Let’s just say that I contemplated every possible way to avoid blogging about the Israeli Soldier Facebook Photo Incident. The fact that I now am is the result of the fact that, like a lot of other people, I can’t stop thinking about it.
Here’s what’s holding my brain hostage: Is this really so surprising? Do we actually think that Jews aren’t capable of this sort of thing? The answer, of course, is yes.
There’s another level here, though, and that’s the one where we find it unbelievable that a Jewish woman would never do something like this, not even a Jewish woman socialized in a military culture, who’s served with the IDF in the Occupied Territories. Jewish women are supposed to be strong, but according to the stereotype that we’ve constructed for ourselves with the help of assimilation, that strength is directed at growing and supporting Jewish families. The idea of Jewish women being physically violent is still an anomaly to American Jews, so it’s even more unthinkable that the Jewish state could be simultaneously defended and endangered by a young woman in a uniform with a pretty smile.
The mainstream American Jewish community remains in denial/ignorance about the reality of Israel as a military society, namely that its Jewish majority actually doesn’t prevent it from behaving like a military society. This is because Jews are, in case the memo was not gotten, human. And humans, especially those accustomed to being powerless and who are now in the position of occupier, are inclined to behave badly. If we keep refusing with this truth and the fallout from it, we will continue to see the results as they imprint themselves on not only our Facebook feeds, but the moral history of our people.