SABRE
The Zabar by Miriam Kraus
The description of the Zabar in the text is extremely unbalanced. First of all, it does not originate from the Palmach, but came into being much earlier as a characterization of the new generation of Israeli born males. True, he was very different from the image of “the old Jew” from the Diaspora. However, your attempt to liken him to the German male during the Nazi period, even with a certain reservation, is annoying. There was nothing racial and overbearing or a sense of superiority to other nations in the image of the Zabar, nor was there a strong militaristic component, as in the Nazi male image. True, there was an emphasis on the power of arms for defense (which was certainly a necessary component in the 20s and later years), but it was always for defense and not for attack. In those days the Jewish settlers were the minority, and often under attack by the local Arabs.
Then there is something subtler in your argument: you are transferring the issues of our time to another age with other problems and making false comparisons. The Zabar was European and white, but that was what the Zionist movement was before the foundation of the State of Israel, a movement of Jews from Europe. Naturally they thought of their Israeli-born children, and created the image according to their ideals. Although there were Jews of oriental origin in Palestine at that time, they were few and did not play an important role in the development of the Jewish society in Palestine prior to the State. It was only natural that the founders of the nation did not include them in their ideal of the future.
The issue of the oriental Jews and their relations with those of European origin was raised in the fifties. What you are doing is transferring a problem from the fifties to the twenties and insinuating that the Zabar image expressed a kind of discrimination, which is false, because the image was created as a contrast to the European Jew in the Diaspora, and not to the oriental. The same argument holds for your emphasis on the male attributes of the Zabar.
At that time feminism was not an issue, and male and female were more differentiated than they are today, not only in Israel but also in Western society in general, so again, you are dealing with a problem of the present as if it existed 80 years ago. In my opinion, this is a distortion that many polemicsts are guilty of.
Miriam Kraus, the translator of Dorit Abramovitch (With a lot of thanks!)
SABRA by Esther Eillam
I am called a ‘Sabra’ because I was born here, and am aware that this gives me a privilege over Jews that came to Israel from the Diaspora. From another angle, my friend Kamal, who was born here, is not seen as a Sabra. It seems that he does not need this nickname. In 1948, when he was ten years old, he became an inner refugee, as his family had to leave their village. He told me that the sabra bushes were an integral part of his life in childhood. Today, he goes every year in the summer to pick up the sabra’s fruits, which are grown in his abandoned village (the land has been confiscated by the State of Israel). In his case, being born here does not give him any privilege in Israeli society, just the opposite.
‘Sabra’ for me is also connected to the decision of my parents to talk with their children in Hebrew only. They usually talked Espaniol (Ladino), and sometimes talked French between themselves. I grew up without the ability to speak my parents’ tongue, only to understand what was said in this language.
Esther Eillam / one of the founding mothers of the feminist movement in Israel.
