FEBRUARY 18, 2011 - There's a well known quotation by the American writer Eric Hoffer. "Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life." This month, in the Middle East, we have seen what such hatred can do to people living in totalitarian states. For these people, the satisfaction of thirst for revenge cannot be clearer than it is today.
The great ninth century Jewish philosopher Saadia Gaon commented that the thirst for revenge affords the pleasure of seeing discomfiture of its enemy, assusages the vehemence of its wrath and puts an end to excessive brooding. Saadia said that the man who is consumed by the desire for revenge gets into a frame of mind of refusing to accept intercession or entertaining any feeling of compassion or pity or listening to any plea of clemency.
Over one thousand years later, Saadia's comments still reflect the attitude that many cultures have learnt nothing. And, as we continue to observe the hatred between Muslim and Jewish sense of victimhood, between the Janjaweed atrocities against Sudan's Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, between Sunni and Shia, we find very little is based upon the two way acceptance that my world is also your world.
Many gloat over people's misfortune, falsify historical evidence, instil a hatred in each other's cultures, egged on by the perverse nature of fanatics utilizing the services of the ten second clip, satellite dishes, mobile phones, photos of children and Internet web sites. It is a hatred brought to the masses of the uneducated and their educated children.
To be honest, I don’t actually care a damn what is happening today on the streets of Libya or Yemen or Bahrain. My primary concern is that for many of us, we Jews, both in the Diaspora and in Israel, continue to be depicted as being from a "culture of war", and not of a "culture of peace" by the vast majority of Muslims. And, whatever political outcome is arrived at in these totalitarian states, on their so-called route to "democracy", the attitude by their people will not change towards us. In fact, it will in all probability, become more hostile.
Having said that, we, as outsiders, find it so easy to give overt advice and suggestions as to what Israel's answer should be to all of this. As Jews living in the Diaspora, many of us act as if we are Israelis living in that part of the world. Yes, many of us have a stake, a personal stake, based upon recent history as to the outcome.
I tend to agree with one Diaspora rabbi who recently said, “We must know and love Israel as it is – not for what we might like it to be for our needs.” He added: "Many of us would try to maintain the illusion of perfection – to sugar coat what is the hard reality of Jewish existence. One day the rose-coloured glasses will come off, and when they do, what then?"
Well, right now, I have to tell him I’m less open minded, less optimistic, because the pride and the self-confidence of a Jewish nation, religion and culture we all willingly, passionately once shared, might no longer be resilient and sufficient enough to weather the storms approaching from the events resulting from the riots and protests emanating from Israel's enemies. For many of us, the day of the rose-coloured glasses coming off is approaching. Perhaps that might not be a bad thing to happen. One cannot respond appropriately to hate and revenge with them on.