Tweet
PAUL GREENBERG: THE SCAPEGOAT SYNDROME
NYDaily
05-24-2011
The separate but equal annual rituals are well established in the
Middle East by now:
First the Israelis observe a day of mourning for those who have fallen
in their country's defense. For a little country, Israel has had a lot
of wars, which means it has the mourners to match. Then a siren sounds,
the solemn commemorations are done, and the country's Independence
Day festivities begin. This was Israel's 63rd such celebration; the
first was punctuated by air raid sirens even as its declaration of
independence was being proclaimed -- against the advice of all the
old Middle East hands in the U.S. State Department.
The foreign-policy establishment of 1948, backed by dignitaries like
James V. Forrestal, George C. Marshall and all the expertise the oil
lobby could muster, would have been surprised if this newborn state had
lasted 63 days, let alone 63 years. Seven Arab armies were converging
on its fragile borders to join the motley groups of irregulars already
in the field. The history of this Jewish state was going to be over
before it had a chance to begin. Things turned out differently.
But there is a counter-narrative of those events, a whole counter-myth
with a counter-language of its own. What the Israelis celebrate as
independence, Arabs mourn as the Nakba, the Catastrophe.
Americans should know all about counter-narratives and counter-myths.
Our own Civil War, aka The Rock From Which We Were Hewn, was called The
War of the Rebellion in the Union's official records, while in Southern
latitudes it might be referred to as The War of Northern Aggression.
To this day there are some still refighting The War. Passions fade
only slowly over the years, over the centuries. Few things are more
persistent than legends of the Lost Cause.
It's taken a century and more for us Americans -- well, most of
us Americans -- to be reconciled. Whatever our ethnic, religious
or cultural differences, we live under one government, without a
geographic line separating us. In the Middle East the lines are
fortified. Every year there are speeches and demonstrations, maybe
even the occasional riot, in observance of the Catastrophe. Then the
day is past, all rites on both sides having been observed in full.
And an uneasy peace is resumed.
This year was different. This year the Syrian troops that usually
guard the frontier opened the gates and let busloads of protesters
cross the border into Israel, not just shouting slogans but throwing
rocks and bottles at the surprised Israeli troops.
The soldiers held their fire -- at first. But then the rioters began
tearing down the border fence on their way to the nearest Israeli
village. It was like an amateurish historical re-enactment. But all
too real. In the volley that followed, many of the demonstrators
would be wounded and 15 would die. Hundreds of infiltrators would be
rounded up and sent back to Syria before the day was concluded. The
annual demonstration had turned into a bloodbath.
What a waste of young lives. And for what? A headline in the morning
papers, a gesture that is already forgotten, more martyrs for the
Lost Cause? The incident was one more indictment of the "leadership"
the Arabs of Palestine have chosen over the years -- from the Grand
Mufti to Yasser Arafat to whoever is not in charge of their affairs
today. Is it Fatah? Hamas? The Arab states? Who knows? Just whom are
the Israelis supposed to negotiate with, and about what besides their
very existence?
And why was the demonstration this year on Israel's northern border
different from all other years? Not because anything had changed in
Israel's negotiating position but because everything was changing in
Syria. The whirlwind sweeping through the Arab world, aka the Arab
Spring, had finally reached even that police state, perhaps the most
repressive in the whole region. (I say perhaps because there are so
many nominees for that dishonor.)
Syria's ruling dynasty, the Assad family, is feeling the pressure.
Every day seems to bring another report of demonstrators being mowed
down. What better way to deflect the popular uprising against Assad &
Son, the iron-fisted firm that has run Syria for 40 years, than by
busing protesters to the border and turning them loose on the Arab
world's -- indeed, the world's -- traditional scapegoats?
It's a familiar historical pattern, whether the dynasty under
pressure is Czarist Russia or a defeated Germany emerging from
the First World War and looking for some conspicuous minority to
blame for its defeat. Think of the Armenian massacres in Turkey
as the sultan's empire tottered. Like defeat in war, the threat of
revolution at home is rich soil for conspiracy theories. Which soon
enough produce pogroms. Or, as in the Germany of 1933-45, some things
even worse. Far worse.
The revolutionary outbursts known as the Arab Spring came as a shock.
Revolutions are impossible, Leon Trotsky once said, until they become
inevitable. What's easily predictable is that those struggling to
hold onto their power should try to blame the revolution on some
sinister conspiracy.
Call it the Scapegoat Syndrome. It emerges with some regularity
wherever dictatorships are challenged -- or after the dictator has
fled and power is up for grabs.
Those seeking to retain power in Egypt could scarcely blame the popular
unrest there on the Jews, the Egyptians having expelled their ancient
Jewish community half a century ago. Now that country's Christians
may serve much the same purpose, which explains the church burnings,
threats, riots and killings now being visited on Egypt's Copts.
A sad-eyed Egyptian gentleman, who was made a refugee long ago,
once explained me how these things work. He summed up the order of
victimhood in Egypt in a pithy phrase that has stuck with me: First
the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.
