Nationalism: Here and in the Middle East

Some “unkempt thoughts” departing from music:

It was in high school that I first encountered the concept of “nationalism.” My American History teacher distilled it to a single sentence: “My country, right or wrong; but always my country.” I used to think back on those days during the Watergate hearings, wondering if my teacher’s commitment to nationalism was as strong as it was a few decades earlier.

I was reminded about that myopic commitment this morning when I encountered the following headline on a BBC Web page: “Biden says ICC war crimes arrest warrant 'outrageous’.” Apparently, our President’s “right or wrong” commitment to Israel is as strong his commitment to his own country. As the BBC article observes, that commitment isolates our country not only from the International Criminal Court (ICC) but also from a fair number of European countries.

My first job after leaving the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with my doctoral degree took me to the Technion in Haifa, whose “secondary” name was “Israel Institute of Technology.” From an academic point of view, it was a smooth move; and I had no trouble preparing material for the classes I taught. (My knowledge of Hebrew never came up to snuff, but none of my students minded my lecturing in English while my teaching assistants provided hand-outs in Hebrew!) Nevertheless, my encounters with both Israelis and ex-pats, not only in Haifa but also in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, were, to put it politely, “mixed.”

The fact is that, even before borders were finalized, Israel would do what Israel wanted to do. Mind you, this a time when (too) many Americans stereotyped Arabs as terrorists, even if they could not support their bias with evidence. Since my own efforts to promote a more balanced view tended to provoke most of the Israelis I worked with and knew socially, I kept my ideas to myself for the two years of my tenure with Technion.

My second job was at the University of Pennsylvania, and it was only then that I bought my first television and started to watch the news, rather than just reading the papers. During the last few decades of the last century, Benjamin Netanyahu was already ingratiating himself with the broadcast media in the United States. Whenever a conflict was being reported from the Middle East, he always seemed to be there to offer his perspective. The American newscasters never seemed to mind whether or not that perspective was consistent with that of Israel itself.

As a result, I am now not surprised that, when I hear Netanyahu, I have no trouble wondering if he is speaking for himself or for his country. Unfortunately, it seems that our President is not given to such wondering. It’s bad enough when an allegiance to nationalism blinds us to hard truths about our own country. However, when it also blinds us to hard truths presented by the ICC, I have to worry about whether we shall ever be capable of a broader perspective that will afford a less pleasant point of view.