After the Rabin Assassination

political necessity. When I raised these matters with some ofyour White House advisers, I was told that theyfeared theperception of''thefeminization ofClinton ."Butwhatmen are fearing- the sense ofweakness that would make them feel that they couldn't defend themselves-gets communicated much more in a president who backs awayfrom principled fights than one who takes them on, even ifhe sometimes loses. You need to talk with moral courage abouthomophobiain themilitaryand in the societyand present to the American people an explanation for this stance based upon the understanding ofwhy men are so traumatized that they constantly feel compelled to prove themselves as "strong." I knowthatthis isgoingto provoke a powerful reaction from the Right, precisely because they will feel themselves exposed. You need to predict their response and show them that you won't retreat, even when the media try to distort your message. Ifyou draw your understanding ofthe social and political problems confronting you from this psychological analysis, and maintain that real men are strong enough to refrain from repeatedly having to prove their strength through control and can allow themselves to feel soft, vulnerable, and caring, and that those who cannot arevictims ofchildhoodtraumaand deserving ofour compassion, you will not onlybuild a frien9-ship with Michael, I cameto seethatreligious traditions-the bestofthem-do that. Theyseekto makelove manifest in theworld.Andthat's whathas to happen. TIKKUN: Howhas Tikkun played out these ideas? PETER: Inthe beginning, we didn'thavethis integration inthe magazine. Michael and I weretryingto writethisway.Weweretryingto illuminate a distortion in a waythatpointed to a healingofthatdistortion , whether in media, orpolitics, orwithin the constraints ofthe democraticparty. We wanted to create an opportunityto integratethe expression of thehuman heartand its longings into politics andsociety . We wantedto address the dominance ofscience, the artificialityoftheworld created bythe media, the play-acting dynamics ofAmerican politics,thesoullessness ofmuch ofpsychology; we wantedto write in a waythatwould make visible what was invisible, like thepain in the world ofwork. But, much ofthe writingwe bad inthe early days didn'thavethis integrated approach. We hadthe political critique-we broughtalotofsmart, insightful, critical leftJewishwriters into Tikkun likeTodd consensus for gay rights, you will pull the psychological rug outfrom underthe feet ofthe American Right. In theprocess, youwillalso create a powerful majority willing to back much ofthe restofyour agenda. J'ANUARY/ fEBRUAltY 1994 I VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1 Afterthe Rabin Assassination DanielBoyarin's contribution to a Tikkun Roundtable T HERE HAS BEEN a consistent pattern of violence against Palestinians in theWest Bank, particularly around Hebron, and a condoning ofthe most violent actions of settlers. This is well documented. There is a way in which these settlers have been sent to do the work ofthe government, instilling terror in the local population in ways that have been useful to the government though the government couldn't allow itself to be seen as doing this itself,thus "persuading" the Palestinians that they must agree to Oslo I and II, because othernrise, look at the terrible settlers and what Gitlin and Paul Berman, buttheirs were traditional rational critiques oftheunjust aspects ofAmerican culture. Theywere not spiritual critiques. Thenwe hadtheJewish piece, which I wasjust learning about. Nan [Fink Gefen] was importantto that, as shewas to bringingthevoices ofwomen into prominenceinthe magazine. TIKKUN:Tell me moreaboutthat"Jewishpiece" andhowthe magazine ca.meinto being. PETER: Nanwas central to the creation ofthe magazine. Itwas Nan and Michaelwho came to tell me thattheyplanned to sta1tthis Jewish magazine. I thought, Jewish magazine? Bon voyage. My [Left] meetings had the radical spiritto them; theywerefun and liberating and hopeful, even inspirational , butthey~ere also quite unsafe. Theydidn't create an accepting and loving environment, and whenthe Sixties began to unravel, I could seehowthe atmosphere ofangerand political correctness andthe threat ofhumiliation was contributingto that unraveling byscaring away perfectly good-hearted people and sendingthem backto private life. Atthe same time, I beganto see howJudaism had a 3,000-year 26 TIKKUN WWW. TIKKUN .ORG NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2006 TWENTIETH ANNIVERSA RY they will do to you. There has been a systematic condoning and cynical utilization ofthese violent elements among the settlers and among sectors ofthe I.D.F., particularlythe Golani Brigadefor the pastseveralyears ,thatgrows outofthe Zionistposition. There is a certain sense in which todaythe chickens are coming home to roost. I'm astonished andappalled atpeople who...