In line with persecution: This is how the Second Israel's journey of hardship has continued since the 1977 coup

Exactly 45 years ago, Begin brought about a socio-political upheaval, after which the second Israel entered democratic life.

It offered reconciliation and partnership, while the first Israel lamented the loss of absolute hegemony.

Read an excerpt from "Second Israel: The Sweet Gospel, the Bitter Oppression" by Avishai Ben-Haim

Dr. Avishai Ben Haim

18/05/2022

Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 15:11 Updated: Thursday, 19 May 2022, 13:15

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The events and ideas described in the book, which were somehow established under the name "Theory of Second Israel", describe on the one hand the story of the sweet - tolerant and moderate national gospel offered by the second Israel, and on the other its bitter repression, the moves taken to suppress it.

We therefore embark on a journey between two parts, an exciting part about the story of the sweet proposal of the second Israel, and an insulting part about the story of its oppression, by the hegemony of the first Israel.

A journey to oppression and healing, to the bitter and the sweet.

Welcome.

You are welcome to enter.

The mezuzah on the right, you can give her a little kiss, but only if it's for your fun.

Have fun and eat, drink something hot, have something sweet for you, you can also taste it from the stand of the spicy.

Only one taste will never become dominant here, the bitter taste.

Take a place on the metaphorical irons on which the second Israel was destined to sit forever.

Look at the screen, these people you see talking with their hands are not trying to threaten you, God forbid, but to hug you, and that scary thing that convinced you that he is an "ethnic demon" is not a demon.

He is a "fairy of equality," a fairy of equality and social justice that carries on its wings a line of moderation and tolerance.

And please try please be attentive.

Already starting.

Please sit down.

Smoking is allowed.

Hegemony demands absolute hegemony

The most important section in the second theory of Israel is the rejection of the most total requirement of hegemony: total hegemony.

This is the core of the conflict between Israel First and Second: Hegemony actually requires complete hegemony over the Israeli public space and is not willing to allow for partnership.

A journey to oppression and healing.

Cover of "Second Israel", by Dr. Avishai Ben Haim (Photo: Official Website, Alon Baskind)

The hegemony, in the name of the values ​​of so-called liberal democracy, is in fact telling the other Israel: you do not exist.

And to the actual details themselves, to the human beings themselves, she says: I am willing to give you equality, but on two conditions: only as individuals, and only if you will be like us.

That is, only after you have undergone a process of acculturation and culture that will shed as much of your old clothes as possible and stand before us naked, ashamed and destitute, and only after you have put on the values ​​of our culture and spirit, of hegemony.

The conflict becomes inevitable when the other Israel tries to explain hegemony, usually politely: we want equality, but we do not want to be like you, we want to be like us.

Conflict becomes inevitable when Second Israel insists, "We do not want to be like you and your parents, we want to be like us and our parents, like our father and mother, and like our grandparents, and like our tradition."

The conflict becomes inevitable when the other Israel dares to make it clear that its struggle for equality is in no way a struggle aimed at being "like you", and then thanks to it to receive equality from you (and also with a limited guarantee and with a tempered glass ceiling).

When she goes on to explain that with all due respect to the first Israel (and there really is) and the (really deep) love, the goal of the second Israel struggle is not to "succeed" in being "like you" and to be less harmed by oppression, but to be "like us" despite oppression.

Or best, that there be no oppression.

Avishai Ben Haim (Photo: Official Website, Alon Baskind)

The goal of the struggle for equality of the second Israel, beyond the struggle for the national, Jewish and Zionist image of Israel and for the shaping of the Israeli economy as just and egalitarian, is a struggle of the core of the second Israel, for the right to partnership in Israeliness.

A struggle for the true participation of the moderate Spanish / Oriental option in the organization, regulation and shaping of Israeli / Jewish life.

A struggle for a place in the discourse for the gospel and its complex and moderate proposals.

Complex and moderate proposals for the Jewish-Israeli individual, for the conflicted Israeli society, for the State of Israel in the heart of the Arab space, and more.

Hegemony feels threatened by the idea of ​​equality, for understandable reasons and even forgivable (in my life).

Equality is perceived by the hegemony as a loss of privilege and a real violation.

Anyone who has become accustomed to privilege, equality feels hurt.

Therefore, there are in the hegemony, unfortunately, those who interpret the second theory of Israel as hatred towards them, God forbid.

But an egalitarian and just society is good news for everyone, including hegemony.

