Moshe Phillips is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, AFSI, (www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.
Norman Podhoretz, who passed away at the age of 95 in December, served as the editor of Commentary magazine for decades. A lover of Israel and a proud American patriot, the outcome of the Cold War could have been much different were it not for thinkers like Norman Podhoretz and the fellow intellectuals he frequently featured in Commentary, such as Irving Kristol, Richard Pipes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Walter Laqueur, and Jeane Kirkpatrick.
The November 1985 issue of Commentary was titled the “40th Anniversary Issue" and asked, “How Has the United States Met Its Major Challenges Since 1945?"
Both Irving Kristol and Jeane Kirkpatrick were included in what was called “A Symposium."
Now, after the death of Podhoretz and forty years later, it is unfortunate that the “Symposium" has been all but relegated to the dustbin. In this small space, an attempt will be made to rectify that-not just for nostalgia’s sake, but because the insights of these powerful thinkers offer us signposts for how we can combat the challenges of our own era.
Irving Kristol’s words about Israel in 1985 are must-read material for American Jews who do not value the blessing it is to live in a time period when the State of Israel exists.
Kristol wrote in 1985:
“As a bonus, there came the state of Israel to serve as a focus-too much so, some would claim-for Jewish identity. I say a ‘bonus’ because in 1945 it was unclear that there would ever be such a state, or that it would survive. In its first years COMMENTARY was very skeptical of the viability-and therefore, the desirability-of any such state."
He went on to explain the doubts that far too many Jewish intellectuals in the days immediately after the end of World War Two concluded that “Israel could not survive too many months against Arab power."
This is how Kristol ended this section of his essay:
“Can any period in which a state of Israel is established, after almost two millennia, be anything but a ‘golden age’?"
Kirkpatrick did not address Israel in her 1985 essay; however, her penetrating analysis of the Cold War is highly instructive for both Israelis and friends of Israel who wish to better understand how Israel can defeat its enemies.
She begins with a reminder and writes: “American success in World War II was a product of our national unity and confidence as well as of production, cooperation, planning, and courage. Success in peace also requires consensus and confidence."
Going further, Kirkpatrick issues warnings about the UN that could just as easily be addressed to us today:
“Optimism about the new era of peace and the United Nations was maintained only by denial.
"Denial is the Siamese twin of wish-fulfillment. Denial of the persistence of powerful repressive dictatorships (…) was a precondition to indulging in the false fantasy that a great new era of permanent peace was about to begin. That denial and that fantasy have been permanent features of the postwar world."
For Israel, Kirkpatrick’s “denial" led to the September 13, 1993 signing ceremony for the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn.
Looking back on 1993 from here, one is reminded of the astonishment that those of us in the (then) minority felt at the many, many seemingly very intelligent people who took it for granted that we were embarking on an era of authentic Middle East peace.
Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat were ascendant.
The “false fantasy" of Rabin, Peres, and Clinton led to the Second Intifada (the Oslo War), then to October 7, and now to the era of a globalized intifada.
We would do well to find inspiration from the ideas of Podhoretz, Kristol, and Kirkpatrick.
"Alas, for those who are gone and no more to be found."