GRGR: Todorov and Clendinnen on the Holocaust

[calbert at pop.tiac.net]

>   "Todorov begins by juxtaposing two famous uprisings: in the Warsaw
> Ghetto in 1943 and by the Polish population of the city the following
> year.
>   "Both, he remarks, were marked by extraordinary acts of heroism in the
> face of overwhelming odds. Both came to occupy places of honour in
> national mythologies -- Israeli in one case, Polish in the other.
>   "He finds, nevertheless, significant differences between the two.
>   "The Poles revolted in the name of large abstractions: nation,
> civilisation, Christendom, the West. In most cases the Jews of the
> Ghetto sacrificed themselves for a very different reason: to choose the
> manner and moment of their own deaths, rather than to remain passive
> victims of systematic extermination.
>   "For Todorov the latter mode of heroism is morally preferable. Yet it,
> too, is found wanting: the memory of the Ghetto uprising has given
> spurious justification, he argues, to injustices and even atrocities
> committed by the State of Israel.

This sounds like an invention. I've never heard the Warsaw Ghetto 
used as a "spurious justification" of any official or unofficial act 
of the state of Israel, or its supporters. Given the rather 
considerable number of incidents available to those who wold scold 
the world for its indifference, the tragedy of the Ghetto hardly 
compares to that of the SS St. Louis.

That supporters of Israel might point to the desperate circumstances 
in which their modern nation was forged need not be taken as a 
rationale for the kinds of abuses which go un-noticed in the rest of 
the neighborhood. It simply places into an appropriate context the 
question of why they are there at all, and for those to whom the 
Holocaust is not merely a debating point, this is an issue not to be 
glibly dismissed.

For a fairly interesting illustration of such "glib" ness I recommend 
the latest piece by Edward Said in a recent issue of NYRB. In it he 
refers to Jerusalem of 1948 and the newly arrived Jews, "Polish, 
German and American immigrants", as if the prescence of these Jews in 
Jerusalem in 1948 was a matter of their discretion. Given the Jews' 
extra-national status in many of these countries even before the war, 
Said's statement is at best naive, but more likely, quite 
calculating.

But Said also raises a very relevant point - to wit, if ANY nation 
should be conscious of the feelings and aspirations of a 
cultural/social minority, it is Israel. And there is little question 
that Israel has a moral obligation to do better - but it is 
disingenuous to ignore the fact that the lot of any minority in 
Israel is far superior to that of any in the neighbouring states.
To suggest that this is the most oppressed people on earth is to spit 
in the face of marsh arabs, kurds and other truly abused 
groups.


love,
cfa