The Burden of Being a "Light Unto The Nations"
by David Grossman

book reviewed by Dr. Ed Beck

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that Israel was to "a light unto the nations." where the power of love and piety will bring to fruition the best potentials in every person and in every situation.(Isaiah 42:6;49:6). With these and other guiding principals the early Zionists sought refuge from world-wide oppression and discrimination in Israel to fulfill Isaiah's prophesy. However, since the first day of the official establishment of the state of Israel by the United Nations, Israel's Arab neighbors, sometimes with the political and economic support of European countries and the former Soviet Union have sought to undermine this prophesy with their own xenophobia and hatred, which is never far from the surface. While Jews pray for Shalom, peace...their neighbors pray for "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad..."

In the midst of all of this, there is an eternal optimism within the Jewish and Israeli psyche that believes that peace is possible even with your avowed liquidator. It doesn't take much to ignite this optimism and yet it doesn't take much to extinguish it, thus producing a bi-polar society which is the basis of David Grossman's reflections in "Death As A Way of Life: Israel Ten Years After Oslo."

Grossman, a Jerusalem-based, political commentator, peace activist and family man shares his transformation from an optimist to a bewildered, disillusioned, disappointed citizen in a series of commentaries following events in the years after the Oslo Accords through the current intifadfa and the commencing of the introduction of the Road Map. His thoughts reflect a significant portion of Israeli society who believe in peace, work for peace, believe a two-state solution is possible and who genuinely detest and are tired of Israel's role since winning the war, but losing the peace in 1967. The Second Intifada as a war of attrition has turned many Jews and Israelis' hopes and aspirations into a nightmare of self-doubt and loss of self-respect.

Grossman, whose prior works "The Yellow Wind" and "Sleeping on a Wire" address with great compassion and honesty, the incredibly sensitive and difficult issues faced by both the Israeli and Palestinians, continues with that honesty but now shares his bitterness, confusion, feelings of betrayal and pain stating emphatically in June 2002 that "This war cannot be won" and later in July 2002 that "Bad Fences Make Bad Neighbors" where he states that a strong fence is needed not to establish a border, but to secure an area from bad neighbors.

The reader follows Grossman's transition from his utopian optimism following Oslo to his accepting the reality that the Palestinians in power have no intentions of accepting an Israel side by side with a Palestinian state and that Israel has had to resort to extreme military tactics making it appear to be a Goliath to the Palestinian Davids.

To some extent it appears that Grossman, as a well meaning but unrealistic peace advocate, had bought into the Palestinian propoganda that somehow or another Israel was responsible for the Palestinians' plight, never addressing the issue that the entire Arab and parts of the European world with the UN as major accomplices, have been responsible for the intolerable conditions in the territories with tremendous corruption by Arafat and his cronies. The dispair that peace activists so often quote as responsible for the suicide bombings was well controlled by the Egyptians, the Jordanians, the Saudis, the UN and EU countries that pumped millions if not billions of dollars into the Palestinian Authority with it never reaching the people and making Yassir Arafat worth estimates ranging from three billion to 20 billion dollars.

Being a peace activist and a healer myself, I share Grossman's grief over the loss of humanity in this struggle. However, unlike Grossman, I believe that it is the Palestinians who have lowered the bar in this dispute with the refusal to negotiate in good faith and the well-healed targeting of civilians by well trained suicide/homicide bombings. I further believe, as a child of Holocaust survivors, that Jews need a Jewish state with safe and secure borders and that all threats to it must be handled, not with compassion and prayer, but with firm determination and a will to prevail. We have far too many martyrs for our numbers on this planet. I am compassionate for territorial claims, but I cannot accept "death to the Jews" and "drive Israel into the sea." Those are non-negotiable for me and as being pointed out by emiment legal scholars violations of fundamental laws of human rights and the Geneva Convention.

Grossman's demoralization and disillusionment have come not from what Israel has had to do to defend her citizens in my opinion, but from the lack of support from around the world to swifty and justly eliminate the threats which have attacked her vital organs. Had Israel been allowed by the United States and other powers to address the real threats to their country even before 9/11, this three year wearing down of spirit might never have gotten this far.

Nevertheless Grossman's humanity and caring, even for his enemy, shines through much to his credit, perhaps making him more saintly than me. I have no compassion for the terrorist who is plotting to kill me and my neighbor instead of sitting with us and negotiating our mutual place in the sun. While I would love to be a peace-loving dove, and in fact, have a long history of anti-war peace activism having been Clean for Gene McCarthy at NYC and an activist with the American Friends Service Committee before that, I realize and accept that there are times when even the Talmudists say there is an exception to the commandment that "Thou shalt not kill" which is the concept of self-defense whether as a victim or as a soldier.

As a therapist and healer, I can empathize with Grossman's pain and discouragement; but at the same time I would and do turn that into positive energy to try to strengthen and shore up our defense line, so that we can survive this crusade, pogrom, Holocaust and war of attrition, so that we can survive at least another 5700 years despite the world's contempt for our incredible contributions to the improvement of human life and rich intellectual and spiritual history.

One of the lessons I have learned from my Holocaust surviving relatives, was the the pessimists were the first to perish in the camps, while the optimists seemingly were able to last longer and fight with many even surviving. This is a time when we must be strong optimists, that we will prevail against our enemies who have tried to twist us into seeing ourselves as Goliaths, when we are in fact still Davids. One only has to look at map of the region to see who has proclaimed war on who to see that we are still the Davids of the world.

I understand and respect Grossman's being unsettled with his transformation, but if we are to survive as a people, we must be compassionate when compassion is appropriate and we must be realists and strong when that is appropriate. It is a difficult place to be as we have to give up many utopian notions, but as long as the world remains hostile to the Jewish people with even our allies having an Armageddonist vision for us, we must be strong and vigilant, yet caring and compassionate.

Through Grossman's eyes we see the struggle of this view of ourselves as a compassionate and caring people who are trying to serve as " a light unto the nations " while at the same time having to resort the the horrible brutalities of combating an insidious enemy who has no regard for international law, the rules of engagement, human rights, civilian life or negotiation who are feuled by fanaticism and xenophobia. This is a compelling dilemma for which there are no simple solutions.

Dr. Edward S. Beck is President of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Director of the Susquehanna Institute, Harrisburg, PA and Adjunct Faculty Member, Division of Graduate and Continuing Studies at Alvernia College, teaching courses in multicultural psychology and ethics.

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09/29/2003