January 27, 2012, 2:52 AM
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European and American perfidy in dealing with Iran's nuclear weapons program apparently has no end. This week we were subject to banner headlines announcing that the EU has decided to place an oil embargo on Iran. It was only when we got past the bombast that we discovered that the embargo is only set to come into force on July 1.
Following its European colleagues, the Obama administration announced it is also ratcheting up its sanctions against Iran... in two months. Sometime in late March, the US will begin sanctioning Iran's third largest bank.
At the same time as the Europeans and the Americans announced their phony sanctions, they reportedly dispatched their Turkish colleagues to Tehran to set up a new round of nuclear talks with the ayatollahs. If the past is any guide, we can expect for the Iranians to agree to sit down and talk just before the oil embargo is scheduled to be enforced. And the Europeans - with US support - will use the existence of talks to postpone indefinitely the implementation of the embargo.
There is nothing new in this game of fake sanctions. And what it shows more than anything is that the Europeans and the Americans are more concerned with pressuring Israel not to attack Iran's nuclear installations than they are in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Obama has a second target audience - American Jews. He is using his fake sanctions as a means of convincing American Jews that he is a pro-Israel president and that in the current election season, not only should they cast their votes in his favor, they should sign their checks for his campaign.
Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were quick this week to make clear that these moves are insufficient. They will not force Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. More is needed.
As to American Jewry, the jury is still out.
In truth, American Jewry's diffidence towards taking a stand on Iran, or recognizing Obama's dishonesty on this issue specifically and his dishonesty regarding his position on US-Israel ties generally is not rooted primarily in American Jews' devotion to Obama. It isn't even specifically related to American Jewry's devotion to the political Left. Rather it has to do with American Jewish ambivalence to Israel.
The roots of that ambivalence - which is shared by other Western Jewish communities to varying degrees - predate Obama's presidency.
Indeed, they predate the establishment of the State of Israel. And now, as the US and the EU have given Iran at least another six months to a year to develop its nuclear bombs unchecked, it is worth considering the nature and influence of this ambivalence.
Today's principal form of Jew-hatred is anti- Zionism. Anti-Zionism is similar to previous dominant forms of Jew hatred such as Christian anti-Judaism, xenophobic and racist anti- Semitism, and Communist anti-Jewish cosmopolitanism in the sense that it takes dominant, popular social trends and turns them against the Jews. Anti-Zionism's current predominance owes to the convergence of several popular social trends which include Western post-nationalism, and anti-colonialism.
The problem that anti-Zionism poses for American Jewry is that it forces them to pay a price for supporting Israel. This is problematic because Zionism has never been fully embraced by American Jewry. Since the dawn of modern Zionism, the cause of Jewish self-determination placed American Jewish leaders in an uncomfortable dilemma.
UNLIKE EVERY other Diaspora Jewish community, the American Jewish community has always perceived itself as a permanent community rather than an exilic community. American Jews have always viewed the United States as the new Promised Land.
With the formation of the modern Zionist movement in the late 19th century, American Jews found themselves on the horns of a dilemma. Clearly, the state of world Jewry was such that national self-determination had become an existential necessity for non-American Jews.
But while supporting Jewish refugees and a scrappy little country was okay, support for the Zionist cause of Jewish national liberation involved an acceptance of the fact that Israel - not the US - is the Jewish homeland. Moreover, it involved accepting that there are Jewish interests that are independent of - if not necessarily in contradiction with - American interests. For instance, irrespective of the prevailing winds in Washington, and regardless of whether the US supports Israel or not, it is a Jewish interest that Israel exists, thrives and survives.
In a recent op-ed in Haaretz, Hebrew University political science professor Shlomo Avineri contrasted world Jewry's massive mobilization on behalf of Soviet Jewry in the 1970s and 1980s and their relative silence today in the face of Iran's Holocaust denial and open calls for the annihilation of the Jewish state. Avineri is apparently confounded by the disparity between Western Jewry's behavior in the two cases.
But the cause of the disparity is clear. Supporting the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate was easy. Unlike Israel, Soviet Jews were powerless. As such, they were pure victims and supporting them cost Diaspora Jews nothing in terms of their position in their societies.
