Editor's Letter
Iranian Intrigue
T
he conversation kept bouncing back to Iran as one of
Israel's savviest diplomats and I talked in the lobby
of a Southfield hotel for 45 minutes during his whirl-
wind visit to Metro Detroit. "The Iranians are saying they want
to annihilate the State of Israel," said Barukh Binah, Israel's
Chicago-based consul general to the midwest."They are not
shy about it. They say it very openly."
That annihilation drumbeat is get-
ting louder as President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad stokes the fires of anti-
Zionism across Iran, a force among
nations given its nuclear capability.
Jews would be fools not to take heed.
Hosted by the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Metropolitan
Detroit, Binah spent much of March
21-22 warning about Iran as he met
with the news media and addressed
Wayne State University's Detroit
Council for World Affairs. Meanwhile, Iranian TV has been
busy airing anti-Semitic programming — from an animated
film, to a sci-fi series to a musical "comedy" — according to
the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute.
Israel certainly doesn't dismiss Ahmadinejad as a crackpot.
Says Binah: "We hold Iran, as a state and as a
country, in high regard. It's a nation that has
made tremendous contributions to world civi-
lization. They are a serious people and we take
them seriously"
Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler wasn't bashful
about belittling Jews. Yet too many Eastern
European Jews felt not confronting the
Third Reich would best keep them alive. The
Holocaust proved them and a host of weaker
nations dead wrong.
Seventy years later, we can't take chances no Barukh Binah
matter how isolated Ahmadinejad seems to be.
His tactic of ignoring Iranian Jews seems a diversion to his
obsession with destroying Israel. Iranian clerics have a freer
rein to manipulate anti-Zionism since Ahmadinejad and his
incitement dominate the headlines. It was Ahmadinejad who
first denied the Holocaust then argued that if it happened, the
Jews somehow provoked it. He also claimed the death toll was
exaggerated.
Tracing Our Roots
Going back in history, Jews have been enslaved, expelled and
persecuted. Until srael rose from the cinders of World War II,
Jews used to be what Binah calls "an equal opportunity vic-
tim." Hate accompanied us to wherever we settled following
the Exodus from Egypt.
"The whole idea of a Jewish state was that we would stop
being victims and would stop being victimized;' Binah told
me. Still, Israel gave anti-Semites a convenient means to vic-
timize Jews under the guise of anti-Zionism. Statehood didn't
prevent the winds of anti-Semitism from cascading over
Europe, the Middle East and American campuses of higher
education. Israel's re-emergence did, however, resurrect our
ancestral homeland even as the diaspora extended farther.
Still inspired despite the late hour of our meeting, Binah
declared Israel to be the answer to anti-Semitism. "It's the
only place where Jews do not have to assimilate Binah said.
"It's a haven for those who live there. For others, it's a place to
identify with, a mother country — the center of Jewish cul-
ture, civilization and deliberation!"
We've tried to assimilate around the globe, but our intrinsic
yearning to sustain our tradition and sense of community
too often has underscored our minority status. We're differ-
ent from the masses, but not because we think we're better.
Heathens, early Christians and later radical Muslims began
to sow seeds of hate against us out of a wild belief that if we
don't want to conform, we must be feared. The blood libels,
propaganda and stereotypes that resulted over the past 2,500
years helped propel anti-Semitic undercurrents.
Israel Bashing
The newer anti-Semitism is rooted in devaluing the Jewish
state because of its nonconformity in the heart of the Arab
and Muslim world. Iran is Persian, not Arab. But it's over-
whelmingly Muslim and as good a twister of the Koran as
anyone. Its might makes it everyone's problem in the civilized
world, not just Israel's.
Whether American Jews realize it or not, the U.S. govern-
ment holds the key to derailing the Iranian nuclear express.
Says Binah: "Do you think Russia would have agreed all of
a sudden to U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran
without American diplomacy, American persuasion
and America's unique position in the world? The
firmness of the U.S. resolve is the result of what the
American public thinks. And that public has been
represented by a Congress and by administrations
that have been bastions of bipartisan support for
Israel."
As loyal as American Jews are to Israel, we can't let
up. The voice of American Jewry echoes down the
aisles of Congress and into the White House. Binah
is right: "Israel is the bipartisan issue perhaps in the
American public arena these days."
It's no surprise that America considers U.S. Jews
and the State of Israel inextricably linked. We're one family,
part of a global people. So the pressure is on us to stand with
Israel as we debate its politics and policies. If we don't, why
should non-Jews? Sure, many Christians strongly support
Israel. But the linchpin to America's unwavering commitment
to Israel is united support by American Jewry, which is a
political juggernaut.
Israel can't minimize Iran or terrorism. As Binah put it:
"We're still in a situation where there are battles to be fought.
I hope that all these battles will remain political and diplo-
matic. But sometimes they do take the form of real combat!"
When I asked Barukh Binah, 20 months into a four-year
term as our consul general, what message he wanted to
impart to Jewish Detroit, he responded with razor clarity:
"Keep up the excellent support because Israel still needs to
carry on. We're not home and dry." I
HANDBAG
BOUTIQUE
Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest: http://chicago.mfa.gov.il
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Is American Jewry's support of Israel
adequate?
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DOWNTOWN BIRMINGHAM
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Will anti-Semitism take deeper root in
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April 5 .2007
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