Nationalism Near and Far
Rule, James B.
Dissent has always taken pride in its openness to a range of democratic and egalitarian ideas, its refusal to impose a "party line." This makes for bracing intellectual exercise, as one follows...
...In the Winter 1996 issue, for example, we find Michael Walzer deploring the widespread and uncritical support of October's Million Man March of black Americans on Washington, D.C...
...It's not just that he signed peace agreements with the Palestinians (highly one-sided, to the Israelis' advantage...
...Walzer is obviously also deeply disturbed by Farrakhan's extravagant and categoric al disparagements of ethnic and social groups other than his own...
...The march, he regrets, "established nationalism and some kind of moral rearmament as a substitute for civil rights politics...
...His role was to protect all the Jewish citizens of Israel, from those espousing ideologies of God-given destiny to rule over others to those who simply crave a space where they can be on top...
...Now, back to the American scene...
...He also helped make these agreements possible by softening up the opposition...
...His differences with his Israeli opponents—from Benjamin Netanyahu to Baruch Goldstein—had to do with how much coercion would be necessary, and over how much territory...
...He scores Rabin's political opponents for failing to grasp that the control of territory is "not a fetish, but a means to reconstruct a people...
...Such an idea, to judge from the popularity of the Million Man March, could command considerable support—both from figures like Farrakhan, who openly despise those different from themselves, and from more moderate figures who might simply feel that their efforts to "reconstruct a people" require a state in which people like them can be assured of supremacy...
...But there would, I trust, be a still more far-reaching objection...
...Against the actions of such "zealots," Cohen seems to suggest, Rabin's willingness to deal SPRING • 1996 • 95 from strength was statesmanlike...
...Instead, Americans must own up to the burden—or, more positively, the opportunity—of creating a world of equality and recognition for the full diversity of ethnic, racial, and social groupings...
...Should Farrakhan and his movement start putting their repressive views into action, a lot of well-intentioned people will have egg on their face...
...He could take the high road, it seems, because he was a "securityminded man...
...Anyone who supports figures preaching repression of those different from themselves, on grounds that the would-be repressors nevertheless serve some greater good, is playing a dangerous game...
...If the situation is one where an entire ethnic or religious group is seeking supremacy over others occupying the same territory, a lot of this kind of peace-making is apt to be required...
...In any grave political conflict, one of the most effective ways of securing peace is to shoot and maim some of your opponents...
...According to an Israeli human rights group, the army and secret police beat or tortured more than twenty thousand Palestinians during this period...
...This would be a world where political institutions and social arrangements pose no barrier for any person or group because of their identifications...
...Rabin has since been lauded as a man of peace...
...The problem with these people was their ingratitude at the role assigned them by a state predicated on the supremacy of a faith and ethnicity other than their own...
...Michael Walzer, I presume, would oppose such an idea...
...Such draconian measures would be unjust in themselves, and would surely set the stage for bitter and intractable conflict...
...This makes for bracing intellectual exercise, as one follows the converging and colliding trajectories of its editors' ideas in the pages of the magazine...
...territory...
...Then, on the Editor's Page of the same issue, we have Mitchell Cohen's words of admiration for slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin...
...He worries over the willingness of good folk like editorial board member Cornel West to endorse an event orchestrated by and supportive of Louis Farrakhan and his followers...
...Very delicately put, that last point...
...Perhaps one reason would be the repugnant program of ethnic hatred projected by figures like Farrakhan, who would surely play a role in such a project...
...As defense minister in the 1980s, Rabin commanded the Israeli forces that put down the protests of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians—with "might, force and beatings," to use his words...
...Walzer is right...
...One wonders whether current trends will lead to widespread revival of nationalist claims for an AfricanAmerican state on what is now U.S...
...Rabin never shrank from this project...
...To wit, establishment of such an ethnic state could only be accomplished by dispossessing millions of those not belonging to the newly constituted dominant group—or by rendering them secondclass citizens in the places of their birth and origin...
...This helps those remaining to settle down and adopt a more compliant outlook...
...The designation is accurate, as far as it goes...
...The project of ethnic supremacy was not at issue...
...96 • DISSENT...
...One could imagine the new nation-state extending, say, from New Jersey to Virginia, with Washington, D.C., as its capital...
...If I anticipate Walzer's views correctly here, I couldn't agree with him more...
Vol. 43 • April 1996 • No. 2
