I should state at the outset that I am a confirmed liberal. I believe that there should be a Palestinian state on virtually all the land occupied by Israel since 1967. I feel strongly that the vast majority of the settlements should be dismantled. Doubtful that the Palestinians and Israelis are capable, on their own, of reaching a peace agreement, I accept the necessity for outside intervention. My views are unshakable. Practically, historically and morally, I am committed to the peace camp.
So, why is it that I am so irked at President Bush’s recent statement in the White House Rose Garden on his “road map” for the Middle East? After all, there is little of what I know of the map with which I disagree. (The president said the creation of the Palestinian prime minister’s post, to be assumed by Mahmoud Abbas, offered new opportunities for peace, and that negotiations could be resumed once Abbas has taken on his duties.)
But, why did I hear myself saying: “After months of silence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, why now?”
We all know the answer: As Mr. Bush pursues his unilateral war “of the willing” against Iraq, he needs to placate not only the Arab nations but also the Europeans. And what better way to do that than to “offer up the Jews to the wolves.” Now, I know that not to be true, but there is this gnawing feeling that just does not sit well with me. It was the timing of Mr. Bush’s statement that I found offensive. It strikes one as terribly disingenuous. At least British Prime Minister Tony Blair was more direct when he said: “It is precisely at this time, when we are engaged with disarming Saddam of his weapons of mass destruction, that we need to say to our Arab and Muslim friends that ‘we are even-handed.'”
“Even-handed” is the code word that makes us Israelis jump. As does the word “linkage,” as in: The “linkage” between the Arab world’s anti-Americanism and its support for Israel. U.S. foreign policy should be even-handed, and in the eyes of the Muslim world there is a linkage. Mr. Bush was right in demanding that we stop some of our more aggressive policies in the territories that include the continued building of settlements. And he did call for an end to terror. Although, if he wanted to talk about linkage, he might have added that Saddam Hussein sends thousands of dollars to Palestinian families of suicide bombers. (Apparently, France’s claim that there is no linkage between Iraq and terrorism does not include terrorism against Jews.)
But, there is something else that is terribly troubling about the timing of this hastily called presidential announcement. It came on the heels of Rep. Jim Moran’s (D-Va.) statement that it is the “Jews who are pushing America toward war, and it is the Jews who can put a stop to it.”
It seems that Mr. Bush, albeit unwittingly, seized on this anti-Semitic canard to raise the issue of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. In this sense, the apple does not fall far from the tree. It was the senior George Bush who, during the Gulf War, held a press conference where he said: “We went to war against Saddam Hussein to defend Israel as much as American interests”; “Americans give Israel the equivalent of $1,000 for every American citizen”; “the Jewish lobby sure is powerful.” The implications were that Jews do not fight their own battles; they want to take your money and they work insidiously behind the scenes to advance their own interests.
America did not go to war in 1991 with Iraq and will not go to war now with Iraq because of the Jews or Israel. There is no Jewish cabal at work as both Moran and the Arab states maintain. The U.S. oil lobby is far more powerful than AIPAC American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. I might add that no Israeli has ever taken $1,000 from some American family in Des Moines, Iowa.
The timing of Mr. Bush’s pronouncement gives force to all those who see some merit in Moran’s blatantly anti-Semitic statement, and to those who demonstrate against the war with their placards displaying the Jewish Star as equal to the Nazi cross. That cannot be the kind of linkage that Mr. Bush intends. Unfortunately, that seems to be the message that has come through. And so, it is for this final reason that I, a dedicated peacenik, was so put off by the president’s declaration on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.