What a summer. Israel fought an unexpected two-front war. British authorities thwarted a terror plot involving water bottles and hair gel. And the Bush administration insisted Iraq isn’t engulfed in civil war, leading to questions about what its definition of civil war really is.
And politics. With critical midterm elections in the offing, the political environment is as unsettled as it has been in many years.
Here is a brief selection of some of the characters and issues that will be on political center stage in the coming months.
• Sen. George Allen (R-Virginia):
If he survives his November reelection battle, Allen plans to seek the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. The Christian far-right is saying amen — and so are Jewish Democrats.
Allen’s now-famous “Macaca” comment to a dark-skinned volunteer for his opponent opened a can of worms that freed some other wriggling creatures, including his association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, the successor to the anti-integration White Citizens Councils.
That may be a taste treat for the GOP right, but it’s bad news for the Republican Party’s efforts to woo blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.
And forget about Jewish voters. Some will tout Allen’s votes on pro-Israel resolutions, but that’s not going to outweigh his arch conservatism on domestic issues and the new taint of intolerance.
• The Black Caucus:
The Congressional Black Caucus isn’t as hostile to Israel as Republicans claim, but it’s not exactly a Lovers of Zion chapter, either.
The CBC is poised to take a quantum jump in influence if the Democrats take over the House in January. And there will be two opposing pressures operating on the body.
Pro-Israel groups are already ratcheting up their longstanding and productive outreach to the CBC.
But partisan Republican groups will seek to portray the CBC as a hotbed of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish sentiment. That will make the job of the lobbyists — who have to deal with everyday political reality, not election-year slogans — much harder.
• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.):
He’s the 2008 Republican frontrunner, and maybe the party’s best shot for winning a significant number of Jewish votes.
But McCain’s maverick image, which endears him to some Jewish voters, is a red flag to the religious right, the group he needs to appease to survive the Republican primaries. His vigorous wooing of these groups — along with his ultra-conservative voting record — will scare off some Jewish voters.
If he wins the nomination, he is expected to steer more toward the political center. But will Jewish voters forget his flirtation with the religious right?
• The Democratic Presidential Hopefuls:
If you’re a Democrat — and most Jews still are, despite frequent Washington Times stories to the contrary — you have to be less than excited about the party’s stable of 2008 hopefuls.
Sen. Joe Biden? He’s fine on Israel, but not exactly Mr. Excitement.
Sen. John Kerry? Been there, done that.
Sen. Hillary Clinton? Lots of Jews love her, some despise her, and that reflects a broader political dynamic that would make her candidacy the chanciest in many years.
Sen. Evan Bayh? Pass the caffeine.
The lack of Democrats with real curb appeal is giving Republican strategists some hope in this bleak year — although, truth be told, the GOP lineup isn’t exactly overdosing on charisma. Sen. Sam Brownback? Wake me when it’s over.
• Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.):
Is this the most over reported story of the year? Still, we can’t seem to get enough of the former Democratic icon who says he’s still a Democrat at heart even as he tries to defeat the party’s duly nominated candidate.
Once the community was united in admiration for this first Orthodox Jew in the Senate and first Jew on a major party presidential ticket. But now, the divisions are deep and bitter.
Many liberal Jews say the war in Iraq is the seminal issue of this decade, and that Joe is on the wrong side — which is why 39 percent voted for his Democratic opponent.
Others say his strong pro-Israel voice outweighs Iraq. A smaller group, echoing arguments of generations past, say Jews should vote for him simply because he’s Jewish.
• Iraq
So now President Bush has made it official: the U.S. war on terrorism, with Iraq as the front line, is the equivalent of the fight against the Nazis.
Meaning: if you’re opposed to what critics say is a no-win war in Iraq, you’re supporting the Nazi-equivalents.
It’s hard to dispute that the terror threat is real and that the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are a genuine threat to all of us.
But there’s a lot of disagreement about whether fighting in Iraq is helping us win that battle — or hurting. In an attempt to squelch that dissent, the President is using a familiar Argument of Mass Destruction — a Nazi comparison.
Where is the Anti-Defamation League when we really need it?
Former Madisonian James D. Besser has been Washington correspondent for the New York Jewish Week and Baltimore Jewish Times since 1987.
Lebanon war was debacle
by popular demand
By Larry Derfner
Which is the one guilty party that will not be investigated by any of these new committees for its failures in this last war?
Answer: the Israeli public.
Yes, I’m afraid that in a democracy the public shares the credit or blame for what its country does, but especially in a case like Operation Change of Direction, because Israelis identified with it to such an extraordinary degree.
