Why Its Important for Conservatives to Care About Israel

The following is a transcript of a talk given at the Maryland Center-Right Group on June 12 2014 Ill begin with a few words about America its historical ideals which of course conservatives treasure and seek to preserve; and then Ill discuss where Israel fits into the scene. America is the unique nation in world history founded upon an idea. All other nations current and in the past came into existence because of one or more of: language religion ethnic or racial identity geographical proximity population transfer colonial boundaries etc. But the US was established based upon an idea that human beings are meant to live free and the structure of society should be organized so as to foster protect and maximize individual liberty. Sadly at this moment in our nations history liberty in America is under assault and with an effectiveness that is without precedent. This is a topic with which everyone here is quite familiar. Indeed it is the reason why conservatives in the United States are so agitated these days. We are bearing witness to a startling deterioration in our freedoms and it has us worried fearful and struggling to reverse the trend. However that is not the topic that I wish to address today. In order to motivate my topic let me observe that part of the American gestalt regarding liberty is that we not only treasure our own but we see it as our duty to promote and protect it outside of our borders as well. That obligation is a key part of what we understand as American Exceptionalism. It helps to explain why we fought so vigorously to defeat Nazism and Communism two of the greatest tyrannical forces ever to menace the planet. In fact those two were the paramount threats to freedom in the twentieth century and it is to Americas eternal credit that we led the fight to consign them to the ash heap of history. The great menace of Islamism appears to be an analogous threat in the twenty-first century and so far at least Americas role in the battle against it has been inconsistent and uncertain especially in comparison to its previous two heroic struggles but that too is a topic for another day. Instead I come to the main point Israel. In fact the tiny nation of Israel is another bastion of freedom in the world indeed in a part of the world where people have rarely if ever tasted the sweet flavor of human freedom. There was a period roughly three decades ago when freedom was on the march around the globe. Countries in Eastern Europe Asia Latin America even Africa were casting off the yoke of tyranny and establishing free societies. Alas it was a temporary phenomenon as many have reverted to their former modes. Moreover even in Western Europe due to the growing tyranny of a pan continental government freedom is in retreat. And as I have observed the US has not been immune. But Israel on the other hand has bucked the trend. In principle Israel at its founding was a free country. Of course the rationale for its existence was very different from that of the US. Its primary raison detre is to serve as the revived nation state of the Jewish people an ethnic nation state which ironically is a concept that has lost favor in the western world. Nevertheless Israeli society is one that operates under the rule of law with regular elections a free press independent judiciary and many of the guarantees of individual rights found in our Bill of Rights. It took Israel thirty years to cast off one party rule and another twenty years to abandon its socialist economy. In fact one can legitimately argue that Israeli society today is more conducive to individual liberty than it has ever been and it certainly compares favorably to any other democratic state you might cite including any in Western Europe and even the United States. But whoa you might object; what about the matter of its Arab population? That is a legitimate objection but it is also true that the Arabs of Israel enjoy more individual freedom than is experienced by any citizen in any of the 22 Arab states in the Middle East. Well Japan is a free country and the US is bound by treaty to protect it. The 28 nations of NATO are free countries (more or less to varying degrees) and we are treaty bound to protect them. Since the time of the Monroe Doctrine we have felt obliged to protect the nations of Latin America and many of them are not free. You would have to go thousands of miles from Jerusalem into Africa or Asia to find another group of free people. Israel is a precious island of freedom in a sea of tyranny chaos and bloodshed. If we are to remain true to the idea that America is a beacon of freedom to mankind and that we are devoted to nurturing it where it exists or where it is struggling to come into existence then we have a holy obligation to help the Israelis keep alive the freedoms they enjoy in such a dangerous neighborhood. The next point may be self-evident but it is worth making. The threat to freedom in America today comes from within not from without. We are in no danger of being conquered by Soviet communists or the Chinese military or Islamic Jihadists. The grave danger we face arises from the traitorous intentions of some of our fellow citizens compounded by the simple-minded ignorance of so many of their neighbors. Unimaginably the radical left has managed to overrun the cultural institutions of the nation; they now control virtually all of the opinion-molding organs of American society: the media universities public education libraries seminaries legal profession and so on. It took them a century to accomplish this but they did it. And as is well-known the flow runs downhill from culture to politics so it is not surprising that the cultural putsch has resulted in a political revolution including the capture of the presidency. Israel struggles to some extent with the same kind of sinister internal forces. But the main threat indeed an existential threat to Israel is external. It has two components: Islamic rejection and European anti-Semitism. Regarding the first from the birth of the Zionist movement a century and a half ago until this day the Arab world indeed the Muslim world has been and remains unalterably opposed to any kind of Jewish homeland much less a sovereign Jewish State in the Middle East. Some of this stems from historical anti-Jewish bias in the Muslim world but the main impetus comes from the Muslim concept of the Ummah: the lands of the Middle East constitute an Ummah sacred Muslim soil on which no independent non-Muslim entity may exist. Incidentally like the deceased Soviet Empire the Ummah is a constantly expanding never contracting entity. Thus Spain was absorbed into the Ummah over a millennium ago; it is a blasphemy against Allah that it escaped and the Spanish State is viewed by Muslims when they think about it as nearly as illegitimate as Israel. In any event in the Arab/Muslim world Israel is not only illegitimate; it is an abomination a violation of the sanctity of the Ummah a cancer populated by the descendants of apes and pigs if I may cite the words of Obamas good friend Mohamed Morsi former president of Egypt. Israel will never be accepted and like any cancer it must be destroyed. Hows that for an attitude common to all your neighbors! Alas that is only one-half of the threat. The other half is that of European-inspired albeit world-wide anti-Semitism; good old-fashioned Jew hatred. Tomes have been written about the phenomenon of anti-Semitism its origins its causes its manifestations. Let me just remark sorrowfully that less than 70 years since European anti-Semitism led to the horror of the Holocaust the systematic murder of one-third of world Jewry; less than 70 years since the liberation of the last death camp this deadly virus is back and as before has its headquarters in the societies of Western Europe. However whereas in the past the Jewish people were dispersed around the globe today 80 of world Jewry is found in two places: Israel and the United States. For the moment the attention of the worlds anti-Semites is focused almost exclusively on Israel. Its manifestations include: vile accusations biased journalism incipient boycotts and disinvestment movements occasional small-scale deadly attacks on Jews or Israelis in Europe (as has happened recently in Bulgaria France and Belgium) and finally rampant support for Arab/Muslim efforts to delegitimize and ultimately destroy the Jewish State. From a purely physical standpoint Israel is able to defend itself against European anti-Semitism I venture that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) could defeat a NATO force that lacked American participation. But when combined with the threat from Iran and the rest of the Muslim world European anti-Semitism does magnify significantly the danger level that Israel confronts. Therefore in summary although the nature of the threat to freedom in Israel is different from the type of threat that faces us the threat to Israels freedom is very real. Once again if the US is to be true to its values and its history then we are duty bound to come to the aid of the beleaguered Jewish State. I will next present two sets of points addressed specifically to the title of the talk and then conclude with a perhaps unusual comparison of a key aspect of Israeli and American societies. The two sets are: (i) Why the issue of American defense of Israel is particularly a conservative issue; and (ii) what specific steps America can take in defense of Israel. First why should conservatives care about Israel and its threatened freedom?

1. As weve seen the left in America cares far more about equality than liberty. Well if the left is not troubled by the loss of freedom in America do you really expect it to care about the liberty of a bunch of Middle Eastern Jews? And in fact we have seen increasing hostility toward Israel expressed by Americas leftists. Obama is exhibit 1 in this regard. The responsibility passes to conservatives in the US to uphold the ideal of American Exceptionalism in general and the support of free countries like Israel in particular.
2. Another historical aspect of American society that finds little favor on the left is traditional culture including strong morals infused by a religious foundation. The notion of an ethnic nation state founded as a haven for a tiny religious community doesnt really rank high on the lefts list of important ideals. Once again it falls to conservatives to uphold the Jewish State i.e. the state one of whose key components is the religion that gave birth to the religion that does or at least did undergird much of the morals that guide (or guided) our country.
3. Conservatives often refer to the miraculous nature of the founding of America. This was perhaps expressed most eloquently by President Reagan when he said: Ive always believed that this land was placed here between the two great oceans by some divine plan. That it was placed here to be found by a special kind of people people who had a special love for freedom and who had the courage to uproot themselves and leave hearth and homeland and come to what in the beginning was the most undeveloped wilderness possible. Indeed the miracles implicit in Reagans words were and have been concrete: for example that we won the Revolutionary War a dicey proposition that; that we were able to overcome the crippling monetary problems that followed independence; that we survived the Civil War; that we were able to defeat 20^th century totalitarianism; that we have managed to create arguably the most robust tolerant and peaceful multi-ethnic nation in the history of the world. All of this is miraculous. But perhaps not as miraculous as the reconstitution of an ancient people homeless and persecuted for two thousand years said reincarnation being accompanied by the rebirth of its ancient language essentially not spoken for two millennia and involving the absorption of millions of destitute immigrant brethren from around the world all of it resulting in a free strong and prosperous modern nation Israel. Now thats a miracle. Conservatives especially those of faith should identify with this miraculous story and help to see that it retains its storybook vitality.
4. Finally we often bemoan the irresponsible behavior of our European cousins behavior that is usually encouraged by our liberal siblings in America. We rue their unwillingness to defend themselves and how they often cuddle up to unsavory characters who threaten their freedom (Vladimir Putin for example). By actively supporting Israel we send the Europeans a clear message that their anti-Semitism is unacceptable and their overall irresponsible behavior is self-defeating and dangerous to liberty. American liberals wont send that message; once again it falls to conservatives to do so.

