I recently read some history of the creation of the modern state of Israel. I was struck by the crucial role played by President Harry Truman. Put simply, if not for him, Israel would not now exist. Harry Truman, not the Truman administration or the United States. Truman. Democrat Harry Truman.
And if not for the creation of Israel, the desert wind could blow from North Africa to southwest Asia unimpeded by anything as tawdry as a voting booth.
Truman’s decision to support the UN partition plan that put Israel on the map was fought by many of the wise men in his State Department and the rest of the foreign policy establishment. They thought it was a big mistake.
Still, for many years after 1948 Truman’s role in the creation of Israel was regarded as one of his (and our) greatest achievements. Helping to birth a modern democratic state that guaranteed the rights of minorities, including freedom of speech and worship, was considered a good thing. Helping a half-destroyed race defend itself and build a homeland was something to be proud of.
But that was before the West had reached the final stages of loss of confidence in our own values. Back then Palestinian claims of victimhood were not thought sufficient justification for a death cult of maniacal hatred, one that danced with joy when Jewish women and children were murdered.
But that, as they say, was then, and this, as the say, is now.
Iran’s dreamers look to restore that unimpeded desert wind. And many who now openly regret Truman’s Mistake are ambivalent about just how bad that might be.
Obama says he opposes Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and that nothing is off the table. But he also doesn’t say what, if anything, is ON the table.
The Old Democratic Party’s foreign policy was to support our friends and get tough with our enemies.
The New Democratic Party’s policy is to get tough with our friends (to show even-handedness) and to open up to our enemies (to show how unthreatening and non-judgmental we are). This has been consistently so since the creation of the NDP in 1972 (see “Dear Wikipedia…” entry below), and Obama has done nothing so far to indicate a different direction. He is NDP all the way.
And for all those who believe Walt, Meersheimer, Buchanan and the rest, that Jewish political pressure moves US foreign policy, please observe that American Jews gave 75% of their votes to Obama, because he took the bold step of saying “I support Israel.” That’s all they got, and that’s all it took. That’s about all it ever takes.
Sigh.
Of course, Obama is yet untested. He may stand up to Iran after all (see “I’m Afraid Obama Isn’t Scary Enough” entry below.) If he intends to, now is the time. Fervently must we pray that he does. But it is disturbing to note how heavily we must rely on prayer in foreign policy these days.
(Interesting reading on the creation of Israel: Dan Kurzman, Genesis 1948; Theodore Hamerow, Why We Watched)
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