# Abbas to Obama: I'm Against Lifting the Gaza Naval Blockade - Barak Ravid
PA leader Mahmoud Abbas told President Obama on Wednesday that he is opposed to lifting the naval blockade of Gaza because this would bolster Hamas. Abbas told Obama that easing the blockage should be done with care and undertaken gradually so as not to be construed as a victory for Hamas. European diplomats said Egypt also opposes lifting the blockade. (Ha'aretz)
# Israel's Gaza Policy: Prevent the Entry of War Materiel
At the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "The principle guiding our policy is clear - to prevent the entry of war materiel from entering Gaza and to allow the entry of humanitarian aid and non-contraband goods into Gaza." (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
See also Hamas' Grip on Gaza Loosening Under Embargo - Herb Keinon
With EU foreign ministers scheduled to meet in Brussels Monday to discuss how to ease the Israeli blockade of Gaza, Israel is trying to convince key players in the EU that the blockade is working, and that Hamas is facing serious financial difficulties and losing popularity. Senior diplomatic officials said Hamas is in trouble politically, economically and in terms of popularity, that the blockade is working, and that this is not the time to lift it.
One European diplomat said European leaders were under a great deal of pressure from their own public opinion to act. "You have to remember that nationals from 12 European countries were on the flotilla, and the leaders are under strong pressure from their constituents." (Jerusalem Post)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
abandonment of real politicks
the confusion of image and reality. Even in the world of 2010, power still matters. Violence settled quarrels. Individual men are greedy for power. Revolutionaries seek state power in order to transform fundamentally their societies. Regimes aggress against their neighbors. Power is respected.
And yet the idea has taken hold in most Western governments that what is most important is image. If we are nice to our enemies we will win them over. If we are popular we will avoid trouble. If we apologize we will be forgiven. If we tell everyone we are weak we will be pitied. If we sympathize with the underdog, even one that wants to be the overdog and maul us to death, we will be noble and thus succeed.
It is a world in which Senator Barbara Boxer can say, "Our national security experts...tell us that carbon pollution leading to climate change will be, over the next 20 years, the leading cause of conflict, putting our troops in harm's way...." Now even if you believe that "carbon pollution" is an important global problem that needs to be addressed, is this the way to think about it? Forget about the ambitions of Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, and revolutionary Islamists and terrorists, the real cause of war is going to be carbon pollution?
Well, she is from California after all, but Boxer is expressing the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) also, though even "national security experts" don't talk like that. (Theory: She is reflecting Obama's national security doctrine and the White House-influenced Department of Defense Quadrennial Report which barely mentioned real-world threats.)
In short, what we are seeing is the abandonment of realpolitik and in a real sense of the real world itself.
And yet the idea has taken hold in most Western governments that what is most important is image. If we are nice to our enemies we will win them over. If we are popular we will avoid trouble. If we apologize we will be forgiven. If we tell everyone we are weak we will be pitied. If we sympathize with the underdog, even one that wants to be the overdog and maul us to death, we will be noble and thus succeed.
It is a world in which Senator Barbara Boxer can say, "Our national security experts...tell us that carbon pollution leading to climate change will be, over the next 20 years, the leading cause of conflict, putting our troops in harm's way...." Now even if you believe that "carbon pollution" is an important global problem that needs to be addressed, is this the way to think about it? Forget about the ambitions of Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, and revolutionary Islamists and terrorists, the real cause of war is going to be carbon pollution?
Well, she is from California after all, but Boxer is expressing the zeitgeist (spirit of the age) also, though even "national security experts" don't talk like that. (Theory: She is reflecting Obama's national security doctrine and the White House-influenced Department of Defense Quadrennial Report which barely mentioned real-world threats.)
In short, what we are seeing is the abandonment of realpolitik and in a real sense of the real world itself.
question which is more important
So what's the bigger threat to Israel: Hamas becoming established permanently as the government of the Gaza Strip, training thousands of terrorists and importing arms or Western politicians and media criticizing Israel for stopping that from happening? It's no contest.
Huge natural gas find
This window, a gigantic deposit of natural gas called Leviathan, 6.5 times the size of Tel Aviv, was found, roughly 100 nautical miles from where the flotilla fiasco took place and well within Israel's extended territorial waters. This discovery may provide Israel with security in terms of its supply of electricity, turn it into an important natural gas exporter and provide a shot in the arm of some $300 billion over the life of the field - one-and-a-half times the national GDP - to the Israeli economy, already one of the most resilient in the world.
More importantly, this discovery is nothing short of a geopolitical game changer. To understand its magnitude, consider this: The world's biggest gas discovery in 2009, 238 billion cubic meters, was made by a U.S.-Israel consortium at a site called Tamar, 60 miles off the coast of Haifa. The nearby Leviathan field is estimated to be twice that size. Altogether the basin in the eastern Mediterranean to which those fields belong could contain an amount of gas equivalent to one-fifth of U.S. natural gas reserves. For a small country like Israel, such a bonanza could not have come at a better time.
Until recently, Israel was facing an energy predicament. Its fast-growing population - and the even faster-growing Palestinian Arab population to which it also supplies electricity - and the declining reserves of Egypt, its main gas supplier, required the identification of new sources of gas for electricity production. One alternative was to import natural gas from Russia and the Caspian Sea via Turkey. To this end, Turkey and Israel negotiated the construction of a subsea pipeline. But with the deterioration of their relations, this option gradually became unfeasible. Another option was to import gas from Qatar, hardly a reliable supplier. Yet a third, more costly, possibility was construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal, which would enable imports from various suppliers.
The discoveries at Tamar and Leviathan solved the problem: Israel will no longer have to import natural gas. Its dilemma now, rather, is deciding where to export the excess and how to reap the most geopolitical gains from its new status as an energy exporter.
Geographically, the most natural market is Europe, where any non-Russian gas is more than welcome. There are three ways for Israel to access this market. The first is to construct a pipeline to Turkey, where Israeli gas would join product from the Caspian region en route to Central Europe. This option is highly unlikely to be realized in the current atmosphere of Israel-Turkey relations.
Alternately, and more likely, Israel could construct a pipeline to Greece via Cyprus or pipe it inland, liquefy it and export it to any European liquefied natural gas terminal by sea. Europe is not the only potential market in such a scenario. Once liquefied, Israeli gas could be directed to China, South Korea and Japan, which collectively consume more than half of the world's LNG.
From a geopolitical standpoint, gas exports to India would be most beneficial to Israel. With hundreds of millions of its citizens facing energy poverty, India urgently needs reliable natural gas suppliers. One option for that country is to join the Iran-Pakistan pipeline - a project aimed at connecting Pakistan to Iran's South Pars field by 2014. Should India decide to extend the pipeline, it will become beholden to Iranian gas for decades to come, to the detriment of Western efforts to weaken Iran economically. Alternately, should India decide to construct LNG terminals along its coast, it will be able to import natural gas from Israel as well as other exporters, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The creation of an energy corridor from Israel to the Indian subcontinent would mean that Israel would have to retrofit the existing 150-mile oil pipeline linking the Red Sea port of Eilat with the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon. Once this pipeline commences operation, Russian and Caspian natural gas could reach the Asian markets as well.
Ironically, the biggest casualty of such an energy corridor will be none other than Turkey, which now enjoys an unchallenged status as an energy bridge between East and West. Energy transit fees are an important source of income to the Turkish economy.
In the coming years, Israel will have to decide whether to direct its gas to Asia or to compete with Turkey over access to the European gas market. Should it choose the latter, Turkish-Israeli relations will remain in rough seas.
Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, and co-author of "Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence through Fuel Choice" (BookSurge Publishing, 2009 ).
# # # # #
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/09/guilty_until_proven_guilty?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full
More importantly, this discovery is nothing short of a geopolitical game changer. To understand its magnitude, consider this: The world's biggest gas discovery in 2009, 238 billion cubic meters, was made by a U.S.-Israel consortium at a site called Tamar, 60 miles off the coast of Haifa. The nearby Leviathan field is estimated to be twice that size. Altogether the basin in the eastern Mediterranean to which those fields belong could contain an amount of gas equivalent to one-fifth of U.S. natural gas reserves. For a small country like Israel, such a bonanza could not have come at a better time.
Until recently, Israel was facing an energy predicament. Its fast-growing population - and the even faster-growing Palestinian Arab population to which it also supplies electricity - and the declining reserves of Egypt, its main gas supplier, required the identification of new sources of gas for electricity production. One alternative was to import natural gas from Russia and the Caspian Sea via Turkey. To this end, Turkey and Israel negotiated the construction of a subsea pipeline. But with the deterioration of their relations, this option gradually became unfeasible. Another option was to import gas from Qatar, hardly a reliable supplier. Yet a third, more costly, possibility was construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal, which would enable imports from various suppliers.