The second and happy Israel offers an exciting offer like the goal of Betar Jerusalem star Eli Ohana in the Israeli national team uniform against Australia. This goal seemed like an irrational act, an irresponsible act and more emotional than purposeful, but in the end it was good and beneficial for all Israelis. Also creative, playful, joyful, uplifting, puts a smile on the lips, does good on the soul.of all of us.

"Forget? Why forget?"

Behind the attempt to erase the public debate on the issue of "second Israel" lies a not-so-simple position: the goal of hegemony in a united Israeli society is to erase and forget Mizrahi, a position that creates an atmosphere as if the very talk of Mizrahi identity endangers Israeli society.

The founding film "Saleh Shabati", which tells the story of an immigrant from Mizrahi and his family in 1949 (and how much kicks in the stomach interpretation that his name means "sorry I came") was released in 1964, and is still considered one of the three most popular films in the history of Israel.

A blockbuster cult, one million two hundred thousand viewers in the tiny state of Israel at the time, as if one in three Israelis had watched it.

Why "like"?

Because countless Orientals who suddenly saw themselves in the cinema, came to watch three and four times.

Saleh has become much more than a film or a play, it is a concept in political science and an introduction to a sociological controversy.

On the one hand, the public of the other Israel, forgiving as usual, is pretty dead on the film, perhaps because that's what it is.

On the other hand, quite a few, including Oriental intellectuals and creators, have warned against the negative stereotype he shapes for the Oriental figure.

Saleh Shabti is seen as the archetype of the image of the Mizrahi father, a representative prototype of the Mizrahi figure of the time, and it is important to note how his figure was shaped: his speech is speech that is almost a bark, his body language signifies a kind of retardation,

His value world is so pervasive that Saleh does not know how many children he has.

Six or seven.

(Laughter in the audience).

But it is also impossible to ignore the important contribution of the film and the empowering aspects in which Saleh Shabtai is presented.

First, the very fact that the Oriental is portrayed, and more as a main character in the film.

And second, Saleh is portrayed as the "noble savage," not the classic noble Oriental savage, but the savage whose street wisdom defeats the establishment.

Saleh's street wisdom is presented at an ingenious climax when he realizes that whatever he demands of the establishment, the establishment will do the opposite for him.

Then he organizes the residents of the transit camp for a demonstration: "You do not want housing! You want a transit camp!"

In response, the establishment does the opposite for him and so he and his family are forcibly transferred to housing, and we have a happy Hollywood /

sage

. "The East, with all the respect we have for you, must get used to the reality of our advanced country, quickly forget all the barbaric customs you brought from there."

Saleh Shabati looks at the kibbutz member with sad eyes and asks:

"Forget? Why forget?"

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The second theory of Israel is, after all, also heresy in the dream of erasing Mizrahi and opposing the idea of ​​forgetting Mizrahi.

All this without getting angry at those who wish to delete it, since it is clear to me that their intention is not bad.

After all, their thought is good: what is more wonderful than a fusion addict, from the unity of the nation and the blurring of differences.

I make another suggestion: instead of erasing the Orientalism and forgetting it.

Listen to her.

Not because of its ethnicity, but because of its ideological.

My main argument is that Mizrahi is not a partisan ethnic identity, but a unifying ideological line, one that strengthens Israeli society, stores Jewish and Zionist identity and allows for a path to reconciliation.

It is worth listening to her because she has an exciting suggestion for Jewish identity in a postmodern age, and there is no reason to look at sad eyes and forget her.

"Forget? Why forget?".

The postmodern era has made the eastern option of second Israel increasingly relevant.

This is an era in which we are witnessing the collapse of the absolute Western ideologies in the world, and also the crises of the absolute Western elites in Israel.

The crisis of Israel's leftist elite that collapsed with the ideal of magical equality of socialist Zionism followed by the ideal of peace now, the crisis of the religious Zionist elite that collapsed with the exciting whole of Eretz Israel, the crisis of the revisionist elite that all its sons and daughters blossomed And the idyll, and the disintegration of the rebellious rule, and this may lead us to the next conclusion.

The decline of absolute Western ideologies allows for the sunrise of the complex Eastern school

Perhaps now it is possible to listen to the Eastern gospel, not because of its ethnic foundation, but because of its ideological gospel.

Perhaps it is now permissible to say that Mizrahi has another proposal for Israeli society and for the Jewish individual.

It has a proposal to identify a Jew in a postmodern era (according to the traditional Jewish model), it has a proposal to run a tolerant society in a common religious-secular space (according to the Mizrahi family model), and it has a proposal to run a Jewish state in the heart of an Arab space (according to Rabbi Ovadia Aryeh Deri.

