by David M. Weinberg
The Forward's J. J.
Goldberg complained in a column this week that Prime Minister Netanyahu
"scared" Diaspora Jewish leaders at the Jewish Federations of North
America General Assembly in Jerusalem with "exaggerated" depictions of
the threats Israel faces from the impending Geneva nuclear deal between
the West and Iran.
"Netanyahu's evident
intention," Goldberg laments and mocks, "was to get Jewish activists to
put pressure on Washington to harden its terms in advance of renewed
talks with Iran later this month." Goldberg goes on to disparagingly
explain to his readers that "Israeli leaders have a long tradition of
plying American Jewish activists with extreme, often exaggerated
depictions of the threats Israel faces in order to maximize the pressure
the alarmed activists will then exert on Washington on Israel's behalf.
It's usually done more subtly, though, and in closer adherence to the
truth."
The arrogant Goldberg
explains that Obama is far wiser than Netanyahu. Obama is smartly
"pursuing a strategy that can maximize pressure on Iran, while
minimizing the odds that the extraordinary coalition the President has
carefully assembled, which includes China and Russia along with the
traditional Western European allies, will collapse."
Goldberg continues to
sneer at Netanyahu, smugly noting that "applause was light during most
of Netanyahu's speech, and standing ovations, a standard gesture during
this sort of appearance, were entirely absent except the obligatory one
at the end, despite the fact that Netanyahu pushed hard on all of his
favorite buttons."
Fortunately,
Netanyahu's bad manners and truly downbeat act was immediately followed
by a performance of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company, "which appeared to
lift the audience's mood from the gloom of the prime minister's
message."
Thank G-d for the
Batsheva dancers! We wouldn't have wanted to leave American Jewish
leaders with any sense of heavy foreboding about the real and imminent
dangers that Israel faces from Iran, or with any over-the-top concern
about the deleterious policies of their beloved president, Barack Obama!
We wouldn't have
wanted, Heaven forbid, to burden American Jewish leaders with the
thought that perhaps Netanyahu is not exaggerating, and that all
Israelis are gravely concerned about Obama's drift towards a grand
civilizational deal with the Iranians, at Israel's expense.
Unfortunately, I fear
that many American Jews indeed left their "feel-good-about-ourselves"
General Assembly in Israel without too much apprehension about Iran or
about Obama. Like Goldberg, they sloughed-off Netanyahu's attempt to
rouse them from their stupor. They ignored the attempts to galvanize the
U.S. Jewish community into action in order to ward-off policies that
will be bad for both America and Israel alike.
No Jewish leader at the
GA tabled an urgent action item for debate about Iran or proposed a
resolution invoking history and global Jewish responsibility to call for
emergency mobilization of the community back in the United States.
Only Abe Foxman,
national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called Netanyahu's call
to action "eloquent," noting that "we are entering a period of time
that may be the most dangerous the world has seen since the fall of the
Berlin wall." Himself seemingly in despair about American weakness and
Jewish community irresponsibility, Foxman is left with "hoping that
France, Saudi Arabia and Israel can rise above past differences to bring
the international community back to sane policies in the face of the
threat of a nuclear Iran."
In fact, Foxman is the
only American Jewish leader with the guts to say what policy analysts in
Israel have worryingly discerned for some time: That developments with
Iran seem to reflect a weakening of American resolve, a desperation to
find a solution (maybe any solution?) in order to avoid military
conflict with Iran, and a hesitation, at best, about America's
continuing leadership in the world. He is the only American Jewish
leader I have heard explicitly defend Netanyahu against the charge of
"warmongering" regarding Iran.
So you have to wonder:
Do American Jewish leaders have a well-substantiated situation
assessment that is different than Israel's? After 25 years of an Iranian
drive towards obtainment of a nuclear weapon and decades of Israeli
warnings, are they not aware that Teheran is now 95 percent of the way
to completing a bomb; that Iran needs only a few months' time to
"break-out" and craft a nuclear weapon; that Iran is already a nuclear
threshold nation?
Do American Jewish
leaders really have a solid, more sanguine assessment of where President
Obama is going with regards to Iran (and with regards to pressing
Israel into creating a "whole" Palestine in line with the fullest of
Palestinian demands)?
Do they not realize
that Obama apparently seeks not to really block Iran's incipient
weaponization, but rather to mend fences and strike a partnership with
Iran, as Tom Friedman made the strategy plain in The New York Times this
week? Do they not comprehend that Obama is planning to use his
politically-invulnerable last three years in office to ram through
transformative policies that will yank America's place in the world and
Israel's place in the Middle East from their current foundations?
Did American Jews not
discern during their week of much-ballyhooed "conversation and dialogue"
with Israelis that all Israelis, not just the supposedly-hysterical
Netanyahu, feel and fear that Obama is leading America towards Iran and
away from Israel?
I assume that American
Jewish leaders must see some of this. I suppose that they must have some
inkling of the deep trouble and crisis ahead. I imagine that they must
understand the corner that Israel is being pushed into.
And if that's the case,
then we in Israel are left with following questions: What will it take
to rouse American Jewry into action? And, is there any oomph left in the
organized American Jewish community in order to go to bat for Israel
(and for America) when the chips are down, now?
David M. Weinberg
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=6353
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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