Philip Roth
A couple times I've said that Philip Roth talks about the Israel lobby in his 1986 novel, The Counterlife. Well it was a rainy night and the fire was going, and I did my homework.
The Israeli character Shuki Elchanan is a former press attache to David Ben-Gurion. He talks to the book's American narrator, Nathan Zuckerman:
This is the homeland of Jewish abnormality. Worse: now we are the dependent Jews, on your money, your lobby, on our big allowance from Uncle Sam, while you are the Jews living interesting lives, comfortable lives, without apology, without shame, and perfectly independent.
And here's from a letter that Elchanan writes to Zuckerman, set in 1978:
Virtually everything we have right now we have to get from abroad. I'm thinking of those things that, if we didn't have them, the Arab countries wouldn't tolerate us for a minute (and I include plutonium). What keeps them at bay doesn't come from our resources but from someone else's pocket; as I complained to you the other day, mostly it comes from what [President Jimmy] Carter appropriates and what his Congress wants to go along with. What we have comes out of the pocket of the fellow from Kansas--part of each of his tax dollars goes to arm Jews. And why should he pay for the Jews? The other side is always trying to undermine us, to erode this support, and their argument is getting better all the time; just a little more help from [P.M. Menachem] Begin in the way of stupid policy, and they can indeed foster a situation in which the reluctance to keep shelling out is going to grow until finally nobody in the U.S. feels obligated to fork over three billion a year to keep a lot of Yids in guns. In order to keep doling out the dollars, that American has to believe that the Israeli is more or less the same as himself, the same decent sort of guy after the same sort of decent things. And that is not Mordecai Lippman [settler]. If Lippman and his followers are not the Jews they want to pay money for, I won't blame them. ... who from Kansas needs to support that kind of stuff with his hard-earned dough?
It turned out the lobby was only too happy to preserve the settlement project, and the guy from Kansas too.
Someone should write a book on Philip Roth and Israel/Zionism — this is just a tasty tip of the iceberg. He was a prophet and visionary on the subject, I think. He knew the entire psychic landscape of the enterprise from the inside — every little twist and turn of thought. And he managed to get it on paper.
It turned out the lobby was only too happy to preserve the settlement project, and the guy from Kansas too.
i know that you’d like to spread the blame in smooth, even strokes, but that’s an inequitable pairing. the ‘guy from the lobby’ spends half his time educating the ‘guy from kansas’, so much so that by the time class is out, the ‘guy from kansas’ couldn’t pick out gaza on a map of the levant.
i’m not a great fan of roth the author (although ‘nemesis’ is a nice little allegory on jewish male guilt over WWII) but at least he’s a mensch.
I don’t think the guy from Kansas is happy to do it…he just doesn’t know about it.
But Israel has always been dependent on the US , no US hubris in me saying that, I’m definitely not proud of it, it’s just a fact. And if the Lobby ever goes, there goes the US support. Because despite all the Israel mouth pieces hype and propaganda about how Americans support Israel all the majority of Americans have for Israel is wide spread indifference for the most part. ..the same indifference they have for most anything until or unless they think it affects them personally.
Israel has been punching above it’s weight on the US largess since it’s inception…how long can it continue?…I don’t know…but don’t think it can
continue forever.
American- It is not historically accurate to claim that Israel has always been dependent on the US. Until 1967 this was not true.
Pardon me WJ …..but why do you think most of the Arab countries didn’t actively join in the resistance to Israel ?
Because Israel was so powerful?.. because they didn’t think they could run the Jews out if they united against them?
No, it was because the Un and US recognized Israel, in effect sponsored Israel…and they were well aware of the US zionist political influence.
King Abdullah and other major leaders in the ME realized that was the real problem for them…otherwise the combined Arab world could have disposed of Israel easily.
