.
Commentary;
Jonathan Tobin’s piece on former Prisoner of Zion and Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky carries an important lesson for Israelis, a lesson in identity — seen as synonymous with an overriding national unity which was once axiomatic to a vast majority Israelis and to world Jewry, which with the evolution of elitism, protexia, political graft and self-aggrandizement as national institutions in Israeli leadership and governance, needs to be relearned, reabsorbed and reapplied by the Jews.
This author views that for governmental leadership to relearn this lesson requires new, different blood in charge, who are not morally tainted and corrupted, to replace the current governance. MB
View from America: Rediscovering the Will to Win, by Jonathan Tobin (Jerusalem Post)
Natan Sharansky: “Without identity, a democracy becomes incapable of defending the values it holds most dear.”
Excerpts;
Some three and a half years ago, former Prisoner of Zion and Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky was George W. Bush’s favorite author. Sharansky earned an unexpected boost when the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. invited him and co-author Ron Dermer to the White House and told the world that everyone should read their book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny & Terror.
Undaunted by the drastic shift in the public mood, Sharansky, who has given up politics and now writes from a perch at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, is back with yet another book that aims to persuade the West to keep fighting for its ideals.
HAVING SEEN the progress democracy’s enemies have made, Sharansky believes that one element has given strength to the Islamists, while at the same time undermining the West’s determination: identity.
In Defending Identity, which was co-written by Shira Wolosky Weiss and edited by Dermer, Sharansky points out that while a universalist appeal to individualism rings true to us, Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hizbullah have spent the last several years illustrating that a group identity that transcends economics or the value of life itself is a lethal foe of democracy.
At the same time as this rise of deadly Islamic extremism, Western intellectuals have increasingly come to see religion and nationalism as antithetical to freedom. The problem is that, if we make the mistake of seeing them as being a primitive poison that is itself the cause of violence, the West will be robbing itself of the tools with which we can defend our values.
Identity can be, Sharansky argues, a “force for good,” not merely an ideology of evil. “Strong identities are as valuable to a well-functioning society as they are to… well-functioning individuals.”
More to the point, “without identity, a democracy becomes incapable of defending the values it holds most dear.”
The collapse of ideas like colonialism, that were once associated with European empires, has allowed “post-identity” thinking to trash national feelings, as well as faith. But rather than this rejection of Europe’s cultural norms helping its democratic culture to prosper, it has rendered it defenseless in the face of aggressive and self-confident Muslim immigrants.
The current situation in Europe, where democracies seem at times to be unwilling or unable to stand up against Islamist cultural and political forces, illustrates this all too well.
“The path to peace lies in strengthening Israel’s Jewish identity…”
THIS TREND has led to a virtual collapse of the cause of human rights around the world. Not only are many Western intellectuals and academics now largely uninterested in bringing the benefits of liberty to places where Islamo-fascists and local authoritarians rule, many have actively allied themselves with the cause of those who want to destroy existing democracies.
That is the only way to understand the willingness of so many in the West to support Palestinians, whose worldview is the complete opposite of what these liberal thinkers themselves supposedly espouse.
It is, after all, the State of Israel, where the right of Jews to their own “identity” is under siege both from those who oppose any non-Muslim sovereignty in the region and Western critics, including a growing cadre of leftist Jews, who see Zionism as regressive nationalism.
This is a body of thought that has gained ground in war-weary Israel, as the so-called “post-Zionists” have sought to wean the country away from its roots. Rather than seeing it as the place where one small group has found the freedom to let their ancient civilization blossom anew on their historic homeland, the post-Zionists urge Israelis to eschew such parochialism.
“Just as the West can’t defend itself against Islamism by giving up a belief in the superiority of its own ideals of democracy, Israel won’t survive by ‘giving up on Jewish identity.'”
TODAY Sharansky is derided by activists in groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch because while still backing human rights causes elsewhere, he actively supports Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorists, whose goal is to deny Jews freedom.
Just as the West can’t defend itself against Islamism by giving up a belief in the superiority of its own ideals of democracy, Israel won’t survive by “giving up on Jewish identity.”
“There is another way,” argues Sharansky. “The path to peace lies in strengthening Israel’s Jewish identity, maintaining a robust Israeli democracy and encouraging our non-democratic neighbors to build free societies.”
Islamists claim they will win because Westerners and Jews “love life,” while they “love death” because their belief in their cause is so great. The author’s answer is to to assert that “the free world’s shield against its enemies is its own identity, vigorously asserted … Not all cultures are the same. Not all values are equivalent. The right to live a unique way of life is a right worth fighting for and if necessary worth dying for.”
The altered political climate may mean that another trip to the bestseller list for Sharansky is highly unlikely. But this is a message that all those who espouse the values of the democratic West need to take to heart.
The writer is executive editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.
– jtobin@jewishexponent.com.