Post-tzionut, post-shoah: Shlosha prakim al hakhasha, hashkaha veshlilat yisrael ("Post-Zionism, Post-Holocaust: Three Essays on Denial, Repression and Delegitimation of Israel"), by Elhanan Yakira, Am Oved & Tel Aviv University, 270 pages, NIS 84

The principal innovation in this book is a philosophical-political theory of "truth" and its usages. In order to understand the complexity of this, it is useful to examine the literary structure of the collection of essays, the central argument that strings the essays into one cohesive book, and the place of the philosopher in relation to truth. The book opens with a long essay (the first of three), which is constructed like a detective story revolving around the solitary good guy, Prof. Elhanan Yakira, who, in Paris, tracks the movements of the mysterious bad guy, a French Holocaust denier named Pierre Guillaume. This "true story" culminates in a kind of epiphany that Yakira experiences in his meetings with Guillaume.

The story begins as follows: "Not so many years ago, luck - or ill luck - bechanced me a unique meeting. In a sun-drenched, summery Paris, and in circumstances whose bizarreness would justify the use of the cliche that truth is stranger than fiction, I happened to converse for five or six hours with a man of many deeds named Pierre Guillaume. At the time we met, Pierre Guillaume was the owner of a bookstore that bore the intriguing name 'The Old Mole,' which was also a publishing house. This institution, which was located not far from the Pantheon, the burial place of the great figures of the French Republic [...] is the main power base of the French Holocaust deniers."

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As in the best detective literature, Yakira has unexpected encounters with Guillaume, and at decisive moments in his life. This is the case, for example, in the fascinating meeting between them just as Guillaume has begun to disseminate the writings of the Holocaust denier Paul Rassinier: "On that summery day in Paris [...] Guillaume came to the small photography shop where I happened to be for my own purposes, in order to make many dozens of copies of pages which contained arguments and documents that were to be disseminated among activists of the Socialist Party with the aim of persuading them to lift the boycott of Rassinier and clear his name."

And, as in the best detective novels, the relations between Yakira and Guillaume have their ups and downs, closeness and distance. Guillaume, the author emphasizes, is a likable fellow, "a person who works for a living, has a wife and child (in our meeting he did not say much about his wife and the baby he was raising with her at the time) and also friends and acquaintances. On that occasion in Paris, for example, he was willing to offer help to a stranger like me and assist him in a time of need without asking anything in return. In short, he is sound of mind, and normal."

But none of this would be of importance to the author had he not discovered a truth, which, he says, only Guillaume's presence and closeness could illuminate. What was it that Guillaume illuminated for Yakira, with which Yakira then enlightens the reader? It is that Holocaust denial is not the preserve of the right wing in Europe, but rather of the European left. In the author's words, "He does not deny the Holocaust despite being a member of the radical left, as we might be inclined to think, but precisely because that is what he is." To grasp that the whole reality, at all levels, is anti-Semitic, there is no need for such prolixity; numberless talkbacks on every subject can serve as authentic documents attesting that this is the nature of the beast. But Yakira is not just some talkback person, and he constructs a political theory from top to bottom, grounded in medical-political classification that he terms the "ideological perversion."

The end of the detective story is the start of the inquisitionist story. Yakira found Guillaume to be a person whose ideological approach has become so skewed that he is no longer able to judge reality. He is a Holocaust denier because of his socialist outlook, not in spite of it, Yakira asserts. Here is where the term "ideological perversion" comes in; that is, the perverse approach of the Holocaust denier says nothing about his psychological character but is a political deviation, stemming from the absence of a proper balance in the political composition of his outlook.

The science of perversions

The term "perversion" may sound like an illness, and if so, the patient ought to be exempted from moral and legal responsibility. But herein lies the advantage of the term political perversion, according to the author; it is a normative deviation originating in the subject's freedom. The term, which Yakira initially uses as a moral and judicial indictment, becomes a category of criminal personality, which is to be judged morally and tried according to its perversion and level of perverseness.

If we want to know the truth about someone, we must examine the truth that is concealed within him, or his perversion. It is up to the responsible intellectual, such as Prof. Yakira, to develop the "science of perversions," discover its areas of application, and create categories that will meet the need to eradicate the perversion and the perverts. This perversion, Yakira reminds us, is no less dangerous than classical anti-Semitism (it is not an opinion but a crime, Yakira writes, reprising Sartre, and develops the crime from the science of perversions he has renewed), and in fact he succeeds persuasively in exposing and characterizing it at every site. The responsible intellectual must on no account discover political rivals: he is committed to the discovery of their political perversion.

Indeed, Yakira proceeds in two directions. The first is to enhance the science of ideological perversion by uncovering new perversions and sub-perversions. He coins the categories of "anti-Zionist perversion" and "distinctly anti-Israeli perversion." These are additional perversions, or sub-types (the point is not made clear) of the "revolutionary perversion." The second direction is the development of the manner and sphere of applications of the new science. True, this science is no more than a clumsy reincarnation of the Inquisition, in which revelation of the constellations of the heart and the truth entailed the scientific practice of torture and mortification.

