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10 | OCTOBER 15 • 2020 

Views

the support of evangelicals and 
build a coalition against Iran?
Like Balfour, Trump’
s ges-
tures filled us with elation. But 
were these more than symbolic 
gestures, each a photo-op to rub-
berstamp an already existing sit-
uation? Jerusalem has been the 
de facto capital of Israel since its 
existence. There’
s been no seri-
ous challenge to Israeli control 
of the Golan for decades. And 
Israel normalized relations with 
the UAE and Bahrain tacitly 
nearly two decades ago (Former 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert 
suggested that, sans Bibi, an 
open normalization agreement 
would’
ve been signed in 2009). 

THE UAE’
S NEW FIGHTER JETS
And what about the fickleness of 
self-interest, in this case, the U.S. 
giving state-of-the-art fighter 
planes to a Middle Eastern coun-
try other than Israel? Time will 
tell whether the ultimate disap-
pointment of Balfour will repeat 
itself. For now, it’
s essential that 
we take advantage of the per-

spective that our forebears a cen-
tury ago did not have — that of 
Balfour and its rapid implosion. 
An alternative approach to 
gauging the support of American 
leaders for Israel may be in rec-
ognizing that the way we use the 
term “true friend” with respect 
to Israel is different from how 
we use the term otherwise. My 
closest friends are not those who 
agree with and praise everything 
I say and do.
On the contrary: My closest 
friends are my staunchest sup-
porters, but also my most stri-
dent critics when they think I’
m 
acting foolishly or self-destruc-
tively. I rely on their criticism. 
I use the same standard when 
measuring who is a true friend 
of Israel — support coupled with 
necessary criticism. As with all 
things that are important, the 
truth is more complicated — 
and interesting. 

Dr. Howard N. Lupovitch is director 
of Wayne State University’
s Cohn-
Haddow Center for Judaic Studies.

SELF-INTEREST continued from page 6

world, explains there is no “
Arab 
World” any longer — the geopo-
litical divide in the Middle East 
is comprised of two “coalitions.
” 
The Iran-led coalition com-
prises Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, 
Qatar, the Hamas-led Gaza Strip 
and Hezbollah, supported by 
Turkey and backed by Russia 
and China. This coalition is one 
of death and destruction and the 
leading sponsor of terrorism. 
The Saudi Arabian-led coali-
tion, backed by the U.S., consists 
of Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE, 
Oman, Kuwait, Israel, Sudan, 
Chad, Tunisia and Morocco. 
This camp is focused on life, 
growth and future, and held 
together by mutual fear of 
Iranian dominance.
Bahrain and the UAE wouldn’
t 
have entered the Accords with-
out the full approval of Saudi 

Arabia. The Saudi Minister 
of Information tweeted his 
endorsement of the Accords. 
Netanyahu’
s relationships with 
Arab/Muslim countries, many 
sub rosa, paved the way, along 
with Israel’
s strength and a com-
mon foe, Iran. 
The carnage of the ISIS 
“caliphate”; the Syrian civil war 
slaughter of 1 million; the recent 
explosion in Beirut — all have 
turned the Arab public away 
from the Iran-led camp.
As more Arab/Muslim states 
line up to normalize relations, 
we see that peace comes not 
from relinquishing the Jewish 
right to the Land of Israel but 
rather from a place of power and 
pride in the Jewish identity. 

Sheldon L. Freilich is president of the 
Zionist Organization of America-
Michigan Region.

EARTHQUAKE continued from page 8