Just as important, the cause of freedom for Soviet Jewry was perfectly aligned with the West's Cold War policies against the Soviet Union. The frequent Jewish demonstrations outside Soviet legations provided Western leaders with another tool to fight the Cold War.
In contrast, supporting Israel, and the cause of Jewish freedom and self-determination embodied by Zionism, is not cost-free for Diaspora Jews. At root, to support Israel and Zionism involves accepting that Jews have inherent rights as Jews. To be a Zionist Jew in the Diaspora means that you embrace and defend the notion that the Jews have the right to their own interests and that those interests may be distinct from other nations' interests. That is, to be a Zionist involves rejecting Jewish assimilation and embracing the fact that Jews require national independence and power to guarantee our survival. And this can be unpleasant.
PRO-ISRAEL AMERICAN Jews have historically tried to tie their support for Israel to larger, more universal themes, in order to extricate themselves from the need to admit that as Jews and supporters of Israel they have a right and a duty to support Jewish freedom even if it isn't always pretty. Again, for Israel's first several decades, it was about helping poor Jews and refugees. In recent years, the predominant defense has been that Israel deserves support because it is a democracy.
Certainly, these are both reasonable reasons for supporting Israel. But neither support for Israel because it was poor nor support for Israel because it is free is a specifically Zionist reason for supporting Israel. You don't have to be a Zionist to support poor Jewish refugees and you don't have to be a Zionist to support democracy.
You do have to be a Zionist however, to defend the Jews in Israel and throughout the world in a coherent manner when the predominant form of Jew-hatred is anti-Zionism.
You have to be willing to accept and defend the right of the Jewish people to freedom and self-determination in our national homeland against those who deny that right. You have to be a Zionist to defend Israel's right to survive and thrive even though it is no longer poor and its democratically elected government is not liked by the Obama administration.
And you have to be a Zionist to realize that since Jewish survival is dependent on Jewish power, and anti-Zionists reject the right of Jews to have power, that anti-Zionists seek to bring about a situation where Jewish survival is imperiled.
The weakness of American Jewry's response to Iran's genocidal intentions towards Israel is of a piece with its weak response to the forces of anti-Zionism generally and to Jewish anti- Zionists particularly. Since 2007, the US government has effectively ruled out the use of force against Iran's nuclear weapons program and embraced a policy of pursuing negotiations with ayatollahs while enacting impotent sanctions to quell congressional pressure. At least in part, this policy is due to the US's assessment that a nuclear Iran does not pose a high-level threat to US national security.
Both then-president George W. Bush and later Barack Obama determined that an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear weapons program does pose a high-level threat to the US. As a consequence, both administrations have taken concerted steps to prevent Israel from attacking Iran.
On the merits, both of these policies are easily discredited. But the fact that they continue to be implemented shows that they are supported by a large and powerful constituency in Washington.
To oppose Iran's nuclear program effectively, American Jews are required to oppose these strongly supported US policies. And at some point, this may require them to announce they support Israel's right to survive and thrive even if that paramount right conflicts with how the US government perceives US national interests.
That is, it may require them to embrace Zionism unconditionally.
No doubt, if they do so, their own conditions will improve. They will finally be able to speak coherently against the gathering forces of anti-Zionism - both from within the Jewish community and from without. This in turn will act as a lightning rod for inspiring American Jews to embrace their Judaism.
With their leaders having abjectly failed to contend with the most powerful form of Jew-hatred, it is no wonder that so many Diaspora Jews are leaving the fold. If they reverse course and go after their attackers, American Jewish leaders will give community members a meaningful reason to proudly embrace their identity.
In a speech this week at the Knesset, Netanyahu explained the different lessons the Holocaust teaches the international community on the one hand, and the Jews on the other.
As far as its universal lessons are concerned, Netanyahu said, "The lesson is that the countries of the world must be woken up, as much as possible, so that they can organize against such crimes.
The lesson is that the broadest possible alliances must be forged in order to act against this threat before it is too late."
As for the Jews, Netanyahu embraced Zionism's core principle: "With regard to threats to our very existence, we cannot abandon our future to the hands of others.
"With regard to our fate, our duty is to rely on ourselves alone."
