Leonard Grunstein, a retired attorney and banker, founded and served as Chairman of Metropolitan National Bank and then Israel Discount Bank of NY. He also founded Project Ezrah and serves on the Board of Revel at Yeshiva University and the AIPAC National Council. He has published articles in the Banking Law Journal, Real Estate Finance Journal and other fine publications.
Recently, two American left leaning politicos visited Israel, using it as a backdrop to spin their narratives.
It appears the goal was to strike a pose antagonistic to Israel, pompously mouth scripted Israel-bashing tales and there was even a failed attempt at the performative variety.
One was Congressman Ro Khanna. He reportedly came to Israel without the customary prior coordination with the Israeli governmental authorities or notification of the US Embassy. He tried illegally to enter a restricted military area in order to stage what amounts to a political stunt and was unsuccessful.
The other was Rahm Emanuel, a former chief of staff to President Obama and Mayor of Chicago. He came to Israel to lecture about his delusional vision of how peace could be achieved, by unilaterally reviving his failed model of a so-called two-state solution. The fact that it bore no reasonable relationship to the reality on the ground did not matter. He, in effect, threatened that if Israel did not comply with the demand to do so, then US support of Israel would be abrogated.
Both Khanna and Emanuel also strongly oppose the defensive war against the terrorist Iranian Regime.
Consider the underlying premise. Hint at the possibility of running for national office, while traveling to Israel. Then, in an effort to appeal to a tight-knit antisemitic faction in their party, either flat out publicly rebuke the present democratically elected Israeli Government with concocted dystopian scenarios or manufacture the appearance of an incident and baselessly blame the Israeli Government.
Absent this tawdry motivation, how else to explain the choice of Israel as a venue for these fabricated venomous verbal assaults, as opposed to a local campaign stop in the US?
It is suggested that using Israel as the setting for the contrived charade was thought to offer a good visual of a fighting politico battling the State of Israel and thereby signaling both machismo and anti-Israel credentials. At the same time, given the venue and rhetoric employed, some of the traditional party faithful might be lulled into believing it was just about challenging the present Government of Israel, but not its existence.
However, the callous goal of the mission could not be readily disguised and the false narrative that was spun began to unravel. Moreover, the goal of pleasing the anti-Israel constituency was unrealistic and not achievable. And at the same time, the transparent ruse was a genuine betrayal of the exceedingly far larger pro-America/pro-Israel community and risked losing their support in the coming election cycle.
After all, how could anyone visiting Israel, in good faith, not meet with the former hostages and families of all those who were brutally murdered and suffered horrendous atrocities at the hands of genocidal Hamas and its cohorts? It’s a wonder that they even bothered to disguise their blatant appeal to Jew haters in their so-called big tent party.
Appealing to the fanatical and ideologically bound Marxist and Islamist constituency is a waste of time. This is because besides being totally against the very existence of Israel, they are also characteristically anti-American, anti-free market and anti these very politicians, who can’t truly pass the purity test demanded. Despite trying desperately to court the extremist constituency’s favor, these politicos are not charter members of the cadre. The Marxist-Islamist constituency accepts nothing less than party discipline, including lockstep robotic adherence to its agenda.
Is it any wonder that the talking points, slogans and placards are virtually all the same? It’s all so scripted and rehearsed.
As we approach Fast Day of Tisha B’Av, when we memorialize the destruction of the Holy Temple and Exile, including reciting Jeremiah’s Scroll of Lamentations, I am reminded of how Midrash Eicha Rabbah (2:20) interprets a verse in Lamentations (2:16) that presciently speaks to this matter.
It poses the question of why Jeremiah reverses the order of the letter ‘Peh’ and ‘Eyin’ in the acrostic order of the verses in Chapter 2 of Lamentations. The answer is a cogent lesson for our times. It posits that ‘Peh’ means mouth and ‘Eyin’ means eye. Thus, acrostically and in life, it is good practice for the eyes first to see before the mouth describes what is seen. In effect, Jeremiah prophesied, when it comes to enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, they would say with their mouths what they had not seen with their eyes.
The politicos would do much better to read and digest United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025), approved 13 to 0, with only Russia and China abstaining, and visiting Israel with an open mind to see and understand why so many Arab and Muslim countries joined in supporting this seminal document, including the Annex and the Trump Peace Plan of 2020 referenced therein.
Resolution 2803 effectively debunks many of the false narratives, exonerates Israel and casts Hamas and its cohorts as the wrongdoers. It does not recognize there is or ever was any so-called ‘occupation’, ‘right of return’, ‘genocide’, ‘starvation’, ‘apartheid’, or justifiable resistance. It also requires complete demilitarization of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and expressly provides that the borders will not be the pre-1967 ceasefire lines. It also disclaims that any part of Israel’s capital of Jerusalem would become the PA’s capital.
The false narrative promoted by one of the politicos, concerning what amounts to a unilateral attempt to access, without prior coordination, a closed military zone, is a good example.
Indeed, Ambassador Mike Huckabee wrote that the statement made about the US Embassy being involved is “NOT TRUE" and “We did NOT know a member of Congress was coming". He also noted, “We would have said don’t go to restricted zone" and that ‘Not “held at gunpoint".
As an aside, the zone reportedly includes an archeological site from the Hasmonean period, where illegal PA construction occurred. Area C is solely within the control of Israel under the Oslo Accords. It is illegal for the PA to build in Area C without the consent of Israel. In point of fact, UN records reflect the written admission by the PA that any so-called occupation ended in 1994, in documents on file at the UN.
We may not ignore the sage counsel of Jeremiah. Seeing reality must be the priority; not spinning a narrative.
Wake up world and dismiss the unfounded fabricated agenda driven tales of the politicos. Bless Israel and be blessed.