The discoveries at Tamar and Leviathan solved the problem: Israel will no longer have to import natural gas. Its dilemma now, rather, is deciding where to export the excess and how to reap the most geopolitical gains from its new status as an energy exporter.
Geographically, the most natural market is Europe, where any non-Russian gas is more than welcome. There are three ways for Israel to access this market. The first is to construct a pipeline to Turkey, where Israeli gas would join product from the Caspian region en route to Central Europe. This option is highly unlikely to be realized in the current atmosphere of Israel-Turkey relations.
Alternately, and more likely, Israel could construct a pipeline to Greece via Cyprus or pipe it inland, liquefy it and export it to any European liquefied natural gas terminal by sea. Europe is not the only potential market in such a scenario. Once liquefied, Israeli gas could be directed to China, South Korea and Japan, which collectively consume more than half of the world's LNG.
From a geopolitical standpoint, gas exports to India would be most beneficial to Israel. With hundreds of millions of its citizens facing energy poverty, India urgently needs reliable natural gas suppliers. One option for that country is to join the Iran-Pakistan pipeline - a project aimed at connecting Pakistan to Iran's South Pars field by 2014. Should India decide to extend the pipeline, it will become beholden to Iranian gas for decades to come, to the detriment of Western efforts to weaken Iran economically. Alternately, should India decide to construct LNG terminals along its coast, it will be able to import natural gas from Israel as well as other exporters, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The creation of an energy corridor from Israel to the Indian subcontinent would mean that Israel would have to retrofit the existing 150-mile oil pipeline linking the Red Sea port of Eilat with the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon. Once this pipeline commences operation, Russian and Caspian natural gas could reach the Asian markets as well.
Ironically, the biggest casualty of such an energy corridor will be none other than Turkey, which now enjoys an unchallenged status as an energy bridge between East and West. Energy transit fees are an important source of income to the Turkish economy.
In the coming years, Israel will have to decide whether to direct its gas to Asia or to compete with Turkey over access to the European gas market. Should it choose the latter, Turkish-Israeli relations will remain in rough seas.
Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, and co-author of "Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence through Fuel Choice" (BookSurge Publishing, 2009 ).
# # # # #
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/09/guilty_until_proven_guilty?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&page=full
Friday, June 11, 2010
Boycott these anti-semites
BOYCOTT SPAIN
Israel, the only
country in the Middle East that doesn't execute homosexuals is
singled out and uninvited to the Madrid gay pride parade. But
it's true. Check out:http://www.heebmagazine.com/israeli-coalition-banned-from-madri
BOYCOTT COSTELLO
British rock icon Elvis Costello cancesl two concerts scheduled in Tel Aviv next month has provoked outrage from Israeli music fans and officials. Reversing an earlier commitment to ignore calls to boycott Israel, Costello announced last week that he would not perform in Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians.
BOYCOTT– New Zealand, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have banned shechita,
“This decision by the New Zealand government, one which has a Jewish prime minister, is outrageous,” said Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, acting president of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia. “We will be doing everything possible to get this decision reversed.”
Israel, the only
country in the Middle East that doesn't execute homosexuals is
singled out and uninvited to the Madrid gay pride parade. But
it's true. Check out:http://www.heebmagazine.com/israeli-coalition-banned-from-madri
BOYCOTT COSTELLO
British rock icon Elvis Costello cancesl two concerts scheduled in Tel Aviv next month has provoked outrage from Israeli music fans and officials. Reversing an earlier commitment to ignore calls to boycott Israel, Costello announced last week that he would not perform in Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians.
BOYCOTT– New Zealand, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have banned shechita,
“This decision by the New Zealand government, one which has a Jewish prime minister, is outrageous,” said Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, acting president of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia. “We will be doing everything possible to get this decision reversed.”
Allah is a Zionist
Anyone interested in a Muslim article on a Jewish right and presence in Isr=
ael, see the discussion in Tablet of the following topics:
Tablet:=C2=A0 A New Read on Jewish Life (copyright Nextbook, Inc.)
Allah Is a Zionist
The Quranic argument for Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel
By Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi
1. Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem
2. Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel
3. Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel was never abolished
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/28575/allah-is-a-zionist/
ael, see the discussion in Tablet of the following topics:
Tablet:=C2=A0 A New Read on Jewish Life (copyright Nextbook, Inc.)
