April 2006 Archives

I never would have thought that two American professors from prestigious American universities would have much in common with Osama bin Laden.

But then I noticed that in the most recent tape attributed to him, Bin Laden identified those in the West seeking to halt the genocide in Darfur as "Zionist-crusaders," just on the heels of the article by University of Chicago professor John J. Mearsheimer and Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor Stephen Walt, arguing that the United States Middle Eastern policy has been manipulated by the Israel lobby.

In other words, Bin Laden and the professors are all saying that Jews are pulling the strings of world leaders and if not for the Jews we wouldn’t be in this mess. (You can fill in the blank for which mess you mean at the moment, whether Palestinian’s self-destructive intransigence, Iraqi insurgency, Islamist terrorism, etc.). All three conjure up the same specter of “Jewish conspiracy” that rests at the heart of history’s most rabid expressions of anti-Semitism.

According to a compelling report by Alan Dershowitz, Mearsheimer and Walt’s paper is filled with inaccuracies and half-truths that do not support their conclusions. The most important discrepancy is that America, in fact, always makes its own decisions about what is in America’s best interest. When American interests coincide with Israeli interests, we act in concert, but when American interests do not coincide with Israeli interests, America does what it feels it needs to even over Israel’s strident objections (Jonathan Pollard and AWACs are just two examples).

But there is an even bigger issue here. The focus on Israel/Zionists/Jews turns the world away from the real questions, much as such anti-Judaism/anti-Semitism has throughout history. There are a lot of real questions lurking out there:

• What is the nature of America’s continued support for Saudi Arabia, which continues to finance Muslim extremism?
  
• What is the influence of the oil lobby over our incursion into Iraq, which gained control of oil fields but left hospitals, electric and water plants, and museums undefended and then un-repaired (allowing the insurgency to thrive), and our continued failure to make serious advances in oil conservation?
  
• Why is so little said about the fact that Muslims are slaughtering other Muslims in Dafur or that radical Muslims are expressing their xenophobia in violence against others?

Muslim extremist rage is not going to go away if Israel ceases to exist (God forbid). Muslim extremism will simply turn to the next victim. I’d recommend Mearsheimer and Walt reread the words of Protestant minister Martin Niemoller, reflecting on his experiences in Nazi Germany: “They came for the Communists, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a Communist; They came for the Socialists, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a Socialist; They came for the labor leaders, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a labor leader; They came for the Jews, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a Jew; Then they came for me - And there was no one left to object.”

Every group has its extremists. Jews do too. Jewish extremism remains a minority within the Jewish community, largely because of our commitment to questioning and debate, as well as our concern for the rights and well being of the stranger (themes reiterated last week at the Passover Seder).

Honest, accurate, and fair debate is always healthy. Such vibrant and vigorous debate takes place within Israel, within the American Jewish community, within the American press and public, and between Israel and its American allies. Such debate does not take place in most of the Muslim world. I wonder why that, and its impact on American policy, isn’t the subject of a Kennedy School research paper.

I recently attended a talk where Rabbi Mordechai Liebling discussed his visit to Sudan as part of an interfaith delegation. He commented wryly that this was one time where anti-Semitism worked in his favor: all of the Sudanese officials with whom he met genuinely assumed that a rabbi had great influence over both media and finance and bent over backward to accommodate him!

Throughout many parts of the world–including many of our own parts–there is a widespread assumption that Jews either "control" or have "undue influence over" (depending how sophisticated your anti-Semitism is) the media. (Hey, you’re reading this blog, so you know it’s true!) In fact, there is a widespread perception that Jews have great power to affect a wide range of issues, especially in the realm of U.S. foreign policy. So let’s begin by acknowledging two incontrovertible facts:

1. The organized Jewish community in America is very politically active.
2. There are many Jews in positions of responsibility and decision-making in both finance and media.

Now, let me explain why these two facts do not add up to a conspiracy except for those who are inclined to go looking for one out of their own personal or political agendas.

As I said, the organized Jewish community in America is very politically active, and there is also no question that some of this activism focuses on Israel. But this position is simply an extension of Jews standing up to injustice in a wide range of areas that have nothing to do with Israel, from taking the lead on behalf of Kosovar Albanians in the 1990’s to the current Jewish leadership on humanitarian intervention in Darfur, where more than one-third of the Save Darfur coalition members are explicitly Jewish groups.

In fact, Jews are active in a wide range of issues from the environment to workers’ rights to debt relief for the developing world. This is an extension of the high value our tradition places on social justice and on engaging society’s problems rather than walking away from them or leaving them for someone else to solve.

For the second point: Certainly, as a group, Jews have done very well in this country; many have risen to prominent positions. But the fact that so many Jews have reached positions of prominence and power is in no way part of some sort of coordinated plan to promote particular ideas or positions–a charge that smacks of paranoia and anti-Semitism.

Rather, when Jewish immigrants arrived on these shores, they brought with them, as every immigrant group does, a deep desire to succeed in this new land. That desire, coupled with the traditional value placed on education in Jewish homes, helped propel Jews to successful and prominent positions. But each success story was just that–the story of an individual person or family. The presence of Jews in prominent positions doesn’t indicate a "Jewish conspiracy" any more than the presence of five Catholics on the Supreme Court indicates a "Catholic conspiracy." In each case, conspiracy theorists start looking for dots to connect into a picture that exists only in their own heads, not in reality.

The combination of broad Jewish involvement and activism together with the presence of Jews in prominent positions may provide fodder for those who are inclined to see a broad Jewish conspiracy, from John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in the London Review of Books to Osama bin Laden. But the reality is that such theories tell us less about the world than about those who spend time dreaming them up.

“This Zionist-Crusader war” is probably the most oft-repeated line invoked by the terrorist-madman Osama bin Laden in his latest rant against the West.

As Bin Laden sees it,

"A war is under way to offend the messenger of Allah, his religion and his Umma (nation). The Muslim preparedness and their jihad should be on a par with these events. The duty of our Muslim nation over this Crusaders' campaign with its different aspects is to focus on supporting the prophet, his religion and the Umma to the best of our ability in all fields."

But Bin Laden is not the only one linking together the “Crusaders” with the .00000000000000001 percent of the world population called “Zionists.” In their “report,” “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt ever so casually make the same kind of connection between the Zionist lobby and American Christian leaders. While Jews should own up and take responsibility for their influence, affluence, and power, the cabal-like overtones in the latter’s report is frightening.

Unlike Bin Laden's rant, what makes the report so disturbing is the fact that these two professors are far from mad. Luckily, the report has been met with a number of responses.

But the great irony as I see it in Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s argument is that far from being right-wing, war-mongering extremists, Jews have been and continue to be at the forefront of every major American liberal peace initiative on Israel and the Middle East. Contrary to popular opinion, Jews (or the Israel lobby) are if anything monolithically liberal.

While there are a few loud and influential right-wing Jews, the vast majority of Jews remain staunch liberals through and through. The fact that there are right-wing Jews ready to wage war against Islam is only proof that Judaism is not monolithic in its politics. I know it comes as a shock to some, but there are Jewish Republicans, and they are entitled to promote their causes, just like the gun lobby, the senior citizens' lobby etc… and what’s undemocratic about that?

This April 25 we observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. The date chosen for this observance is 27 Nissan in the Jewish calendar, associated with the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 in which 13,000 Jews perished in resisting Nazi extermination.

Of all the unspeakable and senseless tragedies that took place during this darkest hour of human history, why was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising singled out as the date on which to commemorate Yom ha-Shoah? The reason is that in its earliest years, Israel sought to deemphasize the victimization of Jews, of those who went "helplessly like sheep to the slaughter," and instead wished to celebrate the courage of those who resisted valiantly even when hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned.