We must hope that world Jewry will recognize today that the fate of the Jewish people in Israel and throughout the world is indivisible and rally to Israel's side whatever the social cost of doing so. But even if they do not recognize this basic truth, the imperatives of Zionism, of the Jewish people, remain in place.
Originally published in the Jerusalem Post.
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"UNLIKE EVERY other Diaspora Jewish community, the American Jewish community has always perceived itself as a permanent community rather than an exilic community. American Jews have always viewed the United States as the new Promised Land".
What a potent comment, especially as we see the US rushing headlong into ungodly socialism.
Even with the promise of Zionism Jews did not leave the comfort of Europe after WW1. It took the holocaust of Nazi Germany to drive those that remained from Europe. But even then they fled to the US in droves rather than face the privations of the promised land.
What will it take to fulfil Ezekiel 37:11-15; and with these things in mind, what is in store for the US?
Thanks, as always, for telling like it is, Caroline.
With regard to the sharp contrast between American Jewry's strident embrace of Soviet Jewish emigration in the 70's and 80's, versus its (at best) muted, if barely existent, response to the emergence of a nuclear Iran and the attendant unequivocal genocidal threats, I think (sadly) that this may have more to do with the American Jewish remnant being about a generation and a half further assimilated and thus simply indifferent due to lack of Jewish national awareness and identity.
בשעה טובה.
A most incredible post. I am an American Jew and a Zionist who has been around long enough to see the assimilation of American Jews reach epic proportions. Right now the future looks very bleak for Israel and Jews in general owing mainly to the surge in worldwide antisemitism including here in the US. There is still hope if our Jewish leaders wake up and remind us where our loyalties actually lie. There is no question that we Jews cannot exist without the Jewish State. (b'shaah tovah!) Shabbat shalom to you and Klal Yisrael
Those who understand Who is truly in control are not troubled at all by what is on the horizon.
They know who is sending the big storm and why.
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as small dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the isles like a very little thing.
Isaiah 40:15
It is incredible to see God place Israel in a corner from which there is no extraction but by His hand.
Netanyahu is dead wrong when he says;
"With regard to our fate, our duty is to rely on ourselves alone."
After decades of Israeli government policy to grovel and obey the diktats of Washington's counterfeit peace scheme ,Netanyahu semi-awakens but still refuses to lead the nation to look to Israel's only hope but leads them to trust in themselves.
(the same fools who got themselves into this mess to begin with)
God will get the undivided attention of Israel and they will stop looking to the perverted nations and themselves.
That is really what Iran is all about.
Just as He hardened Pharaoh of Egypt's heart against Moses request to let the Empire's cheap labor,the Jewish slave go home to the promised land so to has he given now cursed America Obama the Destroyer and allowed Iran to become a threat to Israel.
The Jews of America are in for a major correction on where exactly the 'promised land'is.
Jeremiah 51
Flee out of the midst of America ! Let every man save his life! Let not destruction come upon you through her [punishment for] sin and guilt. For it is the time of the Lord's vengeance; He will render to her a recompense.
America was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken. The nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.
8 America has suddenly fallen and is shattered (destroyed)! Wail for her [if you care to]! Get balm for her [incurable] pain; if [you do] so she may [possibly] be healed!
We would have healed America with a Newt or a Mitt, but she is not healed. Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her guilt and the judgment against her reach to heaven and are lifted even to the skies.
The Lord has brought forth and made known the righteousness [of our cause]; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
"With their leaders having abjectly failed to contend with the most powerful form of Jew-hatred" - As indeed they failed to stand up for their European brethren during the Holocaust. So nothing new on that front.
German Jews thought they were assimilated. Germans of mixed parentage who didn't consider themselves Jewish at all soon discovered that they were.
If American Jews believe that they will always and forever be considered to be American by their non-Jewish countrymen, think again. My son wants to wear a Star of David in public, and sometimes does. This makes me fear for his safety. In America.
There may come a time when American Jews need an escape plan. Better hope Israel still exists when the s*it hits the fan.
Just sayin'
@ marcel, could not have said it any better , mankind is about to get a big dose of "reality" by it's "CREATOR" , mankind without it's "CREATOR" running the show is like a runaway train without anyone at the wheel!!!!!!! , hang on to your shorts "WE" are in for a nasty ride!!!!!!!!!!!
