Israel, and Going Home
455
"Because I was born lazy. I inherited my laziness. I shudder at the thought of having to do things vigorously. I like
discussing ideas. I'm old-fashioned, I admit. I'm an old man
and a grandfather. More than that, I'm decadent—one of the
few men who admit it. I like it. Decadence is comfortable.
I'm horrified whenever I see these bustling females in shorts
working in the kibbutzim," he continued. Women should be
a decoration; they should add something to the beauty of
life. Look at those husky women! Take them home, and you
won't need a horse. They'll do the ploughing."
"I've always admired you English for your gift with words/'
I said.
Lucas didn't hear. "This is a new world, so much in contrast to the old it's horrifying" [that seemed to be his favorite
word], "Thirty years ago this was a desert. Now look at it.
It's the work of a handful of men driven by the urge to be
creative. They have the enthusiam of Boy Scouts. I don't like
Boy Scouts. These people are too energetic. Thank God I
won't live to see this new order in the world. I shall be dead
then."
"I think you're dead now," I said, laughing.
Lucas gave me a blank stare, too lazy, I think, to laugh or
kick me.
I felt that Israel had gained the enmity of the Arab world
not because it was Jewish (the Arabs had also violently opposed the Crusaders) but because it was a segment of the
West now gaining a permanent foothold in the East. Israel
represented revolution. It represented an upheaval of a longentrenched feudal order. It stirred lethargies four thousand
years old. It made the Moslem deeply and painfully feel his
inadequacies, his backwardness, his sloth. Israel brought awakening. It brought creation. It brought the idea of democracy
and of political and social ferment. The thought of change
made the Arabs, as well as those espousing the Arab cause,
quite frantic.
Above all, Israel's concept of Western democracy, with its