Thoughts on Israel - May 2010

This past Wednesday night  was an incredible opportunity for Gesher L’ Torah as we hosted Ambassador Reda Mansur, the Consul General from Israel to the Southeastern United States.  Transforming our bima into a  kind of cozy living room setting, Ambassador Mansour and Federation president Steve Rakitt chatted amiably about questions ranging from the Ambassador’s fascinating family background (he is a Druze citizen of Israel) to the complex interplay of U.S.-Israel relations.  . Throughout, the Ambassador spoke with clarity, candor and depth and even shared words of poetry translated from his own work. While surely expressing the urgency of support for Israel at this and in all times, he also insisted on the need to face both internal and external challenges with an eye toward the future


Recently another diplomat, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren made the point that as long as there is cooperation between Israeli officials and US officials, nothing is more beneficial for the State of Israel than the perception of harmony between our two countries.  He went on to affirm that in fact such cooperation was happening on a very high level and, despite the more sensational characterization of clashes and snubs, the Netanyahu government and the Obama administration were very much on the same page.  Finally, he put forward that while emphasizing the rifts may be of short term benefit in domestic politics, it only serves to undermine Israel’s overall standing with both its friends and its enemies.

Ambassador Oren by all accounts is a good diplomat and clearly the Israeli government would like to find smoother sailing in its relationship with President Obama.  Still, there is no denying the soundness of the point, itself.  The United States’ friendship with Israel has always crossed party lines and been represented in personal affirmations from those at the top.  President Obama has  been on record as a friend and has not deviated in policy from the path that has been laid out for several administrations.  Ambassador Oren believes that it does not serve Israel’s best interests to focus on public relations missteps and reading too much into a steady stream of anecdotes and circumstantial occurrences. 

What ought we do, then?  Going back to our own Consul General Mansour’s talk, we should make ourselves as familiar as possible with the situation in Israel through the eyes of Israelis.  The political conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is only part of a larger picture which includes the questions of how to balance observant Jews with secular Jews, maintain a democracy that encompasses Jews, Christians and Arabs, deal with the same contemporary challenges as any modern state and do it all while living on a block in a very tough neighborhood.   Through the Israeli eyes of Amb. Mansour, the only thing worse than the prospects for finding a workable Two State solution  would be giving up trying to make it happen.   He left no doubt that every approach, including military, should  be on the table in thwarting Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s malicious nuclear ambitions.  However, no one should underestimate how difficult and costly it would be to all concerned if we were forced to take such action.

Both Ambassador Oren, with his smooth diplomatic advice and Ambassador Mansour with his honest, but complex depiction of the situation, lead me to view the relationship between the Obama administration and Israel in less dire terms. Neither is advocating by any means that Jews be complacent or forget the awfully learned lessons of our past that appeasement in the face of tyranny is catastrophic.  However, they both show that the opposite of being silent is not necessarily to shout. 

At the conclusion of our program Wednesday night, I had the honor of thanking our guests and leading the singing of Hatikva, whose title means “the Hope”.  I quoted the words of the Chief Rabbi of England, Jonathan Sacks who distinguishes between optimism and hope.   An optimist looks at the world and thinks “this will get better.”  To have hope is to look at the world and say  “I must make this better.”  Whether we can or cannot justify being optimistic, we must never lose hope. 


So may it be for us, and may we help fulfill the dream of Israel: peace.


Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Michael