Arts & Culture
The Lame Duck in Israel
By Jay Michaelson / May 29, 2008
Jerusalem has never seemed so American. By chance, my first trip since living here two years ago coincides with President Bush's second trip in the last six months. And so the capital city is in lockdown: buses rerouted, streets closed, and cops every ten meters or so. Your tax dollars even paid for renting out the entire King David Hotel for the POTUS and his team.
But it's not just the conspicuous inconvenience of the President's visit: it's Jerusalem itself. The city has always been filled with American tourists, students, and immigrants. But increasingly, Jerusalem is an American city in more and deeper ways.
First, it's grown incredibly classist. No pioneering socialism here; the center of town is now halfway through its conversion process to the Upper East Side of Israel (complete with the ghost town feel in the off season). The hulking Hilton hotel, once a white elephant, is now met by the rising Jerusalem Palace, King David Residences, Mamila project, and a new high-end pedestrian mall, all of which are priced beyond all but the wealthiest of Israelis. This is Jerusalem's new rich-folks neighborhood — greater Yemin Moshe, if you like. I wonder if it'll eventually be gated.
Strolling along that mall, filled with empty boutiques waiting for their Jewish American Princesses to come, I felt like one of those irritating New Yorkers who complains about the bad old days of Times Square. After all, I can't really complain about this macro-economic plan for Jerusalem's development. This is valuable real estate, and if rich jerks from Westchester are willing to plonk down a mil or two for an apartment, my Zionist self is all for it. But it's sad to see the stratification of Israel/America so starkly depicted, right next to the Old City Walls.
Second, Jerusalem has grown even more like Disneyland. Crawling with Birthright kids and UJA missionaries, it's rapidly becoming an entirely ersatz city. The real Jerusalemites are in Malha at the mall, the Americans on Ben Yehuda. The real Jerusalemites gather in little shtiebels, the Americans in the Old City. Even the shuk now feels somehow pre-packaged, like the Olde Townes and Harbor Villages back home. Meanwhile, the real cultural creatives have fled, as secular Jerusalem dwindles to a mere simulacrum of a culture in the face of Haredi power, foreign-fueled rent hikes, and American fakery. The Palestinians, of course, are more invisible than ever; no politics intrudes on the fantasy of homeland.
Third, and relatedly, Jerusalem increasingly shares the Bush-era predilection for oppressing and radicalizing enemies, rather than engaging with them. Two weeks ago, Bush implicitly likened Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain, saying that talking with Hamas was like appeasing the Nazis in 1939. This is, of course, outrageous, a poor update of the reductio ad hitlerum argument. Given the reality of Jewish (and wider) racism and anti-Islamism, I'd even say it's close to race baiting.
But as political philosophy, it's vintage Bush. The world is made up of good guys and evildoers. You don't talk to evildoers, and you don't care what they think, because they're evil. So, go ahead and prosecute your outrageous war strategy, evince endless arrogance, and talk a rhetoric only slightly less deluded than that of the Chinese. It doesn't matter, because the evildoers are already evil. Moreover, those of us who dare to suggest that maybe the world isn't so clear cut — we're appeasers, weak, and naive.
Post-wall Israel is increasingly similar. I don't know if Prime Minister Olmert is the latest Yitzhak Shamir, feigning a peace process while stalling for time, or whether he's sincere in his talk for peace. Politically, Israel has continued to stick it to the Palestinians, and damn the consequences. The Israeli government has grown dependent on Bush's blank-check policy — which perhaps explains why they're so terrified of Obama. They've avoided making difficult choices, because no one's making them do so.
Worse than that, rich American right-wingers are distorting Israeli politics by massively funding conservative politicians. These Americans have a Birthright-style fantasy of Israel, the holy land, the only democracy in the Middle East, etc. They stay in the big hotels and take tours of archeological sites. And then they give millions to right wing politicians who maintain the fantasy and refuse any compromise with the three million people living in maybe-one-day-Palestine. "We" — by which I mean Americans — are undermining the real Israel in order to preserve the fantasy one.
