remember why israel was created

Remember why Israel was created

By Piero Ostellino
The Herald Tribune (Italy Daily)
February 5, 2003 (originally appeared in Corriere della Sera, January 27, 2003)

It seems to me that the best way to mark the "Day of Remembrance" would be to never abandon Israel to those who desire its destruction. I think this would mean avoiding distinctions between the Jews and Israel, between Israelis and their governments. Israel represents the Jews who are no longer willing to let themselves be killed by totalitarian regimes, religious fundamentalism and racism.

The State of Israel represents those Jews who have learned to defend themselves. Its governments, whatever their political inclination, are the democratic and free _expression of the sovereignty of the people. It would be good not to forget that.

The English say, "Right or wrong, my country," meaning, "Whatever my government does, I am with my country." As Italians, we say that we stand with the Jews, but point out too often that the Jews and Israelis are one thing and that Israel and its government, particularly when we disagree with it, are another.

Consciously or unconsciously, our support for Israel depends on its governments. If the government has a political color we like, we are unconditionally behind Israel. If not, we end up burning its flag, without asking ourselves whether those fires border on racism.

Is the distinction between Jews and Israel, people and government, politically accurate and morally acceptable? I think not.

The distinction implies a moral denial of the reasons behind the birth of Israel, the political disavowal of its international recognition and of its internal democratic character, and of the legitimacy of its government.

Even if the government which has emerged from this week's election represents the perception of what is in the national interest, and more importantly of how to pursue the interest of only part of the population, it still represents the whole country when faced with those who seek its destruction. This is the spirit of Israeli democracy. And this should be the spirit of those who still guard memory in their hearts.

From whatever angle one looks at it, the distinction between Jews and Israel, between the government and Israelis, ends up being a morally and politically ambiguous way of distancing oneself from Israel, and from what it represents to all humanity, with the excuse of distancing oneself only from its government.

It risks becoming, on the one hand, a "politically correct" form of support to Israelis who are victims of almost daily massacres, and on the other hand something worse than the tacit insinuation that its government, in the end, asked for it. After all, this distinction can become the political and moral justification for the attacks.

There is a corresponding obligation to the legitimate right to criticize the Israeli government for what it does, and that is not to forget.

All of humanity is indebted to the Jews and should ask for forgiveness, as the Holy Father has done, for all the persecutions they have suffered. Humanity has taken upon itself a responsibility towards the fledgling state of Israel, after the division of Palestine: to ensure, from then on, its existence.

It is more than ever in times like these, with the resurgence of odious and dangerous expressions of anti-Semitism in the whole world, that our collective conscience is called upon to keep our word, in remembrance of that debt.

In the Middle East, a carnage has been taking place for over two years. We are perhaps on the brink of war with Iraq, a war that many consider unnecessary and fraught with dangerous consequences.

Challenging the right of the Jewish people to exist and have a nation would amount to a political and moral regression in the name of a misguided peace effort.

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