Epilogue

Abstract

Through Sidonia, the rich Jewish banker in Tancred and Coningsby, Benjamin Disraeli, the baptized Jew, conveys his very strong feelings on the fate of the Chosen People. Disraeli, the prime minister of GreatBritain, provides a clear answer to the frustration of the renowned Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua. The problem with Yehoshua as with most Jews (and non-Jews) lies in the undisputable reluctance, to deal with the Chosen concept as the central factor in Jewish relations with the rest of the world. Yehoshua says only that “there is something in our existence,” but besides unclear references to the ambiguous Jewish identity, he is not ready to elaborate on why the world is obsessed with the Jews. In his book On Behalf of Normalcy, Yehoshua tries again to escape from the Jewish condition by ignoring its history, its Chosen dimension and by calling Israel to forget its Jewish Diaspora. Yehoshua continuously struggles with the subject: I have a fear because of the partial identity of the Jews. With their ability to penetrate the life of others. To live without borders, without taking responsibility. To be here and also there, yet not here and not there, and to maintain such an evasive existence: such an unclear identity. I think it is dangerous. I think that by penetrating deeply into the identities of other nations we are a threat to them. Something in our existence ferments fear … our intrusive mentality scares them and creates these sick interactions between us and them. … I am not justifying any anti-Semite. I am not trying to understand the anti-Semites but rather the anti-Semitic machinery. … It is about time we should understand that our ambiguous identity is causing individuals and groups who suffer a chaos of identity to cast on us awesome implications. Our mixture of religion and nationalism confuses and drives our neighbors crazy.6 KeywordsJewish IdentityJewish PeopleJewish HistoryMuslim BrotherhoodMonotheistic ReligionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.