A classic or a romantic English poet of the 18th and 19th
centuries would have never written his poems without making several references
to Greek mythology.
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Sigmund Freud, founder of psychology, used terms like
Narcissus and Oedipus complexes.
Pandora is one of the most referred women in history, and
are was Penelope, Medusa, Aphrodite, Athena.
Bernard Shaw immortalized Pygmalion when he named one of his
most famous plays after him, which later became one of the longest-running
plays and most memorable Hollywood movies, titled “My Fair Lady”.
The Zionist movement realized the importance of mythology
and convinced many Jewish and Christian authors to write myths supporting
migration to Palestine before World War I, Balfour Declaration and even before
the Holocaust of World War II.
Lew Wallace published in 1880 Ben-Hur, dubbed as “A Tale of
the Christ”, which is in contradiction with the book’s narrative, which focuses
on a wealthy Jewish family in Jerusalem. Christ is only a medium to save
Ben-Hur from his agony and his mother and sister from lepers.
The defamation and vilification of Arabs in general and of Palestinians in particular was one of Hollywood’s purposes during its golden years.
The silent movie “The Sheik”, which was produced in 1921,
was based on a book with the same title published in 1919, and propelled
Rudolph Valentino to stardom served as an anti-Arab myth . The Sheik was not an
Arab, he was an American kidnapped and raised by Arabs. His story is
reminiscent of Edger Rice Burroughs’ character Tarzan who was raised by the apes
in Africa, creating a white man’s myth.
The defamation and vilification of Arabs in general and of
Palestinians in particular was one of Hollywood’s purposes during its golden
years. In contrast, hundreds of movies portrayed Jews as good characters
fighting sex-hungry, slave-trading and ugly Arabs.
It turned out, as Shlomo Sand demonstrated in his 2005 book
titled “The Invention of the Jewish People”, that most of the so-called
Bible-authenticated stories were written in Germany in the latter part of the
19th century. Sand’s other book, “The Invention of the Land of Israel”,
published in 2012, is even more captivating.
Yet, historians like Shlomo Sand, Avi Shlaim (author of the
books “The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World”, 2000, and the “Lion of
Jordan”, 2007), Tom Seger, Hillel Colen and others only managed to gain
legitimacy in Israel in the 1990s, and became part of the political ideology
named “ Post-Zionism”.
Why are they accepted now with their attitude toward Zionist
mythology being as it is?
Some analysts say that revisions of the classic Zionist
actions are necessary in order to renew faith in Israel’s existence. Current
actions are losing their impact in time, especially that they are very big on
claims and very short on evidence.
With the dynamics brought forth by peace treaties and
normalization accords, the idea is that some Israelis want to build peace. All
these new theories could make some positive sense, yet the explanation that
Sand gave at the end of his book is a plausible one.
He says that Israel has its uncredited mythology, but, after
all, most countries have unbelievable mythology which they badly need. That may
be true, but at whose expense?
The price of Israel’s myths is way too high in terms of
lives, assets, opportunities. It is the
most expensive enterprise in history, and the meter is still counting.
The writer is an economist, and has held several
ministerial posts, including former deputy prime minister and former chief of
the Royal Court.
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