Take the idea that Jews can prove to the world their moral superiority and the injustice of those attacking them if they only turn the other cheek, if they only allow their own spilled blood to speak for them, if they only exercise restraint to prove their good will and desire for peace.

In large part, this outlook traces back to the days of Diaspora powerlessness, when by and large Jews had no choice but to try to cope with anti-Jewish atrocities through fatalistic and passive "restraint", turning the other cheek to prove to the world how civilized they were.

But once Jews in Israel armed themselves, the doctrine of "Self-Restraint to Prove Moral Worth" still continued to dominate. For the past 100 years, Israeli Jews have dealt with Arab barbarism almost exclusively through self-restraint, through turning the other cheek.

Before the declaration of statehood, turning the other cheek was known as "Havlaga" (self-restraint). They idea was that by not retaliating and restraining one’s anguish after Arab atrocities, Israel was earning brownie points with world opinion, which would lead to the conscription of world opinion behind Zionist goals. The same turning of the cheek was applied when the British closed off immigration to Palestine even while the Holocaust was being implemented.

Then after the state was declared and the War of 1948-9 was won, Israel returned to turning the other cheek. The Egyptians organized Palestinian fedayeen terror squads and Israel responded with self-restraint, proving to the world that Jews were morally superior, trying to defeat the savagery by shaming it into submission.

The doctrine of cheek-turning continued when the PLO was founded in the 1960s along with the menagerie of other Palestinian terror groups. After each new atrocity, Israeli Labor Party leaders would congratulate one another on how successful they were being in conscripting world opinion in support of Israel by not responding to Palestinian provocations.

And then when the PLO "intifada" began in the 1980s, the doctrine returned with renewed vigor. We will defeat them in the realm of morality and in the arena of world opinion, chimed the leaders of the Labor Party and the Likud. We will shame them into submission through our self-restraint and out goodwill and our postured desire for peace. And when Saddam Hussein dropped Scud missiles on Israel, once again the government of the Likud branch of the Labor Party sought to defeat the evil dictator through pacifism and self-restraint and did nothing.

And then finally after Ehud NeBARAKnezzar offered the PLO all of the Old City and East Jerusalem and the PLO responded with eight months of atrocities, once again the doctrine of Cheek-Turning is embraced. We will defeat them by letting Palestinian day workers come freely to their day jobs, chant the politicians. And by NOT closing the border or placing their towns under siege We will shame them into submission by NOT avenging murdered Jewish children and women. We will impose our will over them through our pacifism. We will conscript world opinion in our favor through our martyrdom.

And for 100 years the doctrine of Cheek Turning has failed to achieve anything. After each display of Arab barbarism, the conscripted world opinion condemns Jewish barbarism. After each act of submission and restraint and passivity, the world condemns Jewish aggression and racism and colonialism. Spilt blood of Jewish children, never avenged, simply proves to the world that Jewish settlements and occupation of Arab lands are the underlying cause of the problem.

And for well over 100 years, the Jewish Left has blamed every anti-Jewish atrocity on the Jews. The Jewish Left has always believed that Jews are to blame for all forms of anti-Semitism. The Jewish Left in Europe in the 19th century welcomed anti-Jewish pogroms as part of the awakening of the working class and its revolutionary rising up against capitalism. (So does the campus anti-globalization-cum-animal-rights Left in the West today.) The Tikkun Left always blamed Jews for black and Arab anti-Semitism. The Israeli Left blames Jewish insensitivity to the Other for PLO atrocities, down to and including yesterday’s attempt to blow up a Netanya school with a car bomb.

And the Jewish Left, which seems to include Arik Sharon these days, insists that the only possible plan is to conscript world opinion in favor of Israel, to prove to the world the justice of the Jews, through sitting back and passively allowing the blood of Jews to be spilt with no serious response or retaliation. A unilateral ceasefire will do the trick. Just you wait. Just sit passively and wait for the goodwill to flow in from Washington and Europe.

Why abandon a time-proven doctrine?

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission