Why has Congress – with the backing of the American people -- thrown its weight behind Bibi Netanyahu in the face of Obama’s finger-wagging? As one analyst put it “The existence of Israel means that the G-d of the Bible is still watching out for the well-being of the human race”

A neighbor of mine originally from America was jumping with excitement. “You’ve got to read this!” he said pushing an article into my hands.

It was by Professor Walter Russell Mead editor-at-large of The American Interest magazine and it dealt with the standoff between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu which reached high drama during the latter’s recent visit to Washington. Mead characterizes the president as a man of incisive mind who understands the political forces at work in the Middle East yet displays dangerous incompetence when it comes to actually setting policies and trying to effect a rapprochement between the sides.  

One surprising passage caught my interest. It discussed Congress’ enthusiastic response to Netanyahu’s speech in the Capitol building their refreshing show of sympathy and support for the Israeli prime minister. Indeed the reaction was unprecedented. Few speeches by foreign leaders or even by American presidents for that matter have been so warmly received. Members of the House and Senate from both parties rose to give the prime minister a standing ovation no less than ten times and cheered many more times during Netanyahu’s speech. Professor Mead has an interesting original take on their enthusiasm. You can read the passage and see for yourselves how surprising it is — and how thought-provoking for us as Jews:

“As the stunning and overwhelming response to Prime Minister Netanyahu in Congress showed Israel matters in American politics like almost no other country on earth. Well beyond the American Jewish and the Protestant fundamentalist communities the people and the story of Israel stir some of the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the American soul. The idea of Jewish and Israeli exceptionalism is profoundly tied to the idea of American exceptionalism. The belief that God favors and protects Israel is connected to the idea that God favors and protects America.

“It means more. The existence of Israel means that the G-d of the Bible is still watching out for the well-being of the human race. For many American Christians who are nothing like fundamentalists the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land and their creation of a successful democratic state after two thousand years of oppressions and exile is a clear sign that the religion of the Bible can be trusted.

“Being pro-Israel matters in American mass politics because the public mind believes at a deep level that to be pro-Israel is to be pro-American and pro-faith. Substantial numbers of voters believe that politicians who don’t ‘get’ Israel also don’t ‘get’ America and don’t ‘get’ G-d. Obama’s political isolation on this issue and the haste with which liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi left the embattled President to take the heat alone testify to the pervasive sense in American politics that Israel is an American value. Said the Minority Leader to the Prime Minister ‘I think it’s clear that both sides of the Capitol believe you advance the cause of peace.’

“President Obama probably understands this intellectually; he understands many things intellectually. But what he can’t seem to do is to incorporate that knowledge into a politically sustainable line of policy. The deep American sense of connection to and yes love of Israel limits the flexibility of any administration. Again the President seems to know that with his head. But he clearly had no idea what he was up against when Bibi Netanyahu came to town.”

We all surely felt good about the show of sympathy toward Israel on the part of the American people’s elected representatives and we can all enjoy Professor Mead’s insight into the underlying source of their sympathy.

The professor has a healthy sense of his country’s deep-seated dependence on Israel’s continued survival. I witnessed a similar display of that sense of spiritual connectedness when I was working as an educational shaliach in Sao Paolo Brazil during the Six Day War. I may have shared these stories before but I beg your indulgence to let me tell them once again because they so precisely reflect the feeling Professor Mead expresses. It’s a great pity that the official leaders of the State of Israel have never understood how to turn that widespread feeling to our political advantage.

**

It was in the aftermath of the war when the world was looking on in astonishment at the Israeli army’s incredible victory over the combined armies of its Arab neighbors and at the liberation of parts of the Jewish homeland that had long been held in enemy hands. A Brazilian writer who had angrily turned his back on the Catholic Church was asked in an interview what he believed in now having abandoned the Catholic faith. “I believe in Neo-Judaism ” he answered. The surprised interviewer pressed for an explanation and it was forthcoming: “We see the chaos that reigns in the world today in international relations and in general. There is no telling where the human race is headed and therefore the future looks dark. Yet there is one place in this world where one can feel that justice is beginning to be done and make itself known. We see this in the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. This shows us that there is active Divine supervision behind the screen of historical events manipulating history toward its own goals.” This is strikingly similar to the American people’s deep sense of connection with Israel as described by Professor Mead.

A year after the Six Day War I was traveling by bus deep in the heart of the country close to the jungles that are still inhabited by Indian tribes that have not been spoiled by the white man’s civilization on my way to a forsaken town in the northern region. A non-Jewish Brazilian man boarded the bus spotted me as a religious Jew chose the seat next to mine and took the opportunity to strike up an acquaintance. He soon revealed a broad knowledge of Judaism. We got into a lively and diverting conversation in which in mentioned that during the fierce fighting of the1967 war when Israel seemed to be threatened with extinction he had spoken with a member of the Syrian consulate in his hometown. “If the Jews should be defeated ” he had told the Syrian representative “I won’t keep a Bible in my house anymore because it would mean that all hope for the world is lost.” I told him to have no fear and assured him he could hold on to his Bible for many years to come for “The Eternal One of Israel shall not deceive.”

I remember writing at the time to my parents in Eretz Yisrael that although I did not merit being in my homeland to witness those astounding events firsthand I did have the privilege of seeing the effect of the Jewish victory on the non-Jews around me in Brazil of all places. Spontaneously I heard the pasuk from Yechezkel ringing in my ears: “Not for your sake do I make the House of Israel but for the sake of My Name that is desecrated among the nations.”

And forty-four years later those words are still ringing in my ear.

Food for Thought

In the destined time to come there will be two redemptions —

one to take Israel out of galus and another to take the galus out of Israel.

And the second will be harder than the first

(The Imrei Emes Rebbe Avraham Mordechai Alter of Gur)

“If the Jews should be defeated” he told the Syrian representative “I won’t keep a Bible in my house anymore because it would mean that all hope for the world is lost”