July 15, 2006

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY

        Horsefeathers grew up in a mixed lower and middle class neighborhood of the Bronx that was 1/4 Irish, 1/2 Italian and 1/4 Jewish. Those were the days before there were organized leagues to make sure every little darling got equal playing time, before political correctness made everyone 'sensitive' to hurt feelings, and before homework was done with the aid of tutors, parents and the internet. There was no ritalin to drain the restless aggression out of boys and turn them into good little test taking drones. The schoolyard was a rough but invaluable tutor. One of the early lessons learned was, if you wanted to play in schoolyard games you had to show you could take and dish out verbal and sometimes physical aggression. 'There's no crying in baseball', but there's also no crying in schoolyard basketball, football or stickball. The kid who did cry did not receive caring consolatory 'support', but rather, was mercilessly scorned and dismissed as a 'cry baby'--the worst insult by far. Ethnic slurs were part of the currency of the schoolyard, but these could be dealt with, either by dishing out on a one for one basis, or at times by the judicious use of fists. Jews were regarded as stereotypically smart, but fearful of mixing it up with their non-Jewish peers. Horsefeathers recalls a particular time, when physical force proved useful and satisfying. One day he appeared in the schoolyard of P.S. 108, wearing eyeglasses for the first time and was greeted with howls of derision: "Look at the four eyed kike". It was the last time that particular phrase was used, even though the fight that ensued didn't have a clearcut winner--bloody noses all around--but willingness to fight was enough to elicit future respect, and an assured place on the playing fields of the East Bronx. Another lesson learned, not in the classroom, applicable in many areas of life, is that the louder a bully's threats, the more imperative it is to respond forcefully. Bullies quickly retreat in the face of determined counter-force and then claim the role of victim themselves. Basically they're cowards, the sort who in war hide among civilians and don't wear uniforms. What Churchill said of the Germans could be said of all bullies: "They're either at your throat or at your feet."
        As a secular Jew, Horsefeathers strongly identifies with Israel, not just for its practical importance to world Jewry but for its psychological importance to Jews everywhere. Israel showed that Jews can fight, can deploy aggression in the service of survival and need not cower fearfully, pleadingly before their tormenters. It changed the psychology of Jews around the world. The new Jew, born in the Warsaw ghetto, strengthened in Israel's wars of survival, brought shared pride in the prowess of the IDF. In its hour of greatest triumph, the Six Day War in 1967, the world's brief post-Holocaust sympathy for the Jew-as-victim began to fade. Who are these Jews to think they can fight and win wars as boldly and brilliantly as if they were a nation of Pattons? Now that Jews were victorious in battle, the old demons of anti-semitism reappeared in the form of anti-Zionism and sympathy for the primitive Arabs whose Jew hatred was excused because they only had 21 states and needed a 22nd with which to continue Hitler's project. Every anti-semitic utopian leftist or rightist could now express horror at the plight of the oppressed Arabs forced to submit to Israel because they were unable to destroy her. Never, of course, did these same anti-semites condemn tyrannical Arab rulers for their primitive Jew hatred or for their oppression of their own people. No, it was once again those pesky Zionist Jews who stood in the way of pan-Arab, Judenfrei Utopia.
        Unfortunately over the years since 1967, Israel has partially succumbed to the old yearning for acceptance and approval by the world. They have traded victory on the battlefield for fantasies of approval and imaginary coexistence with a primitive and savage foe. This has eroded the collective self-confidence acquired in earlier victories. The bold, assertive Israeli was slowly yielding to the old Jew, the good Jew who just wanted the pogroms to stop, and thought that making nice would work. In short, the old appeasing mentality reappeared. The Jew as the only real Christian in the world, would turn the other cheek and hope to be loved for it.
        Not only has this not worked, (see Oslo accords, road maps to peace, withdrawal from Gaza, withdrawal from Lebanon, etc.) it is psychologically damaging. It erodes self respect: it makes the appeaser, deep down feel like a coward. It becomes a form of self-emasculation. It robs Jews of pride in their strength; no wonder so many prefer the utopian dreams of Liberalism to their own Jewish identity. The heros of the Warsaw ghetto, and the pioneers of the state of Israel rejected this mentality.
        As we are glued to our TV sets and the internet for news of the IDF's bold actions, we dare to hope that, at long last, the old spirit has returned! The news of the IDF kicking the crap out of the Arabs is exhilirating. It's liberating and is a rebuke to appeasers everywhere. Israel should never again hesitate to destroy its tormenters. Let the enemies of the Jews and of freedom quake in their boots. No better way to effect that than to unleash a 'rain of ruin' (see Harry Truman post below) from the air, up to and including tactical nuclear weapons. Let's let the mullahs go to sleep wondering whether their dreams will be interrupted by an IDF jet's payload. Let us hope the IDF does not stop until victory.

Here's Bob Dylan on Israel, written years ago, but true as ever.

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully.

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