Introduction

     What is it that gives birth to a nation? Is it as simple as Theodore Hertzl put it? “If you will it, it is not a dream.” Is it indeed simple to mobilize the will of a people? Is nationalism an outmoded, 19th century Romantic concept, a dangerously potent mixture of “blood and earth?” Must a nation be birthed in blood? Are the nations which were chartered in the early 20th century by a group of old men at a conference table at Versailles really nations, or are the tribal factions that are tearing these nations apart the true nations?
     In the past, sovereign rights were adduced by Divine Right or Manifest Destiny. Territory has usually been the spoil of war. Federal republics, whether dictatorial or democratic, have arisen, imposing the dominant ethnic and ideological priorities on their amalgamated, sometimes conquered populations.
     Israel, in defining itself in its Declaration of Independence as a Jewish State, must be ready to deal with the ramifications of this definition. The world is converting to a new paradigm, a new catholicity, a secular one, in which the media is father confessor, sometimes inquisitor. This pax romanus is set against notions of tribal exclusivity, mission, and choseness, which have always been both a blessing and a curse, particularly for the Jewish State, whether that state has been physical, mystical, or psychological.
     These poems and essays were written primarily over a five year period, from 1991 through 1995, beginning during the Gulf War when, as a recent citizen of Israel, I was inducted into the army reserves for basic training. I am not sure whether my conclusions have changed during this time or if my thoughts have become more inconclusive. As the poet and playwright Heinrik Ibsen wrote in a letter: “The task of the poet is to make clear to himself, and thereby to others, the temporal and eternal questions.”