LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Victimized by its enemies and misunderstood by the world, Israel needed the help of its few remaining friends, notably Germany, to defend itself. It would make him “happy,” Mr. Olmert said, to see Germany protect Israel’s security by sending a German Schutztruppe (peace keepers) to Lebanon which for the Germans would also be a particularly meaningful task. He ridiculed, as just a reflection on their “desperate situation,” Hezbollah’s recent offer of a cease fire for humanitarian reasons: “Hezbollah is no longer a threat for us. We have never begged for compassion or a cease fire but said: To hell with you! We will take the hardest measures against you.”

Already, the beginning of this war appears shrouded in the mists of politicized historical memory: Who provoked whom? Who has or will have the power to determine the provocation? How urgent is the issue of Israel’s security after almost a month of bombing granted by the US in several installments of “one more week or so”? Why has there been so little discussion of the legal aspects of Israel’s preemptive strike? And why Israel’s new emphasis on its “cordial” relationship with Germany? The German reactions to Mr. Olmert’s statements were cautiously neutral across the political spectrum, But Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Shimon Stein, called it a “Novum” and a “historic statement”; never before had an Israeli Prime Minister explicitly welcomed the engagement of German soldiers in the stabilization of the Middle East—a great Vertrauensbeweis (proof of trust). The German government, as reported in the press, did not seem to share Mr. Olmert’s happiness, aware of their over-extension in dangerous places like Afghanistan and the historical complications of German-Jewish relations.

Douglas Giles is a recent casualty. He used to teach a class on world religions at Roosevelt University, Chicago, founded in memory of FDR and his liberal-inclined wife, Eleanor. Last year, Giles was ordered by his head of department, art historian Susan Weininger, not to allow students to ask questions about Palestine and Israel; in fact, nothing was to be mentioned in class, textbooks and examinations that could possibly open Judaism to criticism.

Students, being what they are, did not go along with the ban. A young woman, originally from Pakistan, asked a question about Palestinian rights. Someone complained and Professor Giles was promptly fired.