Jewish question and Arab problem

Alain Finkielkraut receives the philosopher Paul Audi author of Stand your groundand the historian Henry Laurens, which makes it appear Jewish question, Arab problem (1798-2001) about after October 7, 2023.

“Jewish question, Arab problem”such is the title of the latest well-documented work by Henry Laurens, in which the historian exposes open or latent conflicts, but also peace initiatives in the Near and Middle East from 1798 to 2001. 2000-2001, these are the years of the failure of the Camp David negotiations between Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat, of the Clinton parameters, of Barak's crushing electoral defeat and of Ariel Sharon's accession to power in Israel. We could say, before the attack on October 7, 2023, that nothing had really changed since then. New unsuccessful negotiations, new clashes, new settlements… But that's it. October 7th happened and nothing is the same. “On October 7, the fragile skin of the world was injured, I would like to start from this unprecedented event.” Paul Audi, “Tenir head“.

What happened? Why did this happen? How was this possible?

Henry Laurens remember that it is a “additional episode of an already long story, unfortunately”, in the sense that it brings out the conflict of 1908, with the violence in Jaffa. “Until today, you have a chain of violence and in recent decades, unfortunately, an increasingly cumulative violence on both sides. And as it marks memories, it is even worse, because everyone has the suffering of the previous tragedies and increases its level of violence. It is an unfortunately fatal sequence. The image that I most often have is a melee in which the two parties cannot separate. which will not happen in the future. They are stuck in this historical trap which can last an extremely long time if we compare it with other historical situations.

The additional element was the rave party, but according to the documents published in the New York Times, but transmitted by the Australians, it does not appear that the rave party was the reason for setting the date for October 7 . It was the Jewish religious holiday that had served as a landmark several months in advance. It accentuated the atrocities, I would say, because they probably didn't expect to see these young people, who were unfortunately martyred, raped, brutalized, etc. And it increased. But for the rest, hostage-taking has been happening in the historical conflict since at least the 1950s. The negotiation over hostages on one side or the other is permanent in this story.” Henry Laurens

“It is an unprecedented structure, the first direct pogrom that took place on the land of the State of Israel” (P. Audi)

Pour Paul Audithere is still a new structure that has been produced. “First, it is the first direct pogrom that has taken place on the land of the State of Israel since it was created as such. That is to say, it is a direct action which consists of indiscriminately massacring all the people you encounter in front of you. Moreover, some people were not Jewish, were not even Israeli and therefore, in this respect, there was still an outburst that occurred, which is absolutely unprecedented and which reactivated, obviously , among the Jewish people. The memory of both a very long history punctuated by pogroms and persecutions and massacres, but at the same time, the memory of the Shoah. So, from this point of view, there is a before and an afters.” Paul Audi

“I completely agree that the history of the Middle East is punctuated by massacres and violence, in turn, that is to say it is a permanent system, but if we can to single out what happened, I would say that there was an authorization effect. This is what is new, we have allowed ourselves what the Koranic text could allow. It is also written in the Hamas charter, it is absolutely necessary to read it to understand the effect of authorization: from the moment a political cause is religiously authorized, it takes on absolutely crazy and ecstatic proportions. That's the problem, is that we can have a purely political aim which is in fact that of the struggle, of the political struggle to either recover a territory or claim rights. As soon as we rely on this sacred text to act, it leads to this ecstatic cruelty which becomes publicized. Normally, we are ashamed of the violence we produce. We hide it, it doesn't change the fact that we exercise it“. Paul Audi

Bibliographic sources

• Henry Laurens, Jewish question, Arab problem (1798-2001)Fayard 2024
• Paul Audi, Stand your groundStock 2024
• Daniel Sibony, The unspoken words of a conflictt, The Middle East after October 7Intervals 2024
• Marcela Jacob, How the radical left will save the world… (from the Jews) Anne Carrière 2024
• David Khalka, Israel Palestine, year zeroLe Bord de l’eau 2024. – Meeting at Arab World Institute, Nov. 6 2024