MOMENT / American Jews and Israel i Pol icy Henry Siegman

SAKE, ZION S

MOMENT January 1976/Shevat 5736 FOR ZION S SAKE American Jews and Israel i Pol icy Henry Siegman Israel's Policy Israel and world Jewry are faced with the dilemma of what credence to place in...

...their insistence on some prior indication by Israel of where it stands with regard to final borders is not entirely unreasonable...
...For however sharply one may question the efficacy of Israel's policy, its fundamental objective is moral and just — the survival and security of a nation whose credentials in history and in international law are more impressive than those of virtually any modern nation, not to speak of recent Third World creations...
...On the other hand, because of Israel's refusal to link interim agreements to considerations of a final peace, the Arab countries are able to wring concessions out of Israel without obligating themselves on the only issue that is critical for Israel — Arab acceptance of its existence...
...Are they now prepared to live in peace with an Israel that returns to the 1967 borders...
...It should not take great halachic expertise to perceive that whatever the halachic obligation to retain sacred ground, the security of the nation clearly takes precedence...
...the establishment of diplomatic relations, and other measures which tend to make the military option increasingly less likely...
...While it may serve to postpone a new round of war (not a negligible achievement), it does not take advantage of Arab change, if that change is real, and it seriously weakens Israel's political and security position if the change is not...
...It must surely be within the range of Israel's imagination and creativity — which have been applied with such stunning brilliance in her military defense — to devise a long-range, step-by-step peace plan (including demilitarization, patrols by mixed Arab-Israeli teams, etc...
...And in a July 22 New York Times report, "senior Israeli officials" describe the Israel proposal as "the maximum compromise possible consistent with security and the constraints of domestic politics" (emphasis added...
...An American Jew expressing views that are sharply at odds with Israeli policy must immediately face two questions...
...Aside from the fact that a democratic society must, by definition, accommodate all kinds of multiple loyalties (many far more questionable than Jewish commitment to one of the few remaining democratic societies), Jews have a moral right to their loyalty to their religion and culture, of which Eretz Yisrael is so essential a part...
...Such visitors became "almost without exception more hawkish during their stay in the country...
...The justification for that policy lies in Israel's lack of confidence in the conversion of Arab countries to the idea that Israel is a permanent feature of the Middle Eastern map...
...A policy that concedes the eventual return of the territories would give Israel the moral and political leverage to insist that any withdrawal must be preceded by a phased normalization of relations with her neighbors, e.g., direct negotiations with Arab governments, and not through intermediaries...
...The impact of Israel's policy on American Jewry, while clearly secondary to considerations of Israel's vital security, is hardly a trivial matter, and not only because Israel needs a viable American Jewish community for its own survival...
...But that is precisely the point...
...that tests Arab intentions and provides for "reversibility" in case of bad faith...
...What this concern does do, however, is point to the danger of blurring the critical distinction between the religious meaning that Jews appropriate — individually and collectively — from political events, and imbuing these events with an absolute sacredness that removes them from the realm of history...
...is hardly a trivial matter...
...For both countries, it is the "ultimates" that count most: Without a final willingness by Arabs to live in peace with Israel, Israel will have achieved little...
...On the other hand, there is the possibility — some would say near-certainty — that Henry Siegman is Executive Vice President of the Synagogue Counci of America the new Arab "reasonableness" is but a transparent deception intended to mask an unchanged goal: the ultimate destruction of an Israel weakened by military and political concessions...
...Their right also stems from the centuries of persecution to which Jews were subjected...
...Our policymakers were neither cruel nor stupid...
...Arab wealth and power are on the rise, and this may well be Israel's last chance to achieve a modus vivendi with her neighbors...
...Aside from the priority assigned in Jewish law to the principle of pikuach nefesh, it is not at all clear that k'dushat Eretz Yisrael requires an assertion of temporal political sovereignty...
