Daniel Gordis , THE JERUSALEM POST
I wouldn’t be surprised if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were thinking of Tevye these days. Tevye was, after all, a quasi-pathetic character simply trying to make sense of a world changing far more quickly than he might have ever imagined possible. Having granted his daughter, Hodel, permission to marry Perchik the pauper, he wonders, “What am I going to tell your mother?” He didn’t choose Perchik, and he doesn’t really approve. But he is powerless. And when his wife expresses her dismay, the best explanation he can offer is “It’s a new world, Golde.”
“It’s a new world, Golde” is not a claim that Perchik is the right man for Hodel. Or that he’ll ever make a real living. It’s simply a claim that the rules have changed. And in a world with new rules, people must learn to act and respond differently. Tevye never says that, of course. But he is simple, not stupid; and he intuitively understands that he is going to have to learn to navigate his world in an entirely different way.
Tevye is a not entirely inapt metaphor for Israel. We’re living in world operating according to rules that we’re just beginning to understand. Convinced of the legitimacy of at least much of our position, for years we ignored the warning signs that the world was turning on us, that it has grown tired of the conflict in the Middle East, and that it believes we are the reason the conflict will not subside.
The world didn’t change overnight. We simply weren’t watching.
NOW THERE is no more denying the new ground rules. Barack Obama is not really changing them. Perhaps he is shifting America’s position, perhaps not. But more than anything, he is simply articulating infinitely more clearly than anyone else has what it is that the world has come to believe. And we are going to have to learn to operate not in the world we wish existed, but in the world that does exist. And in this new world, Israel is going to be held to standards that are infinitely less tolerant than the standards to which the rest of the world is accountable.
Consider, after all, events of just the past few weeks. In the aftermath of the Iranian election, much of the world watched with admiration and hope as Iranians took to the streets to insist on their (supposed) democratic rights. When the Iranian government resorted to intimidation, silencing of the press, force and then murder, the world was horrified – but it was also quiet. Where were the mass rallies across Europe and on those North American campuses where students were still to be found calling for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to back down? Where were the heads of state clamoring to get in front of television cameras calling for a new election? To be sure, the world was unhappy, but this was hardly an outpouring of support or of condemnation.
Compare that to the world’s reaction to the Gaza operation half a year ago. To be sure, the circumstances were entirely different. Iran’s election is an internal matter, while the Gaza op was not. And other differences abound. But Israel was responding to eight years of shelling of its citizens in what is undisputedly its territory (unless one disputes the notion that any territory is legitimately ours – which, in fact, is exactly Hamas’ position); nonetheless, even before the urban warfare began, the world was unanimous and vocal that the operation had to end.
An almost deadening silence in one instance. And deafening outcries of excessive force in the other. Welcome to the new world.
OR SUPPOSE that some number of Israeli Arab women decided that they were going to wear the burka as a means of intensifying their personal religious odyssey. And that in response to their decision, Netanyahu said, “In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” or that “the burka is not a religious sign, it’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement – I want to say it solemnly, it will not be welcome on the territory of the State of Israel.” One can just imagine the world’s outcry, the accusations of religious oppression, comparisons with apartheid South Africa or, yes, Nazi Germany. But substitute “the Republic of France” for State of Israel, and you have precisely French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s words this week – again, to a relatively silent international community of listeners.
Or finally, recall Obama’s twisting in the wind as he came to realize that his outstretched hand to Iran was not going to be shaken as warmly as he’d allowed himself to imagine. Eventually, he gave in to enormous pressure to criticize the Iranian regime’s repressive measures. But his criticism was tepid – he couldn’t get over his fundamental sense that the world ought not meddle in Iran’s internal affairs. A few days later, however, the press reported that Sarkozy had told Netanyahu that it was time to dump Avigdor Lieberman and restore Tzipi Livni. Sarkozy’s advice, apparently, is considered moving peace forward. Obama’s suggesting that Iran recount the vote would be meddling.
THERE’S NO point railing against a double standard that no one is even inclined to deny. Right or wrong, for better or for worse, we need to adapt. Israel is going to have to learn to get ahead of the curve. Had Netanyahu’s speech at Bar-Ilan University, by most accounts a very good speech, preceded Obama’s Cairo address, Israel would have been throwing down the gauntlet, challenging the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state and to live in peace beside it. But coming when they did, Netanyahu’s remarks were essentially seen as caving in to Obama – too little, too late. That’s what has to change.
In this new world, the spotlight will almost always be on Israel. Settlement building. Roadblocks. Lieberman. We’re going to have to learn to alter that. Make some accommodations, but demand – clearly and unequivocally – that the Palestinians do the same. Netanyahu, or whoever follows him, is going to have to learn to keep the ball, and the world’s attention, squarely in and on their court. Like it or not, Israel needs to take the initiative, time and time again – because nothing else will work.