Orientalism is a different response to the challenges of modernity. It can be seen wherever it appears with its uniqueness: mainly the sweet Oriental tradition and the moderate Spanish Harediism, but also Oriental feminism, Oriental religious Zionism, the Oriental left. Of the Western ideologies we are familiar with, a proposal that does not, God forbid, harm Israeli society, but enriches it.

The traditional ones were excluded from the tribal speech.

Rivlin (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The most dramatic and important starting point for understanding the depth and root of oppression is as stated the fact that hegemony strives for the complete erasure of the Eastern position.

It sometimes becomes clear to what extent the hegemony does not at all recognize the existence of an Eastern position.

The Eastern school was excluded from the public discourse in Israel that was conducted between absolute Western ideologies - great but rigid - born in modern Europe.

The only Orientals who received a kind of right to participate in public discourse, gained this only when they were equipped with Western habitus.

In the case of the Shasniks, the intention is to adopt the Beatus and an ultra-Orthodox position. Religious, ultra-Orthodox, but excluded the traditional.

The problem of erasing the problematic identity: "Let there be no more Orientals" - for us all to be the same, became legitimate because of a long propaganda campaign.

Two social campaigns have really succeeded in influencing Israeli society in a formative way.

The first - that it is forbidden to pick protected flowers, since the goal is that they will not disappear.

The second is that the heritage of the Mizrahis must not be preserved, since the goal is that they will disappear.

This idea of ​​erasure sounds to the average Israeli, who grew up on the successful campaign of erasing Mizrahi, natural and good and unifying, so one should try to explain that no one dares say for example that Israeli society's dream, to make it united, is "I wish there were no more followers" Same.

No one would dare say "I wish there were no more Lithuanians" so that we would all be the same.

No one would dare say "I wish there were no more religious scores" so that we would all be the same.

"I wish there were no more wrestlers" so we could all be the same.

"

Hebrew songs or Russian songs.

Rafael Eitan (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

The oppression and cultural erasure are wrapped in a beautiful wrapper, and I am convinced that the intention of the heart is also beautiful, "I wish there were no more Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Orientals and Westerners" they say, but the actual meaning is: I wish there were no more Sephardim / Orientals.

This is because Israeli society is a society in which the Ashkenazi / Western position is hegemonic.

It is the official secular Israeliness, and it is the official religious Zionism, and it is the official ultra-Orthodox.

Therefore, when we say "the uniform wording of the prayer" - we do not mean the wording of the Eastern testimony, and when we say "Jewish food" - we do not mean the delicacies of the Eastern community, and when we say "integration" we all understand "- We all understand that there is no intention for Mediterranean music.

After all, what does the Mediterranean have to do with the Land of Israel?

I once heard at a Palmach salute conference that Chief of Staff Raful (Rafael Eitan) demanded that the military bands "create more Hebrew songs."

"

In the people of Israel in the generation of the exiles, a variety of magical and fascinating ideological and religious currents have developed, and they are building a wonderful, rich and enriching cultural mosaic.

Everyone accepts that there are different currents in the people of Israel.

But only the Orientals, their tradition and culture and in particular the alternative ideological currents - the Oriental tradition and the Spanish ultra-Orthodox - seem to suppress the great ideological goal of all the hegemony and elites.

My contention is that preserving the Oriental story is important not only for the sake of history but also for the sake of the future.

It is of paramount importance to raise the miracle of the idea of ​​Mizrahi Jewish moderation as a key to the consensus and management of a divided Israeli society in the modern age, with a smile, moderation, sweetness, and turning a blind eye to the model of traditional Mizrahi families.

"Dehitra power is better"

The miracle of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's moderate Sephardic teachings is also of great importance.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's great slogan of returning the crown of Spanish Jewry to its old self, "Koch Dahitra is better":

First, the meaning of "Koch Dahitra is better" is that the Spanish gospel is that the power of permission, the power of moderation, the power of tolerance, preferable.

Should be preferred.

Second, the meaning of "superior dehitra power" is that in order for this moderate Spanish gospel of the superiority of the "hithra" power to become part of public life in Israel, the Orientals need power.

Real power.

Intellectual power and political power.

Big password.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Aryeh Deri, 1997 (Photo: Reuven Castro)

In this sense, Rabbi Ovadia's "Dahitra Adif" slogan is even more sweeping than the "Knowledge is power" slogan by Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes.