The world around us is becoming surreal. How is it possible that there is almost no reaction to all the crazy things Obama is doing ( helping Muslim Brotherhood to come to power in Egypt, donating $300m to Hamas, being against the Menandez Kirk amendment, being friends with Erdogan, doing nothing about Syria ). WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICAN JEWS? Don't they realize that they will be partly responsible for enabling another Holocaust? I really do not feel like being incinerated by a nuclear bomb because of uninformed liberal American Jews who do not understand anything about what is going on in the Middle East. Enough! This is not a joke. Our lives are at stake! Get educated!! MAD is Dead
www.madisdead.blogspot.com
I agree and in fact American Jews are no different than the German Jews who accommodated themselves to Hitler saying that they were more German than the Germans. However Israel is not a Zionist state. The Leftist leadership (including Netanyahu) of Israel has alwsys compromised with the anti-Semites. It promotes Leftist/Socialist values (denigration of Torah and disbelief in the Holy One) which are anti-Jewish values. Israeli leadership has always tried to accommodate and ingratiate itself to the goyim as has any court Jew. Israel is yet another dispora community accommodating itself to a gentile world. Israel is not a Zionist State; it is a Judenrat State and does not have the right to exist.
I think ambivalence of American Jews towards Israel has a lot to do with incoherence of Israeli policies. Adherence to Zionist principles often requires speaking out against official Israeli position, which is far more difficult than even splitting loyalties between US and Israel (something we thankfully haven't had to do yet). Case in point, campaign by Israeli nationalist organizations asking American Zionists to call on US government to prevent Israel from abandoning Gaza. So what would have made me a better Zionist, inviting US government to trample upon Israel's sovereignty or supporting a schizophrenic decision to throw thousands of fellow Jews from their homes and to subject the rest to mortal danger?
Israel, beware of the West, that used us Armenians in WW1 then turned their backs on us with the Turk army re-advancing and slaughtering into what was left of Armenia. Israel must remain strong and never put itself in danger on assurances of protection by the West. You will be betrayed.
I can recommend 'The Banality of Indifference' by Yair Auron, on how the Armenian Genocide affected Jewish strategy for survival in WW1 in Palestine.
We are certainly brothers and sisters in suffering.
I agree with adam and anon. In the kindest way, I must say that American Jews can tell themselves they are assimilated and in superficial ways and certainly legal ways they are. But what makes someone who they are at the core cannot be changed and certainly those around them know that. It's like, when only people from their biological group sit in a private circle, they know deep down there is a connection among them with no ill will to any other groups. And those other groups, they know it because they feel it too. There a few who heed warnings and the rest for a variety of reasons have to learn the hard way. I am astonished at how anti-Semitism has been tolerated in the US in the last few years. That toleration comes from the Left because the Left controls the media.I believe it is logical to be American first if you are American, but that does not mean you have to deny who you are, because that is American, too. George Soros is a perfect example. His life will be over in a few years What will he be remembered for? Turning his back on who he was.
To call Netanyahu a leftist one would have to be ultra orthodox or perhaps a true leftist with an ulterior motive. The denigrating of Israel as just another diaspora community with no right to exist could be such a motive.
For others who talk the talk, it is all very easy to sit comfortably in the background and condemn those who must bear the pressures of high office.
Would Netanyahu's critics be so eager to confront the world with a clenched fist if it was their decision that could engulf their nation in war? I think not.
However Israel is being inexorably pushed into a corner - and a war of survival. I trust Netanyahu will be there to lead Israel during that time.
It seems evident that the Israeli Department of Information, and others concerned with the survival of Israel are not getting this right.
When you have the money, the backing, the expertise and ability, and most importantly, the truth, on your side, and cannot make a winnable case for Israel and are actually losing the propaganda war, then you must know you are doing something wrong.
It is perfectly possible to win when the truth is on your side even if the purveyors of lies do put up a heck of a fight.
This was the most incisive examination of anti-semitism I've read in ages. Congratulations on the depth of your analysis. Others need books to express what you did in a column.