The leader history now demands.
by
By Unknown, dedicated to the Bettmann Archive – Getty Images, Public Domain, Wikipedia
Not surprisingly, Israelis and Americans are facing crucial Fall elections. In the United States citizens will vote for Congress and the Senate. Conservatives fear that the Democrats may take both houses. If they do, then they will try to impeach President Trump and they will do everything possible to weaken the alliance with that other Biblically inspired exceptional democracy, Israel.
In Israel, citizens will vote for those parties and leaders that they hope will successfully lead Israel during a time of geo-strategic turbulence. As Donald Trump has just under two years before his time as President expires, one must look to Israel and ask what kind of Prime Minister is best for both Israel and the United States as well as a weak West (NATO and the EU).
So let us do a simple thought experiment. If Winston Churchill were alive today, what might he say about the qualities of the next Israeli Prime Minister, as elections in Israel are to be held very soon? I suspect he would have written something like the following.
Whether the MOU signed with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its defeatist-sounding language (signed by the same government that President Trump once pointed out tried to kill him, and repeats this threat daily and publicly) is a strategic ruse, or a catastrophe that is the equivalent of Chamberlain’s infamous “peace in our time” letter remains to be seen.
Let us hope with the resumption of attacks on Iran it is now history. Today it appears a strange combination of both as “negotiations” continue during unprovoked attacks by the Iranians and restrained responses from the Americans. One never knows.
Unfortunately, one of its side effects has been to allow many suppressed demons to leave Pandora’s box and enter the national debate. The most alarming have been Vice President Vance’s almost pre-WWII country club anti-Semitism when he announced that “…anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that that country is in…”
Sadly, President Trump’s public announcement that Netanyahu knows “he is the boss,” unintentionally strengthens hostility towards Israel as Israel was cut out of the MOU negotiation and left to defend itself.
We can be certain that Vice President Vance’s anti-Israel sentiments will soon become more pronounced, as his comment about Pakistan — “we love Pakistan” — suggests.
Instead, one can only hope the day may come when he says, “Americans, including myself, love the State of Israel — its patriots, its democracy, and its steadfast support for the United States. Like our own, it is an exceptional democracy.” Such a turn seems unlikely, however, since Vance has yet to publicly renounce his “friendship” with the now-infamous Tucker Carlson.
Today the American and Israeli papers, TV and the blogosphere are filled with frenzied debate about who will be the next best Prime Minister of Israel given the now widespread belief that America may have compromised its alliance with Israel and their common goal of regime change in Iran.
And so, what are the qualities needed for the next Israeli Prime Minister?
Primarily, he (and it will be a he) must understand geopolitics above all other things. This means understanding the nature and levels of conflict among America, Russia and China complicated by a weak and vacillating NATO and European Union.
Secondly, he must recognize the power of Jihad. Most Muslim nations support Jihad and have outsourced it by encouraging the mass migration of Muslims to the West, who then demand anti-Zionism and Shariah conformity among their fellow citizens.
The next Israeli Prime Minister must be a master of great power politics and show how a small, free nation like Israel fits inside this mosaic. He must grasp the global chessboard. Primarily he must navigate the friction between America, Russia, China, and the Islamic world.
He must possess a willpower that grows when others’ quail — and reject the siren song of easy surrender, standing firm when allies falter or partially retreat as seems to be the case today.
He must be in complete command of the words in both Hebrew and English that steel the citizen’s heart and summon up the collective spirit of a besieged people, who regained their independence in 1948 against incredible odds. He must state the national purpose with absolute clarity.
He must have the spine to refuse to be hurried by temporary panics. In doing so, he must outlast the temporary enthusiasms of allies and enemies both inside and outside of Israel. He must plan for decades, not for headlines.
He must radiate a near-imperial self-reliance drawing on three thousand years of Jewish culture, fearing neither economic nor cultural boycotts. He must treat foreign allies as bonuses, never as crutches or dependencies, and ensure that Israel is the master of its own destiny.
He must be the master of the Israeli scientific frontier and wield its technology as the modern shield of David, maintaining a qualitative edge over both allies and enemies. Intellect must be channeled into unquestioned if envied regional leadership.
He must read world affairs exactly as they are and banish dreaming from the cabinet room, judging foreign leaders by their deeds and never by their needs or pronouncements.
He must have read history. He must eject the late Shimon Peres’ disdain for history and naive intoxication in a utopian future from the entire Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where it still lives) and draw on the strength and will of the Jewish people of whom Israel is just one part. He must know and feel that empires have come and gone but Israel has remained.
He must radiate an infectious confidence in the final victory of the Jewish people and the citizens of a democratic Israel, over hard tyrannies like Iran or the so-called moderate countries like Saudi Arabia and banish the vocabulary of defeat from his inner circle. When he contemplates the abyss, he must see only triumph.
Like the prophets of the Bible, he must have the courage to stand in front of the soon-to-be-elected Senate and Congress, and if given the opportunity to speak, remind America of its obligation to remain the unquestioned and unchallenged leader of the free world.
When that man arises, and with God’s help he may, then one day in years to come, in both Washington and Jerusalem, historians will celebrate his legacy and praise his name as both a warrior and a man of peace. Churchill, if alive today, would agree.
Geoffrey Clarfield is Canada’s only conservative anthropologist. Trained as a musician and ethnomusicologist, he is a journalist who explores the connection between culture and politics, having spent more than two decades conducting field research and managing international development projects across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
This article is dedicated to the memory of my late father, Morris Clarfield, Canadian artillery officer in Halifax harbour during WWII.
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