University of Wales Aberystwyth Department of International Politics TRAUMA AND THE MAKING OF ISRAEL'S SECURITY This thesis is being submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in International Politics By Hannah Starman Sepee'Wf 200 To Andreja with all my love. Acknowledgements I would like to thank first and foremost, my thesis supervisors, Dr. Tim Dunne and Prof. Ken Booth. Tim Dunne has been a constant source of inspiration and support. His thoughtful and competent criticism at various stages of the thesis has been crucial for both the progress and the quality of my research. Tim also read the entire manuscript and made valuable editorial suggestions on several occasions. Despite his numerous other responsibilities that demanded his attention, Prof. Ken Booth has always afforded me his time and advice whenever I needed it, and I thank him for that. The Department of International Politics has granted me the E.H. Carr Award without which I could not have pursued the work on this thesis. The Department has also provided me with an intellectual environment and expertise that welcomed creativity and fostered critical spirit. Numerous discussions with members of the faculty, especially with Dr. Jenny Edkins, Prof. Steve Smith, and Prof. Mike Foley, have helped me refine and focus my ideas. I also wish to thank Prof. William D. Rubinstein from the Department of History for supplying me with articles and references relevant to my research and for spending his lunch hours to enlighten me on various other issues in modern history. My special gratitude and appreciation go to Yael and Rabbi Hillel Simon who never missed an occasion to further my Jewish knowledge and patiently answered my endless questions about Chassidism and Jewish mystical traditions. I would also like to use this occasion to express my fondness to all the wonderful people at the Cardiff New Synagogue who made me feel at home in their community. Eileen and Norman Berg have offered me their hospitality, affection, and encouragement on countless occasions, and Louise and Barry Fuller gave me the magnificent gift of Encyclopaedia Judaica. I am especially grateful to my friend and teacher Rabbi Elaina kind Rothman and her husband Gerald for their friendship and support. This thesis has required research in Israel where I spent six months during 1999. The British Friends of the Hebrew University and The Ian Karten Foundation have contributed the resources that made my research in Israel possible. My Israeli friends were wonderful in their efforts to introduce me to people who could help me advance in my inquiries. Doron Greenshpan and Morit Heitzler offered me all the benefits of an unyielding friendship combined with professional expertise. Doron translated part of my Hebrew sources and provided me with some valuable references. Morit spent hours of her beach time in Tel Aviv discussing trauma and the Holocaust, and I can think of very few people who would do this for me. I also wish to thank Tamar Agnon and her family for their hospitality in Jerusalem and Eilat, and Daphna Golan for her help with advice and contacts. I would like to express my gratitude to all the people in Israel, Germany, France, and in the United States who kindly took time to talk about my research and answer my questions, especially Prof. Asher Arian, Prof. Shlomo Aronson, Dr. Benjamin Ze'ev Begin, Dr. Liora Bilsky, Dr. Yael Danielli, Prof. Yaron Ezrahi, Mr. Alain Finkielkraut, Dr. Ruth Firer, Justice Moshe Landau, Prof. Efraim Inbar, Prof. Ruth Kaitun-Blum, Mr. Amos Oz, Prof. Israel Shahak, Mr. Yehuda Sheffer, Prof. Moshe Zuckermann, Prof. Shai Feldman, and Prof. Michael Walzer. My very special thanks go to Sandra Schiller who was genuinely interested in my subject and often discussed with me extensively. She also helped me in my research by sending me last-minute articles, read parts of the manuscript, and made numerous valuable suggestions. Sandra and her partner Chris have been reliable friends and priceless hosts during my stays in Tübingen and Heidelberg. Annegret Buske and Claudia Fussel have always welcomed me in Berlin and never refused to give me their precious medical and psycho-therapeutical point of view on my research. Liz Brook-Powell also never failed to provide me with the necessary medical references and a bed in NYC. Throughout the solitary period of writing I received steadfast encouragement and support from my family and friends. I owe special gratitude to my mother who read parts of the final version and printed the entire thesis for me. Both my mother and, grandmother have shown extraordinary patience in putting up with my mood swings as the deadline approached and I remain forever thankful. I would also like to thank my aunt Lidija De Angelis, my cousin Amy Okrglar, my uncle Tomaz Okr6lar, and my friends Anne B., Ash, Mojca 8krinjar, and Nicole N., for their love and support. Last but not least I wish to thank Janko Jam§ek for being such a wonderful and devoted father and teacher. INTRODUCTION