March 4, 2005

"A Short Review of Israel's History with the Left"

When David Ben Gurion declared the existence of the Jewish state in 1948, the world’s political left hailed the announcement. The communist Soviet Union hurried to give its recognition and so did Harry Truman, the liberal President of the United States. Israel's first government was the leftist Labor movement, which then consisted of Mapai, a Socialist Marxist party; Mapam, a Trotskyite ultra-left political party; and the smaller liberal parties and the even smaller Communist party. A majority of the first Knesset required more than sixty votes out of one hundred twenty to form a government. The two religious parties, Mizrachi and Aguda, joined forces with the leftists and enabled Labor to lead.

Leftists everywhere became the natural allies of Israel. Israel represented another triumph in the post World War II Marxist march to worldwide radicalism. American liberals, led by the Democratic party, saw in Israel a fruition of their ideological hopes. Israel’s kibbutzim were models for all leftist organizations.

But Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, succeeded Truman and chose John Foster Dulles to be his Secretary of State. Like most Republicans, these two were hostile to Jews and courted Arab oil moguls. Some of Israel’s worst years were the two terms under Eisenhower and Dulles.

In Israel, the Labor party continued to rule for twenty-nine and one half years until the day Menachem Begin and the Likud Party captured the Knesset and the Prime Ministry. More and more Israelis crossed the line into middle income and higher. Fewer were willing to support a socialist Israel. Three fourths of Israel’s kibbutzniks defected. This was the beginning of the decline of Israel's left, and leftists everywhere, including America's Democrats, took note.

By now, Jimmy Carter had become President of the United States. Theoretically, he was a liberal and a moderate leftist. To the world he seemed a friend of Jews when he mediated the historic Camp David Agreement, but Jews in Israel and elsewhere determined that this Democrat was not their friend. Carter, along with other leftists, was beginning to show more empathy for the Palestinians. In their eyes, it was the Palestinians who were the victims, not the Jews. Here was Carter's opportunity to favor the Arabs. In the Camp David accords, he forced Begin into the untenable situation of accepting Gaza because Sadat did not want it.

After Carter came Reagan, who simply ignored the Middle East, which Jews interpreted as friendship. They were wrong. Despite Jewish pleas, Reagan visited Bitburg, the German cemetery where members of the Gestapo and Wehrmacht are buried. But the Reagan presidency exposed a new element of support for Israel—the right wing flank of the Republican Party, which was made up of evangelicals and other Christian fundamentalists. They opposed a Palestinian state and the ceding of land, and began to pressure Reagan in favor of Israel. These Bible Christians, as they preferred to be called, were taking control of the Republican Party. For them, Israel was the fulfillment of a prophecy in the New Testament book of Revelation, wherein the second coming of their messiah would take place after Jews were in control of all of Israel.

The first President Bush was not one of these Bible Christians. He lived in Texas but came from New England and was a classic Protestant. He practiced the traditional Republican policy towards the Middle East, which was to support oil interests, and more specifically, the Persian Gulf Arab oil interests. James Baker, his Secretary of State was, and is, an oil lawyer steeped in Persian Gulf oil interests. The Bush-Baker regime was hostile to Israel.

Then came Bill Clinton, a Democrat. The young President knew that the left’s ability to elect an American president had ended. A political genius, he recreated himself as a "new Democrat," his own label. He was not a liberal. Unimpressed with Arab oil interests, he was pro-Israel and committed to giving Israel peace.

The second Bush succeeded Clinton. The Bible Christians finally had one of their own in the White House. They had campaigned with zealous fervor to reelect him, and in appreciation, he demonstrated great friendship in his first term towards Israel and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. With the clamor of the political left for the Palestinians, Bush and the religious right remain Israel's only friend. But Bush made comments on his recent European tour that made me stop. He called for a contiguous Palestinian state that would cut Israel in half. I seriously wonder now if the Republican right will maintain the policy of the Bible Christian party members. Will it instead return to the old Republican stance in favor of Arab oil? Who will remain Israel's friend?

Judging by this short review of Israel's political history, it seems obvious to me that the Jewish state can really depend on no one to be its friend—other than the One who gave us the land to begin with.

Edited by Anna Olswanger

Shabbat Shalom