Vietnam and Israel

...I have in mind that portion which, following the rhetoric of Noam Chomsky, has succumbed to the notion that anything the United States does abroad must automatically be designated as reactionary and therefore opposed...

...NOW, TRY TO ENVISAGE THIS SITUATION: a crisis erupts in the Middle East, Russian planes flown by Russian pilots intervene in the fighting, and the survival of Israel is at stake...

...involvement in Vietnam has already had deplorable consequences in the Middle East...

...material and military aid to Israel...

...is inherently and unavoidably imperialist and therefore to be opposed at all points...

...I do not see how U.S...

...The war in Vietnam—we can say—is reac COMMENTS AND OPINIONS tionary, or criminal, or not worth its domestic social costs...

...Where it is a mockery to speak of "democracy" in Vietnam, it is a reality to speak of democracy in Israel...

...has been a reactionary disaster...

...policy in the Middle Eastover recent years can be explained by a simpleor even not-so-simple version of a Leninist theoryof imperialism...

...imperialism and believes its interests to be aligned with those of the Arab nations...

...NEITHER IN LOGIC NOR POLITICS is there any reason, then, to accept this effort to equate Vietnam with Europe...

...Nothing in the experience of our time indicates that they are qualities easy to come by...

...People like Noam Chomsky, whose good will is not in question, must now ask themselves whether they are contributing ideologically to this potential catastrophe...

...is bogged down in an unpopular war, the Russians can strengthen their positions in the Middle East...

...And it flourishes among large segments on the Right, which have always been inclined toward "minding our own business" and are not exactly overcome with sympathy for a Jewish state...

...Or more precisely: even if the motives of the U.S...

...in Europe it contributed, with, of course, unde COMMENTS AND OPINIONS sirable complications, to saving that continent from totalitarian domination...

...This response within the peace movement takes at least two forms...

...They will cause irritation in some quarters, but had better be said anyway...

...But other people who use the argument about imperialism do so with good will...

...If the U.S...

...The incipient merger of New Left rhetoric with anti-Semitic sentiments, signs of which can already be noticed, could become a power * To which one should add the strong segment ofthe State Department that has been consistentlypro-Arab these last few decades...

...munist expansion in Europe, or to have seen a temporary coincidence of objectives between the Western powers and socialist interests, was not at all to claim that the motives of the Western powers were necessarily democratic or humanitarian...

...The containment of Communist power in Europe after World War II struck most socialists and liberals as a prime necessity...

...has greatly overextended its reach in world affairs, often behaving with brutal indifference to the needs of small nations...

...troops from Vietnam and supporting U.S...

...If not, they must consider the need for complicating and modulating a politics on the Left that would deny the employment of U.S...

...To the brink of war...

...Are they prepared to take responsibility for the consequences of an Arab victory...

...Sometimes— let us be blunt about it—this inconsistency is charged to the inclination of some radicals to apply their principles to Vietnam and their ethnic loyalties to Israel...

...August 3, 1970 This article was written before negotiations for a temporary cease-fire in the Middle East were concluded...

...or (b) that U.S...

...and it would seem that a policy resting upon a strict concernwith American investments would have had to be decisively more favorable to the Arab nations than U.S...

...Where it is a crude simplification to speak of the Vietnam war as a struggle for "national survival," it is quite cogent to speak of national survival as being at stake in the Israeli cause...

...You can, if you wish, discuss both of these matters under the abstract rubric of "interventionism," but if so, you are not contributing much to political clarity...

...And the reasons, of course, were that conditions in Asia were not at all comparable to those in Europe...

...it was only to make a careful estimate of likely consequences in the given relationships of power, and then to decide that from our point of view it was crucially better for Berlin to remain a Western city than to fall under Communist domination...

...CERTAIN THINGS need to be said about Vietnam and Israel...

...Yet it would be disingenuous if we were to say that there was no connection whatever between the policies in Europe and the policies in Asia...

...has an "obligation" to intervene everywhere in the world, settling all conflicts in accordance with some fixed moral principle or measure of national interest...

...Which is to say, unless you are a cold-warrior on one or the other side...

...What we would say or do in the event where a possible war between the U.S...

...has been mistaken and has done harm to the Israeli cause...

...And, as a consequence, one of the deplorable results of the major achievements in postwar Europe was the rise of political rationales that could too easily be exploited in Asia...

...It was a connection drawing upon the inevitable excesses, crudities and simplifications of rhetoric and ideology that accompanied the role of the U.S...

...With U.S...

...policy has in fact been...

...They have tried to show that the disaster of the later events was "ineluctably" lodged in the success of the earlier...

...And if the U.S...

...It therefore seems foolish or demagogic to insist—as have both the more bellicose hawks and the more fanatical doves—that one must be in favor of intervention in both places or in neither place, ready to send arms and perhaps troops to Vietnam and Israel or to neither country...

...power anywhere in the world...

...energies sequestered in Asia, the Russians have felt themselves emboldened in their pro-Arab policy...

...When the article was circulated among our editors, some indicated disagreements and perhaps they will express them in future issues...

...power to be exercised in one rather than another direction, even as you remain skeptical about the likely consequences of any sort of U.S...

...The very fact of continued U.S...

...What are those Jews to us...

...Naturally I hope that this temporary cease-fire will become a permanent one, and that in turn will lead to a peace treaty...

...At least some por COMMENTS AND OPINIONS tions of the Left—mistakenly reacting in terms of the Vietnam issue, quite as an older generation mistakenly reacted to Vietnam in terms of the Berlin issue—will scream against U.S...

...government were not radically different in Asia from what they had been in Europe—that is, to consolidate regimes opposed to Russian and, later, Chinese goals—the consequences in Asia were radically different from what they had been in Europe...

...Unless, of course, you are convinced (a) that the U.S...

...Such questions are not easy to answer, and for myself, if no one else, I must say that if driven to an extreme they are simply agonizing...

...policy in Vietnam that contributes to a weakening of the Israeli position...

...Why pay taxes to bail out Tel Aviv...

...They did...

...Meanwhile, the rhetoric now increasingly favored by the peace movement and on the campus will be available to those who are, at best, indifferent to the survival of Israel...

...The defense of Israel—we can say —is an urgent need, though saying this by no means implies unconditional approval of current Israeli policies or negotiating positions...

...But who is prepared to put that assumption to the test...

...and in my judgment, they were correct...

...This new isolationism flourishes, of course, in the virulently anti-American New Left, which in matters of foreign policy has simply stood the Cold War on its head...

...In a sense, they are right: whenever political freedom exists, they wish to destroy it...

...military action, then the problem is by no means an easy one...

...those investments are in the Arab countries...

...As for the propaganda about the Arab states being part of "the Third World Revolution," it is worth remembering a point stressed in the recent statement by black-community and trade-union leaders: that some of these Arab states are still guilty of conducting a slave trade in Africa, with blacks as its victims, while Israel has been giving concrete economic help to a number of the new African nations...

...imperialist" intervention...

...The first I saw at an ADA convention last spring where some fine people were so carried away by their entirely valid opposition to the Vietnam war that they began slipping into a kind of moralistic isolationism...

...and Russia were entangled with the possible destruction of Israel is not a question that can be answered with a phrase...

...What will Americans say...

...ful and disastrous force at such a moment...

...help Israel maintain itself betrays an inconsistency...

...power in the world...

...It is the kind of situation that would require nerve and intelligence, a weighing of the most difficult alternatives...

...Which brings me to my main point: There may soon be a similar connection between the excesses, crudities and simplifications of our present Asian policies and future American attitudes toward Israel...

...Whether or not they acknowledge this to themselves, they would have desired a paralysis of American power, for whatever purposes (whether to help Berlin or Tito, on the one hand, or to engage in its frequent reactionary policies, on the other...

...The group employing a coarsened version of Marxism-Leninism seems unlikely to exert much influence on American politics, but the trend toward what I've called a moralistic isolationism— that is another matter...

...We know that any policy that dominates the life of a nation for a decade or two is likely to create unexpected and undesirable consequences...

...It is a trend flourishing along the entire spectrum of American politics, and flourishing because it can easily be confused with the entirely legitimate and valid opinion that the U.S...

...Why then should we now get mixed up to save Golda Meir...

...Right now, however, there is reason to believe that a policy of helping Israel with military material would, if combined with flexibility in peace negotiations, forestall such a terrible eventuality and lead to a negotiated peace...