I CHAPTER ONE HOLOCAUST AS TRAUMA 9 Introduction 9 Individual Traumas: Physical Survivors And Their Offspring 10 Introduction 10 Concentration Camp Survivors 17 Fighting Survivors 23 Survivors in Hiding: Adults and Children 27 Second Generation 33 Collective Traumas: Empathetic And Symbolic 'Survivors' 41 Introduction 41 Empathetic 'Survivors': Israeli Jews 44 Symbolic 'Survivors': The State of Israel 52 Conclusion: Community of Fate 57 CHAPTER TWO SECURITY AFTER THE HOLOCAUST 60 Introduction 60 Key Elements Of The Jewish Prism 62 Introduction 62 Zionism 63 Pessimism / Fatalism 64 Isolationism 67 Expressivist Use Of Force 69 Humanism / Criticism 72 Jewish Prism Of Israeli Leaders 75 Introduction 75 David Ben Gurion (1886 -1973) 77 Menachem Begin (1913 - 1992) 80 Yitzhak Shamir (1915 -) 83 Moshe Dayan (1915 -1981) 85 Yitzhak Rabin (1922- 1995) 87 Conclusion: Holocaust Education For the Israeli Defence Forces 90 CHAPTER THREE INDIVIDUAL HEALING AND COLLECTIVE TRAUMATISATION 93 Introduction 93 Euphoria: Clandestine Immigration and Exodus 95 Identity Conflict: Encounter and Its Aftermath 107 Estrangement: Wall Of Silence 117 Conclusion: Breaking The Silence 122 CHAPTER FOUR RECONSTRUCTION OF TRAUMA AT THE TRIAL OF ADOLF EICHMANN 126 Introduction 126 Individual And Collective Dimension Of Trauma Reconstruction 128 Personal Reconstruction of Trauma 128 Collective Codification of Traumatic Narrative 131 Eichmann's Trial And The Emergence Of The Holocaust Narrative 133 Political Background of the Trial 133 Construction of the Holocaust Narrative 139 Conclusion: Political And Psychological Consequences Of The Trial 149 CHAPTER FIVE REACTIVATIONS OF TRAUMA: SIX-DAY AND YOM KIPPUR WARS 153 Introduction 153 Six-Day War: A Holocaust That Did Not Happen 154 Arab-Nazi Equation 156 The Waiting Period 157 From Auschwitz to Jerusalem 164 Yom Kippur: A War That Went Wrong 173 The Earthquake 173 The Aftermath 177 Conclusion: Reaffirmation Of Victimhood 182 CHAPTER SIX MOURNING: INVASION OF LEBANON AND ITS AFTERMATH 185 Introduction 185 Resistance To Mourning: Torment And Tragedy Of Revenge Fantasies 189 Menachem Begin: Holocaust and Revolt 189 Israel's Invasion of Lebanon 195 Mourning And Identity Crisis: Israel After Lebanon 206 Mourning Traumatic Loss 206 Crisis of Israel's Victim Identity 211 Conclusion: Radicalisation And Polarisation Of The Holocaust Legacy 214 CONCLUSION Introduction 220 Implications for the Israel's Foreign and Security Policies 224 Implications for the Resolution of Trauma 230 Introduction The thinking that resulted in this thesis has its roots in the first televised images that marked my childhood. The destruction of Beirut under the Israeli fire was the news item during my first school holidays. I was seven years old and I remember seeing Menachem Begin's impassionate speeches, thinking that they made sense. Knowing that Hitler was the ultimate evil, and hearing that Arafat was like Hitler, how could it be wrong to destroy him? But when I looked among the images of people in Beirut to find the Nazis, all I could see were people who looked poor, quiet or scared. Nothing like the tall and erect Nazis, shouting out orders in their uniforms and shiny boots. I was confused. And this confusion bred a lifelong interest in what was really going on in Israel. How could a people that had suffered so much cause so much suffering? Why were they telling the world that they were fighting the Nazis? And why did the world believe them? Years later I came across an article which seemed to answer my question. The author concluded with the following words: The inability of many Israelis to tell the difference between Nazis and Palestinians, and their inability to recognise their own military superiority so that they could understand that they are no longer a powerless people trembling at the threshold of the extermination camps of Europe is not a willed stupidity. It is, rather, a pathological distortion based on the trauma of victimisation not yet overcome.' The project of this thesis started with a curiosity awoken by the idea that collectivities can suffer from the same pathological symptoms as do individuals. If it could be shown that a collective trauma indeed exists and unfolds within a given society in a way similar to that observed in individual trauma survivors, than the argument would hold a great interest for the study of international relations. I decided to pursue my curiosity. The questions that this thesis addresses are therefore the following: Is the Holocaust a collective trauma of the Israeli Jews? If yes, how does it deploy its ' Lerner, M., "Psychological Dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" Tikkun 4: 5 (September-October 1989) p. 44. I effects within the Israeli society? I was particularly interested in the impact of the trauma on the Israeli concept of security, which brings me to the central question of this thesis: What is the impact of the Holocaust on Israel's making of security? The choice of Israel as a case study came naturally.