Israeli power and its discontents

In his recent Hartman lecture for North American rabbis, Yossi Klein Halevi shared a series of immensely enlightening insights. And that certainly goes for his remarks on the tension between Israeli power and the sense of Jewish victimhood.

Over the past few days of renewed mass protests in Israel, I’ve been struck by another example of power’s discontents.

Much of the reaction to the ghastly murder of the six hostages resembles the streak of domestic anti-Americanism that denies agency to those America is quarreling (warring) with. After all, the only identity of such foes (from Jihadists to drug lords) is that of creatures spawned by US policy. And thus they get ignored, deleted from view – with the entire onus of blame placed at America’s doorstep.

It becomes solipsistic.

The absence of Sinwar and Hamas in the recent blame-game in Israel rings of that. “We failed you” instead of “they murdered you in cold blood”. Not inhuman criminality, but “Military pressure led to her death”, and the like.

For many, it seems the core Zionist insistence on agency, on power, has succumbed to delusion here, with the war against Hamas now being a game of solitaire.