Nor are Muslim minorities exempt from persecution as one wave of
revolution succeeds another. Egypt's Sufis and Shi'a are coming under
attack, [email protected]
2011 The Associated Press.
NYDaily
05-24-2011
The separate but equal annual rituals are well established in the
Middle East by now:
First the Israelis observe a day of mourning for those who have fallen
in their country's defense. For a little country, Israel has had a lot
of wars, which means it has the mourners to match. Then a siren sounds,
the solemn commemorations are done, and the country's Independence
Day festivities begin. This was Israel's 63rd such celebration; the
first was punctuated by air raid sirens even as its declaration of
independence was being proclaimed -- against the advice of all the
old Middle East hands in the U.S. State Department.
The foreign-policy establishment of 1948, backed by dignitaries like
James V. Forrestal, George C. Marshall and all the expertise the oil
lobby could muster, would have been surprised if this newborn state had
lasted 63 days, let alone 63 years. Seven Arab armies were converging
on its fragile borders to join the motley groups of irregulars already
in the field. The history of this Jewish state was going to be over
before it had a chance to begin. Things turned out differently.
But there is a counter-narrative of those events, a whole counter-myth
with a counter-language of its own. What the Israelis celebrate as
independence, Arabs mourn as the Nakba, the Catastrophe.
Americans should know all about counter-narratives and counter-myths.
Our own Civil War, aka The Rock From Which We Were Hewn, was called The
War of the Rebellion in the Union's official records, while in Southern
latitudes it might be referred to as The War of Northern Aggression.
To this day there are some still refighting The War. Passions fade
only slowly over the years, over the centuries. Few things are more
persistent than legends of the Lost Cause.
It's taken a century and more for us Americans -- well, most of
us Americans -- to be reconciled. Whatever our ethnic, religious
or cultural differences, we live under one government, without a
geographic line separating us. In the Middle East the lines are
fortified. Every year there are speeches and demonstrations, maybe
even the occasional riot, in observance of the Catastrophe. Then the
day is past, all rites on both sides having been observed in full.
And an uneasy peace is resumed.
This year was different. This year the Syrian troops that usually
guard the frontier opened the gates and let busloads of protesters
cross the border into Israel, not just shouting slogans but throwing
rocks and bottles at the surprised Israeli troops.
The soldiers held their fire -- at first. But then the rioters began
tearing down the border fence on their way to the nearest Israeli
village. It was like an amateurish historical re-enactment. But all
too real. In the volley that followed, many of the demonstrators
would be wounded and 15 would die. Hundreds of infiltrators would be
rounded up and sent back to Syria before the day was concluded. The
annual demonstration had turned into a bloodbath.
What a waste of young lives. And for what? A headline in the morning
papers, a gesture that is already forgotten, more martyrs for the
Lost Cause? The incident was one more indictment of the "leadership"
the Arabs of Palestine have chosen over the years -- from the Grand
Mufti to Yasser Arafat to whoever is not in charge of their affairs
today. Is it Fatah? Hamas? The Arab states? Who knows? Just whom are
the Israelis supposed to negotiate with, and about what besides their
very existence?
And why was the demonstration this year on Israel's northern border
different from all other years? Not because anything had changed in
Israel's negotiating position but because everything was changing in
Syria. The whirlwind sweeping through the Arab world, aka the Arab
Spring, had finally reached even that police state, perhaps the most
repressive in the whole region. (I say perhaps because there are so
many nominees for that dishonor.)
Syria's ruling dynasty, the Assad family, is feeling the pressure.
Every day seems to bring another report of demonstrators being mowed
down. What better way to deflect the popular uprising against Assad &
Son, the iron-fisted firm that has run Syria for 40 years, than by
busing protesters to the border and turning them loose on the Arab
world's -- indeed, the world's -- traditional scapegoats?
It's a familiar historical pattern, whether the dynasty under
pressure is Czarist Russia or a defeated Germany emerging from
the First World War and looking for some conspicuous minority to
blame for its defeat. Think of the Armenian massacres in Turkey
as the sultan's empire tottered. Like defeat in war, the threat of
revolution at home is rich soil for conspiracy theories. Which soon
enough produce pogroms. Or, as in the Germany of 1933-45, some things
even worse. Far worse.
The revolutionary outbursts known as the Arab Spring came as a shock.
Revolutions are impossible, Leon Trotsky once said, until they become
inevitable. What's easily predictable is that those struggling to
hold onto their power should try to blame the revolution on some
sinister conspiracy.
Call it the Scapegoat Syndrome. It emerges with some regularity
wherever dictatorships are challenged -- or after the dictator has
fled and power is up for grabs.
Those seeking to retain power in Egypt could scarcely blame the popular
unrest there on the Jews, the Egyptians having expelled their ancient
Jewish community half a century ago. Now that country's Christians
may serve much the same purpose, which explains the church burnings,
threats, riots and killings now being visited on Egypt's Copts.
A sad-eyed Egyptian gentleman, who was made a refugee long ago,
once explained me how these things work. He summed up the order of
victimhood in Egypt in a pithy phrase that has stuck with me: First
the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.
Nor are Muslim minorities exempt from persecution as one wave of
revolution succeeds another. Egypt's Sufis and Shi'a are coming under
attack, [email protected]
2011 The Associated Press.