I have chosen in this article not to discuss how Rabin has decided to disregard the wishes of the Jewish majority in Israel, insulted and delegitimized close to ten percent of his population, implemented policies which have directly lead to a vastly increased amount of Jewish death and suffering, broken Israeli law, negotiated with Israel's most irascible enemy the very future of his state, or committed a host of other treacherous and destructive acts against his own nation. These discussions are for past articles, and unfortunately, very likely to be the subject of future ones as well.
No, what I have chosen to discuss herein is the hypocrisy, selfishness, and naivete of certain segments of the Jewish community here in the Diaspora. While the incident to which I will refer occurred in Toronto, it is indicative of a sad trend throughout North America and beyond.
On January 18, I was to be a participant in a debate at a local synagogue, involving a representative of Peace Now and one from Canadian Jewish Congress as my counterparts. It seems that the organizers of the debate failed to notify the other speakers of my participation. When the representative from Congress found out, he decided to leave, professing the lack of need for two speakers to rebut the representative from Peace Now. Indeed, when the Congress representative finally did speak, he did quite an admirable job in presenting the case for the Jewish people and against the Arabist policies of the Rabin administration. Yet it took a compromise from the organizers for him to remain on the dais.
The compromise was explained to me such that the other two participants would debate and field questions. Following this, I would be asked to speak and give an overview of the strategic situation Israel faces if it gives up any territory west of the Jordan River. Yet when I was called on to speak, the representative of Peace Now, together with those of his followers who showed up for the event, walked out very obviously.
My reaction to such childish behaviour is mixed. Firstly, I am not the least bit insulted by the walkout. Indeed, it only strengthens what I said in my speech that evening, which amounted to "the Israeli left, led by Rabin, knows the danger in which they are putting Israel and all Jews by their policies, yet they are more willing to ignore that knowledge and insult the messengers, than they are to correct the grievous errors of their ways." A true supporter of Israel cannot be insulted by Peace Now ignoring his/her views. That is the greatest kind of compliment Peace Now can pay to us.
Yet, while thankful for the compliment, I cannot help but be bothered by the sense that Peace Now's boycott was a part of a larger effort. There is indeed a concerted effort taking place in North America, at the behest of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, to silence dissent among the Jewish community. Several of my colleagues have been banned from publishing in newspapers which had previously carried their columns for years, merely at the request of the local Israeli consul-general. Israeli diplomatic representatives received directives last year from the Foreign Ministry that they were no longer to engage in public debate with "opposition elements" in an effort to paint the North American Jewish community as solidly behind the Israeli government in its abdication of responsibility for the security and safety of its Jewish citizens. Though the Toronto Consulate has been thankfully free of such bias, it is quite a bothersome trend in the United States and Montreal.
That Peace Now has taken the lead in this effort is not surprising, when one examines the policies of Peace Now regarding Israel. The Freeman Center for Strategic Studies did a comparison in August 1993 of the policies of the PLO and those of Peace Now regarding ten different issues, ranging from the "settlements" to Jerusalem, and from Judea and Samaria to the Loan Guarantees. In every case, the policies of the two organizations were the same. In every case, they were diametrically opposed to the policies of all Likud and Labour governments prior to the current one.
It came to my attention following the debate that a possible reason for the Peace Now walkout was their perception that I was associated with Kahane Chai. I am not, nor have I ever been assocaited with that group. But it is quite enlightening that Peace Now has been quite willing for years to negotiate with terrorists who murder Jews at every opportunity while they will not even share the room with someone who belongs to a Jewish extremist -- though mostly peaceful -- group.
What Peace Now's walkout represented to me was the total ignorance which some people choose to have about the truth of the situation in Israel. It does not insult me that they choose to ignore the truth, or to identify themselves with people who have sworn to destroy their people, or to advocate policies which will make Israel a non-viable enterprise. It does not insult me, but it pains me greatly. That some Jews have such a lack of concern for the future of their own brethren and are willing to see their lives grow more precarious by the day in deference to the wishes of Jew-killers, cannot but pain any lover of Israel.
It is time that the Jewish communities of North America realize how selfish and childish Peace Now has become in its ignorance of the truth. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, Peace Now gets childish, and being Jewish becomes that much more dangerous.
Copyright 1995. Reproduction in electronic or print formats by permission only.
