OUR FRIEND, OUR ENEMY - 1977

Beyond Words

Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990

Volume 2

 “Beyond Words” is a newly-published seven volume collection of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s writings that originally appeared in The Jewish Press, other serial publications, and his privately-published works.

“Beyond Words” also includes a number of extra features:

Chronology of Rabbi Kahane's life.

“Beyond Words” now can be bought at Amazon.com  Type, Beyond Words Kahane

  

OUR FRIEND, OUR ENEMY

Written: May, 1977 

There appears to be a popular and dangerous misconception that has spread among Jews to the effect that one who opposes Jews is necessarily and anti-Semite and that hatred or hostility to Jews is the trademark of the enemy.  The fallacy in this must be exposed lest we fail to properly assess the real enemy and act in the manner most calculated to thwart him.

To be sure, every anti-Semite is an enemy of the Jewish people but the converse – that every enemy is an anti-Semite is not necessarily true for it is clearly possible for one to be not an anti-Semite (or at least not particularly so or not more so than most gentiles) and still to be a deadly threat to the Jew, hence, his enemy.  More, it is possible for a gentile to sincerely respect and admire Jews and Israel, to sympathize with their plight and still be their enemy.  And because this axiom is so relevant to our times; because the greatest danger can come from the nation that most sympathizes with and is numbered as the best of the allies (if not the only one), it is important to analyze the concept and act upon that analysis.

Long before de Gaulle or Churchill it was clear to any student of world or local politics that there are no allies but only interests.  Nations that were bitter enemies but yesterday become close allies today, because they have suddenly discovered – due to shifting circumstances – that their interests coincide.  Countries that only a short time ago fought side by side, turn into bitter rivals because their interests now clash.  It is not due to love or hate, and rarely does ideology have anything to do with the fact that Communist China will side with the blackest of reactionaries against their fellow Marxist Soviet Union because of national interests.

France, which in 1956 began a decade-long “love affair” with Israel, did so not out of “love” of Mordechai” but out of the knowledge that the Suez Canal, Nasser and the Arab struggle against French rule in Algeria, made the enemy of her enemy her friend.  All over Israel there sprung up Israel-French friendship societies and to be French was to be loved in Israel.  And then, the world turned upside down and the couple broke up rudely and suddenly.  France suddenly emerged as the great ally of the Arabs and the most bitter enemy of Israel in the west.  Was there a sudden change in French attitudes toward Jews?  Was De Gaulle suddenly turned into an anti-Semite? Hardly!  The French may have disliked Jews before but that did not prevent them from being their number one arms supplier.  Any change now had nothing to do with likes or dislikes.  What had changed was not the personality of the French but their political outlook.  The Algerian war having ended and the scars of the French colonial struggle having healed, De Gaulle and the French now realized that the Arab world with its oil and growing political and economic power was important to French interests.  And because of this, French policy took a 180-degree turn.  Had Israel had the oil and the power, the French today would be wearing yarmulkes in the streets, if necessary.

And since one can sympathize with gallant Israel and admire her and still be motivated by self-interests to take stands that threaten her very existence, let it be understood that it is not the Soviet Union or the Arab states that stand today as the ultimate main enemy of Israel, but rather the country that in recent years was the best if not only ally – the United States.

The Soviets cannot force Israel to give in – they do not provide her with economic aid or weapons.  The Arabs cannot destroy Israel militarily.  It is Washington which has the greatest leverage.  It is Washington that can turn off the military and economic faucet.  It is Washington that can twist arms, choke and pressure.  It is Washington that – because of its interests are so opposed to those of Israel – is today the greatest enemy.  It is Washington that is our friend, our enemy.

There is no hatred of Israel here; there is no anti-Semitism involved and only fools will use that yardstick to gauge whether America is dangerous for Israel.  It is the Jewish Establishment leader who knows a Carter or a Vance or any other policy maker well and who says: I know that they are decent people who have not an anti-Semitic bone in their bodies, who blind us to the danger.  For the anatomy of the policy makers in Washington is irrelevant and though their bones be pure and free of hate, it is their interests that are the issue. And for the hundredth time I say: American interests are oil and the every-growing dependency on the Arab states; they are the billions in profits to be made in investment in Arab states; they are the petrodollars that, if invested in New York rather than Tokyo or Frankfort or Paris, will aid the American economy; they are the Russians whom Washington wishes to keep out of the Middle East.

