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Because in Israel, it’s not about symbols, but about the existential struggle to simply be here one more day.
There’s an unquestioning love of country among Americans, a kind of blind adoration and trust. In Israel, it’s different. The love is there, and it’s fierce. But not blind.
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Israeli patriotism is like a grim gritting of the teeth: a tug-of-war that dare not be lost. The prize is holding on for one more day. The Israeli form of patriotism, termed “khosen leumi” or “national strength” is not in its assumption a pleasurable duty, but a necessary one.
“Patriotism and Israel’s National Security,” a 2009 survey sponsored by the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at IDC Herzliya attempts to define patriotism and outline the differences in patriotic expression between Israelis and Americans. Study authors Uzi Arad and Gal Alon found that, “The citizens of Israel possess a large degree of Israeli patriotism according to two intrinsic criteria--willingness to fight for it (85%) and the desire to remain planted on its soil (87%). In comparison to other developed countries in the West, there is none that surpasses Israel in this declared readiness to fight for one''s country.”
Israelis are ready to fight for their country, but it appears they aren’t keen on adopting patriotism as a blind theology. According to Arad and Alon, blind love of country is associated by the general Israeli population with fanaticism and the far right nationalist settler sector of the country. No explanation for this association is offered. The authors merely note that it exists.
I think it may boil down to ownership.
As I child, I knew all the words to the Woody Guthrie song. “This land is your land.” I knew that the land of America belonged to all Americans. America belonged to me.
Israelis don’t get to feel that feeling. They never get to feel that sense of ownership and exclusivity because of the world’s delegitimization of Israel. There’s this air of criminality hanging over Israel affecting attitudes and causing insecurity. Only the settlers believe unswervingly in their absolute land ownership.
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Growing up in America, I knew that America belonged to me—or did if I wanted it. But as a Jew, I felt like a visitor just passing through. My true home, I felt, was Israel.
I’m not sure why this idea took hold within me. But it was there from a very early age.
I don’t know that this sense of home is something that can be instilled or whether what happened to me happened on its own independent of outside influences.
All I know is that it would be much harder for a child to “own” his love of country as an Israeli growing up in Israel, than for an American child growing up in America. That makes me sad. Children should have that blind love of country. They need that, I think..jpg)
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Field trips and folksong fests might help. These are proactive steps we might take to help Israeli children develop patriotism. But I think there is something else we can do—something that would trump all other efforts in generating a hot and fervent adoration of the land.
It’s this: we need to show Israeli children our eyes shining with love of country. In showing our feelings plainly on our faces, we, parents and teachers, can provide our children with the emotional nourishment they need. More than shelter or a warm meal, this gift of patriotism is the commodity that will sustain our children for the long run.