...Any religious zealotry that invests political institutions and geoIt is an absolute article of faith on the part of American Jews that on questions of security and survival Israel's policies are beyond dispute by Diaspora Jewry graphic boundaries with an absolute religious sanctity, impervious to the normal give-and-take of the political process in secular history, raises deeply troubling questions...
...It would be sad, however, if an irrational unwillingness to look at options is what we have finally learned from them...
...Anthony Lake, a former U.S...
...It is the latter that is Jewishly uncharacteristic, and that can lead to a chauvinism that is oblivious to the rights and aspirations of others...
...the Arab countries are indeed serious, then...
...That proven loyalty imposes an obligation on Israeli policymakers to welcome critical reactions, without in any way compromising their sole responsibility for the decisions only they can finally make._ The Religious Issue There is an element in Israel, represented most prominently by a faction identified as gush emunim, which considers the territories sacred ground, to be retained at all costs...
...such factors inevitably play a role, and it is both naive and irresponsible to ignore them...
...The views I have expressed so far, undoubtedly unsettling to some, are shared in part or in their entirety by many mainstream Israelis including men such as former Foreign Minister Abba Eban...
...I do not suggest that Jews be in the least intimidated by charges of dual loyalties...
...an end to the economic boycott...
...The Egyptians . . . could assert the Israelis had relinquished the full length of the passes...
...And isn't an American who imagines he understands the situation better than the Israelis — whose very lives are on the line — guilty of a very special hubris...
...Beyond that, however, there is little that the situation in the Middle East has in common with Vietnam...
...without normalization, all other concessions remain meaningless...
...It goes without saying that only Israel can make the decisions that affect its security and survival...
...Perhaps the Arab claim that they have backed away from their earlier uncompromising hostility is ingenuous...
...Ts it conceivable that Israeli leaders, whose commitment to decent and humane values is beyond question, and for whom peace is not merely an abstract goal but the very condition of survival, would pursue policies that make the attainment of peace more difficult...
...Indeed, it is of the essence of Israel's policy to avoid a confrontation with the larger question of a final peace...
...There is yet one other aspect to the religious animation of gush emunim that I find highly problematic...
...But to preclude a serious debate in which Diaspora Jewry participates vigorously before fateful decisions are made is to deny Israel an important source of insight, and — inevitably — of support...
...One need not draw provocative parallels to the religious fanaticism that shaped Arab opposition to the Zionist movement, or to the ideological and mythological nationalisms of Western Europe that had such devastating consequences — not least for the Jewish people — to be concerned about the implications for politics of any ideological absolutes...
...The Israelis . . . would withdraw to the easternmost slopes and contend that they had not given up the passes entirely...
...without expectation of the eventual return of the territories, the Arab countries are not likely to grant normalization...
...It is not easy to get a hearing in the American Jewish community for such dissenting views...
...In theological terms, it risks becoming avodah zarah — idolatry...
...As reported by Bernard Gwertzman in The New York Times of July 10, 1975, "The key to the compromise approach . . . would be its deliberate ambiguity...
...Given that skepticism, Israel refuses to contemplate a return to the "vulnerability" of the 1967 borders, even if Jerusalem remains in Israeli hands and the Arabs agree to minor border rectifications...
...Even the wise men of Chelm could not have improved on that...
...And Washington would assert only that it was difficult to say with precision where the passes began and ended...
...It remains a stubborn fact of Jewish history that the segment of Orthodoxy most committed to the demands of the Halachah was the staunchest opponent of political Zionism...
...If these things are so — and it is a possibility, however unlikely, that must be considered seriously — then Israel must surely seize the opportunity...
...Unfortunately, Israel's present policy fails to cope with either one of these two possibilities...
...Indeed, the '67 boundaries issue has virtually become the test which determines whether one is "one of us" or "one of them...
...They themselves now know how tragically misguided they were...
...And it would overcome what is presently Israel's major political and moral vulnerability — for The impact of Israel's policy on American Jewry...