Rabbi Ovadia believed that the Mizrahis needed a "power of knowledge" to preach the gospel of a "better dehitra power" to preach the gospel of moderation.

From Maran I learned, therefore, that "knowledge is power," but with a special emphasis on what power is needed for: Orientals do not need power to be forceful, God forbid, but to be moderate, to enable them to preach the gospel of moderation.

So this is the double meaning of his great slogan "Dehitra power is better" - not only the permit power (Spanish moderation) is better, but that in order for the Mizrahi public to express this moderation, the "Dehitra power" in public space, it needs real power.

Power of knowledge.

Intellectual power.

Democratic power is preferable

In 1977, Menachem Begin caused the upheaval.

The founder of the alliance between the underground and the transatlantic, establishing a "covenant between the Betarim" - the alliance between Betar Jerusalem fans and Jabotinsky's Betar trainees - brought about the political upheaval.

A socio-political upheaval after which the second Israel entered democratic life in Israel.

Already after the 1973 election, when the Likud rose to 39 seats, on the way to the 77th revolution, Begin, after analyzing the voting patterns for his party, outlined the core of the Allies that gave him the power to come to power: "Who gave us most of our power ... the believers And the poor. "

The book "On the French Revolution and its Registration" quotes a 16th-century French revolutionary pamphlet that actually explains to us with ingenious dryness why the French Revolution was born and why people actually make revolutions: "It is natural for a person to move if he is not comfortable."

A few years after the coup, in 1984, a young Moroccan young man, 24 years old, imbued with a sense of mission and commitment to the idea of ​​equality, named Aryeh Makhlouf Deri, who was close to Rabbi Ovadia, repeatedly told his rabbi something like "Moreno and Rabbeinu, so that the Spaniards "The Spanish gospel is not enough for us to have intellectual power, we also need political power."

Rabbi Ovadia listened and was convinced and then ... then the national Shas was born.

Establishes an "alliance between the parties".

Menachem Begin's Tomb (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Our story takes place largely against the background of these two great historical events of the attempts of the second Israeli partnership in Israeli democracy: the first, the 77th revolution of Menachem Begin and Israel II and its traditional traditional-Eastern gospel.

The second, the revolution of restoring the crown to the old self of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and Shas and its moderate Haredi-Sephardic

gospel. The second, Benjamin Netanyahu, the restriction of participation in the democracy of the second Israel and its exclusion, and the bottom line: the abolition of the revolution 77. The reversal of the revolution 77. The suppression of the revolution 77. It will be clarified that the main theme in this book is And perhaps they made mistakes, but the injustices that have been since Revolution 77 and with the aim of neutralizing it.

First Israel and its struggle for hegemony

The historical story of Second Israel is bound to be told through the story of First Israel.

There is no immanent Oriental history of internal developments.

Orientals do not determine their own destiny.

The first Israel, in its moves and feelings, greatly shapes Eastern history.

But it is not only because of this that we are obliged to discuss the first Israel - if we repress the real pain of the first Israel and its real fear of the second Israel, we will not be able to understand Israeli history and certainly not correct it.

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The first Israel took seriously the loss of absolute hegemony.

In response to the television sample on the eve of the coup on May 17, 1977, Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, one of the important leaders of the Israeli left, uttered the key phrase that would later become the deep inner response of the hegemony, of the first Israeli elite, to democratization and equality.

This is a response that means a rejection of the democratic idea and the idea of ​​equality: "With all due respect to the decision of the people, if it is the decision - I am not willing to respect it", or according to another version, "If it is the will of the people - then the people must be replaced" .

Israel's first lament over the loss of hegemony

There are a variety of ways to present the intensity of mourning of "Israel First" on Revolution 77 and the loss of absolute hegemony.

I like to tell the stories of the trends in Israeli society through Hebrew poetry, in this case through the songs of lamentation and obituary for the state and Israeliness that were born in the years after the upheaval.

The songs are not legal evidence, but a great symbolic way to tell the story.

Poems are not a "proof" of the process, but texts that make it possible to tell its story, express it.

At times, the lyric texts herald a process, or somewhat predict it with the help of the presumptive and intuitive power.

"The best song is a lie," Aristotle erred.

The best song is dust of prophecy.

Or at least, a historical document that tells of the spirit of an era.

After Revolution 77 Israel II offered reconciliation and partnership, but Israel I saw destruction and loss.

The sense of loss can be described with the help of the intriguing phenomenon of a series of songs of destruction and lamentation.

