How we became a night unto the nations

[Middle East News Service comments: Veteran Israeli journalist (he’s been on Haaretz’s staff for 44 years) Yoel Marcus occupies a pride of place to the right of centre on the paper’s Editorial board. So his views cannot be tainted with those of some of his colleagues. But Marcus likes to tell things as they are and he does the ability to turn a phrase, which no doubt give translators a headache. Today’s creation is simple but brilliant: “If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, then anti-Semitism is the last refuge of the occupier.”

While some of the new historians will challenge Marcus’s account of the past he’s certainly correct about the present: “Israel's military might and its unrestrained use of this might have turned the David-versus-Goliath analogy into an asset for the Palestinians. Israel is no longer described as at risk of being destroyed, but as a strong country, aggressive and domineering, as Charles de Gaulle once said.”

A better translation on the title would have been “How we became a darkness unto the nations” – Sol Salbe.]

The first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is the one who said Israel should be a light unto the nations. The great powers, who didn't lift a finger to destroy the death camps during World War II, were not only sympathetic to Israel's establishment, but admired its valor in repulsing the Arab states' onslaught.

Renowned foreign journalists came here and wrote glowing reports about this war of David against Goliath, about the young immigrants who were taken from the boat straight to the battlefield, about the Jewish volunteers who arrived to help establish this state that was fighting for its life. They also described the hatred of the Arabs, who in their stupidity refused to reach peace agreements with Israel. Because of this, the Rhodes armistice agreements awarded Israel far more territory than the UN did in its resolution of November 29 1947.

The second wave of admiration for Israel stemmed from the speed with which it defeated the Arab armies in the 1967 war. The Six-Day War is taught in military academies worldwide, and the international media once again described the campaign as a war of David against Goliath. Israel proved that it was in no danger of being destroyed, despite what its fund-raisers in America liked to claim.

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View the rest of the article here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1130262.html

[The independent Middle East News Service concentrates on providing alternative information chiefly from Israeli sources. It is sponsored by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the AJDS. These are expressed in its own statements]

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