A group calling itself “Friends of Israel Initiative” was launched recently. As of now, it includes the following ten members: Jose Maria Aznar who was prime minister of Spain, David Trimble who was prime minister of Northern Ireland, John Bolton who was U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Alejandro Toledo who was president of Peru, Marcello Pera who was president of the Italian Senate, Andrew Roberts who is a British historian, Fiamma Nirenstein who is vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, George Weigel who is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Robert Agostinelli who is managing director of the Rhône Group and Carlos Bustelo who was minister of industry in Spain.
They wrote an article that sounds like a manifesto, and the Wall Street Journal was the one to publish it as if by habit alone. The Journal did so on July 8, 2010 under the title “Israel: A Normal Country”. In fact, the authors begin the article by affirming that: “Israel is a Western democracy and a normal country.” Wonderful, you say to yourself, but guess which word you're hit with right after that. Yup, it's the word: Nonetheless. Oh! Oh! You say, if this is the case it cannot be all that wonderful; there seems to be a problem. And you can say that again because when you read on, you realize what impossible task these hapless ten gave themselves. Without actually defining “Western democracy” or “normal country,” they set out to prove that Israel is both. You wonder what they are thinking and soon discover that in their own mind, things are the way they describe them because they say so. And you question how serious these people are.
You get the sense that something bizarre is going on, so you keep on reading to see where the article will take you. The operative word being nonetheless, you read this passage: “Nonetheless, Israel has faced abnormal circumstances since its inception.” So that's it! you exclaim; these people have it backward. Instead of seeing Israel as an abnormal entity facing normal reaction to the repugnant behavior it exhibits, they see Israel as a normal country facing an abnormal humanity that doesn't get it. In other words, they think of Israel as a Bambi that finds itself in a tough neighborhood instead of thinking of Israel as the skunk in the garden that it is. And you find yourself in the curious situation of having to invent a new word as you get the feeling that things are becoming so bizarre they surpass the curiouser and curiouser of Alice in Wonderland. Your mind tells you and your heart confirms that the situation is getting bizarrer and bizarrer with every paragraph you read.
But what is it that the perverted humanity is supposed to be doing to Israel? you ask. And there comes the answer: “[Israel] … whose legitimacy is still being questioned independently of its actions,” say the hapless ten. What actions? you ask. And there comes the answer: “The recent flotilla crisis in the Mediterranean...” They go on to justify the butchery that Israel committed on the high seas in the middle of the night. And because humanity did not dance in the street or blow kisses at every Jew that walked by upon learning of the horror, the ten authors felt obliged to promise this: “Because we believe Israel is subjected to unfair treatment, and are convinced that defending Israel means defending the values that made and sustain our Western civilization, we have decided to launch the Friends of Israel Initiative.” With gallons of bile churning in your stomach you cry out: Butchering people in the middle of the night are the values that made and sustain OUR Western civilization? And despite your pain you keep on reading: “Our goal is to bring reason and decency back to the discussion about Israel.” Well then, dear reader, are you now prepared to be reasonable and decent enough to blow kisses at these ten, at Israel and at everyone that says he or she is a Jew? Will you, with this, want to join in the defense of the values that made and sustain THEIR version of Western Civilization? How very sick! How very sick!
But then, all of a sudden, you get the feeling that they are becoming serious about something. At last you feel they are making a sincere effort to try and convince you of something that is important to them. You wonder what it is and sense they are trying to tell you they are an okay group. You feel let down but you keep on reading as they insist to convey they are an eclectic lot which, in this context, probably means they view themselves as a special bunch. And to make sure you'll buy this view, they throw you a bone by confirming they do not speak for Israel nor do they always defend its actions - not withstanding the butchering of people in the middle of the night on the high seas, of course. After all, pirates did this for centuries and we romanticize them in our novels and our movies. In addition, the group of ten wants you to know that even though they come from different countries and have varied opinions on a range of issues, they are united by beliefs, principles and aims that concern Israel. And they list six categories in which these beliefs, principles and aims fall.
In the first category, they reiterate the claim that Israel is a Western democracy then make a feeble attempt at arguing that it is so because Israel has a political, legal, educational and cultural tradition resembling those you find in the West. Then comes the obligatory Judeo-Talmudic addition: “...in some of these areas, Israel is a world leader,” which tells you immediately that this thing was written by John Bolton alone and signed by the others probably without reading it out of loyalty and nothing else. You cease to think of the thing as a manifesto of the hapless ten, and regard it instead as the declaration of one desperate man making a desperate attempt to move his personal agenda forward riding on the backs of his unsuspecting friends.
And so you ask: what does John Bolton want? And the answer comes in the second category of the list he made. He says this: “...attempts to question Israel's basic legitimacy as a Jewish state in the Middle East are unacceptable to people who support liberal democratic values.” Whoa, you dig this, my friend? He earlier made the point that defending Israel means defending the values that made and sustain “our” Western civilization; and he now says that the civilization in question is not acceptable to him because it is no longer in synch with the liberal democratic values to which he and Israel belong. And that's not all; he goes on to say this: “Israel does not derive its legitimacy, as some claim, from sympathy over the Holocaust.” Kaboom! Mind blowing! Literally mind blowing! The first time I red this passage I was tempted to go to the rooftop and shout: “It is beginning to happen.” This is because I met a guy who once said: Today they jail people for denying the Holocaust; tomorrow they will jail people for confirming the Holocaust. When pressed to explain, he would say that a holocaust is meant to demean the people on which it is inflicted. After monetizing it to the last dime and seeing that they will not get anything more out of it, they will deny it ever happened to them. If you say otherwise, they will jail you and accuse you of demeaning them by spreading lies about the Jews having been holocausted in the past. And now that a scenario of this kind is beginning to unfold with Bolton's denial of what happened in the aftermath of the Holocaust, I ask you my friend, do you feel blown away? If yes, do you know your way to the rooftop?
