Walter Ruby's response to Boris Gorbis

Dear Boris:
Well, you were certainly on the cutting edge with this piece; ever since you sent it to me a week ago, the issue of whither US-Israel relations in the wake of the Democratic takeover has been all over the New York Times, Washington Post and elsewhere, it has become one of the principle issues of the moment, as the chattering class (I hate that term but I’m using it anyway) sifts through the rubble of the political earthquake that shook Washington last week. Let me try to address a few of the points you raised in your jousting with your unnamed American Jewish interlocutor.
Boris asked: "Is there a danger the newly resurgent Democrats will abandon Israel?"

The question is not quite, as your interlocutor says, “a silly provocation” but it comes close. The Democratic Party is the Jewish party in America, it has been since the time of Roosevelt, Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel an hour after it was created and 87 percent of Jews voted Democratic in 2006. Democratic members of Congress are just as reflexively pro-Israel as are Republicans, of not more so; virtually all of them take pro-Israel money. With due respect, your idea that “60’s radicals” will now rule the roost in the Democratic Party” is nonsense; while the people in charge of the party may have been impacted by the 60’s, as I certainly and very proudly was, that was 40 years ago and we’ve all moderated a whole lot since. More to the point, Democrats and 60’s people are hardly more partial to Islamic fundamentalism as a philosophy than are hard-line Republicans. After all Islamic fundamentalism is an attack on liberal Western values, not on conservative ones; George Bush, with his anti-abortion, keep women chained to child-rearing, anti-evolution fundamentalist Christian mentality is, in many ways on the same mental wavelength as the ayatollahs. We moral relativist libs don’t buy the Bush-Cheney-Pat Robertson line that this is a war to the death between cosmic good and cosmic evil; we don’t do the ‘good against evil’ thing. Rather, we prefer to seduce mainstream Muslims away from the fundies with promises of sharing in prosperity, free speech and free thinking. Hey it worked with the Soviets… In any case, don’t expect Nancy Pelosi, Hillary, Obama or Barney Frank (especially Barney) to be crawling into bed with the Ahmedinijad anytime soon.

Having said that, Boris, you are on to something by pointing out that in the new political configuration, Israel does not have a blank check to move in a radical right direction—nor should it. 20 years ago, American observers of the Israeli-Arab conflict used to say that U.S. support for Israel was solid as long as Meir Kahane didn’t come to power and carry out the policies he advocated in his speeches and writings; putting all the Arabs on trucks and driving them across the border and creating an anti-democratic, authoritarian halachic state where the penalty for a Jew having sexual relations with a non-Jew would be 39 lashes. I don’t think the characterization of Lieberman as “extreme right” is fair or accurate; I believe he will turn out to be quite pragmatic and to call him a fascist is a short-sighted move that will only further needlessly alienate Russian voters from the liberal side of the ledger, when we can be natural allies on social benefits and civil marriage (to get my full thinking on Lieberman, check out my recent op-ed on “Russians and the Jewish Left” in the previous posts column). Yet the reality is that if Israel took an extreme turn toward radicalism and authoritarianism in its treatment of the Palestinians, of course there would be a price to pay. Israel is already paying a steep price in having alienated much of enlightened world opinion—certainly European opinion--by its insistence on occupying the Palestinians for 40 years and settling the West Bank out from under them. If they keep it up or make it worse, that erosion will accelerate and increasingly affect U.S. public opinion as well. So Israel spits at U.S. and European opinion at its peril. Lieberman’s macho muscle flexing to the contrary, Israel is not strong enough to stand alone against one point whatever billion Muslims.

It should be clear that the Israeli-Arab conflict cannot be separated from the larger crisis roiling the Islamic world. To the extent that Israel undertakes policies that further inflame the region and further radicalizes young Muslims from Marrakech to Malacca, it will negatively impact U.S. interests, and broader Western interests. The inverse, of course, is true as well; the radical U.S. policy of recent years exemplified by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has negatively impacted Israeli interests. Is Israel safer today because the U.S. invaded Iraq, creating a jihadist wave throughout the region and an emboldened Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, who have figured out that a U.S. bogged down in Iraq2 is no threat to them? The recent Lebanon war should put paid to the conceit that a U.S. led ‘War of Civilizations’ is good for Israel and the Jews.

