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  • The upgrade state

    Ha'aretz, Israel
    June 1 2008


    The upgrade state

    By Gideon Levy

    Tags: Israel, Ehud Olmert

    Ehud Olmert isn't alone. He did what everybody does. The prime
    minister tried to "upgrade" his life; we all try to do this. There is
    no dream like the Israeli dream of trading up. It has become our very
    raison d'etre. The problem starts when we lose all proportion. Olmert
    upgrades his flights, his luxury suites, his watches and his cigars,
    but the Israeli desire to upgrade is far more wide-ranging, and
    all-inclusive.

    Its begins, of course, with how we view ourselves. We're a normal
    nation? Just like all the other nations of the world? Get real. "We
    are a unique people, no less." In truth, we are a society that is far
    from normal, with our fragile democracy that in many ways veers toward
    the theocratic. We are levantine in many ways, and no less
    militaristic. We are an uneasy combination of Western liberalism and
    totalitarianism, between socialism and cruel capitalism, nationalism
    and, at times, even racism. Yet, we are a people that declares itself
    "a light unto the nations."

    This effort to upgrade our image and to obtain the admiration of the
    entire world - woe be he who tries to undermine that ambition - drives
    us out of our minds. "The only democracy in the Middle East" - another
    semi-ridiculous upgrade - in whose backyard one can find a cruel
    military occupation that's been operating for 41 years, and which also
    shows some dangerous, disturbing signs on its domestic front. "The
    only democracy in the Middle East," which expels guest intellectuals
    because of their opinions, and students because of their religious
    beliefs; which burns holy books and tries to prevent the selling of
    leavened bread on Passover; which has no public transportation on the
    Sabbath, just like the worst theocracies. This is the country we seek
    to upgrade to the level of a liberal, Western democracy. This is very
    reminiscent of how the state upgraded the scope of the territory under
    its control, an upgrade that has turned into the mother of all
    disasters.

    We strive to upgrade Tel Aviv, a riveting yet local city, to New York;
    we pompously boast that Israeli wine is "the next global phenomenon,"
    after an anonymous boutique winery wins a medal or receives an adoring
    review in the press; winning a basketball tournament "puts us on the
    map"; winning the Eurovision song contest or an Olympic medal is
    immediately called "a national achievement," and the president calls
    our agriculture, science and military "the best in the world." These
    are all empty upgrades, just like those souped-up jeeps that roll down
    our streets.

    We even have a tendency to play up our national disasters while
    minimizing those of other nations. It is forbidden to say one word
    about our sacrosanct Holocaust. Since no other event can compare to
    it, one may not, heaven forbid, mention the Holocaust in the same
    breath as other disasters - not the Armenian genocide, nor the
    butchery in Congo, nor Rwanda and Darfur, and certainly not the
    Nakba. The suffering of the residents of Sderot is also inflated and
    upgraded to disproportionate dimensions. Just a few kilometers away
    lives a nation in the most cruel, incalculable conditions, but that
    disaster we minimize.

    All Ehud Olmert asked for was to fly first class when his ticket was
    for business class, to sleep in the presidential suite when he paid
    for a regular room. Relative to our daily upgrades, this is marginal,
    but we still love to talk about it, to combat it with unequaled
    determination and righteous indignation. To hell with the other
    upgrades, which are far more ridiculous, and far more dangerous.
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