In
The Complete Works of Primo Levi is an essay
Who Has Courage in Jerusalem, 1982! There is another little part about
Primo Levi's view of Israel's (the military state's) invasion of Lebanon. It made me want to check on the "founding fathers" Ben Gurion and Golda Meir in
Noam Chomsky's
Fateful Triangle. I look to Primo Levi because
Is This A Man? (or
Survival in Auschwitz) is such an worthy and important book. It taught me to look for the "Elias"-types in our global system
The terrible violence that was suffered legimatized to a certain extent the violence practiced; in fact, Israel was immediately recognized by all the great powers, by the Soviet Union and the countries of the Eastern bloc first among all. In Israel the Jews of the Diaspora recognized and identified themselves to a greater or lesser degree: it was the country of the Bible, the heir to all the strains of Jewish culture, the redeeming land, the ideal homeland of all Jews.
The decades that followed have eroded and distorted this image. The Arab world, which has been defeated in battle many times, has accumulated toward Israel an intense hatred, perceiving in the new state the cause of its age-old ills, and hardening in its position of denial. As happens, denial has responded to denial; Israel, less and less the Holy Land, more and more the military state, is starting to act like the other countries of the Middle East, with their radicalism, their distrust of negotiation. ...
... the violence with which the attack [by israel upon Lebanon] was carried out frightened the world. I’m not ashamed to admit my own wrenching sorrow. I have a bond with this country, and in a certain sense feel it as a second homeland. I would like it to be different from all other countries, and for that very reason I feel distress and shame for this undertaking. I distrust success achieved with an unprincipled use of arms. I feel indignant toward those who hastily compare the Israeli generals with the Nazi generals, and yet I have to admit that Begin draws such judgments on himself. With dismay I observe the solidarity of the countries of Europe weakening. I fear that this undertaking, with its frightening cost in lives, will inflict on Judaism a degradation difficult to cure, and will damage its image. I sense in myself, not without surprise, a profound emotional link with Israel, but not with this Israel.
The Palestinian problem exists: it can’t be denied. It can’t be resolved in the Arafat manner, by denying Israel the right to exist, but it cannot be resolved in the Begin manner, either. Anwar Sadat was neither a genius nor a saint; he was only a man endowed with imagination, common sense, and courage, and he was killed because he had opened up a pathway. Is there no one, in Israel or elsewhere, who is capable of continuing it?
