Opinion
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Greenberg's View
Editorial
Celebration Time
I
t was a country born after a prolonged
struggle with the British Empire, and
the blood spilled in its war for inde-
pendence helped establish its national
character and its belief that the nation was
worth fighting for.
That proposition was tested again and
again amid a succession of wars resulting
from international rivalries and territorial
disputes. Despite the nobility of its fight for
existence, the country's military sometimes
found itself killing civilians, leading to for-
eign and domestic criticism.
If you were sitting in Europe in 1836,
looking across the ocean at that bellicose
60-year-old nation, you might have had
your doubts about the United States of
America.
Sure, the United States had survived
against all odds, beating the British in
the revolution, withstanding the British
a second time in the War of 1812, driv-
ing the Spanish out of Florida in the First
Seminole War, standing up for itself and its
commerce in a couple of hot wars against
the Barbary States and a cold naval war
against France and peacefully transition-
ing from government to government
in its newfangled republic. The upstart
Americans even were making an impact
in the global economy, producing an agri-
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cultural surplus, developing into
solid consumers and offering such
innovations as the cotton gin and the
steamboat.
But did all of that justify the nega-
tives, from slavery to the disposses-
•
sion of American Indians? Weren't
the Americans brash and uncul-
tured? Was the world better with the
United States?
Aren't there more than a few par-
allels between America at 60 and
Israel at 60?
stevegdgmenfrerg-art.corn
Still, the United States was born
in a different era. Israel should meet
a higher standard, so let's look at other
fled, rarely independent territory that was
nations that emerged after World War II.
split in two. The world went to war in the
Much as Britain tried to leave two
Korean peninsula from 1950 to 1953, and
nations in Palestine in 1948, it left two
the two Koreas never have signed a peace
nations in its Indian colony in 1947, India
treaty. People who complain about Israel's
and Pakistan. Those nations fought wars
security barrier should take a look at the
over Kashmir in 1947, 1965 and 1999.
Korean Demilitarized Zone.
They fought in 1971 over eastern Pakistan,
Aside from the external wars, what
resulting in that region's independence
India, Pakistan, the Koreas and other 20th-
as Bangladesh. Even in "peace India and
century creations share is a record of inter-
Pakistan have lived with the constant
nal strife'. assassinations, military coups,
threat of war amid countless skirmishes
brutal dictatorships and massacres. The
and exchanges of shellfire. Now they have a mere mention of Yugoslavia, Cambodia,
nuclear standoff.
Iraq, Zimbabwe, Sudan and so many others
Also turning 60 this year are North and
conjures visions of death and chaos.
South Korea, another historically uni-
Israel, by contrast, has had no civil
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.•••-•
UNFORTUNATELY,
SOME SEE ONLY
THE PLATE, AND
MISS THE CAKE
AND CANDLES
ALTOGETHER
Israel 60
2008,JAA 41. 4r
Arlibr
wars, no coups, no ethnic slaughters. From
the start, it has held elections open to all
citizens — Jewish or not — and seen
one government yield to another without
bloodshed. That is a remarkable accom-
plishment; even the United States, with the
Whiskey Rebellion early on and the War
Between the States 25 years after its 60th
birthday, couldn't match Israel's domestic
tranquility.
Throughout its decades under siege,
Israelis never allowed a siege mentality to
destroy their freedom, and that's reason
enough for all lovers of liberty to join
Israel's 60th birthday party today, Yom
HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day). ❑
Reality Check
Welcome Back, Carter
T
he more I watch the election
campaign unfold, the more
strongly I feel it. If you liked
Jimmy Carter you're probably gonna love
Barack Obama.
In almost 30 years of writing news col-
umns, I've never told readers how to vote,
and I'm not going to start now Well, I did
come pretty close in favoring Freeman
Hendrix over Kwame Kilpatrick, but I
don't think I have anything to apologize
for there.
But Senator Obama concerns me. His
high-flown rhetoric that signifies little.
His posturing as a unifying force, when
his voting record has been consistently
leftward to anyone else in the Senate. His
absence of solid accomplishment.
Where Carter declared a "national
malaise" when people disagreed with his
policies, Obama has his "bitter small-town
Americans clinging" to guns and religion.
I am not a litmus test voter, but one of
my greatest concerns is American policy
towards Israel. Obama talks the talk, as
any presidential candidate must.
But I have doubts about how
he'll walk when the time comes.
I am also dubious about the
light treatment he is getting
from much of the media. USA
Today did a front-page piece on
how whites were having a prob-
lem voting for him. This came
at a time when he was attracting
more than one-third of all white
voters, while Senator Hillary
Clinton was drawing about 2.5 percent of
black voters. So who has a problem with
whom?
I'm not being disingenuous. It is entirely
understandable that African-Americans
would want to vote for the first serious
presidential candidate who defines him-
self as black. But voting on the basis of
race is tribalism, not democracy.
Then there is his former long and close
association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Far
from being "quoted out of context" about
a government plot to infuse black babies
with AIDS, he defended it
last month in an appearance
before the national media in
Washington, D.C. He also did
nothing to change his state-
ment about chickens coming
home to roost" in referring to
the 9-11 attacks — a cliche
borrowed from Malcolm X
when he described the assas-
sination of President John E
Kennedy.
There is also Wright's friendly feelings
toward that raging anti-Semite Louis
Farrakhan, which he expounded upon
once again in Washington.
It is my experience as a journalist that
in most cases — not in all, but most —
someone who pleads he was quoted out of
context is either a liar or a scoundrel. His
defenders have tried to make that case for
Wright; but he will have none of it, which I
must give him some credit for.
But if Obama at last finds these state-
ments so outrageously offensive I have to
wonder why he chose to stay committed
to Wright's church and preaching for 20
years. That's an important question.
It took this rant in front of the National
Press Club to finally provoke him to make
a clear break. That isn't what I'd call deci-
sive leadership.
Obama is attracting younger voters. But
I remember hearing the same thing in
1972 when the kids were going to make
sure George McGovern swept Richard
Nixon from office. How'd that work out?
A young friend assures me that this
time would be different because of the
Internet. He may be shocked to learn that
many conservatives are equally adept
at getting their message out over the
Internet, too.
Whatever the outcome, it has certainly
been the most interesting campaign in
most of our lifetimes. ❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com.
,IN
May 8 • 2008
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