FEBRUARY 17 • 2022 | 11

(For the record, one study was 
conducted by Gil Atzmon of 
the Albert Einstein College of 
Medicine and Harry Ostrer of 
New York University and the 
other was the work of Doron 
M. Behar of the Rambam 
Health Care Campus in Haifa 
and Richard Villems of the 
University of Tartu in Estonia, 
publishing in the American 
Journal of Human Genetics and 
Nature respectively). 
Whoopi Goldberg’s asser-
tion that the Holocaust was 
“not about race” was wrong. 
Whether or not one can define 
Jews as a race, the Nazis singled 
us out for extermination based 
on racial grounds. Moreover, 
according to our genes and geo-
graphic origins, we are Semites 
and not Caucasians, which is 
how white people are usually 
classified. 
So how do you classify 
Judaism? In the western world, 
if not the entire world, it is 
regarded as a religion and by 
all appearances it is. However, 
Judaism predates western civ-
ilization, and it does not fit as 
neatly into that designation as it 
seems. Is it also a race? That is 
an issue for another day. 
What is clear is that regard-
less of how Jews see ourselves, 
the way others see or define 
us is the reality we must deal 
with. 

Robert L. Kern has served as director 
of marketing and communications for 
several “American Friends,” Zionist 
and Jewish organizations. He is a 
former President of the American 
Jewish Public Relations Society 
and a member of the Executive 
Committee of the American Jewish 
Press Association.

the Jewish state was vulnerable 
and its durability was short-
lived. The Arabs not only 
possessed oil and international 
status; most of all, they had 
an unlimited ability to absorb 
blows and possessed bound-
less determination.
Over time, Israel would 
not be able to stand up to the 
tenacity of the Arabs in boy-
cotting it in the region, the 
violent threats to the lives of 
its citizens and its survivability 
in the face of its delegitimiza-
tion in the international arena 
and among Western democ-
racies.
The Arab struggle had 
many operative successes. The 
radicals indeed managed to 
mobilize the Arab countries to 
boycott Israel for generations. 
This went on for decades 
after the revolutionary peace 
agreement with Egypt and the 
accords with Jordan.
The Arabs’ oil resources 
succeeded, primarily in the 
1970s, to sabotage important 
Israeli interests. The repeated 

wars, ongoing terrorism and 
recognition that the existential 
and daily threats were a per-
manent fixture harmed Israel’s 
society and economy.
Delegitimization in interna-
tional organizations has been 
a challenge and is worsening. 
The absurd defamation of 
Israel has found a receptive 
audience among the main-
stream in Europe, and even 
among groups that are no 
longer on the fringes in the 
United States.
But these operative success-
es paradoxically shine a light 
on the depth of the strategic 
failure. Israel’s regional isola-
tion is dissipating in front of 
our very eyes in the Gulf and 
Morocco, and relations with 
Egypt and Jordan are under-
going a marked improvement.
The principal Arab oil pro-
ducers are de facto members 
of a coalition with Israel. The 
big wars have come to an end. 
The Iranian threat is grave, 
but primarily it threatens the 
Arabs and moves them closer 

to Israel.
The ultimate terrorist war 
(the “Second Intifada”) was 
initiated by the Palestinians 
but didn’t do much to further 
their cause. Isolation in inter-
national organizations has not 
dented Israel’s firm standing 
among the countries that set 
the tone in the international 
arena, and the effects of def-
amation among the Western 
democracies are limited.
Above all, Israel is, in the 
eyes of its residents, in the 
eyes of the leading countries 
in the world, and, to a growing 
extent among the Arabs them-
selves, an outstanding success 
story that consistently proves 
its ability to deal with enor-
mous challenges.
Time, therefore, is on Israel’s 
side. 

Dan Schueftan is the director of 

the International Graduate Program 

in National Security Studies at the 

University of Haifa’s National Security 

Studies Center. This article first 

appeared in Israel Hayom.

security umbrella to face a 
more assertive Russia, also 
a European major energy 
supplier.
The American behavior in 
the Ukraine crisis also affects 
the nuclear talks in Vienna. 
Tehran, already convinced 
that America is weak, gets 
even greater leeway and can 
further procrastinate. Iran 
could unleash its proxies 
against American allies in 
the Middle East. Israel could 
decide to avoid notifying 
Washington before acting 
forcefully. A Russian victory 
in Europe could precipitate a 
conflagration in the Middle 
East.
Similarly, China could 
learn that U.S. determination 
is melting away, and that its 
threats can be ignored. An 

attack on Taiwan could fol-
low.
The Ukraine predica-
ment again demonstrates 
the uselessness of interna-
tional guarantees. The 1994 
Budapest Memorandum, 
signed by the Russian 
Federation, the United 
Kingdom and the United 
States, provided security 
assurances against threats or 
force against the territorial 
integrity of Ukraine, Belarus 
and Kazakhstan in exchange 
for them giving up their 
nuclear weapons. 
Unfortunately, the mem-
orandum was not respected 
when Russia conquered 
Crimea in 2014.
International institutions 
failed similarly. The United 
States called a U.N. Security 

Council meeting to discuss 
Moscow’s troop build-up on 
its borders with Ukraine, 
knowing that Russia had veto 
power. 
In Washington, this 
so-called “preventive diplo-
macy” ended in futile angry 
clashes between Russian and 
American envoys.
Ukrainians probably 
realize that we still live in 
a Hobbesian world where 
every state is on its own and 
life is often “solitary, poor, 
nasty, brutish and short.” 

Professor Efraim Inbar is president of 

the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and 

Security. This article was first published 

by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy 

and Security.

HOW OTHERS SEE US 
continued from page 6

U.S. FAILURE ON UKRAINE continued from page 8

CORRECTION: 
The names of Ashley Schnaar 
and Zack Slabotsky were mis-
spelled in “36 Under 36” (Feb. 
10, page 10). The JN regrets 
the error.

