We were discussing Michael Chabon on Saturday in Torah study and lo and behold, he opines in the New York Times on the Flotilla fiasco (thanks to Fred Mannis and my Mom for sending me the link). More to the point, he discusses our obsession with the 'yiddeshe kup', the idea that Jews are somehow more likely to look "for a clever way out of problems, someone who understands that the most direct way — blunt force, for instance — often represents the least elegant solution, a person who can foresee consequences of his actions.”
Of course, that isn't the case, as Chabon points out, but part of our mythology about ourselves is that we're smarter, more nimble, and that by extension so is our State of Israel. Chabon suggests that this is part of the problem; because we--as well as the rest of the world--views the Jewish people as somehow being preternaturally smart and therefore disinclined to get stuck in stupid situations, likewise the Jewish state would be immune to doing something this diplomatically inelegant, to using blunt force as another country might.
How is this the problem? Because we expect more out of ourselves as a people and a nation. In the same way that Jews around the world shried gavult over Rosanne Barr's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner or beat their chests over Bernie Madoff's criminal activity, we look--and the world looks--at Israel's actions as a reflection on us, and vice-versa. So when they do something spectacular or miraculous, we kvell, and when something terrible happens, well, their shame is our shame, because we're somehow supposed to be better than that. But what if we're not? What if David Ben-Gurion's dream has come true? What if we're...normal?
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