David or Goliath?
Wednesday, 07 January 2009
Rabbi Dow Marmur was born in Poland and spent the years of World War II in the Soviet Union before returning to Poland in 1946. He emigrated to Sweden and later moved London to study for the rabbinate at Leo Baeck College. Before moving to Canada he served as rabbi at two synagogues; Alyth in North West London and SWESRS in Essex. He now lives in Israel.
The biblical tale of the fight between David and Goliath is still potent. Whereas for much of our history we Jews identified with David who fought for survival in the face of countless confrontations with Goliaths in different forms and shapes, the scenario has been reversed in our time. Thus in the current war in Gaza, Israel and its mighty armed forces are seen as Goliath and the Palestinians, even in their terrorist garb, as David. Though he doesn’t use the language, the Hamas leader sees himself even now as the victorious David when, after a week of heavy losses, he declares that his victory is nigh.
He probably has in mind the convenient, even if erroneous, perception in many parts of the world that Israel is the bully of the Middle East and the Arabs the innocent victims. Some Jews may believe in a version of the same myth. It may account for the calls by Jewish organizations and individuals for Israel to stop forthwith its massive response to Hamas attacks. They imply that it must never be the role of a Jewish state to act as Goliath, even if this means that its citizens have to live with a daily barrage of rockets, perhaps even if it means that Jewish statehood itself is a mistake.
However, by no means all appeals for Israel to cease operations are of this kind. There are those who think that precisely because Israel is now Goliath, it behooves the generals and the politicians there to show restraint despite David’s continuous provocation. In the words of Rabbi Irving Greenberg, uttered many years ago in another context, Jews must exercise power with the memory of powerlessness. To put it differently, whereas some Jews and non-Jews may want the Jewish state to retain its Diaspora image of the weakling survivor, as against “the new Jew” that Zionism has created, others maintain that this “new Jew” has now made his point with the establishment and defense of the sovereign Jewish state and the time has come to show the world that it’s possible to wield power without taking it to its nth degree.
Those of us, myself included, may therefore be forgiven for vacillating between not wanting to have to witness the devastation in Gaza caused by Israeli warplanes – and soon, it seems, tanks – and, at the same time, expect Israel to protect its citizens from attacks. Even when we know that to stop now would only prolong the agony we’re distressed by the mayhem and the destruction. We want it to end as soon as possible expecting – unrealistically, alas – that peace has now come closer.
The temptation, therefore, is to change the subject and, if we’re sufficiently far away from the action, get on with life as if everything was normal. Not to spoil this false sense of normality we may even try to avoid listening to news bulletins and reading newspapers. Of course, it doesn’t work. However hard we may resist it, the pain and the fear overtake us and we are forced to take a stand.
For some that stand is conditioned by our self-understanding as Jews and our views about Israel. If we believe that our role is to be David and, therefore, Israel is an historic aberration, we’ll side with the critics of Israel. If, on the other hand, we maintain that we’ve now successfully shed the David image, we’ll side with Israel, however painful that may be.
History, or rather mythology, is on the side of the latter. For whereas the Bible speaks of the early David who defeated Goliath, most of the texts praise the mature pious poet for becoming a sovereign king, albeit a flawed one.
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