All of these interests are clearly seen as favoring a pro-Arab policy and Israel with neither oil nor money nor the ability to woo the Russians, is at best a nuisance to America and at worst, dangerous.  Thus, Carter and all the others who salute the brave men of Entebbe and who may honestly respect Israel’s gallant fight, will nevertheless begin a brutal campaign to choke her into suicidal concessions – without hate; only with the thought: Is it good for the United States?

And so Carter clearly says what I have cried out for months now:  We may have to impose a solution. Of course, he does not use those words.  Instead he says:  “I would not hesitate if I saw clearly a fair and equitable solution to use the full strength of our country and its persuasive power in an effort to bring those nations to agreement.”  No, not “imposing of the will” but only “persuasion” and “full strength”.  And of course, all the Jewish leaders know what he really means and are quiet because in Israel the Labor Party fears to show the people that its policy of “friendship with America” is a failure and the American Jewish Establishment is terrified of a real confrontation with Carter because it knows how weak Jews really are in the face of a popular President and more, because it is horrified at the prospect of a surge of massive anti-Semitism in the event of a clash between U.S. and Israeli policy.

And so George Ball writes in Foreign affairs that America must insist on total Israeli withdrawal and threaten to “suspend governmental assistance” as well as “eliminate essential tax credits (i.e. UJA) and take other administrative action to restrict the flow of cash gifts and bond purchases from American private citizens.”  Is George Ball an enemy of Israel?  Clearly.  Is he an anti-Semite, a Jew hater?  Consider how he begins the article:

“Most Americans approach the problems of the Middle East with a pro-Israel bias – and rightly so.  The desire of a dispersed people for a homeland cannot but evoke sympathy even of those with no Jewish roots…”  Indeed, the very title of the article is:  “How to Save Israel In Spite of Herself.”  No greater sympathy had an investment banker…

It is time to stop prattling childishly about love and hate, pro-Semites and antis.  It is time to clearly realize that under all circumstances the United States interests differ radically from those of Israel and that Washington is committed to her own interests as she understands them.  U.S. pressure will grow to intolerable degrees.  She will turn on Israel and choke her with the suggestions of George Ball, for Ball speaks for a great many other Americans.  In the Readers Digest of April, 1977 Senior Editor William Griffith writes an article titled: “Let’s Resolve the Middle East Crisis-Now!”  and says: “Indeed, our aid which totals nearly $1.8 billion dollars this year is essential to keep Israel going.  If we make it plain to Israeli officials that we are determined to see their nation withdraw they will act accordingly.”  Both he and Ball and Jack Anderson in a column (“When the Arabs Speak, More are Listening”) emphasize over and over again the American dependence on Arab oil and the lessons to be learned from this.

What must be done? Clearly to begin to stop speaking of “good” and “bad” people in Washington.  Good or bad, they are all bad for Israel and the next step is to gather Jewish strength all over the world and to demand that Jewish leaders bury the fear of anti-Semitism.  Let there be support for a powerful government in Israel that says no to the pressure and that lets Washington know that it means it.  Let the Administration know clearly that Israel is developing weapons of mass destruction-atomic, chemical and biological-to use in the event of an American cutoff of conventional arms.  Let procedures be planned to evade any American attempt to prevent private funds from reaching Israel. And let us return to faith in G-d  

The crux of the matter is interests.  The Americans are clearly committed to their own. Let the Jew do no less.

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ALONE 1989

From Barbara Ginsberg’s Desktop

Beyond Words

Selected Writings of Rabbi Meir Kahane,

1960-1990

Volume 6

“Beyond Words” is a newly-published seven volume collection of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s writings  from 1960 – 1990 that originally appeared in The Jewish Press, other serial publications, and his privately-published works.

“Beyond Words” also includes a number of extra features:

Chronology of Rabbi Kahane's life.

 “Beyond Words” now can be bought at Amazon.com.  On the search line, type…  Beyond Words Kahane.