But then, you ask, from where does Israel derive its legitimacy? To which John Bolton replies: “The State of Israel was founded in the wake of United Nations Resolution 181” Well, well, you say, this means Israel has a special obligation toward that body, does it not? No, says John Bolton in the third category of his list: “United Nations condemnations of Israel arising from last year's Goldstone report ... all democracies should oppose such campaigns which ultimately undermine the legitimacy not merely of Israel but of the UN itself.” Can you believe this? Can you believe this, my friend? Having legitimized the very existence of Israel, the UN's own legitimacy should now be undermined says Bolton because it has criticized an Israeli action that violated its Charter. The stereotype has been that these people never feel shame biting the hand that feeds them, and Bolton has never missed an opportunity to say this is not merely a stereotype; it is the truth, stupid. And then they wonder why humanity is revolted by the way that some of their people behave and what they stand for.
But if in the eyes of John Bolton the UN is a piece of crap - a point he made it his career to hammer at with every opportunity he gets - where should Israel go for support and a little understanding? He answers the question in the fourth category of his list: “...we must never forget that Israel is on our side in the battle … as a bulwark of Judeo-Christian values. The belief that the democratic world can sacrifice Israel in order to placate Islamism is profoundly wrong and dangerous.” So here is the truth, folks; here it is in black and white: from one side of his mouth comes the hymn “Onward with the war against Islam,” and from the other side of his mouth comes the hymn “We do not push America to fight Islam”. Still, the reality remains that today, Israel seeks support and a little understanding from the “democratic world” in the same way that yesterday, Israel sought support and a little understanding from the followers of Karl Marx the Jew and his disciple Joseph Stalin - that other butcher of innocent people. And what this confirms is that the Zionist movement, of which Israel is only the latest incarnation, could not last a single generation if the self proclaimed Jewish organizations of the moment did not start or instigate a war here and a war there everywhere on the planet. This idea used to be regarded as an unfair stereotyping of the Jews but people like Bolton are increasingly confirming it is the truth, stupid.
But how do you fight Islam without appearing to fight Islam, John Bolton? Simple, he says, and he gives an example. He demands that America arm Israel to the teeth at the same time as it works to maintain the Palestinians completely disarmed, absolutely unprotected and thoroughly helpless. This is what everyone of his ilk has wanted and has so far obtained without fail from America. And having made the playing field as nicely leveled as this, he gives what he considers to be a most useful advice in the fifth category of his list. He okays the start of the negotiations between the two parties but asks everyone to keep in mind that: “Israelis and Palestinians should know how to build a viable peace on their own. We can help them, but we cannot force them,” he says. No, Israel will not need more help than it has already received to be in a position to dictate the terms of a peace it deems useful to its policy of expansion. Thus, Bolton counsels America to keep out of it until such time it is asked once again to come to Israel's aid and replenish it with arms, money and political support.
In category six of his list, Bolton writes this: “Hostility to the Jews has been a stain on the Western world's honor for centuries. It is a matter of basic self-respect that we actively confront and oppose new manifestations of an old and ugly problem.” To know that he wrote these words should not come as a surprise because having stripped the UN of its legitimacy for criticizing Israel even though it was the UN that created Israel, it is not beyond him to want to strip the Western world of its honor and self-respect at the same time as he calls on it to stand by Israel. With this, he joins the many others who relentlessly reinforce the stereotype that was created about the Jews. He does his bit as if to confirm with considerable force the following ideas: This is the way we are; we shall never change; humanity must come to accept the skunk in the garden that we represent and must learn to live with us if not love us for the stink we spray around the world, or humanity will be labeled anti-Semitic, will be dishonored in its own eyes and be shown to lack self respect.
He ends his manifesto with the standard Judeo-Talmudic threat that is an imitation of the old cry: the end is near, the end is near. He does it this way: “The Friends of Israel Initiative ... encourage[s] men and women ... to reconsider their attitudes toward the Jewish state ... We urge them to recognize it is in our interest that an increasingly jaded relationship between Israel and ... liberal democracies is rescued and reinvigorated before it is too late for us all.” He does not say too late for what but this is no more consequential now than the man and his ideas deserve more of our time or attention.
It stands to reason, therefore, that those who joined that initiative not knowing what they were getting into, now leave it as fast as they can. To help John Bolton spread his repugnant ideas and the vile attitude for which he has gained considerable notoriety, will only maintain a stereotype about the Jews that I know is a false one having known and befriended ordinary Jews since I was a child. This man does not represent the Jews and we, members of the human race, should not allow him to get away with the pretense that he speaks for them, which we do every time we listen to him, pretend to listen to him or join his evil initiatives.
I plead with you Jose Maria Aznar, David Trimble, Alejandro Toledo, Marcello Pera, Andrew Roberts, Fiamma Nirenstein, George Weigel, Robert Agostinelli and Carlos Bustelo to do the Jews and humanity a service by getting out of that initiative thus help to dissolve it as soon as possible.
Let the Jews go free of their eternal curse, people of good faith; three thousand years of this unbroken horror story is too long already. The time has come to say enough is enough and to grab this opportunity to put an end to an “old and ugly problem” that has plagued mankind like no other problem ever has.