In Yakira's complex theory, the political truth is found in the recesses of the heart and in the possession of the free individual, and to reach it the individual must be interrogated and mortified. The trouble is that the perversion can disguise itself as truth, and at times it is very difficult to distinguish between them, and therefore the philosopher- investigator must denote the concealed truth. Yakira's theory is worthy, then, for its interesting integration between the discovery of the true and the perverse.

The book's first essay tells the detective story and describes the Guillaume epiphany and the principle of the political and the perversion, while the other two essays engage in enhancing the categories of the perversion and their practical application. In other words, a transition from detective and discovery to investigator of the heart's constellations and the man who takes action.

Because Yakira is a secular liberal and is not a racist but a loyal Ben-Gurionist, he believes that the science of perversion must be applied not only to the goyim but to Jews and Israelis as well, while always bearing in mind the difference involved in the embodiment of the perversion in Arabs as compared to its appearance in "good Israelis" (this is the title of the second essay: "The Holocaust Conspiracy and the Good Israelis"). Worse, the perversion is incalculably more serious in Jews and "good Israelis," and since a perversion naturally tends to conceal itself, Yakira delves deep into the perverted minds of those on trial.

The list of the accused is long. Suffice it to mention Hannah Arendt, Noam Chomsky, Adi Ophir, Yehuda Elkana, Yitzhak Laor, Baruch Kimmerling, Saul Friedlander, Yosef Grodzinsky, Idith Zertal, Giorgio Agamben and Azmi Bishara. Each is a distinct case: the perversion rules them in different forms.

Jewish deviants

The third essay is devoted to Arendt and her appearance in the Israeli discourse. Arendt is one of the first of the deviants. Much space in the book is devoted to a description of the development of Arendt's perversion, her personal relations and her political philosophy. The truth about Arendt's philosophy is revealed with the help of an investigation of her loyalty. Yakira, who looks into the considerable gossip about her, discovers that she did indeed suffer from an ideological perversion, consisting principally of betrayal and disloyalty to the Jewish people.

Arendt is posited against the philosopher Leo Strauss: "The 'decency' of which Strauss spoke is nothing other than the foundation of the politea, the Greek form of political life, whose theoreticians, the Greek philosophers and historians, constituted for both Strauss and Arendt principal sources of inspiration for thinking about the 'political.' However, for Strauss, Athens was always connected with Jerusalem. His whole intellectual existence, and in large measure his ethical and personal being as well, moved on this axis: Jerusalem and Athens. He, by the way, [...] was always meticulous about placing Jerusalem before Athens. For Arendt, only Athens finally remained. Very little of Strauss's Jewish decency remained in her."

This is one example of the philosophical "quality" that is summed up in a philosophical thrill: Which is mentioned first, Jerusalem or Athens? Alas and alack for Arendt, who did not learn this crucial tenet of political philosophy - that Jerusalem must precede Athens.

Spinoza, who is also likened to Arendt, is spared this accusation. Yakira states: "Spinoza's absence of human decency with regard to the Jewish people [...] was less grave than Arendt's."

This list of Jewish deviants from around the world is joined by Chomsky and others. In Chomsky's case, the investigators have not reached a decision on the question of whether he is an actual Holocaust denier or suffers from a perversion of an anti-Zionist type only, which is entailed in a perversion of the first type.

The second essay deals mainly with categorizing the Israeli perverts. "The present [first] essay [...] is also to some extent a journey into the gutter. This is because a gutter culture of this kind has been created in Israel without any interference." In the odyssey to purify the gutters, he distinguishes among the perverts. Some are corrigible, having only strayed, such as the historian Saul Friedlander; whereas others are incorrigible perverts, as signified by remarks they made against Ben-Gurion and his followers. The latter category includes Laor, Zertal and Kimmerling.

Kimmerling's perversion is manifested in the following comments, for example: "Recently, [...] he even alleged that the policy of Israel in general, not only of Sharon, is one of politicide against the Palestinians." The depth of Kimmerling's perversion is revealed in his criticism of Ben-Gurion and his followers, and not only of Sharon and the settlers. Criticism of Ben-Gurion and his followers is the salient sign of perversion, which makes both Zertal and Laor incorrigible perverts.

Zionization of the Holocaust

A considerable portion of Yakira's book is devoted to an attack on Zertal. Israel's major disaster is the fall of Mapai and its satellite parties in 1977, and a distinction must be drawn between the good period between 1967 and the bad period after 1977. In any event, one cause of the establishment of the settlements is Zertal herself, or in Yakira's words, "because the systematic undermining of the worldview of the followers of Ben-Gurion and its moral validity by Zertal and her friends may also itself have contributed to a degree to the fact that they did not muster the strength, political and moral alike, to cope with the settlers and their supporters." Zertal published her books when the settlements already existed comfortably and quiescently, but this, according to the author, cannot mitigate her proven guilt in regard to their establishment. It is difficult to decide whether this reverse causality is a metaphysical or historical theory, but what is clear is that daring to speak out against Ben-Gurion and his followers is tantamount to reviling the living God, the master of the universe.

