David Steps into Goliath’s Shoes

In 1967, Israel surprised itself and the world when it took on multiple attacking armies at once and repelled them in only six days. While Israelis were basking in the euphoria of their unlikely success and likening themselves to young King David, who struck down the mighty giant, Goliath, with a single stone slung perfectly at Goliath’s forehead, others maintained a different theory of Israel; Alexei Kosygin, premier of the Soviet Union at the time, claimed the following in his June 1967 speech to the UN:

We should note that the main features in the relations between Israel and the Arab States during the past year were the ever-increasing tension and mounting scale of attacks by Israel troops on one or another of Israel's neighbor States… (Rabinovich & Reinharz, p. 240)

In 1968, when the PLO reformulated their charter, they stated:

Israel acts as a cat's paw for the Zionist movement, a geographic and manpower base for world imperialism and a springboard for its thrust into the Arab homeland to frustrate the aspirations of the Arab nation to liberation, unity and progress. Israel is a constant threat to peace in the Middle East and the whole world. (Rabinovich & Reinharz, p. 246)

Anita Shapira, in her book, Israel: A History, spells out the new reality that forms around Israel from the Six-Day War:

The six days of fighting changed the face of the Middle East. Israel was transformed from an underdog under threat of destruction to a regional powerhouse. (p. 302)

This transformation of Israel from underdog to “powerhouse” (or “aggressor”), is echoed in 1988 by Woody Allen in a New York Times piece, “‘Am I reading the papers correctly?’ Has David become Goliath, the victim turned victimizer?” (Troen & Fish, p. 170) In 2001, when, at the UN’s World Conference on Racism in South Africa, the focus was squarely set on the brutality of Zionism rather than the dangers of racism. (Troen & Fish, p. 173) This continues today in the tropes around Israel being genocidal.

In reality, Israel is a military powerhouse; their military is well trained and well outfitted; they invest billions of dollars in security systems that grossly outshine their neighboring states, let alone the stateless Palestinians. The success of 1967, while unbelievable at the time, wasn’t a fluke; and, Israel has proven her military power many times over in the last 58 years.

Balancing David and Goliath Actions

As Jewish educators we need to create space for our students to consider Israel as David and as Goliath. Allowing for only one of these roles is disingenuous, at best, and, potentially, destructive to our students' relationship with Israel, at worst. In the United States today, most Jewish education - that even covers the modern State of Israel - stresses the happy cultural aspects: the disco in Tel Aviv, the corner falafel stand, and floating in the Dead Sea. This focus on the culturally idyllic Israel - coupled with the recurring theme that every Sunday school kid figures out in time: they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat - suggests that we live in a perpetual David state. We are bullied or shelled or besieged by terrible acts of terrorism, but we survive because we are plucky and smart and can aim a slingshot really well. With 1967, however, a new reality begins to unfold: at times, Israel has behaved like Goliath. We have been aggressive; we have been oppressive; we have taken measures that have outweighed the action we were responding to. 

We, as educators, can ignore these contradictory realities, but, at some point, our students will be exposed to a Goliath narrative of Israel and, unprepared to hold both truths at once, they will be compelled to reject one truth for the other. This runs the risk of them becoming radicalized for whichever side they maintain - which is not good for them as Jews, or for the Jewish People, or for Israel. We are, therefore, obligated to offer them glimpses of both Israel as David AND Israel as Goliath, reminding them that, just as people are complex and hold contradictions, so, too, is Israel; and just as we are in caring relationships with people, even when they are complex and contradictory, so, too, can we be in a caring relationship with a complex and contradictory Israel.

Bibliography

Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, Pre-1948 to the Present. Ed. Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2008.

Shapira, Anita. Israel: A History. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2012.

Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century. Ed. S. Ilan Troen and Rachel Fish. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017.