Editorial, November 12, 2010
Paying the price
SPEAKING in his country’s capital city at the Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said something that, to be honest, was hardly surprising.
He told the audience, which included two Australian MPs and a handful of Australian Jewish representatives, that supporting Israel does not win you many friends or much influence in the international sphere.
It is something that Zionists around the world know all too well.
Countries willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel are few and far between. Canada, like Australia, is one of the few that the Jewish State knows it can rely on for support in a hostile international environment.
By its detractors, Israel today is perceived as a global Goliath pounding a merciful David. The real story, as we know, is far from that.
In truth, Israel is a tiny bastion of democracy, the only haven for Jewish people in the world, situated in a region flush with dictatorships, devastating human rights failures and poverty. It is a country that was started from absolutely nothing — dirt and rock — and was built by sheer hard work into a state that is today a member of the prestigious Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Some commentators have said Harper’s claim that his Government’s pro-Israel stance lost it a UN Security Council seat is exaggerated. Far be it from us in Australia to evaluate the truth of that statement.
But even if it is overblown, it is encouraging that there is at least one global leader who is willing to stand by today’s unpopular cause, Israel.
It is also encouraging that Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has said our country will stick to its principles in its own UN Security Council tilt. Rudd, it is well known, is hell bent on getting Australia a seat at the foremost strategic gathering in the world. No amount of criticism or ridicule will see him let go of his ambition to earn the prestige and influence that comes with an “Australia” tag on that seat.
That is why the Jewish community should be saying “kol hakavod” to Rudd this week. He has put his neck out and said, “yes, we want that seat, but not at any price” — he has, figuratively, stood alongside Harper and said if the cost is betraying the Jewish State, he’s not prepared to pay it.
States of motion
IT has been a non-stop Ameri-go-round in the region this week, what with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Melbourne and US President Barack Obama in nearby Indonesia.
It was all the more so for Australian Jews keeping tabs on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s US tour — first at the United Nations, then with Defence Minister Ehud Barak at the Jewish Federation of North America’s general assembly in New Orleans.
At the latter, Netanyahu met with US Vice-President Joe Biden in a meeting thankfully devoid of the drama of their last encounter in Jerusalem in March.
Before this week was out, Netanyahu was also slated to meet in Washington with none other than Clinton, fresh from her jaunt Down Under.
As if there wasn’t enough America in our news this week, former President George W Bush launched his memoirs, which included insights concerning US-Israel relations over most of the past decade as well as a bizarre confession that Bush’s mother once jokingly referred to him as the “first Jewish president”.
And this is all against the backdrop of a devaluing American dollar and last week’s US midterm Congressional elections, which have shifted the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans in Washington — with murky implications for the peace process.
Take all that in, and what we are facing is a complex, fluid situation involving an American President, Administration and country trying to find their footing and policy in an ever-changing world. Often perceived as brash and self-centred, America is not everyone’s cup of tea, but the fact remains that what the US does impacts on the rest of the world — for Israel perhaps more so than other countries, but for Australia also. Even most critics would concede that a strong America has been a stabilising force in the world.
From a Jewish perspective, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of Israel’s friendship with the US.
So, regardless of whether you believe the Republican landslide last week works to Israel’s advantage, there is some merit to Israel’s Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni’s assertion last week that “whoever says that a weak US or a weak American president is good for Israel is not just speaking stupidly, they are encouraging something that endangers Israel itself.”
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