I had dinner with a smart friend, an Arabist, from across the sea. Here are some things he said. What if they are true?
–Egypt had a Parliament and a democracy till 1952 and
the takeover by Nasser and the other officers. Israel’s inception
transformed the entire region. It has had a retrograde effect on all Arab
societies. The appearance of a colonialist militant state, threatening Arab
neighbors, hardened all those states. The Arab dictatorships need to be rid of the Israel
problem in order to reform. If the U.S. were able to solve the
Israel/Palestine problem tomorrow, it would have a staggering effect on the
region in spreading democracy.
–The fear of all moderates in the region is
Armageddon. Because look at it: the struggle has become religiosized. The
religious parties are taking over in Israel and in the Occupied Territories.
Religious people don’t care about destroying the world if they are right. (This is precisely what Israeli
negotiator Tal Becker said at the AIPAC conference!) And just think, Iraq may be the worst. In ten
years they might be the most religious, Israel-hating society of all.
–I will tell you how the Arab societies feel about the
Jewish state. Today: they don’t care that it is there. This is new. There was a time in the 70s and the 80s
when the peace talks meant nothing. They said, we will take care of Israel later.
Sign the deal now, come back later and take care of the Jewish state. Now they
don’t feel that way. They say: It’s not going anywhere. We have to move
forward. We are tired of this. Let us get on with life. There are just two
issues to be resolved: there must be compensation for the Palestinians who were expelled and
whose property was confiscated, in 1948, and Jerusalem. Jerusalem cannot be
undivided. Because of the great religious sites.
–The Israelis wanted war. Look at the Lavon
Affair. Egypt was close to making a deal, in the 1950s. Sharett was for it. Ben
Gurion was out of power, but he didn’t want an accommodation with Egypt, he wanted more antagonism. Without that, the Israeli state could not grow. The Diaspora Jews would not support
it, and all the millions of Arab Jews in Baghdad, Morocco, and Egypt, they
wouldn’t leave, they had no desire to leave, unless there was more disturbance.
–Look what the Camp David peace deal did to Egyptian society: froze the dictatorship in place. The president of Egypt gets billions from the U.S. to use as he likes. In a democracy, he would have to seek the consent of the people.
–Look what has happened to your society. You used to have
an old boy network. They made sure their children got into the elite schools,
the elite jobs. That changed in the 90s. The WASP elite is over. What
have you replaced it with. A meritocracy. Obama can be president. That is good. But where is the elite cohesion? I see only one group with power and espirt de corps in your society. The
Zionists. Sheldon Adelson and Ari Fleischer and Doug
Feith, marching off into history. Who will take them on? Can the WASPs regroup? (I laughed).
–The lobby is the real reason your society went to
war. There was no oil interest in going to war. The oil interest was in lifting
sanctions, and getting oil to $5 a barrel. Yes I agree Cheney may have had fantasies. But the real reason was Bernard Lewis
saying, we must smash an Arab capital, because all they respect is force.
–Look at your presidents, what is the lesson of Middle East policy. Carter took on the lobby, so did
George H.W. Bush. Neither of them had a second term. Bill Clinton learned the
lesson, so did George W. Bush. I know how upset people are about Iran getting nukes. In 1963, John F
Kennedy warned Levi Eshkol that Israel must not get nukes. There are rumors on the internet that Kennedy was killed because of this. Who can take that seriously? But imagine if there is a civil war in Israeli society over giving up the West Bank. That could happen. Are you worried about those nukes?
–The power of the internet is not understood. Look at your
blog. Aren’t you afraid that the antisemites read you (Yes, I
say, but I am a journalist and my country is in crisis and I need to talk about this stuff). The problem is that your mainstream media can’t talk about these ideas and people now find their company on the
internet. It can have a dynamic effect. Let me tell you something. The printing
press was the most important blow for nationalism in history. Before that people
could not speak their own language to their own people. Rome ruled, and communicated in Latin. 100 years
before Martin Luther a Czech priest was burned at the stake for saying what Luther would say. What changed? The printing press came, and they could not stop the
reformation. This was a convulsive period in history. In 1609 there were 21
million Germans. By the time they signed the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 there were 9
or 10 million Germans. Half the population, destroyed because of the rise of nationalism. What will the internet unleash?
–There were times when religions actually brought people together. They
understood their commonality, above nation and ethnicity. We need a superreligion now, when
the religions are fighting one another, well above the nations.
–We need to speak to the black Sudanese Muslim. He sees
the Palestinian being beaten on television and the whole world collapses for him into Israeli oppression, sponsored by the U.S. Why is that black Mulsim focused on a white man being
beaten more than a thousand miles away? The Arab world needs to change that, so does the U.S.
My friend is a pessimist. I’m an optimist. We were sitting at a bar. I grabbed a napkin and wrote
the number 62 percent. That is the figure on intermarriage among American Jews under 35.
It is just a fact of American leadership culture. These Jews are not tribalist. These Jews are representative of the next generation of universalist Jews, empowered and
educated, who will know Arabs. They will help to lead my society out of these bonds into the future.