“It’s a new world, Bibi,” Tevye would have said. We don’t have to like it. And it may not be fair, or just. But as we are wont to say, “zeh mah yesh” – it is what it is. As Tevye understood, we can either adapt, exerting at least some control over our fates, or we can wistfully long for days when other rules prevailed, even as we get swept away by currents we’ve barely begun to comprehend.
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Tags: America, dispatch, Israel, Israeli, Netanyahu, Obama
Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center, where he is also a senior fellow. The author of numerous books on Jewish thought and currents in Israel...
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When the citizens of Israel unite to ban this sulphurous atmosphere, Israel will deservedly have its rightful standing, and…
“Ba yom ha hu, yihiyeh Adoshem Echad.”
Really Daniel, this is a little ridiculous. Wake up, man. You tell Netanyahu that it’s a new world? He’s been there blazing a trail for us 14 years before you. It’s really a little presumptuous to preach to Netanyahu what he invented! When Rabin signed the miserable Oslo Accords, Netanyahu said that sadly, the Accords are binding. Israel under his stewardship, he said, would comply but demand that the Palestinians would as well. At Wye, Arafat signed a document that dictates no more land to the PA until it turns over 34 terrorist murderers to Israel, reduce the PA “police” force to 9,000, confiscate and destroy all the illegal weapons and terminate the incitement. This is not just rhetoric, as you propose. This is a binding international agreement that no-one can force Israel to change; an agreement that if (when) breeched may instigate a war from which no-one will be able to force Israel to abstain.
Netanyahu is a master of international relations. You’ve just woken up to the light and, blinded by it, don’t (or don’t want to) realize that your preaching to the man who is holding the torch.
Louis Lipsky
Jerusalem
Dear Daniel
I totally disagree with you this time.
We do not have to adapt to this kind of nonsense.
Not the Europeans, the Russians and neither the US can preach to us about human rights.
Let each and every one of them look at their past preformance and history and try to repent before they come and demand from us anything.
In fact it is about time to answer back to these various pompous leaders in their own language and tell them to kindly mind their own business.
I think the only person today in the Knesset who is expressing himself as a proud Jew is Liberman. That is the language that should be used when you are confronted with silly remarks from Sarkosi, Obama or any other fool who thinks he can run the world.
Sincerely
Ben Dor
That is what most of the Jews in concentration camps said. And endured. Yet, there was a Warsaw uprising…It didn’t succeed, but it showed the world that Jews can’t be led to slaughter. It woke up the conscience of those who were “tired”.
What you are suggesting, is an adaptation to something that is just beginning and will only get worsee, if allowed to continue. IT IS WRONG! Adapting is the way to extinction–or survival at all costs (?) Either way, it will lead to extinction. Wouldn’t it be better to become extinct with honor? Or maybe, just maybe, we’ll prevail.
Usually,your postings inspire hope. This time it was just the opposite.
Its an old world. The period between 1967 and the 1990s was an aberration, when being Jewish was viewed as positively by the world. Today, Europe actively wonders whether the world would be better off had Hitler been successful in eliminating the Jews. Muslims dream of the old world of dhimmitude. The United Nations serves as the new Inquisition, wishing to expel all those who dont accept its moral authority. Welcome to the world of our fathers
SHALOM DANIEL, THERE ARE ALWAYS TWO OR MORE WAYS TO LOOK AND APPROACH A SITUATION . THE APPROACH OF ENGAGEMENT WITH A WORLD THAT HAS CONSISTENTLY UTILIZED THE GIFTS THAT WE AS A PEOPLE HAVE SHARED WITH EVERY HOST NATION AND ULTIMATELY PAYED US BACK WITH EXPULSION AND WORSE IN OUR DIASPORA EXPERIENCE. THE STATE OF ISRAEL HAS DUE TO ITS OWN POLICIES IN PART BECOME THE “JEW” OF THE WORLD AND NOT SURPRISINGLY AS IT IS INHABITED WITH GENERATIONS THAT HAD TO OR DID SUBMIT TO WHAT THE GOYIM REQUESTED OR EXPECTED AND MANY OF OUR PEOPLE COMPLIED. OF ALL THE POLITICIANS THAT HAVE HELD POWER NATANYAHU HAS THE BACKGROUND , INTELECT AND GUTS TO KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THOSE WHO SEEK TO DESTROY US AN PERHAPS LIKE MENACHEM BEGIN HE WILL BRING ISRAEL SOME RESTFUL TIME WITH OUR “NEIGHBORS”. THE FACT IS WE DO LIVE IN ANOTHER TIME WARP AND THE TRICK IS NOT TO WARP OUR SOULS AND AT THE SAME TIME NOT CONTRIBUTE TO OUR OWN DEMISE. SO GIVE NATANYAHU TIME TO READ THE SIGNS POSTED BY BARACK HUSSEIN WHO IS SHOWING THAT HE WILL RIDE ANY HORSE THAT WILL MAKE HIM LOOK LIKE A WINNER,. IN THE MEANTIME LET THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVE IN THE DIGNITY THEY DESERVE.