Finally, perpetual grinding war with the Palestinians, as we have seen it played out over the past year or so along the Gaza border is not good for Israel. It does not make Israelis safer, nor does it bring closer the day when Israel becomes the safe “normal” and “fun” country that Olmert and most Israelis, including Russians, would like to see. So in that context, a U.S. policy like the one Clinton pushed, which endeavors mightily to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and presses both sides to make concessions in the interest of a lasting peace is better for Israel than a Bush policy that allows Israelis to dig in their heels and dig themselves deeper into a hopeless and useless occupation of the West Bank that will only get more Israelis killed in the end.

So does Israel have a blank check to be as hard-assed and violent as the Israeli right might want to be vis a vis the Palestinians? No, it does not and thank God for that. Whether or not Lieberman may purport to believe otherwise, the silnaya ruka approach is not good for Israel and will not work. A succession of Israeli leaders since 1967 have tried variations of the above and have only succeeded in eliciting ever-increasing hatred and violence from the Palestinians. Israel needs to end its occupation of the maximum number of Palestinians to the greatest degree possible in exchange for the maximum amount of peace and security. To accomplish that, it needs American help; the kind of help that only an American Administration dedicated to ameliorating the War Between Civilizations, not inflaming it, can provide.

What about Boris Gorbis’ 10 point nightmare scenario for the destruction of Israel—Isn’t it a possibility?

Sure it is and the military planners in the Kiriya in Tel Aviv and in the Pentagon should be doing some serious contingency planning. But with all due respect, it feels a bit overwrought. Even if, God forbid, Ahmedinijad gets the bomb, he isn’t going to attack Tel Aviv with his one puny bomb because he doesn’t want Teheran or the holy city of Qum to be on the receiving end of Israel’s 200 bomb nuclear arsenal. During the Cold War, we and the Soviets had this game called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) that prevented either side from unleashing the nukes. A similar scenario will obtain here. The mullahs enjoy wielding power and keeping women in chadors, but to keep doing that, they have to stay alive.

Boris wrote: “Oh no, that is an issue of national priorities; not an individual choice. Our individual system of values has at its core two beliefs: One - every life is sacred and two – subject to the rule of law, each person has autonomy over his or her actions. The Muslim world’s system of values is different – it rests on two symmetrically opposite propositions. First, infidels spread spiritual and physical uncleanliness and, second, Koran obligates every faithful Muslim to stop the infidel’s sacral uncleanliness by conversion or annihilation.”

Boris, no offense, and I could be wrong, but I doubt you’ve met and dialogued with a Muslim in your life. Very few Russian or American Jews have either. So what makes you righties such authorities on the Muslim world’s system of values? Because Steven Emerson told you so? I’ve spent a fair amount of time communicating and dialoguing with Palestinians—mainly Muslims—and not one has ever expressed any issue about my spiritual and or physical uncleanliness, even when they invited me to eat in their homes and not one ever tried to convert or annihilate me. Instead they greeted me as an honored guest and we have moving dialogue and we enjoyed hanging out together.
Earth to Gorbis, Muslims are neither devils nor angels, but are human beings, just like we are. They are not some alien species. Yes, Islamic extremism is a danger, but the way to fight it is to reach out to Muslim moderates as fellow human beings, to treat them with respect and even affection, if warranted. And kol ha kavod to the Minneapolis Jewish World newspaper for endorsing Keith Ellison and rejecting his race-baiting opponent Alan Fine. It is better to have a Muslim in Congress showing young Muslims by example that they have a stake in the system than giving them the message that they are all considered enemies by the country they live in, so they might as well go ahead and start making bombs…

Boris concluded:
He was looking at me from above and said: “We have no fear of inflicting harm on those who threaten us directly but are you saying that we shall hesitate to do so if Israel is attacked?” “That is exactly my point. Now you got it! But it would be the Russian Jews in America who will come forward and…” My voice trailed. We looked at each other as if this were a joke and laughed.

Boris, with due respect, how the hell are the Russian Jews in America going to come forward when the time comes? Will all the hard-ass Russian Jews in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s come forward to volunteer for Tzahal? Russian Jews in America wont come forward any more other American Jews have come forward in past Israeli wars. Instead, they give millions of dollars in emergency fund raising drives and press our government to support Israel. They will do it again, this time with the backing of RAJI as well as AIPAC. Nu, so you think you invented the wheel in terms of pro-Israel advocacy? Meanwhile, Israelis, including Russian born Israelis, will fight and die. Kacha zeh. That’s how it’s always been and will keep on being, unless we all figure out a way to make peace and end the endless cycle of killing and dying. Boris, I don’t see any indication that you have the answer for that one.