Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Illusion of Jewish Security

One hundred years ago German Jewry, more assimilated, secure and intermarried than American Jewry today, described their fatherland also as “exceptional.”

Introduction

The election of Barak Obama brought to surface doubt among some Israelis regarding American Jewry’s identification with, and commitment to the state of the Jews. Within Israel Bush is seen as friend and benefactor. How, the thinking goes, could the US community vote so overwhelmingly against Israel’s perceived interests? But what if it is Israel, rather than American Jewry, that was wrong about Bush? And what does this election result suggest about how our two communities see the world and the security of the Jewish people as we enter our third millennium of Diaspora? Israel is preoccupied with her “special relationship” with the US; worried too regarding its appeal to, and continuing support by the Diaspora. Where Israel appears increasingly uncomfortable, American Jewry appears confident and comfortable. Is Diaspora identity and support really the source of Israeli unease, or is the source closer to home? And is American Jewry justified in its security and confidence?

Antisemitism through the ages

For 1,900 years, since the end of the final war with Rome, the Jewish people have lived dispersed until Israeli independence in 1948. For the first millennium Jews were somewhat tolerated by the church, inheritor from Rome of the renamed Holy Roman Empire. But the First Crusade of 1096 marked a significant worsening of conditions for Jews. En route to wrest the Holy Land from the Moslems, the crusaders prepared for war by slaughtering what they called the enemy in their midst. Whole communities of Jews fell to crusader sword, were burned alive in synagogue and home, were thrown into rivers and drowned, a “baptism” according to their murderers.

The Dark Ages represents a significant step forward in demonizing the Jews. We were accused of poisoning Christian wells to spread the Black Plague; accused of kidnapping and crucifying Christian boys before Passover to provide “innocent blood” believed important in baking matzoth. Leading rabbis, it was believed, held a conclave once-yearly to choose the Jewish community to be honored with the crucifixion, an early version of the 19th century fabrication, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. A third myth held that Jews steal the “host,” ceremonial bread representing the body of Christ, in order to murder the Christian messiah again. Paintings of the time represent Jews stabbing the bleeding host.

The inquisition, created to uncover and eliminate heresy within the church, functioned from the late 14th to the early 20th century. With the expulsion of Islam from the Iberian Peninsula Spain turned its attention to cleansing the land of the Jews, who were given the choice of conversion or expulsion. Jews who elected conversion were labeled Marranos, or pigs, and were suspected of being insincere in their conversion. Accused of remaining Jewish at home, while appearing Christian in public, thousands were tortured until, confessing their heresy, they were burned at the stake. In dealing with its “Marranos heresy” the Spanish Inquisition also introduced the concept of “limpieza de sangre,” or purity of blood. Applicants for the clergy were required to prove they were free of Jewish blood. With slight change of emphasis 450 years later Germany would adapt purity of blood as its criterion for murder.

Life for Jews remained precarious following the Protestant Reformation. In his last work on the subject, The Jews and their Lies, 1543, Martin Luther described Jews as "poisonous envenomed worms" and recommended that their “synagogues and schools be set on fire,” their prayer books be destroyed, their homes burned. At their trials at Nuremberg, Nazi leaders referred to Luther as their guide, their justification for antisemitism and genocide. Five centuries before the event Luther set the agenda for Holocaust.

With the Age of Reason, beginning in the 17th century, Europe grew increasingly secular. Jews, freed from centuries of religious persecution, from ownership as serfs were, in the emergent nation-states, to be subjected to something far worse. With religion less important than nationality, Jews were now considered an alien nationality, a people apart, Other. Conversion, the religious ticket for social inclusion ceased to be an escape from identity, a path to assimilation. And for those who still sought conversion as path to acceptance and advancement, with the election of Adolph Hitler as chancellor of Germany Jews were defined neither by religion nor allegiance to state, but by limpieza de sangre, purity of blood. And the blood of a single Jewish grandparent was a sentence to death.