From the beginning, they as much as demanded the war, and that the most far-fetched goals be set for it — the vanquishing of Hezbollah, and Hezbollah’s unconditional release of the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
They wouldn’t have settled for anything less; and God help the political or military leader who would have tried to lower their expectations.
From the beginning, the Israeli public marched not behind, but right alongside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and army chief Dan Halutz on the glorious road to “victory.”
As soon as Olmert and Peretz started with the bluster and saber-rattling, public opinion polls gave them approval ratings around 80 percent.
“We will win,” Olmert declared, and in days bumper stickers reading “We will win” began appearing on Israeli cars. It became the slogan of the war.
The news media, of course, did its part. Never have I seen the Israeli news media switch off its critical faculties and turn into a cheerleader for a government policy as it did in this war.
Public responsibility
The right wing will groan that media advocacy was much more blatant for the Oslo accord and Gaza disengagement. I think they’re wrong.
It’s true the Israeli media tended overwhelmingly to support Oslo and disengagement, but it gave voice to dissenting views against those policies much, much more readily than it did during this war.
But why was that? Because there was so much more opposition to Oslo and disengagement than there was to Operation Change of Direction. The news media were only reflecting the public’s wartime mood.
People were saying how they couldn’t remember when the nation of Israel had been that unified. So the nation of Israel can’t shrug off its contribution to the war’s failures and pin the whole thing on the leadership.
Israelis are considered one of the most, if not the most, politically aware people in the world. They are expected to think seriously about things like war and peace, and to know something about these matters.
When their country is going to war over declared objectives, Israelis are expected to ask themselves and their leaders some basic questions, such as: What are the chances of success? Has this been tried before?
Everybody here knows that the army tried for 18 years to vanquish Hezbollah and failed. Everybody also knows that Israel never “forced” any Lebanese enemy to surrender Israeli hostages, but has gotten them back only by releasing Lebanese prisoners in return.
But Israelis chose to forget this. Instead they chose to believe simply that “we will win,” and thereby gave the government and army a free hand to go on another wild goose chase in Lebanon.
In a democracy, especially when something as fateful as war is at hand, the public has the responsibility to use its best judgment in deciding whether to support or oppose the government’s policy.
In Operation Change of Direction, the Israeli public dropped the ball. And no wonder — it closed its eyes.
Most everyone here is now blaming not only the Olmert government, but the Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak governments before it for allowing Hezbollah six years of peace and quiet to build up its arsenal. But were people clamoring for the army to “clean out” Hezbollah in those years?
No, the public had no desire for another war in Lebanon. Residents of the north were content with the peace and quiet that had come their way, too.
Again, the reticent policy toward Hezbollah that the Barak, Sharon and Olmert governments followed directly reflected Israeli public opinion; so Israelis share the responsibility for letting Hezbollah become so strong.
And didn’t some 75 percent of them support Barak’s unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in the first place? If they want to complain about it now, they should first complain in front of the mirror.
Even the nuts-and-bolts, bureaucratic failures of the war — the inadequate training, weaponry, equipment and battlefield rations for reserve soldiers, and inadequate preparedness for an extended missile attack on civilians — aren’t entirely divorced from Israeli public behavior.
Let’s face it — are Israelis in general known for being big on planning and preparation? Aren’t they, instead, masters of improvisation because they have no choice, having left things to the last minute?
Is it really an Israeli anomaly that the bomb shelters in the north were neglected all these years? Or that army reserves were trained for the battle they were currently fighting against the Palestinians instead of for a war against Hezbollah that might never happen?
Weren’t the simplest, most basic failures of Operation Change of Direction very much in character for this society?
Finally, if Olmert, Peretz, Halutz and virtually every other official who had a hand in the war is now refusing to take personal responsibility for anything that went wrong, what could possibly be more Israeli than that?
How is their behavior any different from what about seven million other people in this country do as a matter of course, without thinking, in any given hour?
But the Israeli public will not be a subject of any of the postwar inquiries. Which means these committees are going to be pulling off an even bigger whitewash than people think. After all, seven million butts are a lot to cover.
Larry Derfner writes about Israeli society for U.S. Jewish newspapers and the Jerusalem Post.
Countdown to High Holy Days with a new ritual
By Marge Eiseman
As I write this, we’re almost halfway on the calendar between the new moon of Elul and the new moon of Tishrei, also known as Rosh HaShanah, and I’m doing the work of cleaning up my relationships with myself, my friends and family, and with God.