ALONE

The United States decision to speak with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a thing that in effect means recognition of the terrorists as the party that Washington looks to as the representative of the “Palestinian people,” is a thing that should shock no one.  And yet it does.

It shocks and angers Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres coalitionally and it shocks the twins Moshe Arens and Yitzhak Rabin and it shocks American Jewish leaders.  It should not, and the fact that it doesn’t speaks volumes for the impotence and lack of Jewishness of those who are the leaders (G-d help us!) of the Jewish state and people.

The Arab-Jewish ongoing struggle must, of necessity, become a thing of which the United States public and Administration will either grow weary or, seeing it as a threat to their own interests, will take steps to attempt to end it.  The “Palestinian” uprising is only the latest in a series of events that have moved both Washington and the American public to a more hostile attitude toward Israeli policies (or to be more exact, its total lack of any policy).  Indeed, the truth is that the history of U.S.–Israel relations is far less strewn with roses than the Arab lobby in the United States would have people believe.

From its inception, indeed even before that, the United States placed immense difficulties in the path of a new Jewish state.  American withdrawal of support for the United Nations Partition Plan in April 1948 was followed by an embargo on all weapons to the Middle East, which hurt only the Jews.  U. S. Secretary of State George Marshall warned the future first Foreign Minister of Israel, Moshe Shertok (Sharett), not to declare a Jewish state, since the U.S. would not help save it from the Arab armies.  President Eisenhower, in 1956, compelled Israel to give up the Sinai and Gaza to Nasser and brutally threatened to prevent money from the UJA and Israel Bonds from reaching the Jewish state.  Not a bullet was sold to Israel by the United States until the early 1960s, and in the crucial weeks before the Six-Day war of 1967, as Israel’s fate hung in the balance, the United States refused to implement its promise of support made by Eisenhower, in the event that Egypt again closed the Suez Canal to Israeli shipping and blocked the Gulf of Eliat.  It was fear of United States reaction that moved Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan to make the criminal step of allowing Egypt and Syria to strike the first blow in the Yom Kippur War and thus doom 4,000 Jewish soldiers to die.  And it was the United States that prevented the Israelis from destroying Egyptian power, their Third Army, when Israel had them surrounded. 

This American policy of snatching the fruits of victory from Israel continued in the Lebanese war, as the golden opportunity to physically liquidate the terrorists and their leaders in Beirut was frustrated by Ronald Regan’s pressure.  Since then, the United States has condemned Israel regularly over the intifada, and Secretary of State Shultz, a man with a reputation as a friend of Israel, exerted enormous pressure on the Israelis to agree to a disastrous International Peace Conference.  And now, of course, recognition of the PLO.

So let there be no surprise.  It will get worse, and there is nothing the secularists of the Hellenist State of Israel can do about it, except.  Except weep and wail and protest and capitulate.  Or understand what being Jewish is; what the miracle of the rise of a Jewish state is; what faith in the G-d of Israel is.

To be alone is the destiny of the Jew ever since it was decreed, “Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone” (Numbers 23:9)  For to be alone is to do two things.  One, it is to create a separate Jewish society and state, free of the influences of the gentile culture and abominations.  Two, it is to manifest in the most graphic way possible the total faith in the

G-d of Israel that is the foundation of the Jewish people and of Torah itself.  Indeed, the final redemption of the Jewish people cannot come as long as the Jew has even one ally upon whom he leans.  And that is why, whether the Jew approves of not, the All Mighty will guarantee that there will be no ally, that Israel will be isolated.

For as long as the Jew has even one ally, he will always convince himself that his salvation was due to that gentile.  A secularized people that has lost its moorings, its anchor of Judaism, has lost, too the ability to even conceive of life in a way that transcends what it calls “logic” and “practicality” and “reality.”  It will always cast its bread upon the waters of the gentile ally, and it is only when they are so soggy that they sink, and the Jew is left starving, that there exists even the remotest possibility of his returning to the one and only hope – the G-d of Israel.

