The Madness of Israelcentricity

“Jewcentricity: the idea, or the intimation, or the subconscious presumption—as the case may be—that Jews are somehow necessarily to be found at the very center of global-historical events… is not a fully universal phenomenon, at least not yet,” wrote Adam Garfinkle, editor of The American Interest, in his magazine a few years ago.


Garfinkle’s conspiratorial ambitions surfaced in the back of my mind as I leafed through the stack of periodicals that grew on my kitchen counter over the last month. Recently, the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, and Economist all ran articles, some lengthier than others, about the preparations underway in Israel for the country’s upcoming sixtieth anniversary. And each, to some extent, suggested that the public in Israel today is somewhat unsure of whether to even celebrate.
This might be very true. After all, the political leadership is still railing from the devastating blows incurred from the fallout after the Second Lebanon war and its inability to stop the Qassam rockets. Hamas on Israel’s southern lip and Hizbullah on Israel’s northern border seem stronger and more determined than ever. Despite daily talks with the Palestinians in Ramallah, attacks from the Gaza Strip and even the West Bank continue with unwavering determination. Tensions are rising between Arab and Jew, and Jew and Jew, of course, as the social inequalities and sectarian ideologies threaten to embarrass the patience of Israeli democracy. Three months ago, the National Insurance Institute reported that one in every three Israeli children lives in poverty. Oh, and did I forget to mention the looming threat posed by Iran, as the international community has yet to find a solution to the regime’s nuclear ambitions or salient promises to wipe Israel off the map.
I am certainly not the first to point out the not-so-sunny position of Israel on the eve of its sixtieth birthday. Nor would I be the first to make all sorts of arguments as to why Israel is still in good shape and why we, even in the Diaspora, have plenty of reasons to celebrate. For both reasons, I won't try.
But what lingered in my mind was how so many prominent American publications – and surely others will follow suit – thought to make a big deal of Israel’s sixtieth. When India celebrated its sixtieth anniversary last year, where were all the existentially charged articles? To be fair, the challenges facing Israel and the challenges facing India are not the same. At the same time, India is a nation of 1.12 billion people; Israel, just over 7 million. Something inside me suspects that there is more to the story.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, so I won't go that way. Thankfully, Garfinkle had his own answer: “As Jews were for centuries at the epicenter of Christian theology in Europe, so today, in a largely post-Christian Europe, Israel is at the epicenter of the European political worldview. It is a secularized view, to be sure, but it is at the same time a vestige of a religious obsession so deeply rooted in the European psyche that it cannot be readily named.”
Substitute “European” for “global” or “Western” and you basically have an answer. This is not an argument about anti-Semitism; it is an argument at Jewcentricity. True it might not suffice everyone. In fact, most modern Jews I know are uncomfortable with the notion that there is something "special" or "different" about the Jewish people, let alone a sacred status of choseness. But, then again, you have to wonder how much of a "blessing" it really is to be a people forever at the center of history.