National Identity in Global Times: Therapy and Satire in Contemporary Israeli Film and Literature

Abstract

National Identity in Global TimesTherapy and Satire in Contemporary Israeli Film and Literature Ari Ofengenden introduction Most research on contemporary Israel acknowledges the dramatic changes that Israel went through in the late eighties. The narrative is by now familiar and shares a great deal with other countries going through similar changes.1 Since the 1980s Israel has been on an increasingly quick and thorough track of economic and cultural privatization. This manifests itself in the weakening of state influence in economic and cultural fields, and has visible influence on all spheres of society. This paper does not aim to survey all these changes but concentrates on those that have exerted the most influence on identity issues and everyday experience, especially the relationship with the state. Fewer and fewer Israelis work for the state or experience the world through the state’s apparatus. This is evidenced by the thorough privatization of the communication and media industry. In 1986, Israel had one state television channel; however, in 1993 it had 60 (Soffer 215–56). Internet, of course, joins television in providing possibilities for connection and exposure to knowledge that go well beyond the purview of the state. Privatization has come hand in hand with globalization, which has condensed time and space and created a close proximity with various relevant others such as “the German” or the “the Arab,” who were, until the onset of globalization, vague and ideological figments lacking in reality. For example, up until the 1980s Most Israelis referred to the people in the occupied territories as Arabs, not Palestinians (Brenner). Aside from intelligence officers and orientalists, no one had a clue as to their own political organization or internal differences (Peleg and Waxman). Today most Jewish-Israelis know leaders and parties by face and name. Before the 1980s Israelis only reluctantly visited Germany; today there is a steady flow of Israelis choosing Berlin as their permanent home (Oz-Salzberger). I claim here that the weakening of the state and the proximity of various “others” have created a space to therapeutically intervene or satirize the figures which represent the state and its ideals; the solider, the state agent, the politically committed writer, but also the nationalist mother who brings them up. In what follows I will analyze five ideal types that challenge national identity in typical ways (Weber 90). The representative works that this article deals with are [End Page 294] Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness, Eitan Fox’s Walk on Water, Yoram Kaniuk’s Bastards, Orly Castle-Bloom’s Dolly City and Sayed Kashua’s Arab Labor. I would like to start with Amos Oz’s therapeutic intervention in the identity of the pioneer and the persona of the writer. the new jew: the israeli imaginary Amos Oz occupies a special place in Hebrew literature. Oz is the most prominent living Hebrew writer in Israel and the best selling Israeli author abroad. He is also an influential political essayist and commentator both in Israel and around the world. Alongside his very considerable talent and writing genius, Oz’s initial domestic success was due to the way in which he personally embodied classical Zionist ideals of the masculine committed writer. A good-looking Kibbutznik and soldier, tough and masculine on the outside with a Chekov-like humanist sensitivity on the inside, his public image functions like Lacan’s register of the imaginary (Lacan 122–23). Just as the child uses his mirror image in order to create a pleasing and coherent sense of self out of chaotic self-perceptions, just so does the image of Amos Oz provide a likeable idealized mirror image which can tie together the very chaotic mutually warring attributes of Israeli identity, its humanism and military masculinity, into one coherent and attractive picture. Oz’s recent writing, however, transcends his public image and undermines it. A Tale of Love and Darkness, Oz’s highly acclaimed autobiography, engages in a rewriting and reinterpretation of the meaning of Zionist national identity. Oz deconstructs the traditional Zionist narrative prevalent until the 1980s. This narrative has Diaspora Jewry immigrating-ascending to Palestine where its members are quickly transformed into productive and pragmatic pioneers and soldiers...