Had I been asked a year ago if it can happen here in America, I'd have said no. Are you kidding? Now I'm not so sure. Circumstances have changes and I have changed.
My reasons for being pessimistic, or cautious, are twofold.
First, the American campus. Who knew that today's 19-year-old would be infused with the bloodlines of Martin Luther, who called for the burning of synagogues? Or that even Jewish collegiate types like Adam Shapiro would turn from their own people and publicly embrace every denunciation beginning with ?Blame the Jews??
?Blame the Jews? is also the mantra of a man named poet laureate in my own state of New Jersey. He reads his "poetry" to the young. They eat it up and they don't gag. Who knew there was so much rage in our youth pool? Informed readers are aware of the "divestment" and "Israel-is-apartheid" hysteria sweeping from campus to campus. No need to repeat all that here for the list is long and this column is short.
These aren't just kids who've taken over university culture with blood libels. Well, they are kids, but in a few years they'll be our newspaper publishers, journalists, network heads, corporate leaders, teachers, politicians, statesmen -- and one of them, one of those kids who is this moment sloganeering in favor of divestment from Israel -- will possibly become our president. True, our presidents do not always come from Harvard nobility. Here in America anybody can become president and, once in a while, this happens. Jimmy Carter was about as "anybody" as it gets.
I must admit that I am naive. I thought our young were a blank page. It never occurred to me, until recently, that young minds can be so quickened with hoary prejudices. At what age does all that begin, and does it come from conditioning, or is it - as I'm coming to believe - genetic? One writer (Saul Bellow I think it was) said it was transmitted from mother's milk. Maybe so.
My naivete is not confined to my own beloved country. What's happening in Israel plays a big part in my fears for the United States. It is a fact -- at least to me -- that a united and strong Israel casts a net, a chupah, over all Jews -- Jews around the world. A weak Israel weakens us all, makes us vulnerable. True, the world complains about Israel's use of power -- but that's just it, power. They resent that about Israel, but they also can't help respect that about Israel.
I go back to a time when there was no such thing as "Israeli retaliation." There was no Israel. There was no retaliation. You took what they gave. I also go back to a time when we thought Israel was of a single mind. Given Jewish paralysis under foreign rule, we thought all Jews favored a strong Israel -- surely all Israelis! ?Never again!? Remember?
How naive.
Today I read that Haaretz, which is said to be Israel's Hebrew paper of record, frequently runs articles that compares Israelis to Nazis and lopsidedly champions the Palestinian side of the story. As an outsider, as an American, I sure don't know what goes on inside Israeli politics, but it is confusing. While Haaretz continues to publish undisturbed, mostly from the Left, Arutz Sheva, a radio station of the Right, keeps being harassed by the authorities. Israeli authorities. Very confusing. If you say that?s Israel?s business - well, not quite. If Israel takes a public relations beating, we all take a beating... and how is an American supposed to defend Israel unarmed? How can I say that Israel is on the side of righteousness when my opponent justifies his argument by merely quoting Israel's own newspapers? Or quotes statistics that show a sizeable portion of the Israeli public weeping more for Arab losses than Jewish losses? Or "proves" that a goodly portion of Israelis blame themselves (the settlements, etc.) for every act of terrorism?
If the Israelis are so unsure about their rights to the Land, there isn¹t much for us to go on here in the United States... where the debates on campus keep raging, and tilting to the other side.
Yes, whatever happened to ?Never again??
If we can't even use that as a defense, well then, yes, it can happen again. Right here.
Do I really think so? Only when I?m having a bad day -- like when I find out that a hate-monger has been made poet laureate of New Jersey. In one of his "poems" (why mention his name?) he suggests that Israel knew about 9/11 ahead of time. After this "poet" has been exposed for what he really is, he is additionally named, by unanimous vote, to be the first poet laureate of the Newark (NJ) school system.
If that seemed implausible a year ago, how's this - Adam Shapiro for president.
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Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller Indecent Proposal and is a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast, as well as a former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at http://www.comteqcom.com/jackcolumn.php and he can be reached at JackEngelhard@ComteQcom.com.