Next I would like to outline just a few concrete steps America could take to help defend Israel. Conservatives should be advocating these steps.

1. First and most obvious political support in world forums. These include combatting anti-Israel UN resolutions warnings to states that threaten Israel agreements with Israel on bilateral issues and enabling closer cooperation between Israel and America and its allies.
2. Military support. No one is suggesting that American troops need be deployed to Israel but America should ensure that Israel is supplied with the most advanced weaponry and that it maintains its qualitative edge over its Arab enemies.
3. Maintain American vigilance in the long battle against jihadism and radical Islam.
4. Drop the even-handed nonsense and give Israel the full-blown political support that it deserves. The Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular are not democrats not free marketeers not lovers of liberty. We should put our mouth where our values are and cut out the politically correct phony evenhandedness.
5. Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
6. Regarding the futile and never-ending so-called Middle East Peace Process support the resolution of it that is advocated by Caroline Glick in her new book: The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East. Any further words here on the book and its ideas would take us too far astray but listeners are recommended strongly to read Glicks book. It contains a trenchant analysis of how America in its pursuit and sponsorship of the fatally flawed Middle East Peace Process is basically repeating the exact same mistakes that Britain made in trying to administer the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
7. Fight anti-Semitism in all its manifestations in all locales where it rears its ugly head.
8. Our dependence on Middle Eastern oil is declining. We should adjust our Middle East policies accordingly.
9. At least consider the idea of a defense treaty with Israel. This is admittedly a tricky proposition. But we are treaty bound to defend Formosa. Is that island more important to us than Israel?
10. Finally get rid of Obama and all the other leftists whose back-stabbing of Israel is only one of the many harms they are perpetrating on the US of A.

Here is my final idea the one which I suggested earlier that you might find a bit unusual. The US and Israel are both what I would call biblical societies in the following sense. The Bible the Old Testament represents a deal that the ancient Israelis made with God more than three thousand years ago a deal which incidentally they viewed as binding on their descendants. The Jews would obey all of Gods mitzvot i.e. commandments and in so doing bring holiness to the world and be a light unto the nations thus serving Gods purpose of having mankind perfect the world. In return God would make the Jews a great nation that would enjoy peace and prosperity. Arguably neither side has kept his end of the bargain very well. America has trod a similar path. Namely a quarter millennium ago the young Americans made a deal with themselves a deal that they also viewed as binding on their descendants. The Bible in this case was the Constitution. The people pledged to live according to the rules set forth in the sacred document. In return they would receive lives of peace freedom prosperity and moral honor. They and their children would continue to know the blessing of freedom. We did a fairly good job of honoring the deal for a long time. But now we are in the process of abrogating it. There is a theory that in spite of the fact that most Jews throughout history have failed to keep up their end of the bargain with God there has always been a saving remnant (usually found among so-called Orthodox Jews) that followed the rules. It is because of the saving remnant that in spite of repeated severe punishments which He has allowed to befall the Jewish people God still considers the deal to be in force. That explains why He has permitted the Jews to continue to exist for lo these many millennia. Well American conservatives are the United States saving remnant. It is our job to remain faithful to the deal to uphold the rules in the Constitution and to lead America back to the biblical arrangement made by our Founders.