The kidnapping and forced conversion of the Jewish child Edgardo Mortara by the Church in Rome and the trumped up conviction of Dreyfus in France; the lynching of Leo Frank by an American mob made up of lawyers, judges, politicians and other professional elites; the bloody pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe; all these reinforced awareness amongst Jews that the secularization of society not only failed to end discrimination, but continued to subject them to physical danger from neighbor and country. For an assimilated journalist from Vienna observing mobs racing through the streets of Paris in antisemitic rage over the Dreyfus Affair, it was clear that Jews would never be safe in Diaspora. The answer, according to Herzl, was nothing short of a revolution in Jewish awareness, of self-emancipation, of Jewish national liberation: Political Zionism.

America the Exception?

We in the United States carry ourselves with confidence, comfortable in our “goldene medina.” But what in our history justifies our confidence? Antisemitism is as old in the New World as our first immigrants seeking sanctuary in colonial New Amsterdam. Greeted at the dock by Peter Stuyvesant, they were unceremoniously told that the colony is Christian and Jews are not welcome. Following the Civil War General and later president Ulysses Grant issued his infamous order informing Jews that, regarding entry into the newly defeated states of the Confederacy, they are again, not welcome. And, around the time Leo Frank was lynched by that genteel Georgia mob, Congress was busily drafting legislation aimed at limiting entry to immigrants of “Nordic” stock, that again, Jews are not welcome. And twenty years later these restrictive laws would provide legal cover and future deniability for the United States closing heart and border to Jews fleeing the Holocaust, for condemning, with full knowledge, Europe’s Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz. Even at the cost of life, Jews were not welcome.

Antisemitism was as widespread in the US before and during Shoah as it was in Europe. Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg, antisemites and isolationists, well represented this national mood. Both considered running for president, were the hoped-for choice of the Republican Party for president. Had either decided to run and, as was very possible, won, then it is very possible that such a government would either have remained true to its isolationist program, neutral in the war almost assuring a German victory. Or, also very possible, that government might have actively joined Hitler’s crusade against atheistic Communism, another popular notion of the time. In either case it is unlikely that local antisemitism, inspired by Nazi Europe, would have been long restrained in expanding the limits of American eugenics to Europe’s lethal conclusion. And taking into consideration that, like Germany, the US had concentration camps, if limited to Japanese-American, this precedent too provides a chilling warning for what nearly was, what is historically available as precedent for the future.

In 1976 General George Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, decided that Israel was a burden to the United States, informed the press that the only reason he could see for US support was pressure by those who “controlled the press, banking and the government,” a not subtle reference to Jews.

In November, 1986 the Reagan Administration, embarrassed by public disclosure of its illegal money-laundering and gun-running operations known as Irangate, attempted to shift blame for the affair to Israel and her “supporters” for getting the US into the project. In fact Reagan had asked Israel and the Arab oil producers (who were not accused alongside Israel) for assistance in order to insulate the administration. Fast-forward to the present Iraq war; at a time when the war seemed spiraling out of control Bush spokesmen, following the lead of their Reagan predecessors, blamed Israel for having “encouraged” the Bush decision to invade. In fact administration insiders, including then CIA chief George Tennant, insist that Bush had already decided to invade Iraq even before entering the White House in 2001 (see, for example, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil, below). It was also reported that Israeli leaders and intelligence services, along with their Saudi counterparts and the CIA, had advised Bush not to invade, that Iran and not Iraq was the main threat; and that an attack on either country would destabilize the region.

American Eugenics and European Genocide

For decades before Hitler much of America’s elite, from politicians to academics to Supreme Court justices believed in, popularized and legalized the “science” of race improvement known as Eugenics. Long before Germany voted Nazi, American eugenics had already defined the ideal racial stock for America as “Nordic.” American eugenics was the inspiration and legal precedent for German laws aimed at improving their racial stock by eliminating the “unfit.” American eugenics was the foundation for German genocide. Until the United States entered the war against Germany American eugenicists continued to collaborate closely with their German counterparts, helping put into practice that which, in the US, was but a shadow of eugenics’ full potential in race purification.

In the aftermath of war, genocide and Holocaust American eugenicists intervened to rehabilitate the reputations of their former Nazi colleagues. As a result many were returned to their former positions of professional and political standing in the “new” Germany. And the influence of eugenics in America also continued after the war, promoting forced sterilization to limit birth of the “unfit,” promoting state laws to prosecute persons engaged in “miscegenation,” marriage or sexual relations between whites and other “racial” stock.


