Beginnings
In the aftermath of the Reagan-Begin meetings, many of my friends appear relieved. Fearing the worst—fearing, that is, that the United States would lean hard on Israel—the evident cordiality of the...
...No one worked longer hours...
...In hard, pragmatic terms, the answer appears to be hostility to the Soviet Union...
...After all, there is now, as Prime Minister Begin has described it, a "new phase" in the Israel-America relationship...
...no one was more thoughtful, more considerate, in his dealings with others...
...I'm loathe to poop the party, but I'm a bit troubled by all the good will...
...End of grousing...
...It is a simplistic delusion that the expansion of Israel's military capability necessarily promotes Israel's security...
...And some have moved from relief all the way to euphoria...
...One cannot blame the great powers...
...Its name is "strategic collaboration...
...The intractable truth of the Arab-Israel dispute is that it can be solved, if at all, only politically...
...His hopes for the disposition of the Palestine question cannot be achieved in the present political climate, and he therefore must welcome any diversion of attention from that question...
...That seems the only explanation for the new entente, which carries with it so much danger...
...The Bible may be shrinking, but our classified ad section is growing...
...Nor can one blithely assume that Israel can ignore the global tides in which its particular drama goes forward...
...For obvious reasons, they prefer their confrontations to be conducted by proxy...
...Hayim has now moved on to other pastures (none could be greener), and he is sorely missed and warmly remembered...
...Out of that shared hostility, a new level of strategic collaboration is about to be developed, and it should give those who are concerned for Israel's security considerable pause...
...American foreign policy, such as it is, provides him with just such a diversion...
...Fearing the worst—fearing, that is, that the United States would lean hard on Israel—the evident cordiality of the encounter allayed their anxieties...
...That is not, of course, Mr...
...Begin's view...
...Sooner or later, that truth must be faced, and there is powerful reason to think that the sooner it is faced, the better it will be for Israel...
...But if the price to Israel has been to make of it a front-line state in the war of nerves this country is now waging with the Soviet Union, we may end up wishing there had been more attention to the good fences that good neighbors require...
...On which happy note, at last, our best wishes for a year of joy and peace (if this issue reaches you before that matter has been decided), for a good Sukkot holiday (ditto), and, whenever it reaches you, for—following the principle of condensation—a good month, starting now...
...When President Reagan says, as he did, that "Israel and America . .. are philosophical neighbors," I am bound to ask what philosophy it is that informs their neighborhood...
...The mind boggles (or scrabbles) at the possibilities...
...In the case at hand, with Soviet equipment stockpiled in Syria, Israel has agreed to a junior partnership in the execution of a Reagan-Haig foreign policy that significantly compounds the difficulty of a Middle East settlement and, at the same time, significantly increases the military risk to which Israel is exposed...
...Excise a patriarch and a couple of matriarchs, half a dozen commandments, a few desert decades, and we'll all end up nostalgic for Charlton Heston in the authentic version...
...My message to our legions is that all of us owe a debt of gratitude to Hayim Goldgraber, until recently moment's circulation manager...
...Even those who do not share the view that any postponement of the overdue political process is a danger to Israel must worry at the ease with which Israel has accepted the role of America's surrogate in the Middle East...
...Has agreed to be exposed...
...It is comforting to witness such expressions of good will between Israel and the United States as were registered in Washington, and it may seem grouchy to rain on the parade of friendship to which we were treated in September...
...American concerns inevitably affect Israel, color its own choices...
...How can one boorche (grouse) in a season when the Reader's Digest announces that it plans to enlighten us with a condensed version of the Bible...
...But they ought not be permitted to determine those choices, to replace Israel's own agenda...
...There is no military solution that works...
...I don't know that there's any significance in that, but you might want to consider using the classified section to purvey messages, if not prophecies, to moment's legions...
Vol. 6 • October 1981 • No. 9
