THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

to shape a new Israeli generation that had begun to forget the Shoah, to raise theworld’s conscience, to save Mapai, and, first and foremost, to cleanse the ground forthe secret relations that Israel was already having with West Germany. ExecutingEichmann was like executing old Germany; now we had the time, energy, andlegitimacy to build the relations between the other Israel and the other Germany. Thisis why Ben-Gurion demanded that Hausner change the wording of his openingstatement from “Germany” to “Nazi Germany.” The message was that we know thatthere is another Germany, just as there is an Israel that is other from the one thatperished. Eichmann’s death was to symbolize the end of the Shoah and the beginningof the post-Shoah period. In reality, the opposite happened. If Kastner’s trial was anindictment against Ben-Gurion, Eichmann’s was the defense sheet that formed theofficial history of the Shoah from the Israeli establishment’s point of view. Betweenthe former and the latter an upheaval took place. Until Eichmann, the Shoah was partof official rhetoric, justifying Israel’s establishment and its claims, but the trial“personalized” the rhetoric. It was no longer the State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann,but the people of Israel vs. the Nazis. The Shoah discourse had begun. The youngcould listen, and the adults could speak freely for the first time what they only dreamtof in their nightmares.For years I was angry with my father for having no opinions. Yeshayahu Leibowitzwas an Israeli philosopher and scientist noted for his outspoken and oftencontroversial opinions on Jewish ethics, religion and politics. He was my mentor andone of the most influential people in my life. He once told me with considerablesubtlety, “A scholar without an opinion is worse than a carcass.” Then he stopped fora moment and said, “I don’t know what your father’s opinion is on the matter.” I hadnot known at the time that they had an axe to grind. I knew nothing of theirdifferences and conflicts. I knew that both prayed at the Yeshurun Synagogue, andthat both were infinitely important to me. I did the accounting for myself; I was hurtby the philosopher’s harsh criticism of the statesman, my father. I could not reply thatmy father was better than a carcass and better than a scholar for he had wisdom andopinions because even I did not know his opinions. Among the major criticism I hadalways had of my father was my feeling that his consistent position was to have noposition. “But I am centrist,” he once told me. “How do you determine center?” I