Dear Michal Oren,
When you published your decision to form a group in order to found a new State of Israelsomewhere else, my first reaction was intense anger. Who does she think she is, this woman? Weare in he middle of a tough struggle for the character of our state, and she wants to desert? Andnot only that, but she calls on others to do the same, turning desertion into an ideal?
Then I cooled down. I heard the cry. The warning that we are nearing breaking point. Many goodpeople feel that our society is sinking and may soon lie at the bottom of the sea like a Russiansubmarine. There may be no place in it anymore for decent, civilized Israelis.
So you call for action. Desertion, too, is action. But the wrong action. The right action is, ofcourse, to stand up, to raise your head and fight. Quite simply, to fight for your home.
Paradoxically, your call proves that you are a true patriot. A friend of mine once saidsomething that has remained with me: “Home is where you get angry.” This friend, an Israeliliving in Germany, is quite indifferent to anything happening there, but when he readsIsraeli newspapers he gets angry about everything.
You are angry about Shas. About the boundless hutzpah of orthodox people. About the generalbeastliness spreading through the country, finding expression in the lack of considerationbetween people, in speech and behavior, in the general texture of Israeli society.
If I were to list the faults of Israeli society as I see them, the space allotted to me would notsuffice. Your solution is to find an empty space somewhere in the world and to found the State ofIsrael II there. In other words, this experiment has not succeeded, so let’s go and try again.
Well, first of all, there is no empty country left in the world where you can found a new state.(Actually, Palestine was not empty either, but a hundred years ago it seemed that you could dothings which cannot be done today.) But it is possible to emigrate as individuals and join anexisting society. To me, that looks like parasitism.
You seem to be saying something like this: Our state is dirty, so let’s emigrate to cleanSwitzerland. Or: In our state the orthodox have taken over, so let’s go to the US, whereseparation between state and church prevails. But cleanliness was not given to the Swiss byGod, and separation of State and church was not bequeathed to the Americans as a gift. The Swissand the Americans have struggled hard to achieve them. Now you want to enjoy the fruit of theirstruggles.
Believe me, it is always bad to be a stranger, a real stranger. We have experienced that. Onlysomebody born here who has not experienced being a stranger could offer such a solution.
What’s special about your country is that even when you feel like a stranger, you know that youhave the right and the ability to change things.
A human being is not a tree planted in the earth, he/she is a social animal. Transplantationinto an alien society is always painful and frustrating. One does it only when one is uprootedby force from one’s native soil, and mostly is ends in longing and return.
Dear Michal, the real question is: Is the battle for our society lost? Has the situationreached the point where we have no alternative but to become refugees? I answer this with aclear No.
It seems that most of your anger is directed against Shas, which many see as the epitome ofalienation, rudeness, ignorance, impertinence and corruption. But Shas is only the symptomof the disease, not the disease itself. You know that after the founding of Israel a millionJews from the Islamic countries were brought here. We ere thinking in terms of what is good forthe state, as it seemed then, not in terms of what is good for the individual. They feltneglected and discriminated against. Instead of understanding that we were bringing humanbeings, we brought “aliya” and threw them into remote corners. The great majority in thecountry at the time did not understand, did not want to see, did not want to act. That was the sin,Shas is the punishment.
But the main social ills are not the fault of Shas or the Russian immigrants, but of society atlarge. The rudeness, the brutality in human relations, the incivility of social discourse,the belief in naked power as the solution for everything – the outcome of the ongoing war andoccupation, the mother of all sin.
Against these ills we can and must fight. They can be vanquished. In many places nuclei ofresistance have already been formed – acting to save the environment, to foster education, tocreate equality of opportunities, to end war and occupation, to safeguard human rights.Individuals and groups are organizing for change. Even your own initiative is,paradoxically, such a nucleus. But it is not those who emigrate who will win, nor those who arefreaking out at home in indifference or elegant desperation. When the situation reachesbreaking point, thousands and tens of thousands will join the battle.
Don’t go, Michal. You can make a difference. You are needed here.