The Yom Kippur War or the Kishinev Pogrom? On the Narrativization of Violence, History and Fate

The Yom Kippur War or the Kishinev Pogrom? On the Narrativization of Violence, History and Fate Scott Ury (bio) Keywords October 7, Israel, Hamas, Yom Kippur War, Kishinev pogrom, Historical narratives, Collective memory, Nationalism, Narrativization, Narratives of violence, Israel-Hamas war "Heard of a van that is loaded with weaponsPacked up and ready to goHeard of some grave sites, out by the highwayA place where nobody knows" Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime," Fear of Music (Sire Records, 1979) Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. A man takes a photo of dead people strewn across a road in the Sderot area, suthern Israel, October 7th, 2023. (Photo credit: Ammar Awad, Reuters) [End Page 21] FROM CHAOS TO ORDER Although the initial reports were partial, unclear and, at times, simply surreal, by mid-day, Saturday, October 7th, it became apparent to many observers that something dramatic, if not unprecedented, was taking place on Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip. With each click of the mouse or twist of the thumb, the body count on the trusted news site's live feed continued to rise—from 100 to 150 to more—and the number of communities affected began to multiply so rapidly that even veteran residents of the region had trouble keeping up with the new geography of slaughter. Kibbutz Nahal Oz or Kibbutz Nir Oz? Sderot or Ofakim? Kibbutz Be'eri or Kibbutz Re'im? Two days later, after the Israeli Defense Forces finally took control over the entire region and more reliable, yet still fundamentally unbelievable, reports began to emerge, an image of the violence unleashed in the wake of the invasion of several thousand Hamas militants began to emerge. Moreover, while there was still little consensus regarding the exact number of casualties, figures regarding those kidnapped or reliable data about other violent acts, including cases of sexual assault and rape, the scope and nature of the violence was so overwhelming that two terms began to dominate the discourse as people struggled to make sense of the events and their ramifications: unprecedented and unfathomable. Indeed, if our parents' generation had the Arab-Israel wars of 1967 and 1973 and our grandparents had World War II and the Holocaust, we would now have the 2023 war between Israel and Hamas as a critical, definitive moment that will for decades define our generation, our lives and our fates.1 As the great Hebrew author Hayim Nahman Bialik noted in regard to the violence and upheaval associated with another critical "turning point" in the history of Zionism and European Jewry, the Russian Revolution of 1905: "And the time was one of total chaos, a time of confusion between the end and the beginning, of ruin and of creation, of ancient times and of new beginnings."2 And the question that remains is: How? How will the violent events of Saturday, October 7th, 2023 and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas be rendered as intelligible markers of history, community and fate? What past events, for example, will be used to frame, explain and "make sense" of this wave of violence?3 Which moments, actions and themes will feature prominently in these explanations? Which will become identified with ostensibly hostile camps and be labeled as illegitimate, or even "antisemitic," interpretations of the events? And, which, like most aspects of our lives, will simply fade into the endless black hole of memory lost? And [End Page 22] why? These questions regarding the dominant narratives that arose to steer and shape the public discourse in Israel and among many of its supporters outside of the country regarding the events of October 7th lie at the center of this article. In addition to tracing these developments, this piece will also explore larger questions regarding the power of historical narratives that arise in times of crisis to lend intellectual order and political, if not existential, meaning to moments of chaos and violence that very often defy simple renditions, if not actual comprehension. While prominent twentieth-century thinkers such as George Orwell, Michel Foucault, and Hayden White have taught us that historical events are simply raw material for the ensuing battles...