Bush's non-engagement policy works, somewhat, if you're a superpower — although the last seven years have surely been the most destructive to American interests in the last century at least. But if you're Israel, it's a disaster. The world is not simply standing by while Israel builds more settlements; many people are increasingly infuriated, with rhetoric that boils over into antisemitism at its worst.
Of course, Bush would say you can't run around trying to please people. You have to be strong, and do what's right. But when your friends stop being your friends, you'd have to be stubborn and foolish not to take their desertion seriously. Which, well….
All these elements — the class stratification, the delusion, and the know-nothing/doubt-nothing policy — are part of the same Ugly American arrogance that has made us so reviled in so many parts of the world today. We just get fatter and fatter, richer and richer, meaner and meaner. Damn the consequences, we'll have our SUVs, gated communities, stratified health care system, and imperialist foreign policy. We're Americans and we like things big, dammit. Big, vulgar, and mean.
But the consequences are real. It's just not true that large swaths people have always been and will always be anti-American;only someone as provincial as Bush could believe that. Public opinion is mutable — not entirely, but somewhat. Likewise, though large swaths of people have always been anti-Israel and antisemitic to some degree, it is just that: a matter of degree. In all cases, the degrees have been increasing lately. We can damn the consequences, but they might just damn us back.
I love Israel, and love Jerusalem, despite it all. I love my favorite field, love the kosher restaurants, I even love the Kotel. But as Bush swaggers through his last months in office, and the political campaign begins in earnest, I worry that play-attending, latte-drinking, Prius-driving Obama voters like me might be more marginalized than ever by oligarchs masquerading as populists. People like Bush do have the simple answers. They just happen to be wrong.
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"Post-wall Israel is increasingly similar. I don’t know if Prime Minister Olmert is the latest Yitzhak Shamir, feigning a peace process while stalling for time, or whether he’s sincere in his talk for peace. "
This implies that there is a peace process to talk about. The Palestinians are currently engaged in a civil war. That alone is enough to make nonsense of the peace process. Hamas and Fatah fought each other and killed one another’s fighters before and they’re not afraid to repeat the process. The difference between them is that Fatah is a corrupt, nepotistic joke of a political party that has no mandate to conclude a peace deal with the Israelis along a two party solution with no ‘right of return’ for the Palestinians. In fact it explicitly opposes any deal without the ‘right of return.’. Meanwhile Hamas is popular because of its ‘clean’ reputation and what it desires is crystal clear: the destruction of the Israel. So anyone who thinks a peace deal is possible in the foreseeable future has to close his eyes to the Palestinian people’s political positions as well as the Palestinian-Israeli civil war, as well as Fatah’s refusal to actually recognise Israel without the right of return, as well as Fatah’s unpopularity among the Palestinians.
Some Israeli settlers continue to build homes in the West Bank and this may turn out to be a problem. I personally think that building homes is hardly a crime when you consider the death and agony of war, but my moral opinion is irrelevant. What the Palestinians think, and what Israeli settlers think, is what matters. This issue will only be resolved when the Palestinians and Israelis come to the table to do something other than twiddle their thumbs, which is all that their talks amount to at present.Â
David–a comment:
"Surely the author does not realize what he is saying at all when he references a "Birthright-style fantasy of Israel" since Birthright almost never champions a religious or even nationalist point of view, instead, they simply promote Israel as a fine place to visit, spend some money and try to sympathize with from a secular point of view."
The author probably realises this, but despairs of the program nevertheless, perhaps because it presents Israel as either (a) a healthy, fully democratic society (which it is not, unfortunately) or (b) a society that deisres a peace agreement with the Palestinians (which is (1) an inaccurate description of the political views of the majority of Israelis and (2) just plain irrelevant, as I discussed above).
To clarify, by saying that Israel is not a full democracy I mean that two things. Firstly, its Israeli Arab citizens are discriminated against by some parts of Israeli society and also many Israeli Arabs do not recognise the state. Secondly, I would refer you to this recent article by Evelyn Gordon, which outlines the flaws of Israel’s parliamentary democracy and its effect on the alienation of some of its citizens, namely parts of the religious zionist public (and much smaller parts that have even turned violent against the state). http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1222017381882. These issues will, I hope, some day be resolved.
