“People, Atten-tion!!!”
The voice comes from thousands of loudspeakers covering the whole country:
“Fourth glass, d-r-i-n-k!”
“Attention – m-o-u-r-n!”
“At ease – r-e-j-o-i-c-e!”
There are no loudspeakers in reality. No such orders, either. This is not the Soviet Union.What the hell, here we have democracy! Everyone can do what he bloody well wants! Provided, ofcourse, that he does what the state demands of him or her.
April is the month of Zionist indoctrination. Between the 14 th of Nissan and the 5 th of Iyar,according to the Hebrew calendar, an intensive course implants the collective myths into thesouls of every person in Israel. Anyone who wants to understand Israel must study the events ofthis month. Specially recommended to Palestinians.
It starts on Passover eve. The ceremony was fixed in its final form centuries ago, but it suitsthe most modern insights of psychology and pedagogy. It is an exercise of suggestion,bordering on genius.
It takes place in the most intimate family circle. The atmosphere conveys warmth andsecurity. Everyone, from oldest to youngest, participates. Everyone has a well-definedtask. Every detail is fixed: how many glasses of wine to drink and when, when and what to eat. Allsenses are activated: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. The ceremony imprintson the mind of the small child an impression that will last for life. It is reinforced by annualrepetition.
The book read aloud on this occasion is the “Hagada” (literally: “The Telling”). It fixes thenational myth forever in the mind of the child. “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt”- the basicimage of the Jewish people as the victim. “In every generation, they tried to annihilate us” -the knowledge that “they”, all the nations, in all the countries, at all times always tried andalways will try to annihilate the Jewish people. From this emanates the conviction that theJewish people is unique, a people alone, the eternally persecuted, different from all othernations and separate from them. And the climax: “Pour your wrath on the Goyim!”- a call to Godthe take revenge for the Jews.
The word Goyim has a double meaning. In classical Hebrew, Goy is simply a synonym for people.The Jews too are a Goy, albeit a “holy Goy”. In the course of time, the word assumed the meaning of”the other peoples”, and from there it became attached to the individual. Today, a Goy is anynon-Jew – may he be Arab or Russian, Ethiopian or Alaskan. An abyss exists between Jews andGoyim. The Kabbala, a trend that is becoming more and more important within the religiouscommunity in Israel, considers the Goy closer to animals than to humans – who are, of course,the Jews.
One must bear in mind that the Hagada was born in the diaspora, when Jews were defenseless andunable to take revenge for their suffering. But when the Hagada is read in the new State ofIsrael, which has a huge army, it becomes a dangerous message: Don’t trust the Goyim.
A few days after Passover comes the Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust. This is a day ofcollective memory, submerging all the media for 30 hours and more, pushing everything elseaside. Dozens of official ceremonies fill the TV screens. All places of amusement are closed.At 10 a.m., the country stands at attention, every person freezes where he is.
About six million Jews were annihilated by the Nazis. Many were shot by the SSEinsatzkommandos, many were gassed in the death factories, many died of hunger and disease inthe closed ghettos. It was not the only genocide in the 20 th century, nor the only genocideperpetrated by the Nazis. But the Jews vigorously assert, not without justification, thatthe destruction of the Jews was totally unique.
The remembrance of the Holocaust after 56 years is considered a moral duty to the victims, butit is also a powerful political and propaganda instrument. It tells the Jewish child: all thepeoples of the world were partners in the Holocaust. Those who did not murder, helped themurderers. Those who did not help, were silent. The Holocaust is indeed unique, but it is onlyone link in the long chain of persecution – one link and not the last one. Even a Jew who residessecurely in Miami knows deep in his heart that tomorrow it can happen to him, too. Therefore hemust support Israel, the safe haven for future victims. Don’t trust the Goyim.
Professor Yeshayahu Leibovitch, himself an observant Jew, said that the Jewish religion isdead, and that the Holocaust is the new religion uniting Jews around the world. After all,every Jew – even one who lived at the time in Palestine, or Morocco, or Canada – knows that had hefallen into the hands of the Nazis, he, too, would have ended up in the gas-chambers ofAuschwitz.
Politically, the memory of the Holocaust is a powerful instrument indeed. It is claimed inIsrael that the Palestinians are not rising up against the Israeli occupation but simplycontinuing the acts of the Nazis. Yasser Arafat is the successor of Hitler, as was GamalAbd-al-Nasser before him. After what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust, Israel, the”State of the Victims”, is allowed – indeed obliged – to take any action, cruel as it may be, todefend the survivors and prevent a second Shoah. Foreigners must not criticize Israel’sactions. If they do, they are anti-Semites, heirs to the Nazis.
A week after Holocaust Day comes great comfort. After the slavery in Egypt came redemption inthe promised land. That was a miracle. After the Holocaust came the State of Israel, and thatwas a miracle, too.
But between the Holocaust and the Resurrection, a day is devoted to the Price. The Day ofRemembrance for the fallen heroes lets every child participate in mourning those who gavetheir lives for the state. Again every Israeli freezes where he is and the whole people standsat attention when the sirens sound. As they tried to annihilate us in every generation, so didthe Arabs try to destroy us when, at last, we set up our own state, and since then they have triedagain and again. In order to defend ourselves we went to war after war. The military cemeteriesare full, and continue to get bigger. Here they lie, row after row.
And then, in the evening, the day of mourning fades into the joy of Independence Day, the day ofour miraculous redemption, our victory, the day when we stood up, the few against the many, andwon. Again we defeated those who wanted to annihilate us, again God poured his wrath on theGoyim, again we are ready, united and righteous, to withstand the next pogrom, to defeat thenext Hitler. As the jolly Israeli song goes: “We survived Pharaoh, we shall survive this too.”
Teachers and parents know that the children in the first grades mix up all the festivals anddays of mourning. They do not know who among the persecutors of Israel came before who: theGreek (Hannuka), the British (Independence Day), the Babylonians (9th of Av), the Nazis(Holocaust Day), the Egyptians (Passover), the Arabs (Memorial day), the Romans (again 9 thof Av). It’s all mixed up. It’s all one and the same story. They are all evil Goyim. The mentalworld of Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres and Ovadia Josef was forged in the same workshop as themental world of other Israelis.
Thus, Israel is bound by steel shackles to the Jewish myth, looking backwards, unable to actlike a normal state, that looks forward and is able to make peace, to a live with its neighbors,to find its place in the 21st century.