And so Israel slides towards isolation.  Not the isolation that G-d demands, the deliberate move of the Jew towards separation and isolation and trust in the All Mighty.  But the forced isolation of nations moving away from Israel either through support of its enemies or by taking an “even-handed” stance.  The ally, American is becoming much less than that today, and tomorrow it will be worse.

But say not “worse,” because in Jewish terms it is better. Best. Salvation and redemption for the Jew will come only when he is isolated and alone with his G-d.  It will be whether the Jew likes it or not.

Written January 1989

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Our Challenge - The Chosen Land - 1974

From Barbara Ginsberg’s Desktop

OUR CHALLENGE

THE CHOSEN LAND (Excerpts)

Written 1974

It is time for the Jew in Israel to throw away those negative attitudes that he retains from the Galut, the Exile.  Chief among these is an unwillingness to look at bitter reality.  We may not enjoy hearing it, but the truth is that for many years at least there will not be sincere de jure peace with the Arabs.  It may affect the tender souls of the more spiritually intellectual among us, but one can never attain either peace or security by “compromise” with bitter enemies who have no intentions of compromising with you.  Those in Judea, Samaria and Gaza who do sit down with you because they have no choice, do so only in the hope of getting rid of you as soon as possible.  Our enemy, in the long run, is weariness.  It is against this enemy that we must struggle.  We must grid ourselves with tenacity and determination never to tire of what appears to be a never-ending struggle.  For that is what it might very well become: a struggle for Jewish existence and a Jewish state that will never cease to be a struggle; a realization that between us and the Arabs stands a massive barrier that may never be reached; a determination by two peoples to live in a land that at least one will never compromise on.  There will grow the weariness of having to send our children to the army without stop.  There will grow the weariness of having to leave each year for reserve duty.  There will grow the weariness of terrorist attacks on the borders or at the Lod airport or at the Tel-Aviv bus terminal.  There will, perhaps, again grow the weariness – and the heartbreak – of victims of a new war of attribution.  There will grow the weariness of all this, rising to a crescendo with the frustrating cry:  “When will it finally end?”

Only the weak succumb to such frustrations; only the weak surrender to time.  A strong and tenacious people know that there may never be an end to the struggle and the sacrifice.  But they also look about them and see what their refusal to surrender has accomplished: a state, and today a big one, in much of our Eretz Yisroel; a Jewish state with nearly three million souls [now 6 million]  and many more to come; the creation of a new and proud Jew.  None of these things would have come about had we listened to the intellectual precursors of our modern-day intellectuals and doves.  In the name of “peace” there would be no Jewish state; in the name of “morality” there would be no free Jewish nation.

If we hope to survive in the literal sense of the word, let us not succumb to the siren call of easy answers and the tempting promise of “peace.”  Above all, let us, please, have no illusions.  The Arabs intend to wipe us out; we must be strong enough to stop them.  The Arabs who live with us in Eretz Yisroel, both those who have done so for twenty-five years and those for just five, do not love us and never will – and one cannot blame them.  Let us not play games with them or with ourselves.  We give them civil rights and political freedom, but what Jew will ever agree that they should become a majority?  What Jew will ever agree to allow Arabs to come in on the same terms as Jews do today under the Law of Return?  Israel was formed as a Jewish state.  Arabs may have social, economic, and much political equality but, in the end, it is not their state.  For the individual Arab we offer much, but for the Arab nation, Israel offers nothing.  It is not an Arab state, it is a Jewish state.  It came into being because Jews knew that for them there was no hope in a world that thirsted for their bodies and souls.  It came into being under the realization that neither king nor Republican nor Marxist had the solution to the Jewish problem.  That in the end it was the words of the rabbis that proved to be eternally true: “It is a law, it is known that Esau hates Jacob.”

And so, Eretz Yisroel, the land of the Jewish people, exists.  It can never be anything but that and both we and the Arabs know it.  Such a fact allows for few illusions over peace.  Perhaps peace will come some day; I for one, doubt it.  Until it doesn’t let us not listen to the delusions that float down to us daily from the ivory tower or from the self-hating Left.

 Strength and tenacity – they and they alone assure Jewish survival. 

Anyone reading this Rav Kahane article and is not on my personal list to receive the weekly articles written by Rav Kahane and would like to be, please contact me at:

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