Patriotism: Insights from Israel By Eyal Lewin

constructive patriotism is shown through the thoughtful consideration of whether the patriotic action fits the social group’s goals. Blind patriotism is characterized by political disengagement and deliberate political ignorance whereas constructive patriotism correlates with gathering information, striving for social conclusions, and high levels of political involvement. Blind patriotism is strongly connected with nationalism and a sense that the national security—indeed, the national culture itself—is at risk; constructive patriotism, for its part, might put national identity aside and even dismiss feelings of national superiority. Blind patriotism defines social attachment by means of genealogy and primordial origins generated from the nation’s history whereas constructive patriotism forms social boundaries through civic procedures and commonly shared political structures (Blank & Schmidt, 2003; Rothi, Lyons, & Chryssochoou, 2005; Schatz, Staub, & Lavine, 1999).

However, this typology is somewhat vague in the sense that the nature of criticism that characterizes constructive patriotism is not entirely clear. On July 20, 1944, Ludwig Beck, a former high-ranking German general, led an unsuccessful plot against Hitler. This was not the first time he was involved in a conspiracy against the Furher––a year before, he had led two other abortive attempts to assassinate the Reichskantzler. Indeed, ever since his conspicuous resignation from a leading military position in 1938, Beck had pushed against the leadership of the Third Reich, a struggle at the end of which he was executed. Surely a German general who, unlike many others, had opposed Hitler and had risked his life once and again to overthrow the Nazi Regime could be counted as a German patriot. However, a deeper examination of Beck’s criticism reveals that he was more concerned with military matters than with moral issues. He resigned from the army before World War II broke out because he believed that the wehrmacht would not be able to withstand the English and French response to Hitler’s conquest of Czechoslovakia. Another leading participant of the 1944 abortive plot was Claus von Stauffenberg who, unlike Beck, was unhappy with the growing systematic maltreatment of Jews and the suppression of religion in the Third Reich (Hoffmann, 1996; Shirer, 1960). Both these German generals demonstrated constructive