Israeli Angst

Following Shoah and motivated by guilt, the United States reluctantly voted for partition, then stood by again in passive complicity as the apparently endangered Jews appeared to face yet another holocaust. England openly supported and armed Israel’s Arab enemies, Egypt and Jordan. Only with the withdrawal of England from the Middle East, the United States now protector of Arab oil, did Israel enter the strategic calculation. Israel, American policy-makers recognized, would be useful as balance to Soviet supported radical Arab regimes threatening the oil-rich conservative Arab regimes. Israel’s “special relationship” with the United States is, at least for her senior partner, a convenience, important only so long as oil is at risk. Such sympathies as “shared values” may exist in popular lore, provide a sense of security for those seeking such, but in the end pragmatic national interest is what motivates decision-making. If Israel feels dependent, is insecure about the future of her “special relationship,” she has reason.

Bush as “friend” of Israel

According to then Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil, at the first meeting of the National Security Council just ten days after the 2001 inauguration, Bush tasked those present to come up with a plausible reason to invade Iraq. Remember, this was more than two years before 9/11. From his 2003 decision to invade until his infamous 2008 secret letter to Bashar Assad the Bush Administration pursued what observers generously describe as a confused and contradictory Middle East policy. At times Israeli interests converged with those of Bush, as with their shared “war on terror,” and this may partly explain Israel’s positive regard for the man. But from a wider perspective, did the eight years of this administration help or harm the state of the Jews?

Until his final year in office Bush almost entirely ignored Arab-Israeli peace-making. On the rare occasions he did show interest, as with the Palestinian election of 2006, his intervention proved not only misguided but a regional disaster. Prior to the election Abbas and Israeli leaders, anticipating the Hamas victory, were unable to convince Bush. The president insisted the elections proceed on schedule with the result that, not only did Hamas win the election, but won also new respect and credibility among Palestinians. Within days Bush had second thoughts about his support of Palestinian democracy and concluded that Hamas had to go. With US funding, training and planning Fateh attempted a coup in Gaza. And again, not only did Hamas route Bush’s insurgents, but Hamas prestige among Palestinians soared, this time as a military force.

Barely two years later, with Israel one year into negotiations with Assad over peace and the future of the Golan (in face of Bush criticism for talking to that Axis of Evil country), in October, 2008 Bush sent PA president Abbas to Damascus to hand-deliver a personal and secret letter, president-to-president, Bush-to-Assad. Its contents, leaked to Arab media, assured Syria that in exchange for breaking relations with Iran, Israel would withdraw from the Golan before the end of the Bush presidency. Of course none of this had been even discussed with Israel. So whatever his personal ambitions or motives, Israeli security was not among his concerns. Should these examples raise questions regarding Bush as “friend” and “benefactor”? Is another example needed? Then consider his use of the 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), his transfer of responsibility for dealing with Iran from the US to Israel.

Bush and the “Iranian Bomb”

A fair and not raised question regarding an Iranian bomb is against whom might such a weapon pose the greatest threat? Israel, now apparently abandoned to her own resources by Bush and Europe, is convinced that she is the primary target. While this may or not be true in the future it is not likely today. The ability to build a small nuclear device is not the same as possessing the technology and human resources to create a warhead, to produce a missile capable of accurate warhead delivery. So the immediate threat of a Nuclear Iran is not a high-tech weapon for nation-to-nation combat, but a small “dirty bomb” of the suitcase variety, a weapon more suited to hand-delivery by a terrorist. And since Israel likely has the best anti-terror defenses in the world, a softer target, such as Madrid or Chicago, would offer the better chance for success. Yet Israeli policy makers appear convinced that Israel is the primary target that, abandoned by the US and Europe; that, as a matter of self-defense, it is up to Israel to eliminate the threat, unilaterally if necessary. Certainly Ahmadinejad’s bluster contributes to raise the temperature, to feed the perception. But Israel is by decades of same accustomed to enemy bluster.

I suggest that, while naïve and not gifted in diplomacy, when it comes to public relations, to political manipulation, Bush is a master. Bush perceived Israeli sensitivity and exploited it. He sold Israel a bill of goods, and Israelis swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker!

