The Nobel Prize for Peace belongs almost annually to the IDF

Dear Ruth Wisse,

Your work is wonderful to read. You have put something I have always
felt but have been unable to articulate into words. I am wondering
whether you would have anything to say about how in the light of your
thesis, israel could proceed at the present time on a practical level.

Janet Weinglass
Croton on Hudson, NY

To Janet Weinglass,

I try to say the obvious, and am very glad that you think I’ve done so.
What could it mean to proceed “on a practical level?” Israel would have to acknowledge and to make others acknowledge that the Arab League sealed its doom when it refused to accept the living presence of the Jews’ rightful country; that Arab societies will keep spiraling into suicidal self-destruction unless they stop focusing on Israel and begin focusing on themselves.

Israelis are understandably discouraged after sixty years of political siege, wars, terrorism, economic boycott, and negative propaganda. They may have no incentive for counter-aggression because they want acceptance from the very people who attack them. The most important thing Israelis can do is to remain morally confident and to remind others that they are the plaintiffs, not the defendants, in the international arena. They are the ones being denied their country, they are the ones under perpetual assault. They have to demand their due from Arab and Muslim societies as much for their enemies’ sake as for their own: respect for the national aspirations of the Jewish people, an end to boycott and aggression, trustworthy diplomatic exchanges, fulfillment of the terms of treaties, and a reorientation of Arab culture towards tolerance and cooperation. These demands may not be met right away, but they don?t stand a chance of ever being met unless they are voiced, repeatedly and insistently, again and again and again and again.

Israelis have shown incredible courage, patience, and decency. The Nobel Prize for Peace belongs almost annually to the IDF, perhaps (if facts become known) never more so than in 2007. Israelis certainly did not choose to be the fighting front line of the democratic world and would do almost anything to escape the role in which they have been cast. But no more than Jews of past generations have they been given the choice by their enemies. Israelis should expect Jews and good people everywhere to help them shoulder the responsibility of resisting Arab aggression in deed and word.

Ref: Haaretz

Ruth R. Wisse is a Harvard University professor, where she is the Martin Peretz professor of Yiddish, and professor of comparative literature. Raised in Montreal, she was the first professor to introduce courses in Yiddish literature at McGill University, where she helped found the Jewish Studies Department. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts