Current Events
An American Senator, Not an Israeli:
It's Time For American Politicians to Represent the U.S.
URI AVNERY
President Barack Obama has nominated Chuck Hagel to be the US Defense Sceretary. There's one group that doesn't want him in the job -- a foreign power: the Israelis! The tail wagging the dog?
I FIND Chuck Hagel eminently likeable. I am not quite certain why.
Perhaps it’s his war record. He was decorated for valour in the Vietnam
War (which I detested). He was a mere sergeant. Since I was a mere
corporal in our 1948 war, I find it elating to see a non-commissioned
officer become US Secretary of Defense.
Like so many veterans who have seen war from close up (myself included), he has become an enemy of war. Wonderful.
NOW Hagel is violently attacked by all the neocon warmongers, almost
none of whom has ever heard a bullet whistle in the wars to which they
sent others, and the combined political regiments of the American Jewish
establishment.
His main sin seems to be that he objects to war against Iran. To be
against an attack on Iran means to be anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, indeed
to wish for the destruction of Israel if not all Jews. Never mind that
almost all present and past chiefs of the Israeli army and intelligence
community object to an attack on Iran, too. But Binyamin Netanyahu knows
better.
Last week, the former much-lauded chief of the Shin Bet painted a
frightening picture of Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak at a security
meeting to discuss the bombing of Iran some time ago. The two were in
high spirits, puffing on cigars and drinking whiskey, much to the
disgust of the assembled security chiefs. In Israel, cigars are
considered an ostentatious luxury and drinking at work is taboo.
Netanyahu’s spin-doctors retorted that Winston Churchill, too, was a
brandy drinker and smoked cigars. Seems that spirits and cigars are not
enough to make a Churchill.
Actually, I think that the appointment of Hagel may come as a relief to
Netanyahu. After years of depicting the Iranian nuclear bomb as the end
of the world, or at least of Israel, the bomb is mysteriously absent
from Netanyahu’s election campaign. Hagel’s appointment may allow
Netanyahu to climb down from this tree altogether.
But the catalogue of Hagel’s crimes is much more extensive.
Many years ago he called the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington (would you
believe it?) the “Jewish lobby”. Until then, it was understood that
AIPAC is mainly composed of Buddhists and financed by Arab billionaires
like Abu Sheldon and Abel al-Adelson.
HOWEVER, HAGEL’S most heinous sin is not often mentioned. While serving
as the Republican senator for Nebraska, he once uttered the unspeakable
words: “I am an American senator, not an Israeli senator!”
That is really the crux of the matter.
US senators are nearly all Israeli senators. Ditto for US congressmen.
Hardly any of them would dare to criticize the Israeli government on any
issue, negligible as it may be. Criticizing Israel is political
suicide. Not only does the Jewish lobby use its huge resources to get
loyal pro-Israelis elected and re-elected, but it openly employs these
resources to unseat the few elected officials who dare to criticize
Israel. They almost always succeed.
In the present election campaign, the Likud is showing again and again
(and again) the scene of Netanyahu addressing the US congress. The
senators and congressmen are seen wildly applauding after every single
sentence, jumping up and down like children in gymnastics class. The
text of the clip says: “When Netanyahu speaks, the world listens!”
(A curiosity: right after this shameful scene, the clip shows Netanyahu
addressing the UN General Assembly. Since the applause there was sparse –
hardly anyone, other than Avigdor Lieberman and the other members of
the Israeli delegation in the half-empty hall did applaud – the editors
of the clip used a little trick: they took the applause from the US
Congress and transferred it to the UN Assembly hall.)
Somebody sent me a satirical piece saying that if Hagel’s appointment is
not cancelled by the US Senate, Israel will have to use its veto power
to block it. In such a case, the senate would have to muster a 90%
majority to overcome the veto. If this fails, President Obama would have
to choose another Defense Secretary from a list of three names provided
by Netanyahu.
Jokes aside, the Israeli defence establishment is not worried by the
Hagel appointment. They seem to know him as quite receptive to Israeli
requests. Several Israeli generals have already come to his defence.
THIS WHOLE episode might be considered trivial, or even funny, were it
not for the question: Why did President Obama put forward this
controversial figure in the first place?
An obvious answer is: Revenge. Obama is a master of controlling his
emotions. During all the months of Netanyahu supporting Mitt Romney,
Obama did not react. But his anger must have been building up inside.
Now the time has come. Appointing Hagel and openly humiliating the
pro-Israel lobby was one way. More of this can be expected to come. Any
slight nudge from America is bound to be felt by Israel as a heavy blow.
