PURELY COMMENTARY
The Entire Community An 'Establishment'
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
R
emember the self-ridicule about
"two Jews, three opinions"; or
about a Jew stranded on an
island, finding his way to self-support,
built two synagogues to be sure he'd
have one to differ in with himself?
It's OK to pun and to adhere to the
boast that Jews are not without humor
or self-criticism. That does not rule out
realism when there are serious con-
cerns to tangle with, or when the threat
from an outside destructive force is on
our doorstep. We now have that threat
on our doorstep. Nevertheless there is
a warning of divisiveness that does not
call for an invitation to punning.
The implied "threat" need not be
defined. It is written bluntly for all to
read. It is multiple. The great "fulfill-
ment" the redemption of Eretz Israel,
is now endangered. It is imbedded in
difficulties. Except for the United
States, where the friendly handshake is
also in some doubt, the entire world is
against Israel. Adding to the danger to
the mounting threats is a weakening of
what is basically hoped in the Jewish
community for an acclaimed unity.
There seems to be a developing panic
that drives some Jewish voices unto an-
tagonistic quarters.
There is the expected disagreement
from many areas on this score. Under
the cloak of peace there is the in-
sistence, bathed in Jewish morality,
criticism directed at those disagreed
with in the Israeli battle array, and it
must not be spared. Therefore to every
condemnation of Israel in diplomatic
ranks or in the media are added
rebukes, attacks of all sorts, from a
Jewish minority that revels in disputes
primarily contra Israel. Therefore to the
enemy ranks are often added Jewish
allies.
I don't like many of the statements
made Israel-wise by Yitzhak Shamir,
Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Peres, or Ben-
jamin Netanyahu. Or by Shimon Peres
or even by my dear friend Abba Eban,
who has been an admired associate
from the day of the U.N. declaration of
Jewish statehood when we first met.
But disliking them, or differing with
them or their policies must call for a de-
mand to attempt an understanding that
will lead to the desired peace. Differ, but
negotiate for pragmatism.
This hope for a common ground,
with a granting of the right to differ,
does not call for a feud to undermine
our community. It arouses resentment
against those who seem to raise a hue
and cry against "establishment." In
such a new type of enmity toward their
own communal strictures and leader-
ships, the antagonists who inadvertent-
ly lend comfort to the enemies of Israel
have created a new form of destruc-
tiveness. They are undermining the
basic principles of Jewish unity in time
of crisis with the target they would
degrade as "establishment." In some
areas this misled anti-establishment
group, acting under the motto of peace-
seekers, even advocate boycotting the
tzedakah principle in Jewish life. The
producers of a new Jewish magazine,
Tikkun, seeking to mobilize such forces,
assembled a large audience where there
seemed to be much joy over condemn-
ing the establishment. A highly
respected and admired Jewish
spokesman, whose views on Jewish
events and personalities have been a
source of guidance on a very wide scale,
resented what has been publicized after
that ultra-exciting conference. Dr. Marc
Tannenbaum devoted one of his brief
commentaries syndicated weekly by the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency under the
title "Tikkun Conference Maligns
Jewish Establishment!' That brief com-
ment is too important in the present
serious period in our history to go un-
noticed. Dr. Tannenbaum called atten-
tion to the maligning of our vitally
needed unity as follows:
The recent conference of
liberal intellectuals organized
by Tikkun magazine was im-
pressive in terms of the numbers
of participants who attended, as
well as the reported quality of
the discussion.
From everything I could
read in the press, it was less
than impressive by virtue of its
knee-jerk bashing of "the
Jewish establishment" and
Israel.
I have been involved as a
professional in several "Jewish
establishments" for some 37
years. During most of these
decades, I do not recall seeing
any of the Tikkun core leader-
ship manning the barricades to
save Jewish lives or solidify
Israel's security.
No human institution or per-
sonality, including the so-called
"Jewish establishment" and Tik-
kun itself, are beyond criticism.
