Some of the most interesting material in the book, however, and the
section from which it takes its title, is Ezrahi's discussion of
the Israeli police's use of rubber bullets. He argues, as many have
done before, that the capture of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967
produced a situation in which Israeli society was forced to
reconsider its approach to the use of force. Until the Intifada,
Israelis, and a large percentage of world opinion, saw Israel's
conflicts as wars of self-defense. Ezrahi details Israeli society's
reactions to its victory in the Six-Day War, noting that, although
not all the voices were those of unrestrained joy, triumphalism
quickly gained hold. The image of the Jewish soldier, empowered by
his swift victory in 1967, has become a truism of Israeli politics
and sociology, but Ezrahi already sees in this image the beginnings
of a questioning of the Israeli use of violence.
This process, he argues, culminated in the debates within the IDF
and the Israeli police over an appropriate response to the
Intifada. The image of the Arab aggressor threatening the state
itself, or the Palestinian infiltrator crossing the River Jordan,
was replaced by the moral strength of the protesters in the West
Bank and Gaza. Those nationalists who tried to persuade Israeli
society that all Palestinians were terrorists failed because of the
new reality on the ground: "In a clash of moral claims, not of
physical powers, Palestinian stones proved infinitely more painful
and devastating than Palestinian bullets" (p. 221).
Ezrahi argues that the scale of Palestinian deaths and injuries in
the first months of the Intifada forced Israel to reconsider its
whole approach. Rabin's infamous instruction to police officers to
"break the bones" of the demonstrators ultimately backfired when
news footage and the accounts of officers involved filtered back to
the Israeli public (p. 210). The army and the police searched "for
a technical solution: the perfect bullet that would stop the
demonstrators without killing or seriously wounding them" (pp.
212-213). The rubber bullet (a euphemistic term for rubber-coated
steel pellets) emerged as a protection, Ezrahi argues, as much for
Israeli consciences as for Palestinian demonstrators. However, as
the clashes at the end of 1998 showed, the force of the rubber
bullets depends heavily on the decisions and conduct of the
individuals who deploy them. Fired at close range, rubber bullets
can be lethal.
An Honest Assessment
Ezrahi ends his detailed discussion of the phenomenon with an
optimistic vision of the transformation that the Intifada brought
about within Israeli society: "This was a moment when Israelis in
growing numbers began to redefine the Palestinians as civilians
living on this land, to gradually acknowledge their distinct voice
as a nation in our midst... This increasing readiness to
acknowledge a rival narrative, a change of attitude loaded with
far-reaching consequences for future developments, is inseparable
from the willingness to soften the sharp points of our bullets" (p.
278).
Although Ezrahi's treatment of the Intifada is balanced and mature,
some readers may find in such passages a feeling that the
Palestinians did little more than provide the material for a change
in Israeli perceptions of violence and that the sharp points of
Israeli bullets were never an appropriate response to the
demonstrators. Rubber bullets, it could persuasively be argued,
allow the Israeli collective conscience to cope with the broader
injustice of the occupation by minimizing the revulsion arising
from violent deaths.
However, Rubber Bullets is, in many ways, a remarkably honest
assessment, both of dynamics within Israeli society and Israel's
reaction to its conduct in the occupied territories, a liberal
Israeli's efforts to come to terms with political paradoxes within
this nation. Some readers may also feel that the occupation is
treated in the book as a distraction from wider injustices
surrounding Zionism and the establishment and conduct of the state.
The decision to introduce rubber bullets, to temper the violence of
the occupation, and, ultimately, to see the Palestinians as
negotiating partners rather than terrorists is only the start of a
complex process of political and moral settlement, not the solution
itself.
Ezrahi also represents only a section of Israeli society, with an
active background in the peace movement; what proportion of Israeli
society shares his view of the transformation of national
conceptions of violence is questionable. It is also reasonable to
point out that a book that concentrates so exclusively on one side
in a conflict, at least, calls out for a similar treatment of
Palestinian ideals of individualism and reactions to
violence.
However, setting these criticisms aside, the book is powerfully and
persuasively written and offers some illuminating insights into the
psyche of modern Israel. As Palestine potentially faces its
independence, many lessons can be learnt from the internal debates
and problems that Israel has faced over the last 50 years. Ezrahi's
book offers an excellent treatment of many of these challenges.
<