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Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller "Indecent Proposal" and is a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast and former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at . Jack can be reached at:
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By Jack Engelhard
February 14, 2003
"A View of the Absurd" op-ed column published with permission of ComteQ Communications.
Some time ago I was walking the streets of Haifa and came upon a small "off-Broadway" theater. I stopped and read this on the marquee: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET -- TRANSLATED AND IMPROVED.
Yes, they "improved" Shakespeare, these Israelis did. That's chutzpah! To an American like me, doing volunteer duty, this was charming. What could you do but smile?
But as I said, that was some time ago.
Meantime, what happened to that Israeli daredevil spiritedness that astonished the world? What happened to, we're small, you're big -- so what?
What happened to, we're right, you're wrong -- go to hell!
Where's the chutzpah? That's at least worth a bumper sticker. Militarily, few nations can match Israel for courage. But when it comes to 'One Resolute Nation Under God' -- nope. Instead, even after a get-tough mandate, the political talk is about more "painful concessions" to please and appease. That's far from chutzpah; nearer to kvetching.
Israeli reporter Danny Rubenstein recently wrote about the haj, how Israeli restrictions imposed upon Palestinian Arabs make it difficult for them to undertake the pilgrimage to their "sacred sites" in Mecca. They face so many "obstacles." Jews face no "obstacles" when trying to visit Joseph's Tomb -- they have no Joseph's Tomb, after it was plundered and destroyed by Palestinian Arabs.
When I was a kid in Montreal I was going somewhere with my father. We were on Park Avenue, a boulevard full of people. I must have been 11 or 12 and was upset about something. From out of nowhere a dog jumped out and started barking at me. Later, my father asked why the dog had picked on me, of all people. I shrugged. "I'll tell you why," he said. "Because you were walking with your head down."
Then he said: "Dogs know. So do people."
Isn't that Israel walking with its head down...on the defensive, in retreat? Dithering in their tents, the hand-wringing intellectuals have put the nation in a straightjacket.
The very existence of Israel as a Jewish nation is being debated. Almost as bad as self-hatred is repeated self-doubt, ambiguity that leads to: "Post-Zionism...the Oslo Surrender...Is Jerusalem worth the trouble?...Let's build us a Wall to separate this Israel from that Israel...Let's give the Arabs everything they want and hope for the best...Shouldn't we all pack our bags and go back to sunny Germany?"
Mostly, though... "If we forcefully do what's in our best interests, what will the neighbors say?"
For lack of Jewish chutzpah (resolve), the nations bark. That's one reason why academics in Britain and throughout Europe are smugly thrilled to announce that their boycott of Israel is "gathering steam." That's partly why Canada, cynically self-righteous, feels the time is right to dump on Israel's version of the Red Cross.
Like dogs, they smell the scent of defeatism.
The world loves to hate Israel... but it also hates to love Israel. This means that despite itself, the world (grudgingly) admires Israel when Israel astonishes, as it did at Entebbe, and Ethiopia. That's chutzpah. Or when Israel took out Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak; among those heroes the glorious F-16 pilot Ilan Ramon. That's chutzpah.
The world gasps and proclaims "that's so wrong," especially when Israel goes it alone as in Osirak. Secretly, though, there's admiration. Such chutzpah from such a tiny country.
Chutzpah is spunk, feistiness, boldness even when you're outnumbered 100 to one. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (a precursor of the New Fighting Jew) -- what was that if not chutzpah?
The greatest example of chutzpah is our David, so fearless before their Goliath.
No, I'm wrong. That honor goes to Abraham, who actually bargained with The Almighty to spare Sodom. Abraham had the nerve, the chutzpah, to challenge God, and say, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?"
Wow! My sense is that God smiled. My feeling is that God said to Himself, "This is my kind of guy."
Moses was also defiant. He stood up to Pharaoh with no fear of "world opinion." Unlike Shakespeare, that may not be something Israel can improve, but definitely translate.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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