But for the critique to be
taken seriously, it needs to be
truthful, balanced and fair. That
honesty requires acknowledg-
ment of certain basic truths: It
was the major Jewish agencies
that mobilized American and
world opinion and political sup-
port that resulted in the libera-
tion of several hundred thou-
sand Soviet Jews.
The same case can be made
for Ethiopian Jewry, our co-
religionists from Arab countries
and defense of Jews in South
and Central America.
The Tikkun leadership, to
my knowledge, also has had lit-
tle to do with the historic im-
provement in Jewish-Christian
Jewish-Arab Dialogues: Bleak Results
uests for negotiations with
Arabs keep raising the question
whether there have been suffi-
cient efforts to attain them, and when
dialogues were possible whether the
results justified the pressures for them.
Golda Meir succeeded in meeting
with the father of the present King
Hussein of Jordan. That monarch paid
with his life for having expressed a
desire for amicability with Israel. Hus-
sein was present at the assassination.
Chaim Weizmann had a partial suc-
cess in meeting with the Emir Feisal.
That confab resulted for many years
thereafter in numerous disputes over
the way the exchange was conducted,
with Arab denials that there was a scin-
tilla of sincerity or truth in what had
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Vol. XCIV No. 25
February 17, 1989
2
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1989
been depicted as some sort of triumph
for Zionism. Always there were "condi-
tions!' These should be considered
seriously. In the Encyclopedia Judaica,
the Weizmann biographical sketch has
this reference to the Feisal incident:
The conqueror of the Holy
Land, General Allenby, showed
a respectful deference, but both
he and other British authorities
were skeptical of Weizmann's
prospects of success unless he
could achieve an understanding
with Arab nationalism. Weiz-
mann crossed to Akaba to meet
Emir Feisal, son of the sharif
Hussein of Mecca, and un-
disputed leader of Arab na-
tionalism, to whom the British
government had made promises
of Arab independence
throughout Syria and Iraq, but
not in Palestine.
Feisal made written pledges
to Weizmann promising to
recognize Zionist aims in
Palestine, provided that the
aims of Arab nationalism were
achieved in Iraq and Syria.
The hour of grace was short,
Feisal did not obtain what he
had hoped from the Allies in
Syria and Iraq. He therefore felt
released from his promises to
Weizmann. The Arab-Jewish
alliance was frustrated because
its basis and conditions had
Chaim Weizmann
been undermined by the
Western Powers.
In Theodor Herzl's Judenstaat
("The Jewish State") and Altneuland
there is too little genuiness for some
measure of hope for a Zionist Arab ac-
cord. The fact is that the envisioning of
an end to anti-Semitism in the Zionist
triumph and rebirth of statehood in
Herzl's writings have not attained
fulfillment.
As indicated, whatever meetings
were realized between Arabs and Jews
were always tempered or threatened by
conditions.
The Arab condition primarily was
and remains, as indicated in current
testing, that the Jews should concede to
always remaining a minority under
Arab domination. This is in evidence in
an account of an Arab-Jewish confron-
tation that was arranged by David Ben-
Gurion. The record of it is given in the
momumental, close-to-1,000-page
biography, Ben-Gurion: The Burning
Ground 1886-1948 by Shabtai Teveth
(Houghton Mifflin).
Many lessons are to be learned from
the Weizmann-Feisal confabs and
similar attempts at meetings by Jews
with Arab chieftains. There were
always the hopes for accord, nearly
always the frustrations.
Weizmann was bolstered by some
comments by Arab spokesmen that
sounded like encouragements. He judg-
ed badly. Later David Ben-Gurion had
an experience with Arabs and was led
to believe there was a panacea. He, too,
judged unrealistically, and a very able
associate of his, Marc Jarblum, also
must have thus judged.
In the Weizmann-Feisal approaches,
an eminent American, Felix
Frankfurter, was equally associated. It
was before he became a U.S. Supreme
Court justice as a Franklin D. Roosevelt
appointee. The story and the personali-
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