Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politics, and Culture: Books on Israel, Volume II

3. Ideological Politics or the Politics of Demography: The Aftermath of the Six-Day-War

Gershon Shafir Ideological Politics or the Politics of Demography: The Aftermath of the Six-Day-War Yosef Gorny. Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-1948. trs. by Chaya Galai. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1987. stephen J. Roth ed.• The Impact of the Six-Day War: A Twenty Year Assessment. London. Macmillan Press in association with the Institute ofJewish Affairs. 1988. Yehoshafat Harkabi. Israel's Fateful Decisions. trs. by Lenn Schramm. London, l.B.Tauris & Co.. 1988. Since the Six Day War both Israel's internal and external political life have been radically altered. Two "new" actors- the Likud and the PLO- have assumed commanding significance. Ajuxtaposition ofthree recently published books- one looking at the period before the metamorphosis . the other two after- allows us to inquire into the dimensions and significance ofthese changes. Whether the twenty odd years that transpired since the Six Day War are sufficient to provide us with the requisite historical perspective only time will tell. It is. nevertheless. worthwhile to step back from the analysis ofeveryday Israeli drama to contemplate its general course. There is a common theme unifYing the two works that consider the present: they lament and protest the loss ofan acknowledged Israeli sense of realism. This sentiment is succinctly expressed in the article by a past director of Israel's Foreign Ministry and pastAmbassador to the United Nations. Gideon Rafael: 42 Critical Essays on Israeli Society, Politics, and Culture In the elation ofits swift and overwhelmingvictory in 1967 Israel's sense of proportion and values became flawed. It began to overestimate the effects of military power and underrate the strength of international political realities. Analogously. Nathan Rotenstreich. the renowned philosopher and onetime Chancellor ofthe Hebrew University. argues that the synthesis ofpragmatic considerations and utopian aspirations that ensured past Zionist successes is now severed; the former abandoned in favor of the latter. According to Yehoshafat Harkabi, past chief of Israeli Military Intelligence now Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the HebrewUniversity. Israel is at a crossroads. having to chose between return to its past "realist vision" and its present "adventurist fantasy." Ian Lustick. one of the most perceptive young American scholars ofcontemporary Israel. warns ofthe potentially dangerous affects of ignoring the full dimensions of this Israeli metamorphosis.l In short. in the view of the civil servant. the philosopher. the general. and the political scientist. the Six DayWar destroyed those creative Israeli faculties which enabled it to excel in the past in comprehending and making the best of an adverse reality. Realism was replaced by intoxication with power. This vista leaves us with two strings ofquestions. First. mainstream. i.e. Labor. Zionism certainly possessed in addition to its realism a considerable measure of boldness and determination of its own. What then was particularly realistic in its poliCies and style?Also. what is the trajectory of Israeli political realism. and are our respective authorities justified in seeing 1967 as its decisive breaking pOint? I do believe that the tendency "to start history" in 1967 is politically motivated and. therefore. misguided; the Six Day War did not shatter long-standing Israeli attitudes but rather intensified them. even as they were adapted to the new circumstances. After all. neither the Likud nor the PLO were of much consequence in 1967. but even so the Labor Ideological Politics or the Politics oJDemography 43 movement's creative realism did not suffice in the decade after 1967. nor does it seem to be sufficient today. to lead in a novel direction. If the search for the causes of the present predicament leads us further back than 1967. what place does the Six Day War itself occupy in Israeli. as well as in Palestinian. history? In what sense was it a turning pOint? This set ofquestions leads to related queries. The loss of pragmatic considerations in Israel's relationship with the Arab world also entailed. at least in Rotenstreich's formulation . the suppression of Israel's laudable moral receptivity ; it gave rise to a blind and heartless stance. But what were the bases of moral receptivity prior to 1948? And are really all Israel's unreceptive, adamant moralities the product of the post-1967 era? YosefGorny's book is a welcome and ambitious attempt to survey the spectrum of Zionist ideological positions toward the conflict until 1948. The book's Hebrew title The Arab Question and the Jewish Problem actually gives us an unusually good sense ofthe complexities its author...