Allah Is a Zionist
The Quranic argument for Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel
By Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi
1. Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem
2. Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel
3. Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel was never abolished
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/28575/allah-is-a-zionist/
Zionizing our youth
Confronting the Zeitgeist Head-On
by Jonathan Rosenblum
The Jerusalem Post
June 11, 2010
http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1375/confronting-the-zeitgeist-head-on
Confronting the Zeitgeist Head On
I'm sure that I am not alone in thinking that my friend Daniel Gordis is th=
e
finest writer on life in Israel in English. Like all great writers, he has =
a
talent for finding anecdotes that illuminate a larger pattern, for example,
the story with which he begins "The Storm Ahead" (Jerusalem Post, May 28
2010). He describes the terrible loneliness he felt when an identified youn=
g
American Jewish woman, a student at the Conservative movement's University
of Judaism, asked him after a class in memory of murdered Israeli soldier
Nachshon Wachsman, "What does any of this have to do with us?"
For Gordis that moment, nearly 16 years ago, was a warning signal of the
large disconnect, if not outright alienation, between young American Jews
and Israel. Even those described as young Jewish leaders, he laments, no
longer view "Israel as central to Jewish identity and peoplehood." He
remembers the pride that he felt in his youth, indeed still feels, at the
wondrous "cultural renaissance" that Israel has made possible, and wishes
those same feelings upon young American Jews.
Militating against such feelings today, however, is the universalistic ethi=
c
that dominates elite Western discourse =96 an ethic hostile to anything tha=
t
reinforces divisions between people or peoples. Europe still sets the
zeitgeist, and European elites remain in a permanent state of penance for
the Holocaust and the ravages of two world wars. "For the penitents," write
Alain Finkelkraut, "everything that distinguishes people from one another,
that divides one man from another, is bad. Borders are bad; fences are bad.
Internet is good." Europe today, shows "the passion for sameness" that
Alexis de Tocqueville identified with democracy.
The perilous state of the euro, which threatens the European monetary union=
,
has revived economic nationalism, but the change has not yet been registere=
d
by the zeitgeist. In the meantime, Israel stands against the current. As
Columbia University historian of ideas Mark Lilla puts it, "Once upon a
time, the Jews were mocked for not having a nation-state; now they are
mocked for having one." And to take pride in that state on the basis of
ethnic identity cuts across everything in which young Jewish students have
been taught to believe.
Even the religious rituals, if any, with which they have been raised train
them to resist any notion of differences between people: between men and
women; between Kohain, Levi, and Yisrael; and in some Reform temples, even
between Jews and non-Jews in the apportioning of honors.
These trends among young American Jews, bode ill for Israel, and, ultimatel=
y
for American Jews themselves, whose "vibrant Jewish life" (Gordis's
description not mine), owes much to Israel's existence =96 an existence mad=
e
more tenuous by declining American Jewish political support.
AS PASSIONATELY AS GORDIS wishes that American Jewish youth knew more about
Israel, he has little to offer by way of solutions to the looming crisis he
has so perceptively identified and analyzed.
Israel has many things of which to be proud: its mere survival in a sea of
hostility; the flourishing economy, despite the huge percentage of national
resources devoted to defense and the absorption of millions of immigrants;
the resilience of her citizens and their unity in the face of external
threats; the rebuilding of the world of Torah scholarship destroyed by the
Holocaust, with the assistance of generous governmental support.
But to ask American Jewish youth to take pride in these achievements is aki=
n
to asking them to become fans of Team Israel. There is something more than
faintly ridiculous about sports fans whose moods fluctuate wildly in
response to the fortunes of the local sports team, populated by hired
gladiators, to whose success they contribute nothing. Why should America
Jewish youth feel pride in what others, half way around the world have
achieved?
Worse, Israel is not the sort of team designed to attract fans. Sports fans
want to feel good about themselves, either through vicarious victories or b=
y
identification with lovable losers, like the Cubs. And Israel does not make
young Jews feel good. Rather it subjects them to profound discomfort. When
Israel is accused of imposing a cruel and inhumane blockade, enforced by
wanton murder, young Jews are inclined to flee from anything that identifie=
s
them with Israel, or even with being Jewish.
The younger they are, the more likely they are to hear such sentiments
expressed by virtually all of their left-thinking friends, many of them
Jewish. True, there will always be those who forge their identity in
opposition to the received opinions of their environment. But that vast
majority of university students are too conformist for that.
