leftists usually treat as some form of colonialism (as if the Muslim conquest wasn't colonialism or imperialism).
Bernie is quoted in the book as saying "I never felt at home in Israel, I'm a European, But, it has to survive, even if their Governments are all mad." What all of them? But, it doesn't seem that he is very much at home in Britain, either, being constitutionally anti-establishment, or Europe either. According to that poem above, in which he continues, "how sad that I have found nowhere, that my son has no festival." That is the price you pay for rejecting Judaism, Zionism and everything meaningful that makes a Jew a Jew.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:06 AM
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