...In piecemeal negotiations, Israel is not shown what it would ultimately get from the Arabs, nor are the Arabs shown what they will ultimately get from Israel...
...Israel's policies are simply beyond dispute by Diaspora Jewry...
...This group's efforts to create Jewish settlements in the occupied territories has won for them wide admiration and support, even among secularists who do not share their fundamental assumptions...
...Israel has left herself open to the charge that, when faced with a choice of peace or territory, she prefers territory...
...It is therefore an absolute article of faith on the part of American Jews that on questions of security and survival...
...What is called for is a dramatic shift of focus from interim arrangements to final, permanent peace agreements, which, Israel would declare, could in principle and in time accommodate a return to substantially the 1967 boundaries, with the exception of Jerusalem and minor border rectifications...
...This much, at least, Vietnam has made abundantly clear...
...This concern, it should be stressed, does not bring into question the fundamental Jewish unity of faith, land and people...
...This unity remains at the core of our identity and existence...
...He notes, in this connection: "The most accurate of all official analysts of the situation, Louis Sarris in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, made a point of never going to Vietnam...
...Sadat may well persist in his insistence that such normalization must be left to another generation...
...For most American Jews, it has become a matter of unshakable dogma that a return to the '67 boundaries is totally inconceivable...
...Have they really abandoned their objective of driving Israel into the sea...
...This absence of critical analysis within American Jewry is based in part on an incredibly naive view that Israeli leaders always decide foreign policy issues on their objective merits, in contradiction to our experience in the United States, and are marvelously insulated from partisan domestic political considerations...
...Israel's present policy insists on the negotiation of interim, piecemeal arrangements, without confronting the question of the shape of ultimate peace...
...Foreign Service officer, describes in an article in The New York Times Magazine ("Coming of Age Through Vietnam...
...direct flights from Israel to neighboring countries...
...How quickly we have forgotten that Ben Gurion remained unalterably opposed to the retention of the territories...
...When put to the test, it is possible that the Arabs will back away from a process that would lead to a complete and formal peace with Israel, even in return for Israel's readiness to relinquish the territories...
...I invoke Vietnam only to argue that people deeply involved in the stresses of military and political conflict are not necessarily the most objective and reliable judges of their own situation...
...Which brings me to my central thesis: Only within the framework of an overall settlement — in which each side would see what it would get for what it is being asked to give — is significant progress possible...
...Americans brought to Vietnam great ideals and the highest of moral values...
...Despite the cosmetics that have been applied so assiduously, the fact remains that Israel was pressured into accepting the Sinai deal because of extrinsic considerations, i.e., Secretary Kissinger's and President Ford's personal need for "movement" in the Middle East...
...And it places a very special responsibility on Israel to consider carefully the impact of its policies on Jewish communities whose support it rightly expects...
...And the most misguided of all were those with firsthand experience in Vietnam...
...I am aware, of course, that their views, too, may be influenced by partisan political considerations...
...And whatever one may think of the politics of Amram Blau, who to this day refuses to recognize Jewish sovereignty over any part of Israel, his loyalty to the Halachah surely is no less than that of the Mizrachi...
...That certain knowledge does not free one, however, from questioning aspects of Israel's policies that do not seem to serve that fundamental objective...
...I must confess that if it were not for the experience of Vietnam, I would have found these considerations intimidating...
...And while there is nothing in the record of even Egypt, the most moderate of Arab countries, to warrant our trust, one is obliged to suggest that Israel must now develop strategies that persuasively demonstrate — to herself no less than to the world — that given the choice of territories or peace, Israel's choice will always be peace...
...Israel hopes that successful interim arrangements will sufficiently defuse tensions with her neighbors to allow for time — time in which the Arab countries might reconcile themselves to Israel's retention of substantial amounts of post-1967 territories, or at least in which the world may become less dependent on Arab oil...
...For those who did not learn the lesson from the October War, the more recent negotiations for the Sinai pullback should be instructive...