By the way, this blow could be used by the opposition parties here to to
expose Netanyahu's rank incompetence. Supporting Romney was plain
stupid. All the more so as Netanyahu, who was raised in the US, depicts
himself as an expert on US affairs. But no party dares to raise this
subject in our election campaign, for fear of being considered less than
super-patriotic.
I don’t expect President Obama to change the US treatment of Israel in
the near future, beyond some small punitive acts like this one. But when
we raise our eyes towards the horizon, the picture looks different.
There is already a marked difference between Obama I and Obama II. When
he was elected the first time, he chose Chas Freeman, a highly respected
diplomat, to head the National Security Council. The pro-Israel lobby
raised a storm, and the appointment was withdrawn. Obama then preferred
public humiliation to a confrontation with the lobby. How different this
time!
This change may well become more marked in Obama's second term and far
beyond. The lobby’s stranglehold on Washington DC is loosening,
slightly, slowly, but significantly.
Why?
I believe that one of the reasons is that the perception of the American
Jewish community is changing. American politicians are beginning to
realize that Jewish voters are far from unanimously behind the lobby.
American Jewish “leaders”, almost all of them self-appointed and
representing nobody but a small clique of professional representatives,
as well as the Israeli embassy and some right-wing billionaires, do not
control the Jewish vote.
This became clear when Netanyahu supported Romney. The great majority of
Jewish voters continued to support Obama and the Democratic Party.
This is not a sudden development. For years now, American Jews –
especially young Jews – have distanced themselves from the Zionist
establishment. Becoming more and more disillusioned with official
Israeli policy, alienated by the occupation, disgusted with the pictures
of Israeli soldiers beating up helpless Palestinians, they have quietly
dropped away. Quietly, because they fear an anti-Semitic backlash. Jews
are indoctrinated from early childhood that “we Jews have to stick
together” in face of the anti-Semites.
Only a few brave American Jews are ready to openly – though ever so
timidly – criticize Israel. But US politics are slowly adjusting to the
fact that much of the lobby's strength is bluff, and that most American
Jews don't let Israel determine their voting pattern.
AMERICANS MUST be a race of angels – how else to explain the incredible
patience with which they suffer the fact that in a vital sphere of US
interests, American policy is dictated by a foreign country?
For five decades, at least, US Middle East policy has been decided in
Jerusalem. Almost all American officials dealing with this area are,
well, Jewish. The Hebrew-speaking American ambassador in Tel Aviv could
easily be the Israeli ambassador in Washington. Sometimes I wonder if in
meetings of American and Israeli diplomats, they don't sometimes drop
into Yiddish.
I have warned many times that this can’t go on forever. Sooner or later
real anti-Semites – a disgusting breed – will exploit this situation to
gain legitimacy. The hubris of AIPAC bears poisonous fruit.
Since Israel is dependent on US support in almost every sphere – from
the UN Security Council to the battlefields of future wars – this is a
real existential danger.
Perhaps the lobby is becoming alert to this danger. In the present
affair, their voice is remarkably subdued. They don’t want to stand
out.
THE SADDEST part of the story is that all these false “friends of
Israel” in the US Congress and media are not really embracing “Israel”.
They are embracing the Israeli right-wing, including the extreme and
even fascist right-wing. They are, thereby, helping the right-wing to
tighten their control over our country.
American policy plays a major role in the agony of the Israeli peace
camp, which is so manifest in the present election campaign. Just one
example: the huge settlement effort now in process, which makes the
two-state peace solution more and more difficult to implement, is
financed by American Jews who funnel their donations through tax-free
organizations. Thus the US government in practice finances the
settlements, which it officially condemns as illegal.
Since the 19th century, newspapers have got used to abbreviating their
reports by saying “France protests” and “Germany declares” when they
mean “the French government protests” and “the German government
declares”. Thus the media today write that “Israel” promotes the
settlements, when in actual fact it is the Israeli government which does
so. Several respected recent polls prove that most Israelis want peace
based on the two-state solution, which is undermined by our government
on a daily basis.
BACK TO Senator Hagel: the Israeli government and the “friends of Israel” will do anything to undermine his appointment.
Speaking for myself, I hope that his appointment will herald a new
American policy – a policy of support for a sober, rational, liberal,
secular, democratic Israel, striving for peace with the Palestinian
people.
The author is an Israeli writer.
[Courtesy: Outlook]
January 15, 2013