Rabbi Sacks on France (sort of)

Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, has an article in The Times entitled "We are in danger of forgetting that waiting comes before wanting," addressing the goings on in France--at least he says he is talking about France.

Rabbi Sacks addresses the riots in France without once mentioning Moslems, Islam or Intifada. He writes that "the causes are simple: ethnic ghettos, immigrant enclaves, concentrations of poverty, unemployment and young people with strong feelings of exclusion and resentment." But he admits that there is something more:

When television becomes more powerful than parliaments, people quickly realise that the newsworthy gesture gets you more attention than years of lobbying and representation. Violence becomes photo-opportunity.

The problem, which he hints at in the title of his article, derives from "Freud’s definition of civilisation as the capacity to defer the gratification of instinct. Society depends on waiting as well as wanting":

...Language suggests a connection between these things. Think of the words "political" and "polite", "urban" and "urbane", "civilisation" and "civility" all derived from Greek or Latin words for "city", the place where strangers come together to live and trade. They remind us of the myriad habits of self-imposed restraint that alone allow people of different faiths and customs to live together graciously. Cultures built on anger cannot survive.

...You have to build a society before you can have a state. States exist by reason of power. Societies exist through a shared moral code and a sense of collective responsibility. The symbols of states are palaces and parliaments. The institutions of society are families, neighbourhoods, communities and schools.

For some years now we have been living under the illusion that you can have a state without a society, politics without politeness, civilisation without civility. You can't.

There is no shortcut that allows us to bypass the long, slow task of society-building; integrating minorities, creating a shared sense of history and destiny and cultivating a national conversation in which each of us has a voice. Otherwise the prospects are dark. When conversation ends, violence begins.

The odd thing I found about Rabbis Sacks' piece is that while reading his article, it didn't seem like he was really talking about France--or Europe, for that matter--at all.

"...Violence becomes photo-opportunity"
"...Cultures built on anger cannot survive"
"...You have to build a society before you can have a state"
"...When conversation ends, violence begins"

For all intents and purposes, he seems to be describing the Palestinian Arabs--and the reasons why a proposed Palestinian state, even on its own 'merits' (putting aside suicide bombers, Katushya rockets, etc) is doomed to fail. After all, France's culture is not built on anger and their state is built on an established society, no matter what bad political decisions have been made in the last few decades.

But if morals and more are breaking down, as Rabbi Sacks suggests, what are we supposed to expect when armed terrorists are allowed to roam freely and chaos reigns? If "television becomes more powerful than parliaments," what are we supposed to expect when countries create and show movies that demonize an entire people or indoctrinate children in the ways of suicide bombers?

If what Rabbi Sachs writes about France and Europe is true, how much more so for a potential Palestinian state?

Crossposted on Israpundit

Technorati Tags: Paris Riots and Palestinians.