The Weekly Standard
http://israel-commentary.org/?p=5843
BY MEIR Y. SOLOVEICHIK
Chuck Hagel: “The Jewish Lobby intimidates a lot of people up here.
. . . I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a
United States senator. I support Israel, but my first interest is I take
an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States—not to a
president, not to a party, not to Israel. If I go run for Senate in
Israel, I’ll do that.”
Much has been made of why Senator Hagel’s now-infamous words
are so offensive to American Jews. The statement, it has been noted,
conjures images of dual loyalty, and implies that Washington politicians
are in the pocket of a Jewish cabal that does not truly seek the
interests of the United States. These criticisms are certainly
true, but it is important that American Jews also articulate another
profound problem with Senator Hagel’s statement: that it both ignores
the existence of the many millions of non-Jewish Americans who care
deeply about Israel’s security, and reflects disregard for why they do
so.
This devotion to Israel’s well-being was made most manifest to me
when I was privileged to deliver an invocation at the Republican
National Convention last August. In my prayer, I spoke of the American
belief that our liberties were the gift of God, and that in enunciating
this principle America had been called to serve as a “beacon of freedom
to the world, and an ally of free countries like the State of Israel, an
island of liberty, democracy, and hope.” The audience, composed almost
entirely of non-Jews, broke into applause at these words, an unusual
reaction to an invocation. Most overwhelming was the warm reaction I
received from the delegates throughout the day, thanking me for my
prayer, and expressing their concern for, and blessings on, Israel.
This expression of love for Israel was not, as is often unfairly suggested, founded on apocalyptic expectations, but rather on the
conviction that Israel is indeed an island of liberty in a region that
is an ocean of hostility to America and the American idea. As
such, Israel’s endurance represents a triumph of the American vision—a
vision that was, in part, inspired by the Bible, the book bequeathed to
the world by Ancient Israel. The depth of this American conviction was
most eloquently expressed not in a rabbinic invocation, but rather in a
speech made by a non-Jewish former governor of Texas, who never served
as a senator from Israel, but did spend eight years as president of the
United States:
The alliance between our governments is unbreakable, yet the source
of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. It is grounded in the
shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the
soul. . . . In spite of the violence, in defiance of the threats,
Israel has built a thriving democracy in the heart of the Holy Land. You
have welcomed immigrants from the four corners of the Earth. You have
forged a free and modern society based on a love of liberty, a passion
for justice, and a respect for human dignity. You have worked tirelessly
for peace. And you have fought valiantly for freedom.
These words were spoken by President George W. Bush in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding.
If someone had lived his entire life in Israel and never met an
American, he might have been surprised by the profound love for the
Jewish state expressed by this non-Jewish president. Yet Americans
understand that the president was giving voice not only to his own views
but also to those of so many other citizens of the United States. It is
because of these Americans that the United States has stood steadfastly
with Israel. If anyone ought to understand this, it is a certain former
“United States senator”—and a Nebraskan, representing Middle America,
no less.
Before the 2012 election, one editor of a prominent American Jewish
newspaper mused that in contrast to President Obama, Presidents Clinton
and George W. Bush scored high on what he called “the kishka factor,” a
Yiddish way of saying that these two presidents embodied a love for
Israel in their gut, an “emotional kinship to the Jewish State.” Senator
Hagel has, in the past decade, made the state of his own kishkes quite
clear.
At the same time, I have been blessed to encounter numerous
Americans—and they are typical of millions more—who have no idea what
the word “kishkes” means, but whose concern for the state of Israel is
bone-deep, and this concern is founded on a loyalty to the American idea
and a profound understanding of its role in history and in the world.
We will see this non-Jewish “pro-Israel” lobby on display at
the Hagel hearings, when we hear from senators from diverse states, who
will, as the Hagel nomination is considered, not only make known their
own concern for Israel, but represent thereby the genuine devotion and
concerns of their constituents. In this way these “United States senators” will fulfill their duty to the Constitution of the United States.
It is for these senators’ properly representing those
non-Jews who voted for them, and for those Americans’ loyalty to, and
love for, the vision and destiny of America, that this American Jew will
remain forever grateful.
Meir Y. Soloveichik is director of the Straus Center for Torah
and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and associate rabbi at
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan.
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