RUTGERS THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY

HANNAH ARENDT DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE Department of Sociology • Livingston Campus • New Brunswick • New Jersey 08903 • (201)932-3138

Irving Louis Horowitz

March 13, 1985

Professor Dan Horowitz Department of Political Science The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mount Scopus Jerusalem 91905 ISRAEL

Dear Dan: Your piece in Davar of December 7, 1984 (Pearl Harbor Day for us!) on "Israel: Ripe for Fascism" finally reached me through Israeli Press Briefs. Your statement was, to put it mildly, blunt-and disturbing.

Without burdening a letter, don't you feel that the established parties, plus the armed forces, represent frameworks of legitimacy that make any Sharon/Eitan/Kahane axis quite remote? Or put another way, haven't events over the past several months lessened the sort of putsch ist mentality you speak of? I will be in Jerusalem for the Book Fair between May 5th and 10th. It would be nice to get together again. I can be reached at Beit Meirsdorf (hope­ fully) during the time of the Fair - or at the Convention Hall itself. Please contact me if time and schedule permits.

As ever,

ILH:md

cc: Travel: May 5-10, 1985 DRESS BRIEFS... ISRAEL PRESS BRIEFS... ISRAEL PRESS BRIEFS

No 31 February 1985 (double issue) SSN 0331t-052X

BUILDING BRIDGES Mark Segal (political correspondent), THE JERUSALEM POST, 7 December 1984

This week, half of Labour's Knesset faction gave concrete expression to a growing trend by forming a dovish lobby within the party. One of its moving spirits is Aharon Harel, a Knesset member with a past reputation for being a highly vocal hawk. How has he become transformed into one of his party's leading doves ? "The Yom Kippur War shook my absolute and unquestioning trust in the truths emanating from our defence establishment. But the turning point was the achievement of peace with Egypt. "Suddenly all my beliefs imbibed from Moshe Dayan were shaken. I visited Egypt and dis­ covered that the Egyptians wanted peace as much as we did. I increased my contacts with 'alestinians and Israeli Arabs, learning how much they, too, yearned for peace. "As head of the Histadrut Organizational Department /for twelve years/, I was involved in our Arab sector. I must have visited every Arab village in Israel in the course of my work. "I reached the conclusion that there is a common human denominator between us all, and that there are fanatics on both sides. Just as we made peace with Egypt after fording that river of blood between us, so we have to establish bridges with others." (...) Harel, who is also active in a broader forum, leading the parliamentary group within the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, encompassing MKs from Labour, Shinui, Mapam and the Citizens' Rights Movement, believes that such an articulate ginger group would strengthen Peres's efforts in seeking any and all openings to revive the momentum for peace. (...) "King Hussein told the Palestinian National Council that he was in favour of a settlement based on UN Resolution 242. He spoke of territories, but did not specify which ones. Nor did he mention Jerusalem. True, he did not say he wants to give up anything, but he did tell the PLO: 'Let's go to the conference table lest we lose our chance.1 "He has met President Mubarak, and is willing to join the bloc of moderate Arab States. That must oblige Israel to make its own move, otherwise we're opening the door to an imposed settlement that will include a Palestinian State." (...)

ISRAEL: RIPE FOR FASCISM Dan Horowitz, DAVAR, 7 December 1984 Vhe writer is professor of. political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Israel is ripe for fascism. The political base is already there: the emerging alliance of Published by International Center for Peace in the Middle East 107 Hahashmonaim Street, Tel Aviv 67011. Tel. (03) 267399, 252285/6 - 2 tribal beliefs, religious zealotry and market-place populism. There are candidates for the leadership: Arik Sharon, Rafael Eitan, Meir Kahane. And above all, the social condr tions are propitious: a public that has experienced swingeing inflation and now finds itself uncertain of employment and fearful for the security of its savings; a crisis of confidence in the ability of the democratic parliamentary regime to function; fierce enmi­ ty towards the adversary in a national conflict that is fraught with racist overtones; a burgeoning atmosphere of political and cultural phi 1istinism. (...) High inflation engenders uncertainty and anxiety. (...) Anxiety generates a demand for non-democratic leadership. The masses seek a charismatic figure to serve as a prop while the establishment calls for a "strongman" who will "impose order". (...) Racist attitudes are also being fostered by Gush Emunim and its doctrine. The direct con­ frontation between settlers and inhabitants in the territories has deteriorated from dis­ turbances to counter-terrorism. But equally important has been the injection of a religio- messianic content into the nationalist-political message: national identity is defined in tribal terms ("Jews vs. Goyim"); the dehumanization of the adversary is given an allegedly halachic basis ("the law of Amalek"); alarming associations between land ("land of our fathers") and blood (from "Jewish blood shall not go unavenged" to Rabbi Kahane's neo- Streicherian "purity of Jewish blood") begin to surface. Around the hard core of fanati­ cism a broader circle of adherents expressing varying degrees of sympathy is being formed: the murderers in the Jewish underground are abetted by condoners, understanders and forgi- vers; Arik Sharon does not dissociate himself from Meir Kahane even when the latter expres­ ses the wish for future co-operation with Sharon/Eitan. Thus the trigger for Israeli fas­ cism already exists. (...) Fascism will not materialize without a leader. A benighted zealot without roots in the Israeli experience such as Kahane will not succeed in the role; nor will a rough-hewn soldier-farmer-carpenter like Raful /former ch ief-of-staf f Rafael Eitan/. They are capabl^^ only of sowing the seeds of violent hatred for the Arabs, the political fruit of which will be reaped by others. A successful fascist leader requires the ability to engage in sophis­ ticated manipulations in order to obtain power by democratic means and to maintain it by dictatorial means. His image must fulfil the expectations of those seeking a strong leader who will "impose order" and also of those who expect him to ignore legal constraints in dealing with the Arabs, "leftists", "defeatists" and "traitors". He must be capable of mobilizing mass support without weakening his ties with the elitist nationalists of Gush Emunim and Tehiya. This mantle would seem to be tailor-made for Arik Sharon. It is true that in the course of his career Sharon has been more a figure of anarchy than of order. But the paradoxical expectation that order will be imposed precisely by a leader with a re­ putation for excess is characteristic of situations which have spawned fascist regimes. Will Arik Sharon don the mantle that is ready for him and transform potentiality into actuality ? For the moment, we may focus on one noteworthy feature of his behaviour that gives rise to disquiet. Fascist leaders tend to equate their own good with the good of the people, to posit their private interests as national interests and to denounce their oppo­ nents as enemies of the people. Arik Sharon's behaviour fits this pattern. His suit against Time is, for him, "the trial of the people of Israel". (...) There are still many people who cannot come to terms with the juxtaposition of the terms "Israeli" and "fascism". However, the notion of an Israeli terrorist underground also seemed fantastic only a year or so ago. When the underground was exposed, with the foiling of the attempted slaughter of dozens of innocent passengers - men, women and children - on public buses, and when it emerged that the underground's plans included also acts of lunacy such as the demolition of the Temple Mount mosques, many people suddenly found these pheno­ mena quite reasonable and perfectly understandable. The murderers and pogromists were the flesh and blood of Israeli society, and a good many people knew them personally. It was thus easier to attribute their acts to the alleged failures of the government, and to accept them, forgetting that it was in this manner that the perpetrators of the worst