My reasons for being pessimistic, or cautious, are twofold.
First, the American campus. Who knew that today's 19-year-old would be infused with the bloodlines of Martin Luther, who called for the burning of synagogues? Or that even Jewish collegiate types like Adam Shapiro would turn from their own people and publicly embrace every denunciation beginning with ?Blame the Jews??
?Blame the Jews? is also the mantra of a man named poet laureate in my own state of New Jersey. He reads his "poetry" to the young. They eat it up and they don't gag. Who knew there was so much rage in our youth pool? Informed readers are aware of the "divestment" and "Israel-is-apartheid" hysteria sweeping from campus to campus. No need to repeat all that here for the list is long and this column is short.
These aren't just kids who've taken over university culture with blood libels. Well, they are kids, but in a few years they'll be our newspaper publishers, journalists, network heads, corporate leaders, teachers, politicians, statesmen -- and one of them, one of those kids who is this moment sloganeering in favor of divestment from Israel -- will possibly become our president. True, our presidents do not always come from Harvard nobility. Here in America anybody can become president and, once in a while, this happens. Jimmy Carter was about as "anybody" as it gets.
I must admit that I am naive. I thought our young were a blank page. It never occurred to me, until recently, that young minds can be so quickened with hoary prejudices. At what age does all that begin, and does it come from conditioning, or is it - as I'm coming to believe - genetic? One writer (Saul Bellow I think it was) said it was transmitted from mother's milk. Maybe so.
My naivete is not confined to my own beloved country. What's happening in Israel plays a big part in my fears for the United States. It is a fact -- at least to me -- that a united and strong Israel casts a net, a chupah, over all Jews -- Jews around the world. A weak Israel weakens us all, makes us vulnerable. True, the world complains about Israel's use of power -- but that's just it, power. They resent that about Israel, but they also can't help respect that about Israel.
I go back to a time when there was no such thing as "Israeli retaliation." There was no Israel. There was no retaliation. You took what they gave. I also go back to a time when we thought Israel was of a single mind. Given Jewish paralysis under foreign rule, we thought all Jews favored a strong Israel -- surely all Israelis! ?Never again!? Remember?
How naive.
Today I read that Haaretz, which is said to be Israel's Hebrew paper of record, frequently runs articles that compares Israelis to Nazis and lopsidedly champions the Palestinian side of the story. As an outsider, as an American, I sure don't know what goes on inside Israeli politics, but it is confusing. While Haaretz continues to publish undisturbed, mostly from the Left, Arutz Sheva, a radio station of the Right, keeps being harassed by the authorities. Israeli authorities. Very confusing. If you say that?s Israel?s business - well, not quite. If Israel takes a public relations beating, we all take a beating... and how is an American supposed to defend Israel unarmed? How can I say that Israel is on the side of righteousness when my opponent justifies his argument by merely quoting Israel's own newspapers? Or quotes statistics that show a sizeable portion of the Israeli public weeping more for Arab losses than Jewish losses? Or "proves" that a goodly portion of Israelis blame themselves (the settlements, etc.) for every act of terrorism?
If the Israelis are so unsure about their rights to the Land, there isn¹t much for us to go on here in the United States... where the debates on campus keep raging, and tilting to the other side.
Yes, whatever happened to ?Never again??
If we can't even use that as a defense, well then, yes, it can happen again. Right here.
Do I really think so? Only when I?m having a bad day -- like when I find out that a hate-monger has been made poet laureate of New Jersey. In one of his "poems" (why mention his name?) he suggests that Israel knew about 9/11 ahead of time. After this "poet" has been exposed for what he really is, he is additionally named, by unanimous vote, to be the first poet laureate of the Newark (NJ) school system.
If that seemed implausible a year ago, how's this - Adam Shapiro for president.
--------------------------------------------------------
Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller Indecent Proposal and is a former radio and newspaper editor covering the Mideast, as well as a former American volunteer in the Israeli Defense Forces. His columns can be read online at http://www.comteqcom.com/jackcolumn.php and he can be reached at JackEngelhard@ComteQcom.com.