...July 20, 1975) how the irresistible excitement of the American effort enveloped Americans in Vietnam, as well as visitors from Washington...
...That is precisely the point: to put Arab countries to the test, something Israel cannot currently do...
...Looking back on his own experiences...
...an opening of borders to two-way traffic of people and goods...
...The right and obligation of American Jews to assess critically Israel's policies does not in any way lessen their obligation to stand solidly with Israel in her hour of need...
...The halachic issue is therefore spurious...
...Surely no one would argue that the viability and security of American Jewry is less weighty a consideration than Israeli domestic politics...
...It is a policy that offers the worst of both worlds, and may contain the seeds of disaster...
...Instead...
...American Jews now offer unqualified support for retention of territories, this in the face of a widely shared conviction by the U.S...
...national interest is a marginal consideration when it conflicts with Israel's foreign policy...
...There is reason to doubt that these efforts have brought us appreciably closer to the day that Arabs will live in peace with Israel...
...Instead of escalating concessions with no clear picture of where it will all end, Israel would strive first to reach an agreement on the fundamental principles of a comprehensive settlement, and then bargain about the steps to be taken along the way to that settlement...
...government and the American media that Israel's position is both unreasonable and contrary to fundamental American interests...
...The basic difficulty with such a policy is that it does not test the seriousness of the Arab claim that the Arabs are finally prepared to live in peace with Israel...
...A related problem deserves attention, and that is the troubling tendency of American Jewry to suspend its own critical judgment entirely when it comes to Israeli foreign policy...
...Vietnam has taught us their essential fallacy...
...Far from focusing entirely on critA people engaged in a struggle for survival can hardly afford the luxury of mindless dogmatism...
...It is this emotional unwillingness to examine new realities which for so long characterized the Arab attitude towards Israel...
...I certainly would not argue that domestic political considerations are irrelevant...
...American Jews have proven again and again their readiness to do so, and they will surely do so again in the future...
...by refusing to concede the possibility of a substantial return to the earlier boundaries under any conceivable circumstances, Israel has left herself open to the charge that, when faced with a choice of peace or territory, she prefers territory...
...I do argue — and most emphatically — that if Israel contemplates risking a critical rupture in relations with the United States for reasons determined, at least in part, by domestic political concerns, and American Jews are expected to mount the barricades against their own government in support of Israel's policies, then it is reckless and unconscionable not to have American Jewry's views considered...
...There is no doubt that this religio-nationalist sentiment plays some role in the political judgment of many of those, religiously committed or otherwise, who find the idea of a return to the '67 boundaries wrenching and unthinkable...
...MOMENT January 1976/Shevat 5736 FOR ZION S SAKE American Jews and Israel i Pol icy Henry Siegman Israel's Policy Israel and world Jewry are faced with the dilemma of what credence to place in the post-October War proclamations by Egypt and other Arab countries, including Syria...
...But an affirmation of an unapologetic solidarity with Israel does not imply disregard of the American national interest, or uncritical acceptance of Israeli policies...
...My skepticism applies not only to the Sinai agreement, but to the entire current peacemaking exercise, in which all the parties — and particularly the American Secretary of State — have invested such vast efforts...
...Diaspora Jewry The proposed policy would also relieve the present difficult position of American Jewry...
...This Jewish stance gives credence to the view that for the American Jewish community, the U.S...
...Indeed — within the narrow confines of the Sinai negotiations — Israel may well have been overly generous...
...Israel can conclude a whole series of interim agreements and find at the end of a trail of piecemeal concessions that the Arabs remain, after all, unreconciled to its existence...
...A people engaged in a struggle for survival can hardly afford the luxury of such mindless dogmatism...
...on the contrary, they were "the best and the brightest...
...ical questions of military security, at least some of the diplomatic energies expended pertained to face-saving formulas for domestic purposes...
...The burden of my argument is not that Israel is inflexible...

Vol. 1 • January 1976 • No. 6


 
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