For example, in 1978, a year after the upheaval, we begin to sing with great intention the lament of the beloved and good Arik Einstein with the sad lines that on the one hand tell "How much I love you" to Eretz Israel and on the other hand ask why he is so sad in Eretz Israel.

Why are they so sad all of a sudden?

Arik Einstein (Photo: Reuven Castro)

And it is impossible not to wonder: why did this song touch good Israelis?

Why are they so sad all of a sudden?

These were beautiful years for Israeli women: Little Israel won two Eurovisions in a row, Yizhar Cohen in 77 with "Avnibi", and Gali Atari in 78 with "Hallelujah", Rina Moore won the Miss Tevel competition in 76, Maccabi Tel Aviv European champion in 77 after CSKA ate it, and in 1979 Mickey Berkowitz and Moti Aroasti lead the Israeli team to second place in the European Basketball Championship. If that is not enough for Israeli pride, then Yoni Netanyahu, commander of the General Staff patrol, leads the glorious operation In Entebbe in 1976, and in November 77, Egyptian President Sadat came to visit Israel on the way to a peace agreement.

And another naughty thing: suddenly there was a sense of equality and belonging to a moderated public, and the other Israel also began to feel at home here.

So what is this sadness?

Why is it you are so sad?

And a few years later, another song was released that was perceived as an obituary song about Arik Einstein's Israeliness.

A song about his homeland that he says "goes to Pipe" and more than that breaks his heart "into small pieces".

And the pain continues to intensify as he tells of a dream that was and is not, and speaks of such sad sadness that he wants to cry.

He wanted to cry.

And in 1989, the song "Had Gadya" was released in a version by Hava Alberstein with other lines praising the beautiful Israeliness of yesteryear, which itself symbolizes: "And what has changed for you? What has changed? "I was already a pigeon, I was a deer, today I do not know who I am."

And maybe maybe maybe even Hava Alberstein's other hit "Hello, I'm going" (to London) because "London people are more kind so that despair becomes more comfortable" belongs to the same grieving spirit.

The genre of depressing songs weakening the power of the Zionist struggle is also expressed, for example, with "The Promise of an Olive Leaf of Olives" by Shmuel Hasefri, who during the struggle against Netanyahu's persecution, when I saw his reaction when I was attacked as a journalist at the first Israeli demonstrations in Balfour. , I realized how much he hates me and what I stand for hated truth.

The same message also came from Nurit Galron's "Do not tell me about a girl who lost her eye".

Beehive sings about one who says the sky is running out when "there is enough air for a country or two," and I did not understand if that was a political position or just a cool bead that Sanderson found.

"I have no other country" by Ehud Manor shocked with a strong line like "I will not be silent because my country has changed its face" and with a line that cries sadness like "In a body that hurts in a hungry heart, here it is my home".

The fact that this song became an anthem because it sat on true sentiment must not be suppressed.

יהונתן גפן, מי שאחראי להכרזה שוברת הלב ומבטאת תחושת הניכור של ישראל הראשונה, "אוהב את הפלוגה, שונא את המדינה", כתב את שיר הקינה הממצה "יכול להיות שזה נגמר" עם השורות המבכות את אובדן ההגמוניה. החל בשורה "אומרים שהיה פה שמח לפני שנולדתי" דרך השורה עם הכרזת הבעלות: "ואנו באנו ארצה לבנות ולהיבנות, כי לנו לנו לנו ארץ זו", ועד הכרזת הייאוש מאובדן ההגמוניה: "והיה להם בשביל מה לקום בבוקר". הוא היטיב לנסח את השורות שמבכות את הישראליות ההיא של פעם, שממחישות את הייאוש בגלל אובדן ההגמוניה ומציגות רשימה מסודרת של הדברים היפים שאבדו:

"שומר עברי על סוס לבן בלילה שחור / על שפת הכינרת טרומפלדור היה גיבור / תל אביב הקטנה, חולות אדומים, ביאליק אחד"

וגם:

"פלמ"ח, פינג'אן, קפה שחור וכוכבים / אנגלית מחתרת וילקוט הכזבים שפם ובלורית, כפייה על צוואר, ירון זהבי (ירון זהבי, לא מנשה התימני, אב"ח)

Alterman, Tamar, beautiful girls, shorts.

And they had something to get up for in the morning

because for us, for us, for us this country is a "

really sad lament, it's just not clear why the nerves and rage came out on the second Israel. The second in general fell in love with the first Israel because of these things that Geffen hurled.

To purchase the book, click here.

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