ON THE ROAD TO ISRAEL
jr., r. emmett tyrrell
1 6 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. On the Road to Israel RAVEL NARROWS THE...
...THERE ARE OTHER reasons I feel America must stand by Israel...
...Midge Decter, my editor at the time and an American Jew, warnedmethattheIsraeliswerenotaveryhumorous people...
...Israel holds to those values...
...Starting with President Harry Truman, we gave our word to stand by Israel...
...Thus for historical, philosophical, and practical political reasons, I stand with the Israelis...
...Possibly she thought I was anticipating a land full of George S. Kaufmans and Groucho Marxes...
...Well, the Israelis I met were satisfactorily humorous--at least as compared with my bus full of gloomy, nitpicking, egotisticalAmericanjournalists.YetIsrael'scondition was, indeed, serious...
...Then he read to me a passage from the Book of Kings...
...Thevaluesthattheyhavebroughtdownthrough the ages are values that make Western Civilization distinct and the best hope of mankind as against the cruelty and nihilism that we still see haunting our headlines...
...What might it have been...
...Today books on the Great Game, the 19th-century competition for Central Asia between the British and the Russians, strike me as particularly useful in understanding America's present role in Iraq and Afghanistan and our relationship to Israel...
...I had read extensively on the Arabs, the Jews, and Islam, as I continue to do...
...On the other hand, the values exhibited by Israel's enemies are not so wholesome...
...There was no division between church andstateinthosetimes.Yetonlyonenationremainsfrom that period, basing its origin on the same documents, scripture...
...MyinitialperceptionsofIsraelwerenotsolelythe consequence of travel...
...Every president since has vowed to defend its existence...
...In return, Israel has come to be a bulwark of democracy and stability in a stupefyingly tyrannical andunstableregion.NotonlyisIsraelaninspiringnation,itisausefulally.Finally,asBobBartley,alongtime editor of the Wall Street Journal, pointed out shortly before his death, Israel has shown America and the world how a proper mixture of resolve and boldness canbeatbackavastpreponderanceofhostileforces...
...Scripture was coming to the aid of archaeology...
...And only one people from that period has remained pretty much intact through all the subsequentyearsofsufferingandperil,theJews...
...Today books on the Great Game, the 19th-century competitionforCentralAsiabetweentheBritishandtheRussians,strikemeasparticularlyusefulinunderstanding America's present role in Iraq and Afghanistan and ourrelationshiptoIsrael.Buttravelcontinuestotake metoIsraelandtosharpenmyinsights...
...The historical documents he cites in his history of the Jews of the ancient world are,inlargepart,thebooksoftheOldTestament.That is to say, Israel was founded on what many believe is theinspiredwordofGod.Now,manyoftheregimesof theancientworldclaimedtobebasedonreligiousdocuments...
...Today they use suicide bombers...
...Inasmuch as the Know-Nothings embraced, among other bigotries, anti-Semitism, Said had provided me with yet another reason for not taking himseriously...
...O NT H ER O A DT OI S R A E L 1 8 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R A P R I L 2 0 0 7 And only one people from that period has remained pretty much intact through all the subsequent years of suffering and peril, the Jews...
...He told me that when archaeologists discovered this spot near King David's home, they were perplexed...
...Expect extreme seriousness, she advised...
...On the Road to Israel RAVEL NARROWS THE MIND,"myoldfriendMalcolmMuggeridgeusedtocackle.Ofcourse,he was making fun of the old fatuity...
...R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.isfounderandeditorinchiefof The American Spectator...
...We were standing where King David had Solomon anointed three thousandyearsago.SkepticthatIam,myconclusionisthat Israel is a special nation with an ally even more powerfulthanWashington...
...Actually, I have found that travel deepens some of the mind'sperceptions.Certainly,travelinIsrael has deepened my perceptions of Israel as a nationdeservingAmerica'ssupportandofthe Jewsasapeopleresponsibleforthecreationofmanyof the values key to Western Civilization, the civilization that has done most through the centuries to establish the dignity and liberty of man...
...The Israelis were and are surroundedbyaseaofhostilepeople...
...I feel a debt to Israel...
...In December 2002, I banged around the country pretty much on my own, carrying Paul Johnson's History of the Jews as my reading material...
...WhenIvisitedIrDavid,ayoungIsraeliarcheologist-I believe he grew up in Detroit--took me down an ancient passageway deep into the earth to a set of old stone steps just above what was now an underground waterway...
...In the late 1970s I traveled through Israel for the first time on a tour with American journalists...
...In the 1970s they shot innocent women and children as a matter of military practice...
...Much dependsonitsstrengthandprudence...
...As I walked across the old stones of Jerusalem and was taken throughsuchancientexcavationsasIrDavid,bornein on me was an aspect of Johnson's book I had not theretofore thought about...
...What is more, there is a matter of those hoary scriptures...
...I do give the ancient Greeksequalbilling...
...A P R I L 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 1 7 T AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THAT ARTICLE, I found myselfimmortalizedbythelateEdwardSaid,who declaredmeinoneofhisbooks,whichIbelieve becameacollegetextbook,a"typicalAmericanKnowNothing...
...Returning home, I wrote an article for Harper's magazine that has stood the test of time, though it rousedhacklesthenandstilldoes.Mythesisthenwas that Israel had no alternative but to stand fast and resistitsenemies.TheArabshaveproventhroughhis-tory, I wrote, to be "a warlike people wedded to a warlike religion...
...This article originally appearedinWhatIsraelMeanstoMe,acollectionedited byAlanDershowitz.ReprintedwithpermissionofJohn Wiley & Sons ((c) 2006...
...Negotiating with such peopleisnotverypromising.Diplomacyshouldalwaysbe at the ready, but the Israel Defense Forces will always be the most reliable instrument for peace...
...There is no confusion between right and wrong and no confusion about an individual's duty to neighbors in the original scriptures of Judaism that now,inmoderntimes,mightevenedifymanyatheists and agnostics...
Vol. 40 • April 2007 • No. 3