On Aug. 24-25, Rosh Chodesh Elul, I was at Temple Beth El in Closter, N.J., leading a group of adults in exploring the themes of rosh chodesh (new moon), Elul (the name of the current Hebrew month), and heshbon hanefesh (accounting of the soul), which is the task of Elul in preparation for the High Holy Days.
Rather than just talk about the subjects, I led the group in an experience of celebrating Rosh Chodesh Elul — complete with chanting, dancing, blessing the moon, and learning something new, an essential ingredient in rosh chodesh group life.
As we talked about organic time and Elul, and what makes this the beginning of the Holy Day season, it became clear that we would need some kind of way to keep on track. A ritual would be good, but what should it be?
We determined it should be: Conscious. Connected to Divine/Spirit. Do-able. Repeatable. Could be done alone or with others.
One person asked, “Is the repetitive motion of a baseball player adjusting his gloves before every at bat a ritual?” Perhaps, if it’s conscious, invoking protection as he faces the pitcher/opponent, and perhaps not, if he is ritualistically doing the motions, but without intention.
I asked, “Does anyone here have a birthday? Do you know what happens when the lights go out and …” Of course, everyone knows that someone will walk in holding a cake with little candles lit, and everyone will sing the same song, and the birthday celebrant will make a wish, blow out the candles, etc. This is a non-religious ritual, but one we all share.
Intention and simplicity
How many people light Shabbat candles? Most of these attendees do, but I ventured to suggest that there are subtle differences in how the ritual is done. Some light two, some light many, different melodies are used.
My family does something we call “passing the Shabbat light.” Someone asked me about the tradition of lighting one for each person in the household — is that still the same ritual?
I retold a story I had heard at the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education conference of a mother who, upon lighting candles each Shabbat for all her 12 children, told them how glad she was that because of each of them, there’s more light in the world.
But to turn back to Elul, we need to see how it is possible to identify the elements of a ritual, but not have one in place. Does a ritual have to come from the past in order to “count”? I think not, if it is properly grounded.
For instance, I recognize that rituals have to have beginnings, middles and ends, so that one knows when the ritual starts and is over. It has to have “kavannah,” intention. Above all, it has to be simple enough to teach many people to do it themselves or to lead it, if it’s for a group purpose.
We began creating a ritual for Elul, to begin the awakening that is necessary for preparing our souls for the High Holy Days — a sort of courtship process between ourselves and God that is alluded to in the interpretation of the word “Elul” as an acronym for “Ani l’dodi, v’dodi li” (“I am my beloved’s; and my beloved is mine”; Song of Songs 6:3).
How could we begin? We talked about the counting of the omer, the time between the second day of Pesach and Shavuot, a 49-day journey from the Exodus to the time of receiving of Torah at Mt. Sinai.
The Kabbalists created a system for counting that uses the seven lower sephirot, seven cycles of seven … and it’s a surefire way to keep track of which day it is. The ritual has one say, “This is the x day of the counting of the omer, so many weeks and days.”
So we could start, “This is the first day of the month of Elul.” But some of the women objected. “I won’t be able to remember which day it is!”
Laughingly, we amended our beginning to slowly state: “This is the month of Elul.” As I repeated this, I unconsciously began “knocking at the door of my heart,” my hand like a lightly closed fist that gently raps on my breastbone, using the same motion we use for the “Vidui” (confession) prayer on Selichot and Yom Kippur.
OK, that’s a good opening. What do we want this ritual to do? Create intention for the month. Keep us focused on how to prepare for the Holy Days to come.
Remember that the days are flying by, with each day an opportunity for asking forgiveness or cleaning up an old hurt. So the middle of the ritual is a personal statement of intention: “Today I will [fill in the blank].”
Perhaps each week, the focus could be on one area of relationship, on self, close family, friends, community, and finally God. Another option is to create a sequence (e.g., on day one, “Today I will ‘act with awareness.’”; on day two, “Today I will ‘be brave.’”)
To link the ritual to the divine, we end our ritual with the prayerbook’s phrase, “Keyn y’hi ratzon,” meaning “May it be God’s will.”
We checked our final “product” against our definition of ritual, and it met all the requirements. It is simple, elegant, do-able, repeatable, teachable, meaningful, connects with the Divine and clearly-defined.
So, as you continue your preparation for the High Holy Days, you are invited to add this to your daily practice each year.
In the morning or at night, alone or with a partner, say these three sentences aloud, very slowly, three times, if you can: “This is the month of Elul. Today I will … May it be God’s will.”
Marge Eiseman is a Milwaukee-based Jewish educator, singer and songwriter.
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