You are right that most of this article is really just playing to the crowd. The author writes on themes that have been repeated many times and is not out to convince anyone or make a substantive argument. Jewcy’s editors should try to discourage articles such as these. Playing to the crowd is really a waste of everyone’s time.
I really fail to see how this article—on the home page, no less—does anything at all to advance Jewish thought, culture or spirituality. It’s vile drivel that I would expect to read in an anti-Zionist UK paper.Â
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I really don’t think that Jewcy serves any valid purpose other than to serve as an organ for those Jews to cool to admit that maybe, just maybe, there is a right and a wrong—and that the Jews are on right side.Â
Are you really a lawyer? I guess the old agade holds up "Those who can, do, those who cant, teach". Dean Schwartz would be disappointed to see BU Law become a haven for mediocrity
Jerusalem culture went downhill the day McDonalds replaced McDovids…..
One of the defects of many cultures in the Middle East is the inability to say thank you. We pour 2.3 billion dollars a year into Egypt and they hate us. We give aid to Jordan and they hate us. We even gave aid to the mujahedeen, enabling them to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and we got 9/11 in thanks. "Professor" Michaelson appears to suffer from this same deficit. Every day Jerusalem is united, I praise Hashem. I remember divided Jerusalem, when Jordanian soldiers would take potshots from the Old City walls at Jewish civilians. Do us a favor, Mr Michaelson and stay away from Jerusalem. Beirut is more your speed. As an old Arabic proverb says "Wild assess cannot appreciate fine barley"
Yeah, anonymous, haven't you heard? Being a self-hating Jew is so passe. It's all about being a self-hating American now.Â
wow you really hate America don't you? There's nothing good about it – certainly not that it's the best home the Jewish people have ever had, right? Or the whole written constitution thing with protections for civil liberties? Nope. We just suck.
I have no doubt the author of this dreadful entry is a heck of a nice guy. I am here trying to help out.
The trouble is that grunting about and forming conclusions that have no argument or evidence to back them up only reaches those who have the author's rather profound biases and does nothing to advance a point of view–distasteful or otherwise.
Surely the author does not realize what he is saying at all when he references a "Birthright-style fantasy of Israel" since Birthright almost never champions a religious or even nationalist point of view, instead, they simply promote Israel as a fine place to visit, spend some money and try to sympathize with from a secular point of view. I think the author is trying to say that the fantasy of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, an extension of Jewish history of the Torah, and a place where there is a conflict between a people struggling to survive among hostile and less legitimate neighbors is a fantasy. If this is the author's belief–at least a couple of sentences of argument might give at least some strength but none is made–indeed NONE IS EVER MADE ON THIS BLOG–because there is no good argument to make. Simple declarative and defamatory statements are the point, the entire point and there is nothing else but the simple declarative insult.
I have poked and prodded, asked questions and implored authors of these postings to define and describe their point of view with some kind of argument, perhaps a couple of facts, anything at all and nothing seems to ever appear. The grunt is the sum of the game, the totality of what substitutes for reasoned argument and I find that so sad since I wish everyone well, even as they have succumbed to the worst kind of defeated political postures. I fully believe that adolescents can grow to be full adults.
If it is a right-wing fantasy to stay at nice hotels, go to Jerusalem and visit archaeological sites BECAUSE the underlying understanding is that the Torah is real–perhaps the author could comprehend that it is at least as much of a fantasy (and surely much more of one) to deny any ancient Jewish link to the land and define Americanism in grotesque terms of bigness and meanness. If one's opponents have wrong answers–they can easily be exploited. The author won't state the simple answers he condemns–he simply trusts those who agree with him know what they are and, most importantly, that they are "wrong." Â
Wrong because…..? One might suspect a secret but there is no secret and for anyone else, it surely seems the LEFT is chronically wrong about so many things so often that the repetitive defeats might surely prove encouragement to try something new besides pacifism, universalism and ignorance.Â
At minimum, defending one's fantasy is good place to start.Â
Dont worry, when al-Quds is returned to its rightful owners, we will cleanse it of its corruption. Al Quds is holy to Islam and Christianity, Las Vegas is holy to Jews. Unlike al Quds, there really is a jewish history in Vegas
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