Professor Gordis,
The previous comments, already posted, say it very well. Your views, your mood, and as a consequence, your writing has veered from the bravely optimistic, “ein breira,” to “Shah! Shtill!” accepting the world’s double standard; accepting meddling in Israel’s internal affairs; accepting future rocket attacks, in silence; perhaps accepting a nuclear Iran.
Your earlier writing promoted the idea that the the continued secure existence of the State of Israel is crucial to the continued existence of the Jewish people as we know it. I agree. Hopefully, the majority of world Jewry agrees as well, and is ready to put its money where its mouth and heart is.
One of Israel’s greatest weaknesses is its dependency on the U.S., and on the flimsy wisps of goodwill on the part of its sister democracies. It is a trap.
The first thing to do is to unilaterally, graciously decline further American “foreign aid” in whatever manner it is offered. That money shackles us, provides fodder for Israel’s detractors, and portrays Israel as a vassal state. World Jewry will have to make up the financial difference. Secondly, Israel’s population will have to do what the Jews have always done: be innovative in their technological prowess; make, grow, develop things that are better, faster, more environemntally-friendly, cheaper, and then have the world beat a path to our door, out of necessity, not charity.
Israel’s political leaders must abandon personal goals, greed, pride, and obstinancy, and come together with only one aim – the secure continued existence of the state of the Jewish people.
The world has not really changed. The veneer of civilized behavior that provided a temporary respite from age-old anti-Semitism has again been ripped off. Because of the Shoah, because Israel exists, we, the Jews, are the wiser and stronger for it. Let “them” use their “goyish kop”; we have our “yidishe kop.” Truly, we can only count on ourselves. And G-d helps those who help themselves.
It is not a new world, at least if you take history seriously. It is the same old world, only the clothing styles have changed. We tried to make believe we were different and that the Zionist achievement created a new Jew that we called Israeli. But, we remain the old shtetl Jew,and this implies that we retain the old complexes such as victory guilt and the old style shtadlan diplomacy. We are different and the world will always see us as Jews. Accepting this as integral to our foreign policy and especially the way we train and educate our soldiers is essential. This conflict is not about territory; it is about ideology. It is about people who are transparently enslaved to an ideology of domination against a people that are free. But, these days freedom is too costly not only for Jews but for Americans as well. So in order to make this uncomfortable truth go away, make the Jews go away.
What we need now is not to give in to an unacceptable “new reality”, but to harness the talents and resources of our community in a “Manhattan Project” to make the case for Israel and to effectively engage in the propaganda war that the Arabs have been willing by default.
Israel is a country that should be admired and respected by the entire civilized world for the many contributions it has made to the betterment of all mankind in science, technology, medicine, agriculture, etc. etc. as compared to the Arabs who give us overpriced oil and terrorism.. The fact that reality has been turned upside down must convince us that we have been doing something wrong, and/or we haven’t been doing it right. so far, the Arabs have had the yidishe kups and we have been too divided and incompetent.
One dimension not mentioned in the Gordis article or the comments is that the shift towards more tolerance of mullahs and less tolerance of Israel is not a random reconfiguration of very complex ideologies: It is a shift to the left, which has occurred in the American govt, as it had earlier on US campuses, in US media, etc.
It is particularly unfortunate that so many American Jews have encouraged and participated in this shift over many decades, as Jews did in the early years of the USSR. I hope it will not end as badly.
Yes, we are now seeing the fruits of 30 years of unremitting propaganda against Israel on the part of the European press; left wing blogs (and I am a liberal!), non government organizations (NGO’s), the UN and its committees, etc.
I do write letters to the editors complaining about the tone of the articles in the Washington Post and I have even called columnists when they publish supposedly objective articles about the “settlements”, etc.
We all need to write such letters, maybe even once a week and maybe we will have a “still small voice” that will be heard.
Reading to the end, I finally got the impression that the point of your essay is that Israel needs to get more aggressive and proactive vs. reactive in its propaganda war. A conclusion I quite agree with.
