Israel, Palestine and controversies: who are the fanatics

«At that time Europe was plastered with graffiti: Jews, go to Palestine. When, many decades later, my father returned to Europe on a trip, he found it covered in other writings: Jews, out of Palestine… ». Amos Oz said that he became a writer because he observed people during the long waits of his days, and built stories. Observing humanity and its contradictions, he recounted in a 2002 essay, «Against fanaticism» (here a extract), also of the expulsion of his ancestors from Europe in the 1930s, but the reflection on anti-Semitism makes the rounds, and also touches on the fanaticism of Orthodox Jews in modern Israel.

Up to trace a decalogue on fanaticism, which is a kind of virus that we all have inside us, hoping to defuse it. Never before has it become relevant again, as we watch the heartbreaking images of the war in Israel, the kidnapped children, the dismembered naked bodies on social media. We all condemn Hamas, we tell ourselves that Hamas are not the Palestinians, then someone reminds us that the Palestinians have always been raped by the Israelis, then others say that Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs often have intertwined lives and mixed families, suddenly we find ourselves discussing which fan base we are. A complex issue such as that of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine should be explored further, here in the meantime we are republishing Oz’s Decalogue, in the hope that it will be of help.

1. Fanaticism is older than Islam, Christianity, Judaism, older than any state or government, than any political system, older than all the ideologies and all the confessions in the world. It’s a wicked gene, if you want to call it that.
2. The current crisis in the world, in the Middle East, in Israel/Palestine, is not about the values ​​of Islam. It does not concern the mentality of the Arabs (…) it is the ancient conflict between fanaticism and pragmatism. Between fanaticism and pluralism. Between fanaticism and tolerance.
3. Fanaticism is practically everywhere, and in its most silent and civilized forms it is present all around us, and perhaps even within us.
4. The seed of fanaticism crops up every time you adopt an attitude of moral superiority that prevents you from reaching an agreement. It is a very common plague that naturally manifests itself in different degrees.
5. Often the cult of personality, the idealization of political and religious leaders, the veneration of seductive individuals, may well constitute other extended forms of fanaticism.
6. I believe the essence of bigotry is the desire to force others to change. That common inclination to make your neighbor better, educate your spouse, plan your child, straighten out your sibling, rather than let them live.
7. The fanatic cares a lot about you, and either throws himself at your neck because he really loves you or goes for your throat, in the event that you prove to be irreducible. In both cases (…) the gesture is more or less the same.
8. The struggle between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs is not in fact a religious war, although fanatics on both sides are trying to make it so. In fact, it is nothing more than a territorial conflict over the painful question of “who owns this land?”.
9. Fanatics are very often sarcastic. Some of them have a deep sense of sarcasm, but no wit. Humor involves the ability to laugh at yourself. Humor is relativism, it is the ability to see yourself as others might see you.
10. The sense of humor, imagining the other, recognizing our common nature as a peninsula, can represent a partial defense from the fanatical gene, which we all have inherent in us.