What is needed is something much more fundamental than reinforced ethnic
identity in a post-ethnic age. The primary problem is not so much that most
young American Jews do not see Israel as central to Jewish identity, but
rather that they do not see being Jewish as being central to their personal
identity.
Reversing the latter requires restoring the sense of Jewish chosenness that
has animated Jewish history until very recently -- on helping young Jews
view themselves as part of a world-historical mission, links in an unbroken
chain that depends upon each of them for its continuation. As the Sages
teach, "The task is not yours to complete; neither are you free to leave it
off." Chosenness does not mean identifying with the achievements of others,
with whom one has no intrinsic relationship, but rather recognizing oneself
as having a vital and indispensable role to play in the realization of the
mission one shares with all fellow Jews.
No Orthodox Jew (aside from a handful of photo-hungry loonies), even the
most fervent anti-Zionist Satmar Chassid in Williamsburg, could have asked
the question, "What does Nachshon Wachsman's death have to do with me?"
Orthodox Jews, like everyone else, will be more powerfully affected by the
death of those closest to them. But they feel bound to every other Jew and
diminished by his or her loss.
Yes, Jewish chosenness flies straight in the face of the zeitgeist, but
there is no choice. Jewish novelist Michael Chabon demonstrated the furies
the concept arouses in last Sunday's New York Times. Chabon gleefully seize=
d
on the Gaza flotilla disaster to prove that Jews can be as stupid as
everyone else. And therefore, he argued, the survival of the Jews "across
millenniums in spite of constant hatred, war, persecution, intolerance and
genocide . . . can [not] be credited to any kind of special trait or
behavior," but only to "luck."
Jews, however, never attributed their survival to their super-abundant
"seichel," but rather to the fact that God chose them to be His people, and
has preserved them, despite all the vicissitudes, as a lone sheep among
seventy wolves. We were chosen to be the people through whom He reveals
Himself to mankind -- examples of holiness and a life of purpose, in a worl=
d
that increasingly denies their existence.
Each Jew is potentially part of that mission. Those who understand that wil=
l
also understand that for all the apoplectic hatred directed at Israel last
week, and all the discomfort felt by Jews around the world, a far greater
tragedy could have taken place: One of the dead might have been a Jewish
soldier, another Nachshon Wachsman
by Jonathan Rosenblum
The Jerusalem Post
June 11, 2010
http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1375/confronting-the-zeitgeist-head-on
Confronting the Zeitgeist Head On
I'm sure that I am not alone in thinking that my friend Daniel Gordis is th=
e
finest writer on life in Israel in English. Like all great writers, he has =
a
talent for finding anecdotes that illuminate a larger pattern, for example,
the story with which he begins "The Storm Ahead" (Jerusalem Post, May 28
2010). He describes the terrible loneliness he felt when an identified youn=
g
American Jewish woman, a student at the Conservative movement's University
of Judaism, asked him after a class in memory of murdered Israeli soldier
Nachshon Wachsman, "What does any of this have to do with us?"
For Gordis that moment, nearly 16 years ago, was a warning signal of the
large disconnect, if not outright alienation, between young American Jews
and Israel. Even those described as young Jewish leaders, he laments, no
longer view "Israel as central to Jewish identity and peoplehood." He
remembers the pride that he felt in his youth, indeed still feels, at the
wondrous "cultural renaissance" that Israel has made possible, and wishes
those same feelings upon young American Jews.
Militating against such feelings today, however, is the universalistic ethi=
c
that dominates elite Western discourse =96 an ethic hostile to anything tha=
t
reinforces divisions between people or peoples. Europe still sets the
zeitgeist, and European elites remain in a permanent state of penance for
the Holocaust and the ravages of two world wars. "For the penitents," write
Alain Finkelkraut, "everything that distinguishes people from one another,
that divides one man from another, is bad. Borders are bad; fences are bad.
Internet is good." Europe today, shows "the passion for sameness" that
Alexis de Tocqueville identified with democracy.
The perilous state of the euro, which threatens the European monetary union=
,
has revived economic nationalism, but the change has not yet been registere=
d
by the zeitgeist. In the meantime, Israel stands against the current. As
Columbia University historian of ideas Mark Lilla puts it, "Once upon a
time, the Jews were mocked for not having a nation-state; now they are
mocked for having one." And to take pride in that state on the basis of
ethnic identity cuts across everything in which young Jewish students have
been taught to believe.
