Word: rascoff
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Samuel J. Rascoff's column appears on alternate Fridays...
...recent Crimson editorial titled "Reflecting on a Hero's Death" (Nov. 6, 1995), Samuel J. Rascoff does more than just that. Rascoff questions what are "the distinctive ideals the Jewish state when Jews prove themselves as capable of gruesome violence as any other nation[.]" Rascoff proceeds to argue that "if the distance between the extreme right and left is so great that murder is within the pale of the possible... why should there be a Jewish state?" For Rascoff, the assassination of Rabin by an Israeli Jewish citizen puts into question the very legitimacy of the state of Israel...
...Rascoff seems to have placed himself in the distinguished company of the remaining few who stil entertain the misplaced notion that Israel is yet to justify its existence. I do hate to break the news, but Israel is not perfect, it never has been and it never will be. But unless I am gravely mistaken, good manners and perfect unity were not mentioned by Woodrow Wilson in 1918 as a prerequisite for independent nationhood. I have yet to be informed of a universal association of national standardization which ensures that imperfect countries are closed down and sold to the highest...
...Rascoff offers yet another creative solution to Israel's domestic problems. According to Rascoff, "it is a standard line in Jewish history that a little anti-Semitism has always been good for the Jews." Rascoff admits that "while that logic seems bizarre and contorted, it is hard to imagine this assassination having taken place while Israel was engaged in international conflict." Voila, a brilliant solution to Israel's domestic problem: reviving anti-Semitism! (But only a little of it, since we all know that too much anti-Semitism...
...must confess to being quite ignorant of Rascoff's reading of Jewish history. I seem unable to recall any of my history teachers in Israel proposing such a positive reading of anti-Semitism. Luckily, Israelis deny the kind of perverse logic that Rascoff offers. Most Israelis possess a healthy sense of their own identity and a firm enough grasp of the complexities of Israeli reality to avoid premature declarations of failure whenever the image they see in the mirror is not the loveliest of them...