I went to a party last night in the city and met an Israeli. Handsome, tall, a chest as broad as a desk. We talked about movement between the U.S. and Israel, and I asked him about the Israeli reputation for rudeness. "We are rude," he said. "That is our style. That is why they call us sabras. It is the word for the prickly pear. Prickly on the outside, but sweet inside."
He went on: "We don’t always get along with Jews in New York. We often think of New Yorkers as soft. We have a word for them. They are too yielding. We are tough. We don’t negotiate. We want to win, that is the only goal. To win."
I said, "Do you think that any of this attitude comes out of the Holocaust?"
"Of course that is where most Israelis came from. I think there was a reaction. For instance, the secularism."
I’ve never understood that point. I asked him to explain. He said that there was a feeling in Israel that religiosity in Europe meant constant study, effeteness.
Going home on the train later, reading my Isaac Bashevis Singer book about his father the Warsaw rabbi, dedicated to study, I reflected that my own identity issues reflect general conditions of my people: that the Jewish psyche is unintegrated, and that the Israel lobby is an expression of this. You be the tough guys who refuse to negotiate. We will be your political backers, in the American court. Hear that, Condi?
