Many left-wing Jews choose leftism over ethnic loyalty.
Haaretz: ‘Here I Am’ shows how because of Israel’s growing ethno-nationalism, embarrassment has replaced guilt as his generation’s dominant feeling toward Israel.
“Here I Am” is Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel after 11 years. Jacob Bloch, its anti-hero, after one well-received novel published when he was very young, is writing for television, and doesn’t like it. His marriage which, like most marriages, started with hope, intimacy and tenderness has gradually emptied of content after 15 years, and both Jacob and Julia, his wife and future divorcee, feel that they are losing their own selves in the family they have created.
The bulk of the book is composed of scenes from a Jewish family life, much of dialogue; some of it scintillating, much of it reminds of the self-consciously virtuoso writing we have come to know from Foer’s first two highly acclaimed novels that made him a household name of the American – and ever more so the Jewish American – literary scene. His standing is reflected in the dozens of reviews appearing days after the publication of Here I Am.
Israel and Jewish American liberals
About in the middle of novel, a second story line emerges: Israel and the Middle East are shaken and largely destroyed by a powerful earthquake. [Spoiler alert: If you don’t want to lose the tension of reading, skip the next two paragraphs!] The Arab countries around Israel see the opportunity of finally destroying the Jewish State. Israel’s prime minister declares “Operation Moses,” with the goal of moving a million American Jews to Israel to help in the war effort (I don’t know whether Foer was aware that there actually was an Operation Moses to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel). Only 55,000 actually arrive, tellingly mostly over 45 years of age.
Younger Jewish Americans, it seems, can’t really see much meaning in moving to Israel and fighting for its survival, and those who come to help play no role in Israel’s surviving the ordeal. Israel’s central strategy is withdrawing from the West Bank and maintaining a blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Furthermore, Israel refuses any humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and the Israel-Palestine conflict is largely solved by Palestinians dying of a variety of illnesses.
“Infinite debate corkscrewed the question of whether those new borders were good for the Jews. Although, tellingly, the expression most often used by American Jews was good for the Israelis. And that, the Israelis thought, was bad for the Jews … [Many can’t forgive Israel] the complete and explicit abdication of responsibility for the non-Jews – the withdrawal of security forces … the blockade of aid shipments to Gaza and the West Bank.”