From day one, Israel’s war in Gaza has been legitimized by a dual objective: to destroy Hamas and to bring back the hostages. However, since wanting to free the hostages “at all costs” implies negotiating with Hamas to buy them back, these two objectives are in contradiction. Thus, from the very first days of the war, a new political divide emerged in Israel: should an agreement for the return of the hostages be negotiated, or not, at the risk of national security? Noémie Issan-Benchimol examines the coordinates of the opposition between the various Israeli “tribes” on this thorny issue. At a time when hostage posters have been torn down even in Israel on the basis that they would undermine martial morale, it is in fact Jewish fraternity that is at stake: is the person captured by the enemy still part of the community, is solidarity still required? Tracing the traditional legitimization of hostage rescue in Jewish thought, Noémie Issan-Benchimol asks how the form of brotherhood specific to exile can relate to the state situation.
While life in exile is marked by a constitutive instability, it is nonetheless punctuated by a calendar that emphasizes festivities. Lacking the reassuring certainty of territorial anchorage, the diasporic Jew is inscribed in a ritualized temporality that serves as support and refuge. For a time, that of the feast, the world is set aside, and anxiety gives way to a carefree attitude that sometimes resembles recklessness. For many observant Jews, October 7 was Shabbat. The next day, coincidentally, was Simchat Torah. This week, Ruben Honigmann gives us an intimate account of this shifted temporality, where the event only happened belatedly, once the cell phones had been switched back on. But do we ever emerge from the night of October 8, where history caught up with us? Months go by, but the stupefaction remains, as if temporality remains dissociated, and all support has been withdrawn.
Sciences Po prides itself on being an establishment where we learn not only the art of rhetoric, but also that of nuance, which presupposes the ability to confront contradictory ideas and critically relate to the diversity of opinions. This is, after all, the least we can expect from an institution that intends to train tomorrow’s intellectual and political elites: that it trains their reflexivity, i.e., that it teaches them to dispense with reflexes of thought that, even cloaked in the trappings of subversion, bear witness to the most blithering conformism. With students and activists parading around in keffiyehs and controlling the entrance to the “Gaza” lecture hall, it’s doubtful whether this mission has been accomplished. This week, we publish the testimony of Clara Levy, a former Science Po student and founder of the Paris-Tel Aviv Association. She recalls a time when all was not rosy for Jewish students, but when opposing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be discussed, when teaching staff dared to provoke thought, and when she could feel comfortable enough to organize trips to Israel and Palestine.