I dunno, American–while the House fights each other tooth and nail over what to cut spending tax dollars on, I see they paused briefly, and, except for two congressmen, one of them Ron Paul, the other with a large Arab-American constituency, to join hands to dump a total of $4 Billion dollars on Israel come October next. Ron Paul made his objections public, but our mainstream media did not show his protest, even though he’s been a candidate for POTUS all year.
Every time foreign aid as a subject for cutting has appeared in TV news shows, that subject is quickly dismissed as “a drop in the bucket.” That guy from Kansas? Now if a Perot clone got out a colorful pie chart and pointing stick, and got 15 minutes of primetime TV on said subject, that might catch a tad of attention in Kansas. Colbert could do it on his show if he wanted to ruin his career. Or Stewart. Or Maher.
Recent bipartisan panel approved 9% foreign aid cut–Israel’s & Egypt’s share were not touched. That’s 1/3 of all foreign aid right there. The press doesn’t think Dick and Jane need to know this. link to postandcourier.com
The GOP recommends no cuts to military aid to Israel or Egypt, but recommends cutting 10% of that part of aid to Egypt that goes solely for humanitarian purpose, which amounts to $25M, given every year to Egypt before the Arab Spring.
The guy from Kansas and the guys from the evangelical south don’t know that American soldiers are dying (and drones are flying and making ever more enemies, “ENEMIES ARE OUR MOST IMPORTANT PRODUCT”) because of the USA’s imperial project of which Israel is an important part (altho no-one has ever been able to explain to me how allowing the SETTLEMENTS helps the USA).
Nice sentence. Tristram Shandy would’ve been proud.
I wonder how quickly the German government will change its mind about providing Israel those submarines. Poll: Majority of Germans think Israel is ‘aggressive’:
RE: “Philip Roth on the Israel lobby” ~ Weiss
FROM Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, 11/23/12:
“Would It Make a Difference to Progressives if Norman Solomon Goes to Congress?”
SOURCE – link to commondreams.org
* I made a modest contribution via ActBlue and Paypal. – link to secure.actblue.com
Based upon this post, it would appear that Philip Roth, speaking through his characters, wildly overestimates the impact of public opinion on elite determined government policy. The reality is that most government policy now deviates significantly from popular opinion. Makes no difference. Neo-liberalism, neo-feudalism and austerity remain the goals, Israel but a part of the big picture.
…The reality is that most government policy now deviates significantly from popular opinion. Makes no difference….
Interestingly, this observation imho holds true for most countries. All Governments of major import pursue steadfastily and without qualification so-called “pro-Israel” policies, despite the fact that a more or less distinct majority of their respective electorates disapprove such unconditional support.
It seems as if such a foreign policy majority of the electorates can be conveniently ignored – so far – without that the respective electorates would sanction their Governments or their responsible politicians/parties at next elections.
Wrt Germany eg, as also Günter Grass opined in his recent “poem”, the German government continues to pay for and supply Israel with submarines, despite the fact that public opinion dispproves of supplying military hardware to conflict areas…….
The same applies to aid and other preference treatments Israel is continously granted without putting any effective poltical or economic pressure on any GoI to end settlement, occupation and discrimination and walk the walk towards a comprehensive I-P peace agreement.
Strange, is it not?
“It seems as if such a foreign policy majority of the electorates can be conveniently ignored – so far – without that the respective electorates would sanction their Governments or their responsible politicians/parties at next elections.’
Here in Australia both major parties have their noses stuck up the Israeli arse, so it is very difficult to sanction them. Vote out one lot, and another lot gets in. Change of governing party is based on domestic issues.
Has Philip Roth ever been interviewed about his politics regarding Israel?
I don’t think so. But, merely by raising the notion in a literary work that a Kansas goy should feel perfectly OK if he or she no longer desires to pay taxes to support the foreign state of Israel, it’s pretty clear why this is likely so. Phil Roth, like Phil Weiss, is considered by many opponents as a “self-hating Jew.’ You may want to read the history of this concept: link to jewishquarterly.org