Conclusion

By the facts it should be clear that Israel’s trust in her “special relationship” is the result of justifiable insecurity, and that American Jewry’s opposite response shares the same source. But for Israel angst expresses a subconscious awareness of a danger which, for a people armed and independent, defense is a realistic possibility. But American Jewry and our entire Diaspora are no more capable of self-defense today than during Shoah, Inquisition or Crusade, so rather than serve as warning, we shroud ourselves in false security, deny the reality of the danger. For the Diaspora, our collective “confidence,” “ease” and “comfort” are a willful act of Denial.

One hundred years ago German Jewry, more assimilated and intermarried than are we today in the United States, described their fatherland as “exceptional.” American Jewry today apply the same description. The difference is that today we have the benefit of historical experience. Limpieza de sangre is, as were concentration camps in the US during WWII, a historical fact, a legal precedent.

History may not repeat itself, but it does serve as precedent. It is our responsibility to accept the facts of history, to recognize our Denial and accept the lessons of history. The lives of our children depend on it.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Israel’s “special relationship,” Reality or Myth?

“If Israel is insecure about the future of her “special relationship” (with the US) she has reason to be.”

The election of Barak Obama brought to surface doubt among some Israelis regarding American Jewry’s identification with, and commitment to the state of the Jews. Within Israel Bush is seen as friend and benefactor. How, the thinking goes, could the US community vote so overwhelmingly against Israel’s perceived interests? But what if the vote did consider Israel’s interests, what if it is Israel, rather than American Jewry, that was wrong about Bush? And what does this election result suggest about how our two communities see the world and the security of the Jewish people as we enter our third millennium of Diaspora? Israel is preoccupied with its “special relationship” with the US, worried about its appeal to, and continuing support by the Diaspora, while American Jewry appears confident and comfortable, secure in its chosen homeland. But is the US Diaspora really the source of Israeli unease, or is the source closer to home? And is American Jewry justified in its self-confidence and ease?

The history of Jewry in the Diaspora is of a nearly continuous disaster, from discrimination to persecution, from mass expulsion to mass murder. Beginning in the 5th century, when the church became de facto government of the Roman Empire, and continuing until the gradual secularization of Europe in the 18th century Jews were serfs, property of local rulers. With Enlightenment’s promise of “emancipation” came expectation of the end to discrimination and prejudice. But emancipation in practice meant assimilation, and even conversion did not end prejudice. The Dreyfus Affair put doubt of the promise to rest and Herzl, the assimilated journalist from Vienna, launched what became the revolution in Jewish identity, the movement of Jewish national liberation, Political Zionism.

The kidnapping and forced conversion of Edgardo Mortara by the Church in Rome and the trumped up conviction of Dreyfus in France; the lynching of Leo Frank by a mob made up of lawyers, judges and other professional elites in the United States; the bloody pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe all these reinforced awareness amongst Jews that the secularization of society not only failed to end discrimination, but continued to subject them to physical danger from their neighbors. And when Germany opted for a Nazi government the pace accelerated towards a final solution to Christendom’s 2000 year long Jewish Problem. How did this continuing and traumatic history of irrational abuse and aggression affect our individual and collective identity in Diaspora; what impact does it continue to impact the psyche and character of the state of the Jews?

Jewish Denial

We in the United States carry ourselves with confidence, comfortable in our “goldene medina.” But what in our experience justifies our confidence? Antisemitism is as old in the New World as our first immigrants seeking sanctuary in colonial New Amsterdam. Met at the dock by Peter Stuyvesant, the legendary governor, they were informed that the colony is Christian and Jews are not welcome. Following the Civil War General and later president Ulysses Grant issued his infamous order barring Jews from entering newly defeated states of the Confederacy. And, around the time Leo Frank was lynched by that genteel Georgia mob, Congress was busily drafting legislation aimed at halting the immigration of “inferior racial stock.” Twenty years later these restrictive laws would provide legal cover and future deniability for the United States closing heart and border to Jews fleeing the Holocaust; for condemning, with full knowledge, Europe’s Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz.