Even the religious rituals, if any, with which they have been raised train
them to resist any notion of differences between people: between men and
women; between Kohain, Levi, and Yisrael; and in some Reform temples, even
between Jews and non-Jews in the apportioning of honors.
These trends among young American Jews, bode ill for Israel, and, ultimatel=
y
for American Jews themselves, whose "vibrant Jewish life" (Gordis's
description not mine), owes much to Israel's existence =96 an existence mad=
e
more tenuous by declining American Jewish political support.
AS PASSIONATELY AS GORDIS wishes that American Jewish youth knew more about
Israel, he has little to offer by way of solutions to the looming crisis he
has so perceptively identified and analyzed.
Israel has many things of which to be proud: its mere survival in a sea of
hostility; the flourishing economy, despite the huge percentage of national
resources devoted to defense and the absorption of millions of immigrants;
the resilience of her citizens and their unity in the face of external
threats; the rebuilding of the world of Torah scholarship destroyed by the
Holocaust, with the assistance of generous governmental support.
But to ask American Jewish youth to take pride in these achievements is aki=
n
to asking them to become fans of Team Israel. There is something more than
faintly ridiculous about sports fans whose moods fluctuate wildly in
response to the fortunes of the local sports team, populated by hired
gladiators, to whose success they contribute nothing. Why should America
Jewish youth feel pride in what others, half way around the world have
achieved?
Worse, Israel is not the sort of team designed to attract fans. Sports fans
want to feel good about themselves, either through vicarious victories or b=
y
identification with lovable losers, like the Cubs. And Israel does not make
young Jews feel good. Rather it subjects them to profound discomfort. When
Israel is accused of imposing a cruel and inhumane blockade, enforced by
wanton murder, young Jews are inclined to flee from anything that identifie=
s
them with Israel, or even with being Jewish.
The younger they are, the more likely they are to hear such sentiments
expressed by virtually all of their left-thinking friends, many of them
Jewish. True, there will always be those who forge their identity in
opposition to the received opinions of their environment. But that vast
majority of university students are too conformist for that.
What is needed is something much more fundamental than reinforced ethnic
identity in a post-ethnic age. The primary problem is not so much that most
young American Jews do not see Israel as central to Jewish identity, but
rather that they do not see being Jewish as being central to their personal
identity.
Reversing the latter requires restoring the sense of Jewish chosenness that
has animated Jewish history until very recently -- on helping young Jews
view themselves as part of a world-historical mission, links in an unbroken
chain that depends upon each of them for its continuation. As the Sages
teach, "The task is not yours to complete; neither are you free to leave it
off." Chosenness does not mean identifying with the achievements of others,
with whom one has no intrinsic relationship, but rather recognizing oneself
as having a vital and indispensable role to play in the realization of the
mission one shares with all fellow Jews.
No Orthodox Jew (aside from a handful of photo-hungry loonies), even the
most fervent anti-Zionist Satmar Chassid in Williamsburg, could have asked
the question, "What does Nachshon Wachsman's death have to do with me?"
Orthodox Jews, like everyone else, will be more powerfully affected by the
death of those closest to them. But they feel bound to every other Jew and
diminished by his or her loss.
Yes, Jewish chosenness flies straight in the face of the zeitgeist, but
there is no choice. Jewish novelist Michael Chabon demonstrated the furies
the concept arouses in last Sunday's New York Times. Chabon gleefully seize=
d
on the Gaza flotilla disaster to prove that Jews can be as stupid as
everyone else. And therefore, he argued, the survival of the Jews "across
millenniums in spite of constant hatred, war, persecution, intolerance and
genocide . . . can [not] be credited to any kind of special trait or
behavior," but only to "luck."
Jews, however, never attributed their survival to their super-abundant
"seichel," but rather to the fact that God chose them to be His people, and
has preserved them, despite all the vicissitudes, as a lone sheep among
seventy wolves. We were chosen to be the people through whom He reveals
Himself to mankind -- examples of holiness and a life of purpose, in a worl=
d
that increasingly denies their existence.
Each Jew is potentially part of that mission. Those who understand that wil=
l
also understand that for all the apoplectic hatred directed at Israel last
week, and all the discomfort felt by Jews around the world, a far greater
tragedy could have taken place: One of the dead might have been a Jewish
soldier, another Nachshon Wachsman
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