An Ongoing Saga

What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence ? It is not—the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of or gallant army—Our reliance is in the love of our gallant army—Our reliance is in the love of liberty which G-d has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the love of the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere. [Abraham Lincoln]

On July 22, 2024, a report appeared in JNS informing us that the Republican Party’s organizing effort in Israel is leaving nothing to chance, especially given the record of Kamala Harris, the US vice president whom US President Joe Biden had endorsed and whose record suggests she is to the left of Biden on policies toward Israel.

US Jews historically vote heavily Democratic, although those figures have shifted in the past 2 election cycles. In the 2020 election US voters with Florida residency voted from Israel, almost certainly swinging the election to Bush, according to Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel.

More recently, Zell’s organization found about 100 Americans living in Israel with Minnesota residency, many of whom were unaware that they had the right to vote . At the time, the North Star State was considered to be a swing state.

The popular vote doesn’t decide the presidency but still carries weight in terms of legitimacy, and so every vote has equal value. And it is important for party officials and politicians to take the Israel-based vote seriously, Zell told JNS.

The ever present terrorism always looms large. In 1989, Harris Okun Schoenberg’s “A Mandate for Terror”greeted us. The preface has the author of this important scholarly work informing us that he wishes to stress while he found much was wrong with the United Nations in the late 1980’s even beyond its legitimization of international terrorism he was committed “not to its destruction, but to its reform.”

The 600 pages of careful documentation to an overwhelming brief in support of his central point: that nearly all aspects of the United Nations have been “co opted by the PLO” and “petropowered radicals”, and that the United Nations Charter dealing with non-use of force have been bent out of shape by reinterpretations legitimizing the use of all means, including terror in the struggle for liberation in
in the struggle from “alien , colonial, and racist” rule i.e. Israel.

After showing how by virtue of its own covenant, its origins and its strategy, the PLO is committed to terror and after recounting the familiar story 0f Yasir Arafat’s 1974 arrival and reception in New York, Schoenberg demonstrates in detail the anomalous process by which the PLO nominally an observer mission at the UN came to receive better treatment there than a member state.

Moving onto when the petropowers had been weakened and the oil weapon blunted and the subsequent Iran-Iraq war which divided the Arab states. This entailed Islamic fundamentalism verses secularism , the US-Soviet rivalry, and acceptance or rejection of Israel among other issues. The PLO was dispersed and split. Throughout the past decade, the vast majority of the world’s nations, including the western nations , had come to espouse the belief that the PLO held the answer to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In the case of the PLO, rather than being the object of a hijacking, the UN played a role that more often ranged from willing partner to instigator.

“Begin, His Life, Words, and Deeds” by Zvi Harry Hurwitz provides a useful sequence. In the 1930’s, Lord Josiah Wedgwood, a fearless champion of the Jewish cause, said,”I think all the illegal immigrants in Palestine owe Jabotinsky and the Revisionists their lives and present liberties. Others would not have dared to conduct ‘illegal immigration’ had they not led the way.”

Men of the Irgun volunteered for service in the Palestine forces. As the evidence of the enormous catastrophe of European Jewry was revealed, Britain’s callousness in continuing to prevent the entry into Palestine of those Jews who could save themselves shocked the Yishuv the Jewish community of Palestine].

The timing of Menachem Begin’s arrival in Eretz Israel was providential: his reputation as a brilliant young leader, orator and writer had preceded him; his burning faith in his people’s cause was known; his strong will and fearlessness were already recognized.

At the height of the outpouring of joy on Israel’s declaration of independence on Saturday 15 May 1948, Menachem Begin—who had lived in the Underground for almost 5 years, with a minimum of outside contact and at times in disguise—-addressed his people over the secret radio station of the Irgun.

On a visit to the US, Begin explained to Zbigniew Brezinski,, President Carter’s National Security Adviser, other prominent personalities and the news media that the creation of a Palestinian State on Israel’s eastern border within rocket range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya and Petach Tikvah would not only threaten the existence of Israel, but also introduce a Soviet base into the heart of the Middle East thus endangering the whole Western world.

When the 1st Conference on Soviet Jewry was held in Brussels in 1971, Begin was one of the principal speakers. Begin struck out at the evil of the Soviet bureaucratic machine:

“Our generation witnessed the renewal of Jewish heroism—in the continuous endangering of personal freedom and life in the Underground, on the battlefield, in the prisons, in the concentration camps, in the purple garb of those in the death cell and in the long march to the gallows.

Is there a heroism higher than these? We dare not reply too hastily o that question –for not all the trials are behind the heroes, the fighters for Zion, who are still in the USSR. Even today we may say that we are standing before a new peak of renascent Jewish heroism.”

From “The Revolt” by Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel:

“During WW11 the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was taken over to house the central institutions of the British regime: Military GHQ and the Secretariat, the civil Government. As the revolt against the British rule intensified, the great hotel was developed into a veritable fortress in the heart of the city.

The rules we had laid down for ourselves made the evacuation of the hotel essential. There were many civilians in the hotel whom we wanted , at all costs , to avoid injuring.

Innocent milk-cans became the bearers of high explosives. One mechanism determined the time of explosion—half-an-hour after the cans were left in position; the other secured the cans against any attempt at removal or dismantling.

But our men were surprised by the sudden appearance of 2 British soldiers who, their suspicions being aroused, drew their revolvers. A clash was unavoidable. Both sides suffered casualties. As the BBC put it –the entire wing of a huge building was cut off as with a knife.

More than 200 people were killed or injured. Among the victims were high British officers.—-We went through days of pain and nights of sorrow for the blood that need not have been shed.—-I [Begin] learned that when the warning to evacuate the hotel reached a high official he exclaimed: ‘We are not here to take orders from the Jews. We give them orders’.

“The negotiations began in mid-December and continued for many months—Those who took part—Mr. Yitshak Gruenbaum, Moshe Shapiro, Rabbi Fishman, Mr. David Remes, Mr. Pinchas and Chief Rabbi Dr. Louis Rabinowitz of South Africa.—–Avraham, Shmuel and I represented the Irgun.” [P341/2]

The feelings of a former Rutgers’s University student serves as an eye opener to today’s desperation. KSR writes:

“I am writing to you as an alumni of Rutgers University because I have never been so ashamed to hold a degree from Rutgers. A university is meant to be a place that encourages critical thinking, that exposes students to a variety of viewpoints, and one that embraces a diverse population. That is clearly the opposite of what has happened at Rutgers. It is now a place where ideology has supplanted truth, where debate has been taken over by denunciation, where persuasion has become shaming, and where the rule of law has been replaced by the fury of the mob. Your lack of leadership since October 7 has been apparent for all to see. You have allowed Jewish students to be bullied, harassed and delegitimized.

And now worst of all, Rutgers University officials have shown the greatest of cowardice as they have caved in and agreed to the demands of the anti-Israel ‘protesters’ in exchange for dismantling the encampments , by providing amnesty to students, staff and faculty who shamefully violated university rules, among other things.

This comes after months of harassment, bullying, intimidation of Jewish students, occupying buildings , disrupting classes for all students who pay for an education, and canceling the 1st round of final exams. Instead of showing leadership, you have rewarded those whose actions have been the very antithesis of what a university education should promote and endorse.

You have caved into their demands, while ignoring any demands and pleas coming from the Jewish community for months. If that is not a double standard, and a moral failure, then what is?————-

Until the time when you do demonstrate true , courageous leadership, as a saddened alumni, I pledge that not only will I never give a single cent to Rutgers, but I will actively encourage others to do likewise—–”