Jennifer Loewenstein Archive |
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An interesting article; worth
reading. -J
EXCERPT: Israeli
security officials argued the opposite view at this month's
American-Israeli strategic dialogue, warning that regime change and
democratization threatened to destabilize the Middle East. Israel sees
its security tied to regimes such as Egypt and Jordan, and fears that
democratization could turn those countries against Israel. ..."What
about a democracy in Egypt — let's say — which is governed by the
Muslim Brotherhood? Would Egypt then have better relations with Israel
than under Mubarak's regime?" As the
American-Israeli debate quietly heats up, the Bush administration's
approach is creating fault lines within the Jewish community. On
Tuesday, the Republican Jewish Coalition took out a full-page
advertisement attacking the Reform synagogue movement over its recent
call for the United States to develop an exit strategy for the war in
Iraq.
Bush
Says Iraq War Is Good for Israel
View Clashes With Opinion
Of Israeli Aides
By FORWARD STAFF
December 16, 2005
In sharp contrast to the
growing consensus of Jerusalem's security and political establishment,
President Bush argued this week that Israel's safety depends on
democratization of the Arab world.
"If you're a supporter of
Israel, I would strongly urge you to help other countries become
democracies," President Bush declared Monday, in a major address
defending American policy in Iraq and his wider vision for the region.
"Israel's long-term survival depends upon the spread of democracy in
the Middle East."
Israeli security
officials
argued the opposite view at this month's American-Israeli strategic
dialogue, warning that regime change and democratization threatened to
destabilize the Middle East. Israel sees its security tied to regimes
such as Egypt and Jordan, and fears that democratization could turn
those countries against Israel.
"I am skeptical when it
comes
to the supposition that democracy is a panacea. Not all democracies are
good," said General Shlomo Brom, former chief of the Israeli army's
strategic planning division. "What about a democracy in Egypt — let's
say — which is governed by the Muslim Brotherhood? Would Egypt then
have better relations with Israel than under Mubarak's regime?"
As the American-Israeli
debate
quietly heats up, the Bush administration's approach is creating fault
lines within the Jewish community. On Tuesday, the Republican Jewish
Coalition took out a full-page advertisement attacking the Reform
synagogue movement over its recent call for the United States to
develop an exit strategy for the war in Iraq.
Neither the Republican
Jewish
Coalition ad nor the Reform statement mentioned Israel. But some
pro-Israel activists and Israeli observers criticized Bush's comments,
saying they could end up fueling claims that Jerusalem and Jewish
groups pushed the United States into an unpopular war.
"American Jews don't want
American soldiers to be dying for Israel," said Martin Raffel,
associate executive
director of
the Jewish Council of Public Affairs, a public-policy coordinating
umbrella group consisting of 13 national organizations and 123 local
community-relations councils.
"Would Israel benefit
from
democracy in the Middle East? Yes. But so would Europe, and America and
the whole international community," Raffel said. "So why would the
president select supporters of Israel? Supporters of Western
civilization would want to see democratization in the Middle East,
along with Israel."
Israeli experts voiced
similar concerns.
"It could put Israel in a
very
awkward situation with the American public, if Israel would be the
excuse for losing more American soldiers every day," said Danny
Rothschild, a retired major general who once served as the Israeli
army's top administrator in the West Bank.
In a speech on Wednesday,
Bush
criticized anti-war opponents who would suggest that America went to
war for Israel. At the same, he and other Republicans defending his
foreign policy by linking it to Israel's security needs.
Senator John Warner of
Virginia, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, recently argued in an interview with MSNBC that a premature
American pullout would "put Israel in a very tenuous and vulnerable
position." And a GOP activist, Bruce Blakeman, told the Forward that
Israel's security has always played a key role in the president's
thinking on Iraq.
"The president realized
not
only that Saddam Hussein was a danger to America, but that Saddam
Hussein had designs on attacking Israel," said Blakeman, whose brother
Brad is a former Bush aide. "There was a concern that an attack on
Israel would turn into a regional war, with Syria and Iran joining in
on Iraq's side."
While some Israelis and
Jewish
communal leaders worried about Bush's remarks, Blakeman told the
Forward that "concern for the well-being of Israel is not confined to
the Jewish community."
"The vast majority of
Americans
realize that Israel is a strong democracy in a region where there has
been no democracy and an ally that shares our values," Blakeman said.
But several Israeli
experts
insisted that any pro-war argument — even a valid one — linked to
Israel's security could end up undermining American public support for
the American-Israeli relationship. And while most Israeli experts
contacted by the Forward predicted that an American withdrawal would
unleash a wave of terrorism directed at American allies in the region,
several still challenged the premise that the United States should
remain in Iraq.
"I maintain that the U.S.
presence there actually causes harm to some of our interests," said
Brom, who is currently a guest scholar at the federally funded United
States Institute of Peace in Washington. "Take Iran. America's presence
in Iraq does not allow an appropriate dealing with the Iranian problem.
It also erodes, over time, the powerful image of the United States.
That's not good for Israel, as an ally of the U.S."
Still, Malcolm Hoenlein,
executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, said few dispute that a premature
pullout would create instability, threatening several U.S. allies,
including Israel, and several Arab states. "That is not to say that we
went to war because of Israel or we stayed at war because of Israel,"
Hoenlein said, "but one of the consequences of making the wrong step of
leaving Iraq prematurely would be Israel.... I don't think that there
is any division in the Jewish community that I know of on that."
A very public dispute did
erupt
this week between Jewish groups over Iraq, with the Union for Reform
Judaism and the Republican Jewish Coalition exchanging rhetorical
blows. At issue was the Reform union's resolution last month calling
for a strategy to end America's presence in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the
Republican
group published a full-page ad in The New York Times, addressing the
Union for Reform Judaism and stating: "Freedom is worth fighting for."
The ad was signed by several prominent Jewish Republican elected
officials, former ambassadors, senior military officers, rabbis and
former senior officials with Jewish groups. The Republican ad argues
that it is "misleading and wrong" for the Reform movement to suggest
that "American Jews oppose the president on Iraq."
By Tuesday evening, the
director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Rabbi David
Saperstein, had sent a scathing open letter to the executive director
of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matt Brooks. The Reform union's
president, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, and its chairman of the board, Robert
Heller, sent a letter to Bush.
"Respectfully but firmly,
Mr.
President, we want our leaders to tell us the truth, the whole of it,
and we therefore call on your administration to adopt a policy of
transparency," Yoffie and Heller wrote. "With regard to troop
withdrawal, we call not only for a clear exit strategy but also for
specific goals for troop withdrawal to commence after the completion of
parliamentary elections scheduled for later this week and then to be
continued in a way that maintains stability in Iraq and empowers Iraqi
forces to provide for their national security."
With reporting by Ori Nir in Washington, Guy Leshem in Tel
Aviv, and Ami Eden and E.J. Kessler in New York.
Jennifer Loewenstein
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