Is our confidence justified by our security as Americans in the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s and so on? It is a fact that antisemitism was as widespread in the US before and during Shoah as it was in Europe. Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg, antisemites and isolationists, represented this national mood, and both considered running, were the choice of the Republican Party for president. Had either decided to run for the office and, as was very possible, won, then it is very possible that such a government would either have remained neutral in the war, assuring a likely German victory; or the US might have actively joined Hitler’s crusade against atheistic Communism. In either case it is unlikely that local antisemitism, inspired by a Nazi Europe, would have been long restrained in expanding the reach of American eugenics to Hitler’s lethal conclusion. And taking into consideration that the US, like Germany, also had concentration camps, these for its Japanese-American citizens, the precedent provides a chilling warning for what nearly was, and is available as precedent for the future.

Israeli Angst

Following Shoah and motivated by guilt, anticipating that the survivors would be facing yet a second holocaust, the United States reluctantly voted for partition, then stood by in passive complicity. England openly supported and armed Israel’s Arab enemies, Egypt and Jordan. American interest in Israel only awakened when it served US interests, not the Jews. With the withdrawal of England from the Middle East it fell on the US to protect western oil interests. Israel’s “special relationship” arrived with the Soviet-radical Arab threat to the conservative monarchies producing oil. Israel’s “special relationship” with the United States is, for her senior partner, a convenience, important only so long as oil is at risk. Sympathies such as “shared values” may exist in the popular imagination but national interest, not “sympathies,” are what motivate countries to act, the glue that binds. If Israel is insecure about the future of her “special relationship” she has reason to be.

Bush as “friend” of Israel

According to then Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil, at the first meeting of the National Security Council just ten days after the 2001 inauguration Bush tasked those present to come up with a plausible reason to invade Iraq. Remember, this was more than two years before 9/11. From his 2003 decision to invade until his infamous 2008 secret letter to Bashar Assad his administration pursued what observers describe, most generously, as a confused and contradictory Middle East policy. At times Israeli interests converged with those of Bush, as with his “war on terror,” and this partly explains Israel’s positive regard for the man. But from a wider and objective perspective, did the eight years of this administration help or harm the state of the Jews?

Until his final year in office Bush almost entirely ignored Arab-Israeli peace. On the rare occasion when he did show interest, as with the Palestinian election of 2006, his intervention proved not only ineffective, but a disaster. Prior to the vote Abbas and Israel anticipated the Hamas victory but were unable to convince Bush, who insisted the elections proceed. Not only did Hamas win Bush’s election but won also new respect and credibility among Palestinians. Within days Bush had second thoughts about his adventure in Palestinian democracy and decided that Hamas had to go. With US funding, training and planning Fateh attempted a coup in Gaza. And again, not only did Hamas route the insurgents, but Hamas prestige among Palestinians soared, this time as a military force. Barely two years later, with Israel one year into negotiations with Assad over peace and the future of the Golan in face of Bush criticism for even talking to that Axis of Evil country, in October, 2008 Bush sent PA president Abbas to Damascus to hand-deliver a personal and secret letter to Assad. Its contents leaked to Arab media, the letter assured Syria that Israel would withdraw from the Golan in exchange for Syria breaking her alliance with Iran. Of course none of this had been discussed with Israel. So whatever his motives, Israeli security was not among his priorities. Should these examples raise questions regarding Bush as “friend” and “benefactor”? Is another example needed? Then consider his use of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to transfer responsibility for dealing with Iran from the US to Israel.

Bush and the “Iranian Bomb”

A fair and not raised question regarding an Iranian bomb is, against which country(ies) might such a weapon pose the greatest threat? Israel, apparently abandoned to her own resources by Bush and Europe, is convinced that she is the primary target. While this may or not be true in a decade, it is not likely today. The ability to build a small nuclear device is not the same as having the technology and resources to create a warhead, to produce a missile capable of accurate warhead delivery. So the immediate threat of a Nuclear Iran is not to produce a high-tech weapon useful in nation-to-nation combat, but a small “dirty bomb” of the suitcase variety, a weapon more suited to hand-delivery by a terrorist. And since Israel likely is most experienced in counter-terror, has the best anti-terror defenses in the world, a softer target, such as Madrid or Chicago would offer the best chance for success. Yet Israeli policy makers appear convinced that the state of the Jews is the primary target, that it is Israel’s responsibility to eliminate the threat, unilaterally if necessary. Certainly Ahmadinejad’s bluster contributes to this perception. But Israel is accustomed to enemy bluster. I suggest that, while naïve and not gifted in diplomacy, when it comes to public relations, to political manipulation, Bush is a master. And Israel was sold hook, line and sinker.

