Letter to the Sunday Times
Sir,
The gist of Andrew Sullivan’s opinion piece (see below) is that
the Only Superpower judges its allies and various developments
of the modern life according to the criteria of ‘What is good
for the Jews’. I recognize this approach of my dear late
grandmother. Whenever my grandfather would lift his eyes from
his morning paper and announce an Earthquake in Patagonia or a
Miners’ strike in Wales, she would invariably pose this
question. Sullivan deserves praise for his astute observation of
this peculiar Judeo-centricity of American cultural and
political life.
Sullivan notices a ‘similarity of spirit’ between Israel and
America. He is right again: both countries are possessed by the
same spirit of Judeo-centricity. Sullivan describes the Israeli
political system as a 'democracy' similar to the American one.
Here he is right, up to a point: in Israel/Palestine, majority
of non-Jews have no right of vote at all, while in the US, their
vote is largely irrelevant. There is similarity on the ground:
security checks, plenty of jingoism, huge social gap are among
the features common for Israel and America.
But, in his panegyric, he misses growing dissatisfaction of
Americans with the dominance of the Jewish outlook in the
discourse. American media now is as detached from the feelings
of Americans as that of Russia in Brezhnev's days. It stopped to
fulfil its basic function in the society: that of safety valve.
As opposed to my grandmother, many Americans are able to see
some other factors of life, beyond narrow Jewish interest. They
are increasingly frustrated with the totalitarianism of the
American mass media, with vehement attacks on any but
ferociously pro-Israeli writer and thinker, with ugly racism and
hatred (very much in evidence in Sullivan's piece as well: "city
of whores and effete men", "thugocracies of Arab states")
produced by these fans of Israeli apartheid.
Israel Shamir,
Jaffa
Headline: America knows who its friends are: Comment: Opinion
Source: Sunday Times
Issue Date: Sunday May 05, 2002
Byline: Andrew Sullivan
Page: News 18
Word Count: 1119
Edition: 1GN
Story Text: In crises or periods of personal turmoil, you find
out who your friends are. And your enemies. That's why our
friendships and relationships can change more profoundly under
stress than in any other condition. And that goes for countries
too. I was thinking about this recently, observing the coverage
in the American media of two critical allies: Israel and France.
If you want an insight into the future of US foreign policy, you
could do worse than notice how attitudes towards these two have
hardened in recent months. And in these relationships, the
growing gap between Americans and Europeans is particularly
marked. While Israel's battle against Islamic and Palestinian
terrorism is regarded across Europe with dismay, most Americans
cheer the Zionists on. And while France remains central to the
European project, and its flirtation with the far right has
alarmed other Europeans, many Americans saw in Jean-Marie Le Pen
confirmation of what they already believed: France is an
essentially untrustworthy, hypocritical repository of posers and
bigots. I'm not exaggerating. This prejudice is even more
striking when you recall that France is America's oldest ally.
The capital was designed by a Frenchman, L'Enfant, and the
square across from the White House is named after Lafayette. In
the war of independence, France was America's key ally against
the British. Both republics point to the Enlightenment as their
founding influences, and up until President Kennedy, France was
regarded as the centre of culture to which Americans paid
obeisance. In the past few decades, however,distance from France
has deepened into hostility not merely among elites, but also
among ordinary Americans. The cold war worsened matters. De
Gaulle's suspicion of the Anglo-American nexus led to natural
tension. France's desire to use Europe as an anti-American
counterweight in world affairs didn't help either. More
recently, the war on terror has exposed a deeper rift. The
French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine's belief that American
policy was "simplistic" failed to win a respectful audience in
Washington. For most Americans, when the French call something
simplistic, it's a sign that it's the right thing to do. The
suspicion of the French is deepest among conservatives. The
right-leaning Washington Times said after Le Pen's recent
triumph in the first round of voting: "You don't have to be an
anti-semite, a racist or even a jerk to enjoy the squirming this
morning among our dear friends the French." "Everyone take a
moment to cackle over how these people were so smug about the
Florida recount," chimed in Jonah Goldberg at National Review.
When The Weekly Standard had a reader contest to name a fourth
country to add to George W Bush's "axis of evil", Libya, Syria
and China made decent showings. France won. In almost two
decades of living in America, I'm still amazed at the contempt
most Americans hold for France. That doesn't mean a basic
alliance with France is in question. But popular culture still
tilts against Paris. Last weekend, the popular Saturday Night
Live sketch comedy show ran a spoof tourism commercial for
France. "France, home to the world's greatest painters, chefs
and anti-semites. The French, cowardly yet opinionated, arrogant
yet foul-smelling, anti-Israel, anti-American, and of course, as
always, Jew-hating," ran the voice-over. "Paris, the city of
whores, dog faeces on every corner and effete men yelling anti-semitic
remarks at children. The real creme de la creme of world
culture. With all that's going on in the world, isn't it time we
got back to hating ... the French?" The contrast with Israel
couldn't be more stark. While most Europeans have experienced
the horror of the past few weeks as grist for their hostility to
the Jewish state, Americans have bonded deeply to their Israeli
allies. A recent Gallup poll found that 47% of Americans sided
with Israel in the conflict against a mere 13% with the
Palestinians (40% registered no preference). The more Americans
tilt to the right, the more pronounced their pro-Israeli
sympathies. But even among professed liberals, 45% favour the
Israelis compared with 24% who back the Palestinians. And among
the strongest supporters of Israel have been Democrats, such as
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Joe Lieberman. Perhaps the most
aggressively Zionist political magazine in Washington, The New
Republic, tilts left and endorsed Al Gore in 2000. And last
week, despite requests for silence from the administration, the
House and Senate both passed by overwhelming margins statements
of support for Israel. Sceptics will say this all points to the
strong pro-Israel lobby in Washington and Jewish control of the
media. There's no question that American Jews do have a strong
presence in the media and in political funding. But explaining
Americans' support for Israel in this paranoid (and near
bigoted) way misses the point. Support for Israel is not just
among elites, and the strongest backing comes from Republicans
who get few Jewish votes and far less Jewish campaign money than
the Democrats. President Nixon - an anti-semite in private - was
a fierce defender of Israel. So was Ronald Reagan. The root of
Americans' sympathy for Israel is cultural. Americans admire
tenacity, democracy and a free society. They look at Israel and
see a polity not unlike their own. There's a free press, a
democratic system, a cantankerous civil society and a strong
military. They admire the hard work that has built an amazing
society from virtually nothing. When Americans look at the
dictatorships, thugocracies and failed societies and economies
of Arab states, they feel distant and repulsed - especially as
Islamist anti-semitism is so naked. The newest factor in this
bond is the religious right. The Republicans were once the
natural repository for country club anti-semites. But that
cultural influence has waned - replaced by fervent support for
Israel among many fundamentalist Christians who back Israel's
claim to the Holy Land for biblical reasons. This evangelical
influence has largely eclipsed that of the old elites, just as
President Bush's strongly pro-Israel administration has
supplanted his father's more neutral posture. Above all,
Americans, like all people, tend to like and support those who
like and support them. Israel (and Britain, to a similar degree)
can only gain from their proximity to the greatest super-power.
This is not ultimately decided by elites, but by the people who
vote for and endorse them. American support is not inevitable;
and it can be withdrawn. If I were Jacques Chirac, or indeed any
other European leader, I'd think about that lesson more deeply
now than ever.
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