Yakira's vilifications of Grodzinsky's book can be left to the reader who might wish to amuse himself with the mass of verbiage. Grodzinsky, who devoted an entire book and labored hard to shed light on the abandonment of the Jews by the Zionist movement during the horrific extermination in World War II, and the rescue of the refugees afterward, concludes, "This appropriation, and principally the Zionization of the Holocaust, is an act of plunder, because the Jewish people is characterized today, as it always was, by a 'multitude of alternative fates.'" Accordingly, Grodzinsky states, we must liberate ourselves "from the grip of the local ideology." In regard to this, Yakira teaches us an important lesson in the history of the Jewish people: "Seemingly, this is to make a mountain out of a molehill. As though we didn't know. This multitude of fates is actually two fates - life in Israel or life outside it. Beyond this, it is a matter of styles of life or community affiliations."

The history of the Jewish people thus boils down to this embarrassing positing of alternatives; that this history, in other words, is either life in the State of Israel, which was established in 1948, or life outside that country. What we have learned, then, is that Rashi and the Rashba [medieval Torah scholars] or Leo Strauss chose the alternative of living outside the borders of the State of Israel, whereas Rabbi Joseph Caro and the holy Ari [both from the 16th century] and Yakira himself belong to the camp that lives in the State of Israel. This is the choice that faces the Jewish people, "as it always was."

Yakira has two responses to Grodzinsky's claims about the Zionist movement's abandonment of the Jews. The first: "In this matter Grodzinsky finds himself allied with the Haredim [ultra-Orthodox Jews.] Woe unto Grodzinsky, because for a sin of this magnitude it is difficult to atone. And the second response: "This issue [...] was discussed extensively in recent years in the Israeli historiography. As expected, the picture that emerges from the studies is complex." Complex compared to what? Complex in what way? Yakira does not bother to tell us. "Complexity" is the well-worn refuge of intellectuals who are incapable of thinking.

Yakira's discussion of Azmi Bishara is of interest. As in every well-ordered regime, the secret services need to keep tabs on the categories of the political and public discourse. Indeed, Yakira preceded the Shin Bet in exposing Bishara. Several pages are devoted to the former Knesset member, and Yakira finds the initial evidence of his Holocaust denial in his comments: "A few years ago, I was present at a meeting between Bishara and a group of officers [...] What was interesting in it [the conversation], and surprised even me [...] is that Bishara opened his remarks by saying that he is the first Arab intellectual to take a serious interest in the Holocaust, that he does not deny it and that he understands its dimensions and meaning." What better proof of Bishara's perversion do we need? And now the moral of the story: "The clear feeling of all the participants in the meeting was that the Holocaust, the engagement with it, the talk about it and the admission of its existence were only a step of the type which I previously termed an 'alibi,' a kind of certificate of validation and entry permit into the space of legitimacy of civilized people." Q.E.D.

Beyond the argument that the Holocaust, of all issues, is the entry permit to the space of legitimacy of civilized people, which would seem to fly in the face of the author's thesis but is actually a supportive argument, if we recall the perversion and the tendency to conceal the truth; and apart from the fact that the civilized people here are Israeli army officers and a researching detective, and that Bishara's status is of someone uncivilized who is knocking on the doors of this great civilization - apart from all this, the evidence that renders him fully suspect and reinforces the supposition about his perversion are his explicit remarks rejecting the denial of the Holocaust and condemning it. Let the reader make no mistake: This does not contradict Yakira's arguments but strongly buttresses the truth in his theory of perversion. The task of the researching detective and the group of officers is to peek closely into the recesses of their minds and their emotions. The clear and distinct feeling of those present at this introspection ceremony exposed the truth in the case of Bishara.

A sacred mission

The scientist who will take upon himself Yakira's science of political perversion will confront no small labor. The investigator must mortify himself mightily in order to extract from his emotions the hidden truth in others. The truth lies hidden in the workings of the heart of the object of the investigation, and the means to extract the truth from the recesses of the heart of the individual under study must match the magnitude of the mission. Yakira is not entirely alone in this sacred mission. For example, since Dr. Gadi Taub embarked on his path, his intellectual labors have focused on discovering traitors. But now we have a well-developed political science that can be useful in exposing the traitors and in classifying and grading them. Yakira notes that the historian Raul Hilberg, one of the first who dealt with the Holocaust, "remarked bitterly that no one thought to invite him to assist the prosecution in the Eichmann trial." The state prosecution will do well to show gratitude to the political scientist and philosopher Yakira, so that things will be managed differently in the trials we can look forward to.

Oded Schechter is an EUME fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin.