"In the short run, the identity of victim does, indeed, pay off...In the longer run, the perpetuation of the victim identity causes complete severance from reality, utter dependence on the past and the past alone, and distortions of all proportions and emphases to the point of warping the personality. We do not lack examples...Mr. Begin tried to excuse the violent invasion of Lebanon in 1982 with symbols from the Holocaust. Every seizure of Arab property in the West Bank is made under the banner and in the name of the victim identity, which many of us abhor...Why? Because we are the victim. Even relative to the villagers whom we divested of land, we are victims."
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RevolutionariesJews from IsraelPrime Ministers of IsraelNobel Peace Prize laureatesLikud politicians
Original Language: English
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Sources
Shulamith Hareven "Identity: Victim" in The Vocabulary of Peace: Life, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East (1995)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin
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Menachem Begin
Menachem Begin (16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before Independence, he was the leader of the Zionist Irgun, the breakaway from the larger Jewish organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on February 1, 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was opposed by the Jewish Agency. He played a significant role in Jewish resistance against the British control in the waning years of the mandate, leading the m
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