Israel Matzav

Why they lie

Ahad Ha'am, the founder of 'cultural Zionism,' said that the silver lining in the cloud of the constant lies that the World tells about the Jews is that we all know that it's possible for the Jews to be right and for everyone else to be wrong. Well, some of us knew that without Ahad Ha'am. Benjamin Kerstein explains what's behind the latest lies.

And this, my friends, is what all of this is really about. The dark truth behind all of these lies is that those who tell and repeat them desperately wish they were true. They want Israel to have massacred peaceful, non-violent activists. They want Israel to be an all powerful manipulator of reality. They want Israel to be the demonic monster they imagine it to be. Their lies and slanders; their outbursts of racism and genocidal hatred; their conspiracy theories and defamatory concoctions; their relentless, feverish, desperate refusal to accept the truth is a product of simple wishful thinking.

The question, then, is why? Why would anyone wish for such things? Why would anyone want them to be true? Need them to be true? The answer, I think, is twofold. First, to accept what really happened would force these people, many of whom have a great deal of political and emotional baggage wrapped up in the anti-Israel cause, to take a long look at themselves. When you regard yourself as a righteous, moral person—as Israel’s critics constantly tell us they are—the prospect of looking in the mirror and discovering that you are actually a supporter of and apologist for violence, terrorism, religious psychopathology, racism, and ethnic cleansing is not a particularly attractive prospect. It is far easier and far more comfortable to believe in the demonic powers of an unspeakably evil enemy.

The second reason is deeper and more powerful. Put simply, the political and media establishments’ hatred of Israel is the symptom of a more general decline. In the face of collapsing economies, a changing media landscape, and the threat of a fanatical theocratic movement that they are ideologically and practically incapable of resisting, it is becoming more and more clear that these establishments have outlived any justification for their continued existence. And like any hierarchy that finds itself in such a situation of collapse, it is searching for any means possible to pretend that the collapse is not happening or, at the very least, to find someone to blame it on. At the moment, they have chosen Israel, an easy target, and one that is profitable politically and financially. Whatever the reason, however, it is now clear that these establishments have effectively abdicated whatever moral or political justification they may once have enjoyed, and that any thinking person ought to regard them as, at best, a necessary evil that must be endured until a replacement can be found.

Indeed, despite my naturally pessimistic outlook, I must admit that there is more than one silver lining to this entire sordid affair. While it has provided us another example of Ehad Ha’am’s cold comfort that the world can be wrong while Israel is right; it has also done us the favor of exposing precisely who is who in this world of ours. We now know for certain which politicians, journalists, and activists are conscienceless liars, fabulists, conspiracy theorists, and feverish opponents of anything resembling basic human decency.

It has also, surprisingly, shown us that the “world” that is wrong is very far from being the world entire. Over the past few days I have been circulating an internet petition in support of Israel’s actions. I have received signatures from every kind of person imaginable, adherents of many religions (including Islam), and citizens of nations as far away as India. The decadent and dying establishments that have fixated upon Israel as the object of their narcissistic hatreds are, in other words, precisely that. The actual world, the world beyond the elite that claims to represent them, is something very different indeed. For this realization, I think I can take another comfort besides that of Ehad Ha’am. Yes, the world can be wrong while Israel is right. But the world, sometimes, is not what our enemies claim it is. Let us hope that the people of this other, better world will eventually slough off the fetid and dying hierarchy that does its evil in their name.

I wonder how many signatures he has from Western Europe and from the non-Orthodox Jews of the United States.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM