By Alan Dershowitz Stonegate Institute
[..]
Israel will always remain a strong American ally because it shares an American commitment to democracy, to freedom of religion, to freedom of expression and to an open market economy. It also shares a common commitment to fight against terrorism and other threats to the security of the United States—a commitment that is less that vigorous among some European countries.
Some political scientists and state department officials, who call themselves “realists”, question Israel’s value as an American ally. They are wrong, and recent events confirm how wrong they are and have been.
There is no doubt that America helps Israel enormously, as it should help those who share our democratic values. But there is also no doubt that Israel helps the United States considerably, by sharing its extraordinary intelligence-gathering capabilities, its military R&D, its computer know-how and other intangibles. As other nations in the region debate whether American troops should even be allowed to set foot on their territory, Israel welcomes the American military to engage in joint exercises. In its nearly 64 years of existence, Israel has never asked for a single American soldier to fight its battles. It fights its own battles while assisting the American military in defending our country against terrorism and other threats to our citizens.
It’s time for the realists to acknowledge that Israel not only has a moral and ideological claim to American support, but it also has a claim base on realpolitik. Moreover, Israeli exports—medical, environmental, educational, cultural, agricultural, and high tech—contribute to the quality of life of all Americans. No country is history has contributed more in 64 years to the quality of life of the world’s population than Israel has since its birth.
Those are some of the reasons why thoughtful Americans overwhelmingly support Israel, why every mainstream presidential candidate supports Israel’s security, and why Israel has never been a divisive issue in American politics, as it has sometimes been in European politics.
This commonality of interests should not immunize Israeli policies and actions from legitimate and reasonable criticism, any more than England’s shared values should immunize that country from criticism. Allies need not agree on every aspect of each other’s policy to remain supportive friends. But Israel’s reliability as an eternal American ally—and its many contributions to American security and daily life—should cause us to treat that nation as a friend and to resolve reasonable doubts in its favor.
Unfortunately, the opposite is being advocated by some “realists,” hard left academics and extremist student activists. They see Israel as an enemy and resolve all doubts against it. They single out the Jewish state for divestment, boycotts and sanctions, (DBS)—ignoring real human rights offenders such as China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran and Syria. They apply a double standard of judgment against Israel. They do not limit their hostility to particular Israeli actions or policies. Instead, they seek to delegitimate the entire concept of a secular, democratic, pluralistic nation state for the Jewish people in a world that includes numerous “Arab,” “Muslim,” “Christian,” “Hindu” and other far more particularistic states.
At its root much of the animus directed at Israel, particularly from the hard left, is actually directed at the United States. The hard left hates America, and it also hates its reliable allies such as Israel. But for those of us who love America, support for Israel—its most reliable ally—comes naturally.
So let our great nation continue to support the security and survival of another great democracy with the understanding that there is mutual benefit to our enduring alliance and friendship. Israel, unlike many other fair weather allies, can always be counted on by the United States.
Despite all their problems, Israel and the US are the 2 countries with the most advanced social engineering.
There is not a single other country in the world that can make the same claim.
Talmudic arguments were based on different opinions over the meanings of Jewish scripture, (Tanach) not over non Jewish concepts not Torah based.
Dershowitz had always argued and advocated from a non Jewish liberal Humanism which is predominantly Western Christian precepts. He knows Jewish Law (Halacha) enough to understand the difference and choose in most cases against Halacha. I doubt seriously that he would advocate for an Israel based on Jewish Law. That tells me his support for Israel however sincere today is conditional and I always am suspect of those who place conditions for their support.
His primary loyalty is to his liberalism and to America, Jews and Israel may be an important priority for him but certainly not his primary one.
That said, he is head and shoulders above most American Jews in his support for Israel such as it is.
Many Supporters of Israel Jewish and non Jewish maintain that Israel can use all the support she can get no matter the source of the support.
I’m not convinced this is so.
Israel must return to her founding ethos that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves for our own survival and security and on the Biblical dictum
“Behold, a people who dwells apart, And will not be reckoned among the nations.” We are a ‘nation that dwells alone’ [Am livadad yishkon – Numbers 23:9].
“Throughout the entire Tanach, every king who chased after some goy – Shlomo, Asa, Yehoshafat, Hezkiahu – each and every one – we see a common thread with each one – that he who went after the goyim, was punished.”
Rational Jews FEAR! Jews of faith trust in G-d and fear no mortal.
Batya,
Virtually all of the social background, familial connections and self-evident foreign policy of Barack Hussein Obama Jr drips with condescension ranging out to actual hostility toward the State of Israel, the Jewish nation, western civilization in general, and the white face of North America and Europe. I think that is what he picked up early in life not only from his Kenyan Moslem father and his obviously radical white American mother, but almost certainly also from leftist radicals such as Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn and black American preachers such as the Reverend “God-damn America” Wright, whose sermons — dripping with hatred for white America and all it ever has represented — to whom Obama dutifully listened to on Sunday mornings in a church on Chicago’s south side.
Any Jew who voted for Obama in 2008 and who probably in fact will do so again — knowing fully well the hatred all those bastards have for their own nation — deserves to be buried alive in his or her own excrement. There is nothing that disgusts me more than self-hating Jews who join a multitude to do the evil of aligning against their own people. And I have supreme and implacable contempt for and hostility toward any Jew who turns his or her face away from such evidence as is openly available to all of them, for purposes of supporting such an evil person mostly to win what they hope will be favor or at least “acceptance” in the social or business ranks of the liberal Jew-haters.
And if you are one such person as I have described her, then you should cringe in shame for the offense you shall have done to your people — the Jewish nation.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Barack Obama has shown himself to be a racist because he honestly believes that he has the right to tell Jewish people where we may, or may not, be allowed to live in Israel.
How’s that for racist chutzpuh?
Israel Thrives
Dershowitz is anything but a fool. We don’t agree with his possibly voting for Obama (though we don’t know for sure that he will) – but he is for Israel. We need knowledgeable, pro-Israel friends in all camps. I was so distraught at the last election, that I didn’t vote for anyone! I might not vote this time either because I won’t vote for O, but neither do I like the array of Republicans.
Our concern here is Israel. We are in agreement that O is bad for Israel. Dershowitz is good for Israel despite his political views. We are a democracy. We tolerate plurality of thought,opinion and approach. It is plurality of thought and opinion that has kept us alive, as a people, to this day – The Talmud is a case in point.
So I don’t agree that this is a case of suffering fools.
Batya
I didn’t vote for Obama in 2008. And I certainly would not vote for him in 2012 under any circumstance whatsoever. For that matter, I never have voted for a Democrat for president of the United States. The fact is, I never have been a liberal. I never have had any concern whatsoever for tikun ha-olam either as a concept, way of life, or even a mood at someone’s social event. My mother’s family were all social liberal Democrat do-gooders who thought socialism would cure all the world’s ills. My family’s family were all smalltime Jewish businessmen from Russia who thought only of earning livings for their own families and for themselves. They came to this country for American liberty, and here they freely sought and found opportunity. So I never spent much time listening to the liberals on my mother’s side of the family, and I never regretted it.
Like taught me:
— to be an American soldier (Korean War, 1952-1955);
— to get an education so that I could support myself (Bachelor of Science, Journalism and Communications, U of IL 1962 and Master of Urban and Regional Planning U of IL 1976);
— the need to develop my own independent online business when the first IBM-PCs came available in 1981
— Jewish nationalism, such as I learned from Dr Israel Eldad in his Rechavia apartment in Jerusalem on many a Friday before Shabat; and from Rav Meir Kahane when I worked for him in the late 1980 as editor and publisher of his American newsletters and magazines.
I do not suffer fools, and I learned early in life never to allow anyone to make me one.
I have no sympathy for weakness and very little for mistaken judgement.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Dershowitz is a good man. Of this there is no doubt but he is of the Left and advocates 4 state solution – Jordan, Israel, Gaza and Palestine. So he shares the delusions of the left and is therefore a dangerous person. The more so because he is respected and influential.
Batya, I don’t quite follow what it is you are trying to say. Mr Dershowitz has gone to bat for Israel many times in the past, and makes a very compelling argument. However, that doesn’t mean that he is given carte blanche for his blatant error in supporting O. Yes there are a great many others that did also – they were wrong too. We have to learn from our mistakes. Has he and have they? Time will tell, but if not, there is no reason to let them or him off the hook for this HUGE error in judgement. You didn’t have to be a prophet to see where O would head after being elected, his track record was clear and his cohorts were there for all to examine if they just took 10 minutes of time to see the truth. This wasn’t American Idol, it required a little thinking. Since that is what Mr Dershowitz seems to do best, he is held to a higher standard when he blows it. BTW – truth is truth, there is no “version” of it.
Dear bloggers. Please – be reasonable. The world, and every point of view in it, cannot be judged according to your personal criteria of right and wrong. Mr. Dershowitz is, and has always been, a friend of Israel. He has never let a needed moment go by without defending Israel’s cause. The world is not black/white, and the ability of the human to use nuance, discern subtleties, to change and eternally hope, to be disappointed and try again, is what distinguishes us from lower forms of life. Many pro-Israelis voted for Obama. Many Israelis voted for Obama – because his campaign was no less than electrical. Many believed Obama when he promised us a new way to peace; they just didn’t realize that that “new way” was by appeasing the many hostile Arab states in their campaign against Israel and the US. They believe when he claimed not to be an old, scarred politician, but a young, vibrant idealist. Many who voted for him are disappointed, sorry. Either way, they are entitled to their opinions. In the above article, Dershawitz is presenting such a timely and reasonable plea for understanding between the US and Israel. It must be heard. Americans have been scarred and blinded by opposing rhetoric. They have no idea of how much sophisticated know-how Israel has which it supplies the US – anything from the technology for the life-saving drones they use, to cutting edge medical research.
We want the world to open their minds and hearts – to see Israel as it really is. To do that, we first have to open our minds and hearts.
Batya Casper
http://www.israelathebook.com
Israel has proven itself a friend and ally of the US over and over again for no reason that anyone can see. Is Israel willing to face extinction based on blind trust of the US? Israel justly claims US attention for Israel’s national security, but only because Israel’s enemies are lying, insane, blood soaked monsters and are looking for a lot more fresh meat besides Israel. Defending Israel and the other small nations from the demon of Islam is just common sense and the US is nothing without common sense.
Darn it Ayn where are you when we need you.
Gone but not forgotten.
The US has such a long and wide record of double-dealing against Israel behind her back, it doesn’t deserve any ally — strong or otherwise.
ayn reagan’s opinions of Dershowitz, mine too!!!