Court Jews, 2011…
by Gerald A. Honigman
In centuries past, there were individual Jews of influence–especially in banking and business–who were granted privileges and a certain amount of prestige because of favors they did for the nobility. Often, they were more concerned with their own personal status than the bigotry and misery that most other Jews faced in their societies.
On March 1, 2011 the new select group of Court Jews–some fifty members of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations–were summoned to the White House where they were lectured by President Obama about the need to speak to other members of the Tribe, both in Israel and abroad, about the need “to search your souls” about the seriousness of making peace.
The Obama White House is not the first to engage in such insulting, condescending behavior towards Jewish leaders, but it has indulged in this practice perhaps more the any other of recent memory.
With all due respect to his office notwithstanding, the President needed to be politely–but firmly–answered. And there is little doubt that the assembled Court Jews did no such thing.
Why…well…after all, they might not get invited to the next pow wow, ya know.
Knowing this President’s history when dealing with Jewish leaders who differ with his own vision–like abruptly leaving the Prime Minister of Israel to cringe for hours while having dinner with his family so Netanyahu could reevaluate his position on the need for a territorial compromise over disputed territories (aka, the building freeze)–should impart some wisdom in those on the invitation list. I doubt that it did.
And, even worse, is that the Prime Minister of Israel–the one elected at virtually the same time Senator Obama became President because most Israelis believed he would stand up for a bit more justice for their tiny, beleagured nation–now appears to increasingly be caving in to the Obama White House as well…in deed, if not precisely in word.
Truth be told, how dare anyone–including an American leader–insinuate that it’s the Jews who have not taken peace seriously.
What the Obama Administration really demands is not that Israel soul search about peace, but that Israel renounce any claims that it has of its own–like the promises inherent in the final draft of UNSC Resolution 242, the main instrument for peacemaking since 1967–to a meaningful compromise over the concrete issues–especially territory.
What Obama and the State Department want is for Israel to cave in to all that Arabs demand on all the main outstanding issues–like reducing itself to its ’49 zipper-like 9-15 mile wide armistice line (not border) existence…for starters.
What soul searching does Mr. Obama demand of the Arabs?
His best buddy, Mahmoud Abbas, swears he will never recognize Israel as a state of the Jews yet demands a 22nd state be recognized for Arabs…and then pledges that he will never give up demanding that Israel allow itself, after becoming a sub-rump state again, to be swamped by millions of real and alleged Arab refugees. Recall that as many or more Jews fled “Arab”/Muslim lands in a war Arabs started than vice-versa–and left far more wealth and property behind.
Who’s kidding whom here?
Too much has already been written about Israel’s right to legitimate compromise on these issues to repeat yet again.
The best thing Jewish leaders can do–given this hostile approach–is to simply stay away from such invitations to badgering by the current American Administration.
I know, it sounds gutsy…But what is the alternative? To cave in to all that an obviously hostile current President (half way through his term in office) and a frequentlty hostile State Department now demand? How many more humiliations does it take before the lesson is learned?
Like most all other nations whose demands for security and such far surpass Israel’s (now, what was Great Britain’s fight with Argentina over the Falkland Islands all about…and why was Panama’s Noriega really toppled…and tell me, again, why Russia is in Chechnya, etc.?), the latter must also have lines in the sand beyond which it will not retreat. The imposed ’49 armistice lines were never meant to be Israel’s final borders and only constantly invited Arabs to attack and destroy it. All the architects of the final draft of 242, after the Arabs’ renewed threat on Israel’s life in 1967, understood this and thus called for a change in this state of affairs.
Those needing to search their souls are not Jews but those demanding that Israel bare, even further (in addition to major concessions it has already made), the necks of its children for the sake of those who, by their own words, repeatedly state that any such dealings with Jews are only a Trojan Horse–bringing their openly admitted destruction-in-stages plans for the Jewish State that much closer with each new turn of the American vise’s screw…