Strange to say, but Ben Gurion and other leaders of the new Jewish state were ashamed at the "weakness" of those who went quietly to meet their fate; as Israel began its life surrounded by hostile neighbors, strength and heroism were the watchwords of the moment, and so the Holocaust commemoration came to be associated with the uprising.

With the perspective of history, it is easy to see that there was no shame at all in meeting with quiet dignity the inevitable fate that awaited millions of Jews and other victims of Nazi atrocities, nor the slightest shame in scrambling to survive at any costs in the darkest of circumstances that one group of people could inflict on another. The shame does not lie with the victims; the shame lies with those who stood by and watched and let it happen.

Today, another genocide is unfolding before our eyes, in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Since 2003, the Janjaweed militia has systematically murdered 400,000 men women and children and driven another two million into refugee camps where they cannot be protected by the vastly insufficient number of African Union troops in place on the ground. Ninety percent of African villages in the Darfur region have been destroyed in this racially motivated abomination perpetrated with the complicity of the Arab-based government in Khartoum.

This Yom HaShoah, we have the opportunity and responsibility to stand up to genocide, to show that strength comes in standing with the victims, to casting aside the shame of inaction. We can begin by visiting the American Jewish World Service website to send a message to President Bush urging American involvement in this deepening crisis, and then join the rally planned for April 30 in Washington D.C. to end genocide in Darfur. We can call our representatives in Congress to express our concern, send donations to either of the organizations mentioned above, and write letters to local papers, and add our prayers on behalf of those who suffering. And we can commit ourselves to saying "Never Again" will the world know the shame of standing by while its children bleed.

There are many reasons to remember and commemorate the Holocaust, which we will do this coming week around Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 25. Here are six reasons, each an important lesson we can learn from the Holocaust, lessons we cannot afford to forget. (They are presented in no particular order.)

One: One person can made a difference: Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Memorial and Research Museum, has honored more than 21,310 Righteous Gentiles who risked their lives and the lives of their families to save Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Thousands of individuals survived because of their intercession. The contributions to society by these survivors, their children, and their children’s children are a direct result of such righteous intervention, reminding us of the rabbinic teaching, “If you save one life, it is as if you have saved the world.”

Two: Not doing anything is an act of complicity: The Holocaust would never have happened without the millions of bystanders who stood by, or went along, when their neighbors, co-workers and classmates were first ostracized and socially and politically isolated. That is why I am sending postcards and arranging for my congregation to attend the Save Dafur Rally to Stop Genocide April 30 in Washington, D.C. What are you doing?

Three: Believe what you read in the news from reliable sources: The most chilling gallery for me in the U. S. Holocaust Museum is the one that shows the front pages of major American newspapers featuring articles recording Nazi atrocities against the Jews. Such articles prove that people knew what was happening and that the Holocaust was not inevitable, if the nations of the world had intervened by accepting refugees and seriously protesting Hitler’s plans. This leads us to the next lesson:

Four: Believe the threats of tyrants: Hitler was not shy about warning the West of his plans to destroy the Jews. This is a chilling reminder in the face of Iran’s reiteration this week to destroy Israel. Why is there any international ambivalence about serious sanctions to stop nuclear aide to Iran?

Five: The fate of all Jews is intertwined: It didn’t matter if you were right-wing or left, religious or secular, affiliated or assimilated. Every Jew was equal grist for the Nazi death machine. The Holocaust doesn’t only remind us that when Jews are threatened anywhere, Jews are endangered everywhere. It also reminds us that Jews are responsible for each other, i.e. for intervening to rescue those in need, distress or danger.

Six: The human spirit can triumph over evil: In the face of incomprehensible horror, individuals traded bread for a Passover haggadah or saved a potato to make a Hanukkah menorah. They shared their blankets and helped a bunkmate. After the war, most survivors found love, rebuilt families, and embraced life again. They gave of their time and resources to build communal and religious institutions and educate the next generation so such horror would not happen again. As their stories pass on to us, may we be inspired to take our place carrying their stories and their lessons to the generations to come.

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