On the way to your conclusion you create a lot of soft sounding, feel bad stuff that has generated most of the above comments.
In this regard you might take some lessons in composition from Bibi?
Besides the goad, you might encourage your leadership to say things like those of the American contributor to ‘Jihad Watch’ named Hugh Fitzgerald. He wrote a marvelous piece at: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026795.php#more.
Or would his material be too bold?
Adapt–give in–like Jews have always done? Don’t make waves, and don’t fight back against the anti-Israel propaganda. This approach gets us nowhere. In fact it’s self-destructive. It abets our enemies. We need to raise our voices. Let people know that we do not accept a double standard that makes Israel the “bad guy.” We cannot cave in to demands that are unreasonable.
The key is not to acquiesce but rather the opposite…i.e. for Israel to do what the rest of the world does, most recently Azerbajan: tell the world,especially the current American president, to go take a long walk off of a short pier…
When we beat our own breast and conform to PC nonsense with “ashamnu” we encourage the kind of irrational double standards which an anti-semitic world heaps upon us.
The more we make it clear that we have absolutely nothing to apologize for, the more the world will see reality through OUR eyes. Just look at how much the undeserving Palestinians have gained through chutspah and self-aggrandizing,not to mention deceit.
Self-confidence is everything. Our tendency to accommodate those who outrageously and unfairly condemn us is only the last vestige of the shtetl mentality which must be shed and discarded.
I interpreted this piece somewhat differently than a lot of the other commenters here. I don’t see it as a call to Israel to acquiesce, to not make waves, to apologize for acting to defend its citizens, or to give in where Israel’s vital interests are at stake. But I do see it as a call to recognize that there are certain realities in the world:
1. Hundreds of millions of Arabs and many more Muslims; only 12 million Jews, half of them in Israel. And the Arabs not only have resources, but they also have non-state actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah who have no accountability to anyone except their Iranian masters and are thus free to use civilians as human shields. So the playing field is not level either by resources or by available tactics.
2. Israel is (at least at the moment) uncomfortably dependent on American goodwill and American weaponry.
So Daniel is right– Israel needs to be thinking and acting ahead of the curve. I personally thought that Bibi’s speech was excellent in that it clearly laid out where Israel’s vital interests really are– and I don’t think it was too little too late. The several weeks before that were a diplomatic disaster as Bibi failed to recognize point #2 above so allowed himself to be trapped into a pointless spat with the US government about settlements. Instead of saying “no”, he could have said “yes, but” and then put together a list of demands on the Palestinians (such as an end to incitement in official media) that would have moved him from a position of weakness into a position of strength.
The government and the foreign ministry have, for too long, failed to adapt– not in the area of policy (though maybe there too) but in the area of media relations and of hasbarah. Just like the IDF won great victories in 1948 and 1967 by being smarter and more determined than its enemies, the government must recognize that public opinion is also a battlefield. I agree with Mike Stein’s comment above about the need to engage much more seriously in this propaganda war.
Another related point is that those on both the left and the right need to be very careful about how their comments play out in the forum of world opinion. Where I live (San Francisco area), the anti-Israel crowd loves to throw out quotes from Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, et al that make Israel (rather than Iran, or Myanmar, or Libya) look like the most evil society in the world today. Yet when I was in Israel last week and noted this to an acquaintance who actually knows Levy, he tells me that Levy is a Zionist and a patriot who really loves his country. Assuming this is true, the problem is that Levy is writing for an internal (Israeli) audience that shares certain understandings but he appears to be completely unconcerned about the effect that his words have on an audience that does NOT share even the basic principle of support for the existence of Israel. Similarly, those on the right who promote caricatures of Obama in Arab headgear should ask themselves how they think that will play in an America whose support is vitally important to Israel.
Dr. Gordis is right. Israel needs to adapt itself to this not-so-new world.
One area that needs vast imprtovement: The HASBARAH – educating both deciusion makers and the publics in Europe and North America about why we do what we do. Having lived over 30 years in the US, I was often frustrated to see how poorly our position was presented by Israeli officials. I am sure that Dr. Michael Oren, our new ambasador to the US, can and will do a lot to ameliorate this situation.
not a long comment… Hasbarah, hasbarah, hasbarah. As mentioned above, in addition to hasbarah, advocacy in the form of letters to the editor, guest opinions, phone calls, etc. is what we can do. I do it all the time and have been published 99% of the time. But it is extremely important that what we communicate does not make us look like attack dogs, but educators. For example, over the years (I’ve been at it for years), since I live in the southwest, I have mentioned the fact that solar energy and drip irrigation were both developed in Israel. When I hear someone say, “I didn’t know that,” that’s good news.