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Stuart Schoffman: Regime Change
The situation grows desperate. Maybe Wesley Clark, proud grandson of a Russian Jew, will consider aliyah?
It was en route to a conference on anti-Semitism that I heard the blast that destroyed Jerusalem�s No. 19 bus and snuffed out more Jewish lives. I was walking through the local hurshah, the wooded hillside that separates the German Colony from Talbiah, a neighborhood distinguished by many stately pre-1948 Arab homes. Small yellow wildflowers presaged the coming spring. After the boom I kept on my way, hoping I was wrong, that there would be no wail of sirens. But the rest you know.
In these mad days I look with wistful longing upon the Old Country. Even at the nadir of an Arctic winter, Americans kept smiling, engrossed simultaneously in two analogous gladiatorial entertainments: the Democratic primaries and the pro-football playoffs, thrillingly crowned by the Super Bowl triumph of the aptly named New England Patriots. How orderly things are in that relatively blessed land! Three winters ago the Supreme Court ruled that the White House had been stolen fair and square by the folks who, last spring, effected regime change and (predictable) anarchy in Iraq; and this year, right on schedule, the American voters may or may not replace the regime in Washington. Luckily for Americans, the president has a number of worthy, electable rivals for the throne, any one of whom would endeavor to rebuff the dragon of transnational terrorism while righting numerous social wrongs at home. Whatever happens, democracy will again prevail, and the Republic will endure.
Here in the Holy Land the situation is different. The Palestinians, insofar as they have a coherent regime -- which they don�t -- are in dire need of a change, but none is in sight. Perched above the crippling chaos, indeed nourished by it, is the uncannily unsinkable Arafat, whom history will record as one of the greatest villains of the age. Not because he slaughtered millions -- his victims number merely in the tens of thousands -- but because he massacred the dreams of myriad decent people, Jews and Palestinians, who wanted nothing more than a fair settlement of their tragic differences. If Arafat had acted like a true statesman instead of a compulsive saboteur, the Palestinians would have a state today, possibly (if not probably) one not dominated by terrorists.
But Israel�s political leaders, their fondest wishes notwithstanding, cannot rid themselves of Arafat as blithely as Bush toppled Saddam Hussein. His head has been called for once too often, most recently in the aftermath of Bus 19. Any attempt to capture and deport him could easily result in his death; and even if he choked on a chicken bone tomorrow we would be blamed. Overnight he would become the mother of all martyrs, the ultimate shaheed, mourned by legions of Arabs who have long hated his guts. The president of Syria would eulogize him as the Palestinian Jesus murdered by the bloodthirsty Jews, European cartoonists would milk the Biblical motif, and Mel Gibson would make a movie about it.
Nor is regime change easy to come by in Israel itself. A recent survey by Israel Army Radio found that although only 32 percent of Israelis were satisfied with the performance of the prime minister, if elections were held now the Likud party would lose only 5 seats, and Labor and Shinui gain only two each. The most popular public official, according to the poll, was Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz -- a lifelong military man who in a long late-January interview in Yediot Aharonot reckoned we would reach a permanent agreement with the Palestinians by the year 2020. On the Labor side of the aisle, the gentleman scoring highest in the Army Radio survey -- but lower than Sharon -- was Shimon Peres, an octogenarian who has never won an election. The situation grows desperate. Maybe Wesley Clark, proud grandson of a Russian Jew, will consider aliyah?
There is, to be sure, something tried and true about Sharon. He is like a dependable mohel, a ritual circumciser who knows how to do one thing. Trouble is, in the state we�re in, we need the delicate hand of a brain surgeon. We also need a moral role model, a leader who is not tainted by corruption and is capable of genuine political bravery. It is one thing to refuse to negotiate with Syria and to stay stubbornly in the territories lest the terrorists get the better of us, and quite another to do so while handing Hizballah a festive victory in the prisoner exchange.
Beyond the garbage piling up in our streets as we speak -- yes, yet another strike -- the present regime has engendered additional, widespread side effects. Far too many people -- and I am not talking exclusively about committed anti-Semites -- subscribe to the crude, pernicious belief that Israel is dangerous for the world and bad for the Jews. What many (but obviously not all) of these people probably mean is that yes, terrorism is hideous and unjustifiable, but given Israel�s current hard-line policies, it is no wonder that it is trapped in a cycle of violence and is turning into a pariah state. It might reasonably be argued that many folks who fail to speak out against global anti-Semitism (or even acknowledge its pervasiveness) are inhibited by their distaste not for Jews, or for the idea of a Jewish state, but for Israel�s duly elected government. At the same time, Jews on the left who worry vociferously about Israel�s soul and image -- including journalists and public figures in Israel, men and women who are certifiable Zionists and proponents of Jewish values -- are excoriated, in some Jewish circles, as self-haters.
And as we strip-search ourselves in full view of mankind, Sheikh Nasrallah dances. Our enemies, fiendish practitioners of terror both physical and verbal, delight in sowing confusion and self-doubt and mutual recrimination among the Jewish people. The solution, if there is one, is not to be "on message" -- to enforce conformity so as to present a united front to a hostile world. Judaism has forever been a culture of internal debate and sophisticated self-scrutiny, and will, thank heaven, remain so. The solution, dear friends, is new leadership.
February 23, 2004
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