...policyin a pro-Arab direction...

...in Asia while urging that the U.S...

...If you believe there are instances in which it may be desirable for U.S...

...In principle, there need be no conflict between favoring rapid withdrawal of U.S...

...Some of the people who say this are, in fact, mere apologists for the Egyptian and Syrian dictatorships who suffer from a principled distaste for the liberal democracy prevailing in Israel...

...Indeed, all the meretricious propaganda spread by the New Left andothers concerning Israel as an "agent of imperialism" studiously avoids the precise nature of American economic interests in that part of the world...

...They simply fail to understand that the term "imperialism" has by now been employed so promiscuously as to be largely drained of precise content and that even if one does make a serious argument for the view that U.S...

...To be sure, we may be told that the Arabs no longer wish to "drive the Israelis into the sea," and an Arab victory would not mean the destruction of Israel...

...The overwhelming bulk of American investments in that area are in oil...

...The urgency of holding back Stalin's armies could not always be disentangled from chauvinist or apocalyptic versions of anti-Communism...

...Still, let us not make things too easy for ourselves...

...Now, certain New Leftists have tried retroactively to argue from the Vietnam war back to the Marshall plan and the Berlin airlift...

...What would be crucial in such an argument, however, is whether it is made from the perspective of someone committed to the survival and protection ofIsrael, or someone who attacks the Israeli negotiating position out of enmity to its fundamentalnature and role in the Middle East...

...intervention abroad is necessarily reactionary and to be opposed unconditionally...

...Beyond it...

...A little caution, a little forethought, a little sense of historical complication, a little skepticism about unqualified slogans—we need these desperately...

...If asked about their feelings on Israel, most of them, I am sure, would have indicated one or another degree of support...

...in Europe directly after the Second World War...

...To have "supported" Western policy vis a vis Corn * One may argue that the recent Israeli positionon negotiations, borders, etc...

...It flourishes among many liberals who cannot bring themselves to look and think beyond Vietnam...

...But if you do not think in such ultimatistic categories, you must face the burden of specific judgment...

...The liberals will be torn and divided, with at least some persisting in a moralistic isolationism...

...And this ideology of neoisolationism will be exploited by the American oil lobby, which does represent a visable component of U.S...

...Those being criticized here might well say in reply: "Very well, but how far are your prepared to go in your support of Israel...

...A policy that had significantly positive consequences in Europe, though even there, of course, not without some reactionary effects, proved in Asia to be disastrous...

...Yet we knew at the time that the application of this policy, while it yielded some major benefits in Europe, also led to styles of political rhetoric, habits of national outlook and increasingly rigid ideological assumptions about the contemporary world which might, later on, have dangerous consequences...

...Didn't we have one hell of a time clearing out of Vietnam, and didn't you guys on the Left raise the roof so that we should pull out...

...The second form that this attitude among segments of the peace movement takes is a rather coarse version of traditional MarxistLeninist rhetoric, according to which the U.S...

...as it studiously avoids identifying the forces—theoil companies and a portion of the State Department— which would like to change U.S...

...Still, both in regard to the specific situation in the Middle East and the larger issues they touch upon, I believe the points made below remain urgent...

...So too, it must be said, does at least a portion of the peace movement...

...In Vietnam the role of the U.S...

...It is foolish and demagogic to insist that opposing the role of the U.S...

...But the rhetoric they were employing, the concepts toward which they were moving, propelled them in another direction—toward a refusal of all "entanglements" abroad, toward a politics that would in effect paralyze or negate U.S...

...Those of us who care both about the survival of Israel and the maintenance of peace must therefore try now, while there is still a little time, to counter the kind of ideology and rhetoric in the peace movement and on the campus that I have been arguing against...

...Nor is it only U.S...

...conduct is imperialist, that does not necessarily tell people on the Left what view to take of a particular action or policy...

...As is usual with articles in DISSENT, only the author is to be held responsible for these opinions...

...can send "advisers" to Saigon, the Russians can send "advisers" to Cairo...

...Large segments of the Right, as well as many ordinary Americans, will feel no intolerable sadness at the thought of refusing help to the Israelis: "Why should we get mixed up with those Jews...

...The result, also "ineluctably," would have been to leave Europe helpless before the armies of Stalin and the various agencies of the Communist movement...