"A Summer’s Sweet Nationalism"
by Gil Troy
VIEWPOINT: JERUSALEM REPORT, 4 October 2004, p. 46
This summer, Israelis from left to right eulogized Naomi Shemer, singing her innumerable hits at her graveside, in backyard singalongs and massive concerts.
Nevertheless, some leftists attacked Israel’s answer to Irving Berlin as a provincial propagandist and an immoral expansionist, revealing their own ambivalence about
Zionism. In Ha’aretz, mocking the "narcissism" and "the arrogant superciliousness" of Shemer and her peers, Meron Benvenisti suggested that many considered her the
symbol of "Ashkenazi dominance," and responsible for "nurturing military nationalism and oppression."
Shemer’s lyrics, providing the basic soundtrack to Israel's history, evoke specific moments and transcendent ideals; many of her melodies invite swaying, and instinctive
embraces of neighboring shoulders. She represented the broad, romantic, constructive sense of community that Zionism — and democratic nationalism at its best — nourishes. Her 1967 "Jerusalem of Gold" [Yerushalayim Shel Zahav] became Israel’s "God Bless America," an un-official anthem offering the melody to the pop Zionism of tough sabras and sweet Jaffa oranges.
A great nationalist songwriter is more than just a poet, but must master language. In "The Eucalyptus Grove," [Chorshat HaEkalyptus] Shemer evoked a timeless pastoral scene offering a symphony of the senses with just seven Hebrew words: " ... the bridge, the boat, and the salty fragrance on the water." A great nationalist songwriter is more than just a dreamer, but a visionary, promising individual and communal salvation. Following the brutal 1973 Yom Kippur surprise attack, Naomi Shemer again captured Israelis’ mood. They craved peace without demanding vengeance. Saluting the Beatles, Shemer imagined "a white sail in the distance, facing a black and heavy cloud," saying "all that we shall ask: Let it be!" [Lu Yihi]
A great nationalist songwriter is more than just a historian, but must love the past. Recalling Solomon’s Temple, marveling at the new state rebuilt with ancient stones,
Shemer sang "a song older than wine, and sweeter than honey; a two-thousand-year-old song renewed each day." [Shiro Shel Abba/Yibaneh] A great nationalist songwriter is more than just a nationalist, but must love community and humanity. "Both of us are from the same village," [Anachnu Sheneinu MeOto HaKfar] her haunting ode to eternal friendship begins. Inevitably, after "the battle that did not end ... I saw how you were broken, and when the dawn rose over the hilltop, I brought you back to the village."
A great nationalist songwriter is more than just a philosopher, but must understand the human condition. Shemer’s wisdom about "the honey and the sting, the bitter and the sweet," [Hadvash v’haoketz, Hamar v’hamatok] created a communal cliche contextualizing the emotional roller-coaster of life in "our fledgling home." A great nationalist songwriter must be an idealist, a romantic, a populist, bonding with the people and capturing communal moods. Only an alchemist could spread the honey of dreams amid the toxins of life, transforming battlefield traumas into peaceful yearnings — while remaining popular.
Such sweet, quixotic populism transcends ugly politics and reflects a nation’s soul, a people’s aspirations despite life’s complexities. Such noble democratic idealism reflects Western nationalism’s roots in European romanticism and liberal democracy. Liberal democratic individualism balances nationalist collectivism, while nationalism’s big-picture idealism checks liberal democracy's atomistic hedonism. Such constructive communalism has fed American
and Israeli success.
Naomi Shemer’s "house of dreams, on the crest of a hill," [Beit Halomotai] was joyous and welcoming. It eschewed hard choices and harsh realities. Another recently departed visionary optimist, Ronald Reagan, deployed a similar image, resurrecting the Pilgrim vision of
a shining "city upon a hill." Unfortunately, Islamicist fanaticism has given nationalism — and religion — a bad name. Too many nationalist visions demonize others. Simultaneously, many intellectuals, indulging a hypercritical and hypocritical disdain for Western success, misconstrue nationalism, especially the American and Israeli-Zionist variety. Half a century ago, icons of the left celebrated their land, be it "from California to the New York Island," or "Mimetullah ad Hanegev." A Woody Guthrie, a David Ben- Gurion, while steeped in unionism, in socialism, understood that loving the land, and the people, could mobilize good individuals to do great things together. Today, such patriotism is unfashionable, and frequently ceded to the right. This modern miserly caricature of nationalism as limiting, xenophobic, defensive, provincial, violent, imperialist and necessarily right wing is both historically inaccurate and politically foolhardy.
Naomi Shemer’s oeuvre testifies to democratic nationalism’s reach, miraculously uniting individuals building, reinventing, stretching themselves and their community. Her songs, like Ronald Reagan's rhetoric, demonstrate the power of positive thinking, and the grandeur of communities rooted in affirmative ideals. One need not agree with the details of her politics to delight in her songs. "I have a holiday every day ... Halleluyah," [Yesh Li Yom, Yom Chag] Naomi Shemer sang. Her songs gave millions reasons to celebrate, new, unexpected, holidays daily. That irrepressible joy, playing to the best of humanity, illustrates what democratic nationalism can be, if both left and right would let it be.
Gil Troy teaches history at McGill University. The author of "Why I Am a Zionist," he has just finished writing "Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s," to be published by Princeton University Press.
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