The Oslo Syndrome

The title of this 599-page book does not begin to capture its scope and import.  This is one of the most important books published in many years.

The Introduction and final chapters of the book are a devastating analysis of the Oslo “peace” process, as a textbook example of the delusion known to psychoanalysts as “identification with the aggressor” -- most familiar in the “Stockholm Syndrome” (in which hostages respond to their situation by embracing the perspectives of their abuser), or in chronically abused children (who deal with their trauma by convincing themselves that bad things happened to them because they were “bad”).  Douglas Feith once suggested explicitly that the Oslo process resembled the Battered Wife Syndrome:

“[Many] supporters [of the Oslo peace process] -- like so many distraught battered wives -- simply cannot be persuaded that there is no romance, there is no peace process.  And despite Arafat’s cynicism, contempt and hostility they cannot be persuaded that their man Arafat -- their ‘peace partner’ – is a gangster and a liar who is just no damn good. . . . This kind of irrationality is bad enough in a relationship between two private people.  It can be disastrous if it dominates the national security policy-making of a state.”

Kenneth Levin approaches this subject with extraordinary credentials:  a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, currently clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, with a private practice in psychiatry.

But equally importantly, he also brings the knowledge and skills of a historian.  He holds a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University, and has written extensively on Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

And it is the combination of his medical experience and his expertise as a historian that makes this book one of the most extraordinary volumes in recent history.

Between the Introduction and final chapters is a history of the Jewish people under siege -- from ancient and medieval times, through the European ghettoization to de jure emancipation, to Zionism and the creation of Israel, and through the decades of post-Zionism leading up to and through Oslo (and unfortunately beyond).  It is an unrelenting accumulation of historical fact and psychological analysis that is simply overwhelming.  You cannot read this book and remain unchanged.

You need not take my word for it.  This is what Cynthia Ozick has written about this book:

“This remarkable work -- part history, party psychology, part sociology, part burning prophecy -- has the salubrious, cleansing, and transformative power to shame.  It should shame Jews, it should shame Gentiles; it should shame Europe, America, and the Arab world.  It should shame every individual and every nation that pretends to own a conscience or claims an instinct for honest insight.  In these extraordinary pages, Kenneth Levin writes -- with uncommon clarity and brilliance -- not so much about the great outer wilderness of anti-Jewish perfidy as about the internal self-mystifications and self-denials that annihilate Jewish dignity and Jewish independence.  THE OSLO SYNDROME may be the most important manifesto of our generation, an indispensable analysis that explains the present and may yet save the future.”

She is not a writer known for exaggeration.

You can read an excerpt here, or read Levin’s recent front-page essay in The Jewish Press.  They are both powerful, but they barely convey the cumulative effect of the book, which is absolutely essential reading.

Comments

[Cynic]

"Douglas Feith once suggested explicitly that the Oslo process resembled the Battered Wife Syndrome: "

This is somewhat amusing coming from Feith.
During the 80's the Arab League, the EU and the State Dept., declared the PLO and Arafat to represent the Palestinians. Israel had no choice in the matter and everytime they objected they were castigated for being intransigent.
Remember James "FtheJs" Baker telling Shamir that when he gets serious he had the phone number to call FtheJs Baker?
I suppose he could see the "wifebeater" Israel had for an ally.
Rabin had to try something and unfortunately Baker's choice for him was very bad.
Sharon has almost a similar situation where Abbas was the "Quartet's choice.
America is threatening to abstain in a UN vote on sanctions thus putting him an unenviable position.
Such a boycott in 2004 was avoided at a cost.
The Palestinians are once more calling for sanctions because of the fence and if implemented we know where that will lead.
Israel is driven to comply with the "Roadmap" and Abbas has been given a pass.
Remember that Rice is on record of stating that the Palestinians have to have a "contiguous" state in Gaza and the West Bank. Bush was the first to demand that state and now all his waffle of democracy and the elimination of terrorism has gone the way of the wind.
This type of double dealing does not mean that Israelis are so beaten to give up their security for a dream of peace but that they are being given "a choice they cannot refuse".
Gingrich had an article
"Defeat of Terror, Not Roadmap Diplomacy, Will Bring Peace" which is not the case in which Israel finds itself.
http://www.meforum.org/article/729

"Israeli negotiators began engaging Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the 1987-91 Palestinian intifada. But, the Arab League, European Union, and, eventually the U.S. State Department, instead pushed for the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership, long exiled and resident in Tunisia, to be recognized as the voice of the Palestinian people. That decision effectively purged local Palestinians—who had a self-interest in a durable peace—from the process. Gangs and vigilantes loyal to Arafat often intimidated and even murdered those Palestinians who sought to raise an independent voice."

The Israelis made mistakes but basically had to take the risk to prove one way or another what was correct. Unfortunately that lesson does not seem to have been learned in Washington for Bush to Walk the Talk!

Yes, Feith in his arrogance can talk of BWS especially as it comes from his and his master's hands.
Like true men they can only beat their wives.

Just an aside why is it that Abbas and the terrorist groups come to an agreement to implement "tahdiya", a period of calm, and Israel is blamed when the peace is shattered?
Where are those pundits to explain how after 50 years of double standards from so called allies, wars and violence a nation cannot be anything but punchdrunk?

[Isaac B2]

Rick, that's a great post; the argument makes so much sense: no matter how much "they" hurt us, we desperately want to believe we can have a healthy relationship, and that it may even be our own fault, in a way.

I'm sharing this post with a few others -- thanks.