I am often dismayed at the level of Jewish discourse regarding Israel. Presidents and candidates are judged by the music of their language not by the consequences of their policies. Competition for the Jewish vote is based of who loves and supports Israel more.
A recent Jewish and Israeli parlor game has been “who was better for Israel – Clinton or Bush II”; (which really means who told us what we wanted to hear more)? The question should be: “what concrete results did they achieve that had positive consequences for the future survival, security and prosperity of Israel”.
By this standard I suggest the following:
First Place – Harry Truman: for supporting the creation of the State of Israel (the most transcendent event of the past 2,000 years of Jewish history) against the wishes of his own State Department and the open threats of General George Marshall.
Second Place – Jimmy Carter: for putting all his energy into achieving the peace with Egypt – the second most important modern Jewish event after the creation of the state. His smarmy self-righteous preaching at Israel is a trivial annoyance in comparison to the removal the most powerful Arab army from the circle of hostility around Israel. Whether he likes us or not should be a matter of indifference.
Third Place – George Bush I: For unleashing his attack dog James Baker (he of that immortal line: “F**K the Jews – they don’t vote for us anyway”) and forcing the Madrid Conference which led to the unjustly maligned Oslo agreements. Without the Madrid/Oslo process Israel would have no formal contact with the Palestinians, no peace treaty with Jordon, no diplomatic relations with Mauritania, no extensive de facto economic relations with the Gulf States and Morocco. But most important- Israel would not have normalized relations with India and China, the 21st century economic superpowers and Israel’s fastest growing trading partners.
Reagan, Clinton and Bush II are not even in the running. What did any of them accomplish that was really good for Israel?
So which candidate will be “good for the Jews” — Obama or McCain? Simple – the one who has the most doable energy policy – a policy that effectively impacts on the liquid fuel crisis. Given the constraints of modern geo-politics and the globalized economy the only area in which the next president can be transformational is energy.
Petrodollars are the biggest threat to the West, the United States and the Jews. They finance Iran’s nuclear program, anti-Semitic and anti-western literature and activity, terror organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and El Qaeda and most recently the neo-Stalinist bullying of Mr. Putin. American Jews can therefore be super-patriotic to America while serving their own “parochial” concerns.
What is not good for Israel is the mindless reaffirmation of support for a United Jerusalem without considering the consequences of what this means. Jerusalem has three parts: West (Jewish); East (Arab) and the Old (Walled) City (divided into 4 quarters – Jewish; Moslem, Christian and Armenian). It is the Old City that is culturally and politically problematic – certainly not East Jerusalem which is actually a loose collection of slums and rundown villages.
Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem should be viewed as a valiant attempt to disprove the racist canard that Jews are smarter than other people. Israel incorporated 300,000 hostile Arabs and provided them with blue Israeli ID Cards. The recent Yeshiva massacre and the two attacks with construction equipment were perpetrated by East Jerusalemites carrying Israeli IDs. Impoverished East Jerusalemites, possessing Israeli IDs, qualify for Israeli welfare. They receive over a billion shekels a year in benefits. This is roughly equivalent to the entire yearly contribution of the United Jewish Communities to Israel.
Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem has been a catastrophe, so YES! DIVIDE IT AGAIN!!!. The West to the Jews; the East to the Arabs with the Old City having some kind of special status. If the United Nations was not a moral and intellectual brothel one might conceive of UNESCO coordinating a joint government. But one must admit this is a sticking point.
So who will be good for Israel? Presidents who declare the standard clichés about standing shoulder to shoulder with our ally, the only democracy in the Middle East, while acceding to a policy that is both undemocratic and the greatest danger to Israelis survival as a Jewish State? Or Presidents who see a commonality of genuine Grand Strategic interests between Israel and the West and recognize that weak responses to the undemocratic behavior of the settlers serve neither?
In conclusion, in anticipation of inevitable attacks from American Jewish “chicken hawks” – anxious to prove their manhood at the expense of the last drop of Israeli blood – I feel compelled to demonstrate my non-leftist, non-dovish bona fides. I classify myself as a “Ben Gurionist” – a combination of territorial minimalism and security activism.
For example the only objections I have to Israel’s security barrier are that it is not finished, is not higher and deeper and does not have a hundred meter “death zone” on each side of it. I believe the Palestinians have forfeited their right to a State because of their behavior after the 2000 Camp David discussions and after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. I believe that Israel has the absolute right under international law to respond massively to the point of fire of Kassam rockets, even if fired within civilian areas, and should have the moral fortitude to face down criticism about collective punishment.
I believe the best solution for Israel would be to for Egypt to reoccupy Gaza and Jordan to reoccupy the West Bank. The second best solution would be the creation of a Palestinian State. The worst “solution” would be to continue the occupation on the other side of the barrier.
Tsvi Bisk is an American-Israeli futurist, social researcher and strategy planning consultant. He is the Director of the Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking (www.futurist-thinking.co.il). He is co-author of Futurizing the Jews (Praeger Press 2003) and author of The Optimistic Jew: A positive vision for the Jewish people in the 21st century (Maxanna Press