By the facts it should be clear that Israel’s trust in her “special relationship” is a need driven by emotion. It should also be clear that American Jewry’s opposite response, our comfort and trust in our Diaspora home shares the same emotional source. But there identity ends. Because if Israeli angst expresses a subconscious awareness of a danger which an armed and independent state has the ability to confront and defend against when illusion turns real, American Jewry and our entire Diaspora are no more capable of self-defense today than during Shoah, Inquisition or Crusade. Aware as we are at some level of the danger, by ignoring the long-standing and well-documented threat, we in Diaspora are risking the lives of our children in service of our need for the illusion of security in what, for us, are familiar surroundings. Our “confidence,” “ease” and “comfort” are a willful act of Denial. One hundred years ago German Jewry, more assimilated and intermarried than are we today in the United States, described their fatherland as “exceptional,” as do we today.

History may not repeat itself, but it does serve as precedent. It is our responsibility to accept the facts, to recognize our own Denial: to accept the lessons of history. Our children’s lives depend on it.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Bush offers Golan to Assad?

Monday Nov 03, 2008

From the moment he succeeded Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority it was clear that Mahmoud Abbas, one of the Palestinian architects of the Oslo Accords, lacked both the political power and charisma necessary to unite his own Fatah party. His efforts at avoiding civil war by integrating Hamas into the political system proved too successful, casting doubt also on his political judgment. Today, with the Palestinians in a state of political anarchy just short of open civil war, with two Palestinian enclaves, it is clear to even the most optimistic among us that unless and until the Palestinians mature to the point of peace among themselves, expecting them to come to peace with Israel is unrealistic.

It appears that this judgment was also reached by the experts advising both contenders for the US presidency, now recommending to their candidates that Palestine, roadmap or no, should be shelved indefinitely in favor of the Syrian track. And now, according to reports appearing in Israeli media, even President Bush, for whom Syria is a member of his Axis of Evil, understands this and sent President Abbas to Damascus to deliver a personal and secret letter directly to Bashar al-Assad.

The existence and contents of that letter, kept secret not only from Israel but from his ambassador to Syria, reportedly contains nothing less than a pledge to the Syrian president to pressure Israel off the Golan during the few remaining months of his presidency. In return Bush would have Assad break ties with Iran. Israeli leaders expressed concern, and several reasons for that concern will be mentioned below. But dangerous as the impact on Israel's relations with Syria and much of the Arab world are, the letter's implications for the state of the Jews and its "special relationship" with the United States may be even graver.

By its very existence the Bush letter portrays Israel as an expendable ally. In the eyes of Syria and the rest of the Middle East, a forced Israeli withdrawal from the Golan would cast it as puppet of an unreliable protector. Nor is this the first situation in which the present US administration has placed Israel in harm's way according to US interests. Bush encouraged Israel in the run up to the Lebanon war and, when victory was too slow in coming, had Rice order Israel not to cross the Litani River. The effect was to assure that Israel could not defeat Hizbullah, whose leadership and arsenal were well north of the river. A military setback for Israel, to the Arab street not only the first ever victory, but achieved by a mere militia! For Bush the Lebanon loss was a minor failure in the president's cold war with Iran. But Israel is not a safe seven thousand miles distant, and in the Middle East an Israel even appearing to be in decline is an invitation to challenge, and war.

Negotiations between countries represent a period of testing of motives and policy baselines. It provides a period of gradual narrowing of distance between opposing positions, an opportunity to gradually build understanding and trust. An imposed "agreement" such as the one Bush is proposing would be nothing less than another Czechoslovakia, another Munich sellout.

