Carter and the Jews VIII. Connally's New Order

...But Connally went further than that, venturing a threat even the oil sheikhs, at least m the hearing of most Americans, had never dared He predicted that if Middle East strains were not resolved in favor of pleasing those oil sheikhs, there was no telling what could happen to the social fabric of the United States "The tension between black and Jewish communities," he announced, "is only the latest in a series of conflicts that could, in time, impinge on the integrity of our own society " The black-Jewish conflict that preceded Connally's speech by some weeks had been notable for its massive outburst of black anti-Semitism, and for amorous visits to the PLO leadership by the Reverends Joseph Lowery and Jesse Jackson But a series of conflicts, mysterious, unnamed-with more, "in time,' to come...

...For Jews listening to the words behind the words, this forecasting was blatant intimidation-and a provocation, an invitation to anti-Semites to come out of the woodwork and declare themselves Connally seemed to be saying that if American Jews didn't shape up and give in on all their priorities-and possibly if they did-they would have to bear the blame for the spoliation of America and even, it turned out, for the ruin of the West "Oil," Connally told his audience, "is the life-blood of Western Civilization ". Not since the days of Father Coughlin had such an openly anti-Jewish political speech been countenanced (though m elevated vocabulary) in the United States It broke all the rules of political decency The rules say that a Presidential candidate will purvey unity, not divisiveness Connally had shattered a long-standing American resolve that the Jewish community was not going to serve as a national scapegoat...

...Connally's New Order If the Andrew Young affair had cast a certain doubt over the Administration's good faith toward American Jews, the second breach in the civic ground rules to present itself had its own indisputable clarity Into the theater of Presidential campaign politics strode Republican Texas oil millionaire John Connally, with a remarkably brutal declaration designed to set him apart not only from the other candidates but from one particular American consensus In a talk delivered before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C , last October 12, Connally made it plain that the time had really come-that in United States politics it was at last open season on American Jewish, not just Israeli, security...

...That Connally's candidacy collapsed somewhere between the New Hampshire and Massachusetts primaries was gratifying, but it did not undo the poison Those molecules of venom had been released into the political bloodstream and were now floating loose, ready to attach themselves to the next large opportunity So it was not a complete surprise when they showed themselves again, only four months later, in Ambassador McHenry's March 1 vote in the United Nations-a vote that, despite the Administration's (and Strauss') melodramatic disavowal, stands unexpunged...

...The speech, though sparsely plastered over with responsible-sounding exculpatory phrases like moral imperative" and "American interests," read as if it had been composed to please the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, or better, as if it had been written by him (Parts of it actually were written by a former American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, currently working for U S -Saudi firms) It criticized the Camp David agreements between Egypt and Israel as basically nugatory, demanded that Israel withdraw to its 1967 borders, called for a Palestinian state, and proposed that Israel be stripped of its capital "There comes a time," said Connally, "when you have to deal with realism " By realism, it was apparent he meant unabashed capitulation to the whim of Arab oil blackmailers He thereby offered himself as the first American political figure to flaunt an eagerness to pay with Jewish lives for hoped-for oil bargains...