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iy laden with other burdens
outside the Jewish scope. The
diversities in Jewish society
were tense; at one stage they
seemed to hold the nation’s
union in jeopardy. But they
were never aggravated by an
attempt to cope with a mil
lion Arab “problems” in con
ditions of revolt.
Everything in Israel’s
achievement for 20 years was
owed to its Jewish character.
The institutional pattern, the
economic structure, the social
fabric, the intellectual and
technological momentum, the
historic pride, the spiritual
vision, the ardent loyalties,
and, by virtue of these, the
capacity of defense, were all
made possible by an atomically
compressed Jewish vitality.
Israel was strong, because she
governed herself—and herself
alone.
It was a victorious exercise
in self-determination, with full
knowledge that in the 1960s
the capacity to determine one
self excludes the capacity to
determine others.
The eruption of energies in
Israel’s first two decades had
been made possible by the pol
itical decisions of the period
following the Second World
War. There was a lucid choice
in favor of exercising a power
of Jewish decision and cre
ativity within a broad but
limited area rather than of
having access to a broader area
in which, however, a Jewish
power of decision and creativ
ity could at best be diluted and
at worst flooded out of exis
tence.
Our territorial conceptions
were closely related to the
need for immediate statehood
and the unconditional con
servation of Jewish identity.
We therefore sought the most
spacious and secure house of
which we could realistically
expect to be the masters. We
refused to elevate the size of
the house above the need for
mastery of it.
Thus the exigencies of space
and security were brought
into harmony with the na
tional, cultural and social
ends which lay at the root of
our statehood; the other part,
no less decisive, was the par
ticular human cohesion which
we were striving to re-assert.
It is only recently that we
have noticed a tendency to re
gard our country’s territorial
configuration as a lonely and
supreme criterion, ignoring the
parallel problems of its human
composition, its spiritual ethos,
its Jewish singularity, and its
poignant but undying passion
for peace. We have even lived
to see an article in a Hebrew
newspaper extolling the vir
tues of colonialism; pointing
out that this manly pursuit has
admittedly dwindled in Eur
ope but now enjoys a lease of
life in Mongolia, Tibet and
Sinkiang, and hinting as
broadly as possible that
Israel’s “manifest destiny”
may be at hand, while her be
lated part of the white man’s
burden remains to be fulfilled
under the guise of restoring
Zion.
The writer’s conclusion is
that a nation’s “provincial
confinement of space does in
jury to the universal human
conception!” (Colonization Is
at Its Height”: E. Livneh.
Ha’aretz, June 3, 1969). One
could leave this absurdity in
its place as evidence of a shal
low pseudo-intellectua 1 i s m .
The point is that it could not
have been written or publish
ed a few years ago except by
a professional humorist with a
gift for parody. It illustrates
the derangement that we shall
incur if our territorial and se
curity conceptions are isolated
from the broader framework
of national purpose.
What we have to change are
the political, juridical and
territorial conditions which
created Israel’s danger — not
the intense Jewish cohesion
which enabled her to sur
mount it.
The infirmities which
brought the collapse of the
armistice system will rise to
the surface of our memory
whenever the first days of
June come around.
It is not necessary for Is
raelis to use many words to
recall to one another the full
horror which loomed before
us two years ago. There are
sounds and visions which will
never leave us. The 250,000
Arab soldiers crushing us into
p. corner from South, and
East; the 15,000 tanks with
spearheads a few hours, some
times a few minutes, from our
homes; the neighboring air
fields with their load of death
designed for precisely determ
ined targets; the careful labor
of eight decades about to be
engulfed in a kind of Mongol
massacre; the piratical block
ade which cut us off from half
the world, and choked the
passage through which 90 per
cent of our vital fuel came;
the exultant voices on the air
waves proclaiming war and
announcing our destruction;
the operation orders in Arab
army headquarters describing
how our men, women and chil
dren were to be torn to bits;
the frenzied mobs in Arab
streets exultant with the im
minent prospect of blood and
spoils; and the cool wicked
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