Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds2818. Conflicts within Israel8.1 Within the Jewish CommunityDuring the war in Lebanon, the conflict between twocommunities—roughly, the older, West Europe-oriented,wealthier and more educated sectors, and the working class andlower middle class (mostly Sephardic) Jews joined by much ofthe youth and by religious-chauvinist elements, many from the recentU.S. and USSR immigrations—became increasingly sharp. In a study ofthe protest against the war, sociologist Benjamin Beit-Halahmi of HaifaUniversity observed that “it is clear that the opposition to the 1982 waris that of a minority of the Israeli population,” the “elite.” The Sephardiccommunity and the youth were less represented, and in generalsupported the war—as did some leaders of the traditional peace groups,he notes. The favorable publicity given to the opposition by the press ismisleading, since the journalists too tend to belong to the elite.“Opposition to the 1982 war increased even further the alienation of thetraditional Ashkenazi elite, which identifies with a progressive traditionin Zionism. This group is in the midst of a process of alienation, whichhas been growing stronger since 1977 [when Begin’s Likud took power],and each development since then causes this alienation to deepen.” Asfor the war itself, “the price of the direct military victory and of politicaland human oppression is paid not only by the vanquished, but by thevictors as well.” 178The lines of the conflict were drawn still more sharply after theLebanon war (see section 7.2 above), a matter to which we return.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky