Israel and me

 

Julia Schramm is one of 180 young Germans identified as a potential future leader whom the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited on a trip to Israel. The political scientist and blogger reports on her initial impressions.

 

“Allow yourself to feel the contradictions,” David Grossman tells the 180 young Germans. It may be just before the first real meal since landing in Tel Aviv, but the young leaders, as the participants on the Jubilee trip to Israel are called, listen attentively. Grossman, a notable critic of the Israeli government and renowned author, holds a biting speech on the lack of vision on the part of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and about his own fear that Israel could cease to be a democracy. It is a forceful speech, in which he talks about Israel’s existential battle, and about the long cherished homeland that was finally established after much struggle and which Grossman evidently loves so very much. And he discusses more the fundamentalism of Orthodox Jews than of Islamic fanatics, and the unavoidable military imperatives that the Israelis face day in day out. Grossman reports on the unpredictable animosity the Arab countries show and perhaps he is quoting Hemingway when he says that his writing focuses on the question of what war does to man.

 

The young Germans, most of them in Israel for the first time, are riveted by Grossman’s words, at only a very few tables are people whispering to one another, and a slight sense of unease spreads across the festively prepared tables with the still empty plates. How can he say that? How can he relativise the dangers that Israel faces each day anew? That is irresponsible.

Grossman goes on to talk about the coincidence in life, the fierceness with which such coincidence can dominate life, and about the intensity of Israeli society, with all its contradictions, struggles and dangers. He says this is relevant, Israel is relevant. He says he would not live anywhere else, as in Israel he comes to life. Israel is alive. Dialectical thought pervades his lecture, he does not liberate his audience from the contradictions, but challenges them to see them, accept them, understand them. And while some, particularly those cognisant of Israel’s daily civilian and military struggles, consider Grossman’s speech to be irresponsible in this setting, at the end he is met with long resounding applause.

 

How can one welcome young Germans, who get injected with anti-Semitism all day long by the media and society, with such a speech, a journalist, annoyed, later mumbles during the meal. Perhaps the one or other young leader’s hand is so raw from clapping owing to relief that someone has put it in words. That indeterminate it, that some call criticism of Israel, but which is all too often only an expression of anti-Semitic ideas. So it may have surprised those on the trip who had concerned themselves at length with the issue when the first words the new German young elite gets to hear are uttered by a critic of the government. And yet this is only logical. As the choice by the Israeli government of Grossman as the right person to give the address is a symbol of what Israel at heart stands for, namely plurality, a diversity of opinions, for debate, for the freedom of thought, for democracy. And every fibre of Grossman’s body seems to be suffused with the fear that Israel could lose precisely that ability.

 

When he steps down from the lectern, it is time to enjoy the meal, for which the young leaders have duly donned formal attire. Carpaccio. Steak. Fish. Wine from a kibbutz. The mood is relaxed, and everywhere you can sense people are looking forward to the next few days. A few of those present are still irritated by the remarks, a couple of the diplomats seem actually annoyed by the choice of speaker. But that’s the way it is. Allow yourself to feel the contradictions.