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Israel's Better Neighbor

I

Dry Bones

AND HE PASSED OVER
THE HOUSES OF THE
ISRAELITES

RABBI RABBI

NO MATTHEW, NE
DIDN'T "COME DOWN
THEIR CHIMNEYS"!

n all the thinking about how to move toward a
more settled Middle East, most of the attention is
being paid to troubled states — Iraq, Iran, Syria
— or to nations with some assumed powers of persua-
sion over other Arabs, most notably Egypt and Saudi
Arabia. Americans ought to be paying a bit more
attention, however, to a state that could actually serve
as a model for decent conduct, Jordan.
Jordan has long been supportive of the idea of a
Jewish state in the former Palestine. Indeed, backing
that idea cost the first King Abdullah his life; a
Palestinian extremist afraid that the old king would
make a separate peace with Israel shot him while he
was visiting the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on July
20, 1951.
Abdullah's grandson, Hussein Ibn Talal,
became King Hussein two years later and
guided his nation through the treacherous
shoals of Middle East intrigue until his death in 1999.
He, too, was a consistent force encouraging other Arab
states both to modernize and to accept the reality of
Israel's permanence.
Hussein's eldest son, now King Abdullah II, has been
something of a question mark. Following his educa-
tion, much of it in England and America, he served
with distinction in the Jordanian military. He speaks,
in fluent English, of his support for the policies of his
father and great-grandfather
(although not for the first
0 0
Abdullah's idea of a bringing Jordan and Iraq into a
greater Syria ruled by the Hashemite throne).
Thanks to the forward-looking regimes, the country
is the most educated of Arab states, with a 91 percent
literacy rate among its 5.5 million citizens. That skilled
workforce has been attracting significant investment
from Western nations as well as traditional allies Saudi
Arabia, Egypt and Syria.
There are signs that U.S. policy is coming around to
seeing Jordan's potential. King Abdullah has been a fre-

quent White House guest in the post
9-11 period, and President George
W Bush has gone out of his way to
praise the 43-year-old ruler. And the
praise has been backed up with sub-
stantial dollars, more than $1 billion
a year in economic aid and more
than 5500 million in military sup-
port.
This is not to say that Jordan is
perfect. It has allowed terrorists to
cross into Iraq and attack U.S. forces
and Iraqi civilians. Abdullah turned a
blind eve last month when the
Jordanian family of Raed
Banna celebrated their rel-
ative's killing himself and
116 Iraqis in the Shiite
town of Hilla, a "martyrdom" party
that Iraqis protested vigorously by
destroying the Jordanian embassy in
Baghdad.
In a powerful essay two weeks ago
in the Washington Post, veteran for-
eign affairs writer Jim Hoagland
noted that the king still talks approv-
ingly of the Baathist Party, the Sunni
Muslim base for Saddam Hussein,
and that he tells Arab audiences dif-
ferent things about wantinab Syria out of Lebanon than
he does his American listeners.
But last week, Abdullah sacked his government for
failing to move fast enough toward a modernization
for democracy and named a 69-year-old biologist with
a reputation for both honesty and political effectiveness
to craft a more forward-looking set of policies that
might eventually replace the constitutional monarchy
with a liberal democracy. That is not a process that

Keeping The Faith

for all their bluster, were not crazy enough to
piously moderate Israelis.
put forth a judge who vowed to reverse Roe
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who
vs. Wade, and thus turn women and moder-
has displayed surprisingly formidable politi-
ates against them. I may have been wrong
cal gifts, may yet find a way around this
about that. The nut boys seem to be in the
divide when it comes time to remove reli-
ascendancy
gious settlers from Gaza and the West Bank.
They are even threatening to force through
But it is the primary fault line in Israeli life.
a change in the traditional filibuster rules of
We have avoided such conflicts here with
the U.S. Senate if they cannot get the judge
strict limitations on the role of religion in
GEO RGE
they want.
politics. Some of them are foolishly trivial,
CAN TOR
The Republicans would do well to recall the
such as the hoo-ha over the words "under
Re lit)!
off-year election of 1994, when voters deliv-
God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Ch eck
ered a massive rebuke to President Bill Clinton
But others cut to the core of American
and his party for governing too far to the left.
identity, and that is where elements of the
The Dems lost control of Congress then and never
religious right seem to want to take us.
regained it.
Pope John Paul II was admired for his unyielding
They might also heed the example of Israel, where
defense of church teachings on abortion, gay mar-
the small parties of the religious right have held the
riage, ordination of women and married priests.
balance of power in the Knesset for decades. The
Surveys indicated that most American Catholics
governing party, whether Labor or Likud, has been
revered the pope but disagreed with him on these
forced to make concessions to them in order to
issues.
maintain a coalition majority.
But that is the proper role of religious leaders:
The result has been restrictions on religious life
using conscience rather than coercion to accomplish
that most Israelis find intolerable. I have been
their goals. If the Republicans can't figure that out
stunned at the deep and bitter antagonism directed
soon, they may get a quick ticket back to the politi-
toward this arrangement by most secular and reli-
cal wilderness. D_

EDIT ORIAL

T

he great thing about the American political
system is that it abhors extremism and pulls
toward the center.
That should be a warning to Republican
Congressmen after their disgraceful performance in
the Terri Schiavo case.
They were willing to sell out their party's basic
principles of the last 25 years in order to mollify the
religious right.
It's that "values" thing again, the item that turned
up on exit polls after last fall's election. The GOP
believes it won because of the voters who placed val-
ues (whatever that means) above all other issues. So
it has gone into pander mode.
But the Schiavo episode, in which Congress tried
to override the decisions of a state court and intrude
in a family decision, is only a prelude. This summer,
if U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William
Rehnquist steps down, there will be a bruising battle
over the nominee to replace him.
A few months ago, I wrote that the Republicans,

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejewishnews.com

NO ASHLEY, HE WASN'T
"PULLED BY EIGHT TINY
REINDEERS"!

could happen in, say, Syria where the president, Bashar
al-Assad, was educated in the West, like Abdullah, but
unlike the king, Assad has proved to be a weak-minded
puppet of an old-line rejectionist Arab apparatchik.
Arabs always say that the 'West cannot impose its
ways on them; that its progress must be built on a
regional model. They would do well to look at what is
happening in Amman. 7_,

4/14
2005

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