This letter, this Bush initiative, clearly demonstrates the limits of US commitment and reliability to Israel, a red flag to Israel to revisit its emotional and cultural dependence, its so-called "special relationship" with the United States.

Israel today enjoys significant respect and admiration by a majority of Americans and their politicians. But support and commitment are always conditional on present needs and interests, and commitment is never forever. The Bush letter casts a long shadow, a clear warning that Israel must appreciate and respond to.

Should US interests in the Middle East change, which they eventually will, resulting in lessening support for Israel, then the political culture of support will keep pace. At that time popular sympathy and support among the general public for the state of the Jews will also fade.

The Bush letter is a clear warning and harbinger of things to come. Afterword
What I wrote above may be mistaken as a warning of an imminent threat. I do believe the threat real, but not imminent. The Bush presidency is deviant in many ways, the Bush Letter merely the most obvious and recent evidence of how, not when, US interest will move that country to take actions contrary to Israel's interests. Under Bush this has already occurred several times; the invasion of Iraq removed the only significant enemy of Iran, Sadam Hussein, and propelled the Islamic Republic along the path of its hegemonic ambitions; the Palestinian elections, forced by Bush over the advice of Israel and Abbas, propelled Hamas to political and military prominence; Bush encouraged the invasion of Lebanon then ordered Israel to halt when it failed to win decisively within some imaginary Bush time frame.

While the Bush presidency certainly followed its own erratic course, relying on the president's much vaunted intuition and "guidance from above," most American presidents are more open to advice of specialists, more logical and sophisticated in exercising home governance and world affairs, to choose diplomacy over military action.

Bush will soon be replaced by, most likely, a more typical and logical president, so his danger to the "special relationship" will likely recede. And Israel will return to the quiet comfort of its mostly one sided "special relationship." And this is precisely the problem. Israel depends on its relationship with the United States; its partner needs Israel far less. And in time, when the oil runs dry or cheap alternative energy comes of age, its American patron may well need Israel not at all. It is towards that day for which Israel must prepare.


Responses:

1 Scott USA, Tuesday Nov 04, 2008
As indicated in the Bible, During the time of Jacob's Trouble, Israel will be betrayed and it will be the USA that betrays Israel because we are Israel's only current supporter. If Obama is elected, he is Pro-Arab. Israel must look out for their own interests - no one else will.
2 CiFMmsrm, Tuesday Nov 04, 2008

Perhaps an Obama victory will have a silver lining: Israel will stop being afraid of the US president and start ignoring his orders.

3 Michael Groves Texas United States, Wednesday Nov 05, 2008
There are some of us that support Israel period. Oil in the ground or not some of us believe that Israel right to exsist is worth dieing or killing for. The "letter" sent to Assad sounds more like political propaganda. Not all Americans are oil starved cowboys.

4 Ron - Oshawa - Ontario - Canada, Thursday Nov 06, 2008
Christians in US & Canada have always supported and prayed for Israel. What I don't understand is why the majority of Jewish voters in US voted for Obama and generally vote Democrat. Don't they understand that Chrsitians are conservatives and not liberal or Democrat ? Don't they understand that Consevatives/Christians believe in biblical prohecy ? Don't they realize the future role of Israel and Jerusalem is to be the capital of the world ? The word will go forth from Jerusalem and he shall rule with a rod of iron. WHY THE DISCONNECT ???? PLEASE EXPLAIN !!!!

5 David Turner, Thursday Nov 06, 2008
With understanding and appreciation that many Christians living in the US today are supporters of a Jewish state, to appreciate why Jews tend to vote the way we do it is necessary to take a longer view of Christian-Jewish relations. For nearly two thousand years Jews living in Diaspora have been subjected to discrimination, persecution and mass murder by our neighbors in the west. Antisemitism was rife throughout the west, not just Germany, etc, but also the US. In the years of the Holocaust Jews fleeing death were turned away by our country also.

Our history has helped shape us culturally and politically. Perhaps we are, as a result of long experience, more sensitive than others to unjust suffering of individuals and minorities. It is not that we vote as a bloc; rather we tend towards empathy, and vote conscience. This also goes a way in explaining why Jews are over-represented in the so-called “helping professions,” such as medicine, psychotherapy and social work.