The Idea of Israel Read Online Free PDF

Jerusalem.
    The most influential writer within this trend was Sami Michael, who was widely read and was better known in Israel than Ballas or Swissa. His main contribution lay in his ability to reveal to Hebrew readers the Palestinian perception of Israeli reality. He, too, eventually left the counter-hegemonic route for a less contrary, and highly productive, existence.
    A different kind of counter-narrative was provided by the poet Yitzhak Laor in The People, Food Fit for a King , a novel that uses every possible literary device, from the names of the heroes to the twists of the plot, to question basic truisms about Israeli society. 7 The story of an army unit about to enter the 1967 war, the novel has several endings and butchers more than one sacred Israeli cow. Laor ridicules the sanctity of the army and its heroism on the battlefied and rejects common Israeli notions about genuine friendships forged in war. Here is how the Nakba makes its appearance in another book of his, which tells the story of a tank column that finds itself mistakenly in Tel Aviv on the Day of Independence:
The procession reached the new commercial centre. The cries echoed all over the country: ‘Who Are We? – Israel! Who Are We All? – Israel!’ One incident, however, spoiled the overall joy, one that really knew no boundaries (the procession hit circles of dancers that blocked its way, and the dancers were asked to halt for a while so that the procession could continue). The incident involved ‘crazy Zamira’, who was the youngest granddaughter of the Iraqi communists in the neighbourhood; she was one of those kids whose parents were never summoned to school when she misbehaved and was punished. They did not trust them more than they trusted her. Suddenly Zamira yelled, ‘You have not heard about Dir Yassin? You criminals! You murderers! You did not hear?’ And she ripped off the military uniform she had donned for the festive day. Everybody laughed at Zamira and the history teacher said, ‘This is not an excuse.’ 8
    Finally, David Grossman’s work on the Israeli occupation and the status of the Palestinians in Israel presented sights and sounds generally inaccessible to Jews in Israel. Unlike the novelists mentioned above, Grossman ranked high on the best-seller lists for some years. He may have been more mainstream and at times less critical, but his wide readership made him an important part of the challenge. 9 His cautious inputs did at least familiarise a wider audience with the Palestinian point of view, even if this greater familiarity did not lead to a recognition of its legitimacy or even validity.
    A Post-Zionist Media?
    The readiness of the Israeli media to open its doors to the new academic viewpoints, albeit for a very short while in the 1990s, can be understood as part of the ambiguous role played by the media in Israeli society. Traditionally, it acted in many ways like a state press in a non-democratic environment, imposing restrictions on itself to an extent unparalleled in democratic countries. Legally, the press operated according to the emergency laws enacted by the British Mandatory authorities in 1945, which were subsequently adopted by the young State of Israel. Although these regulations were used almost exclusively against the Palestinians in Israel, they were also used on rare occasions against the press, notably in the temporary closures of the Hebrew communist daily Kol Ha’am in 1953 and the daily Hadashot in 1984. 10 In addition, the press revised its own code of conduct, subordinating the ‘right to know’ to ‘security considerations’ in times of national emergency. There is no Israeli law guaranteeing the press freedom to operate; it is an assumed practice in a self-declared democracy but one which is not protected by law.
    Until 1977, the press accepted the state’s guidance in all matters concerning foreign policy and defence. Thus, ‘sacred cow’ topics suchas Israel’s ‘retaliatory’