Habitus

by David Gutherz · 08/31/10

It uncommonly difficult, these days, to find a fresh perspective on Israel–but that is precisely what former Habitus editor Samuel Thrope offers in his new translation of, and commentary on, the Persian author Jalal Al-e Ahmad’s 1964 essay “Velayat-e Esrael.” Translating roughly  as “The Israeli Republic” Ahmad’s piece attempts to situate Israel in a “Republican” tradition that (as Thrope astutely observes) has more in common with Plato and the Ayatollah Khomeni” than Jefferson and Rousseau. As Ahmad puts it, “Ben Gurion lacks not from Enoch, and Moshe Dayan is no less than Job: these new guardians, each one a prophet or—at least—a clear-visioned seer, built a Republic in the land of Palestine and called to it all the Children of Israel, of whom two million live in New York and eight million others in the rest of the world.”

More than the curious musings of one renegade Iranian intellectual, these words are a poignant reminder of an Israel (and Iran) long gone, and a call to reflect on the ever-controversial relation between religion and politics in the Middle East. In Thrope’s words:

“The Israel Al-e Ahmad visited and to which it was possible to ascribe these semi-mystical qualities, even if he was naive in so doing, is long gone. Who today could confuse Israel’s political leaders—even those not on trial for corruption—with prophets and guardians? This is no place to speculate on precisely what changed or why. My point is only that Al-e Ahmad’s strange vision is a memorial not only to a lost relationship between Israel and Iran, but also a testament to the way that Israel once saw itself and was seen by the world, as a light unto the nations.

This essay is also a warning. As we debate Israel’s future, we would do well to consider the ultimate outcome of the left-religious coalition Al-e Ahmad advocated for Iran. As much as that dynamic and invigorating fusion of theology and politics propelled the 1979 revolution, it also led directly to the repressions and injustice of the Islamic Republic. For those on the right and on the left who argue that Israel’s policies should be grounded in Jewish texts and values, who claim that Judaism is us and not them, who advocate constant traffic, intellectual and physical, between the political demonstration and the beit midrash, Jalal Al-e Ahmad should give us pause. Fusion IS explosive not only in a nuclear bomb.”