Israel: A Beacon Unto The World

Israel; a guide or a warning? One or the other? Both? Trudging toward redemption, or a symbol that despite best intentions, hope and the will to succeed, human constructs are geared to fail through the faltering inability of human beings to reach beyond their origins in dust to aspire to the light of a higher accomplishment.

Israel, we would like to believe; is an exemplar of social justice, of egalitarian emancipation, of participatory inclusion, moral rectitude, compassion and understanding. Would it were so. The state is, after all, comprised of ordinary mortals, human beings invested with the same emotional traits for good and for ill that affect us all.

We strive to rise above our failings; we can but strive. For as Israel is so are we all. Solomonic wisdom and a sense of unerring justice eludes mankind's reality. It is but an evanescent spark of hope, an evasive illusion. Nature has equipped us with an original urgency - the instinct to survive.

Real, potential or perceived inhibitions or challenges to our survival as an individual, a nation, a species call out in each of us an instinctual response. And that is to parlay any and all advantages toward the end result of survival. If that translates to injustice done to others, from refusing their economic and social advancement to denying their very right to live, it is but a by-product of our own existential advantage.

This is a primeval condition of existence that has equipped us with a vestigial; universal memory. A fear that haunts us evermore. And in the case of Jews throughout time a lesson well learned. From ancient pre- and post-biblical tribal triumphs and failures onward to historical events of medieval blood libels and pogroms, to the Inquisition where methods of torture reached new heights of human depravity.

And the final horrors of man's ingenuity in contriving to visit upon the community of the world's Jewish populations utter annihilation as a sister-project to world war, using scarce resources of armed forces, valuable transit equipment, scarce foodstuffs, chemical production - offset by slave labour, the sourcing of precious metals from teeth, bones for soap production, skin for leatherworks.

The establishment of the State of Israel held a noble purpose. The landscape where the brilliant notion of Monotheism was born, where insignificant local tribes combined to elect themselves to represent the highest aspirations of mankind, was to welcome its dispersed children home again. There, the offspring of those original tribes whose vulnerable and fervent grasp of faith and humanity had suffered constant and intolerable deprivation were to find succour.

A long, anguished social-cultural memory of victimhood plagues the collective psyche. Social traditions ensure the memories be kept and honoured. Post-Holocaust it was recognized that nowhere on earth would Jews be comforted and held safe from the everpresent ebb-and-flow of the scourge of hatred. So Jews worldwide were invited to return to their ancient home where their very own state would protect them and advance their interests internationally.

Within the country they would be safe. But without, obviously not, as the immediate birth of the nation gave birth also to unrelenting deadly hostility from surrounding neighbours and war was the game afoot. From brilliant promise to combative response - time and again. Suspicion, spite, righteousness and neglect of duty rise to the occasion when push comes to shove and the allure of good intentions vaporize into the mist of self-preservation.

The country's brief history has demonstrated a steady decline from shining idealism to the progression of an ailing society. Led by a political elite more interested in its own self-enrichment and empowerment, its social maladaption translated into the reality of a country like all others. Resembling the power struggles in its near geography, and the struggling democratic playing field of the West.

From the fierce determination of survivors to ensure a future for the vestiges of what was once a strong and proudly integrated European contingent of Jews, an independent state for an independent people. We exist, therefore we are. We struggle, therefore we exist. We fight, therefore we endure. That safe haven whose existence is evermore imperilled by a hostile world, not the least of which residing close by.

Israel, where a moderately tempered existence of Jewish sufficiency in health, wealth and success might be accomplished for all. Where justice and fairness would prevail, and respect allocated to everyone deservingly. Where the political elite could be trusted to act responsibly on behalf of their electorate, those dependent on their good judgement.

What is the reality? Every man and woman for themselves in an excess of doubt- and success-empowered materialism. Now, one sinks or swims on one's own merits and initiatives. Seems somehow familiar. A reflection of every other materialistic-acquisitive capitalist-dominated democracy in the world. A country no worse than the best among us, and better than most. Is that enough?

So the unprepared and the defenceless are given short shrift by the state and the social compact. The economy blesses the middle-class lifestyle and blights the lives of the repressed and the oppressed. A people for whom the class evil of distinctiveness led invariably to discrimination and victimization, now practising the same.

The country's social problems reflect those of any other country, beset with the ills of corruption, violence and poverty. A social order's will to succeed as a humanitarian nation of great distinction in science, jurisprudence, the humanities, education and political and social justice is now like any other. A sad, failed experiment. Suspicion, distrust and downright hostility levelled at the strangers among them, be they Sephardim or Arab.

Now the social elite oppress the underclass. Who ever might have thought that a country with such an illustrious claim to demonstrating to the world what a nation might strive to in providing equal access to opportunities and the comforts of life to all its inhabitants could fail so spectacularly? That poverty on a miserable scale exists there and the reality of soup kitchens and needy, neglected children are a fact of life.

Hope springs eternal. The experiment is perhaps not yet complete. Many Israelis are heartsick at the downfall of their humanitarian expectations for themselves, their country, their future. At this juncture it may yet be safe to say that the tide may turn, the jury is still out.