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The US mindset on Israel

The US mindset on Israel – unlike the US attitude toward other countries – is a bottom-top phenomenon: a derivative of the US public worldview, which feeds legislators in the House and Senate and policy-makers in the White House.

The US mindset on Israel draws its strength from the religious, ethical, moral and cultural roots of the US society, which were planted in 1620 and thereafter upon the arrival of the Early Pilgrims, and bolstered by the Founding Fathers, who authored the US Constitution in 1787.

For example, the Early Pilgrims referred to their 6-8 week sail in the Atlantic Ocean as the “Modern Day Exodus” and “Parting of the Sea.” Their destination was “the Modern Day Promised Land.” Hence, the hundreds of US towns, cities, parks and deserts bearing Biblical names such as Zion, Jerusalem, Salem, Bethel, Shilo, Bethlehem, Dothan, Hebron, Gilead, Carmel, Rehoboth, Boaz, Moab, etc.

Furthermore, the Philadelphia Liberty Bell, which represents the Founding Fathers’ concept of liberty, features an inscription from Leviticus, 25:10, which presents the Biblical core of liberty – the Jubilee: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and all the inhabitants thereof.” Moreover, Yale University’s seal is inscribed in Hebrew letters: אורים ותומים, which was the power of the High Priest during the Exodus from Egypt. And, the seal of Columbia University features the four Hebrew letters of God: יהוה (Jehovah) and one of God’s Angels: אוריאל (Uriel – Divine Light in Hebrew). The battle against slavery was based on Biblical values and themes, such as “Let My People Go,” and a key leader in that battle, Harriet Tubman, earned the name “Mama Moses.”

In spite of the erosion of these roots and core values – as a result of demographic and ideological transformations in the US – their impact has been deeper than shifting national security interests, and more effective than the worldview of short-term serving policy-makers.

In fact, these long-term core values (and the larger geo-strategic, regional and global context) have moderated occasional short-term confrontations between the leaders of the US and Israel.

While the US Jewish community has provided tailwinds to the 400-year old unique US mindset on the concept of a Jewish State, it was not the Jewish community that laid the foundations of such a unique public mindset toward the Jewish State.

The potency of the core American values – which are defined as Judeo-Christian values in the US, which is the most religious Western democracy – is reflected by the 69% favorability of Israel, according to the February 2019 annual Gallup poll (compared with 21% Palestinian favorability) in defiance of significant odds, which do not challenge any other ally of the US: a systematic criticism by the “elite” US media and many in the US academia; the entrenched hostility of the State Department’s movers and shakers, who opposed Israel’s establishment in 1948, and have brutally criticized Israel ever since; and a pressure by all US presidents from Truman through Obama.

However, contrary to presidential pressure on Israel, the Jewish State has enjoyed systematic support by the co-equal and co-determining Legislature, which has been the most authentic representative of the (largely pro-Israel) American public and, therefore, is most attentive to public mindset and concerns. The Legislature is well aware of the awesome public muscle, which is displayed every two years during the election cycles for the (full) House and (one third) Senate, which have highlighted the electorate battle cry: “We shall remember in November.”

Ignoring the electorate’s core values amounts to political suicide by Members of the House and the Senate, and could transform presidents into “lame ducks.”

Among the core values of the US electorate are the bust of Moses facing the Speaker in the Chamber of the House of Representatives; the statue of Moses and the Ten Commandments on the ceiling of the US Supreme Court above the seats of the nine Supreme Court Justices; the Ten Commandments monuments on the ground of the State Capitols in Austin, TX, Oklahoma City, OK and Little Rock, AR, and in scores of additional towns in the US; the statues of Joshua, King David and Judah the Maccabee among the “Nine Worthies” at the West Point Military Academy Administration Building; the January, 2001 welcoming address by Senator Mitch McConnell of the newly-elected President George W. Bush: “We trust that you shall lead us in the best tradition of Joshua and Caleb”; etc.

Thus, the inception and perpetuation of the unique US public mindset on the Jewish State – since the 1620 docking of the “Mayflower” – has been a derivative of the assumption made by most Americans that the Jewish State is not a generic foreign entity, but rather an integral part of cardinal Judeo-Christian values, which have shaped the US history, morality and culture.




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*Israel’s primary national security challenge is the reinforcement of education on the 4,000-year-old Jewish/Zionist roots in the Land of Israel, through the bolstering of the Jewish/Zionist identity (self-determination), vision (the reestablishment of the Jewish State in its Homeland) and destiny (the Jewish Ingathering/Aliyah to the Land of Israel).

*These core values are currently threatened by a cosmopolitan and post-Zionist worldview – in addition to the anti-Zionist worldview, that is dedicated to Israel’s physical destruction – which aims to play-down, misrepresent and replace Jewish/Zionist roots and values with multicultural and universal values and institutions.

*Post-Zionism considers Jewish/Zionist identity, vision and destiny as a major obstacle on the way of advancing its top goal: being embraced by the international community.

*This post-Zionist worldview, also, reflects battle fatigue. It refuses to accept the reality of Zionism as a multi-generational uphill marathon-like mission; deluding itself that Zionism is a sprint-like undertaking.

*Post-Zionism is eager to abdicate the colossal responsibility entailed in being the only Jewish State (e.g., securing physical and spiritual Jewish survival and combating anti-Semitism).

*Moreover, post-Zionism wishes to escape the, supposedly, frustrating reality of an ongoing Jewish/Zionist struggle against clear and present lethal threats in the inherently unpredictable, violent, despotic, intolerant and anti-“infidel” Middle East. It wishes to replace the inconvenient Middle East reality with the convenient make-believe “New Middle East,” which professes cancel-culture, cancel-history and dramatic Israeli land concessions, which are the cradle of Jewish history, culture and religion, and critical to the national security of Israel.

*Jewish/Zionist identity, vision and destiny – which represent Judaism as a historic, cultural, linguistic, religious and territorial entity – are not merely intellectual issues. Rather, they are at the foundation of Israel’s national security and spiritual and physical steadfastness. The stronger the Jewish/Zionist identity, the stronger the resolve to defy the military, diplomatic and intellectual challenges facing the Jewish State and the Jewish People.

*History-driven identity, vision and destiny are fixed and durable components of national security.  On the other hand, political, diplomatic, defense, economic and peace accords are variable and tenuous components of national security, whose durability is tenuous due to the systematically changing regional and global leadership, policies and relations.

*The stronger the resolve and steadfastness of Israel, the more compelling is its contribution – as a force and dollar multiplier – to the US economy and defense, and the more productive is the mutually-beneficial US-Israel two-way-street. Bolstered US interests are advanced by bolstered Jewish/Zionist identity, vision and destiny, which inspired the US Founding Fathers.

*In the pursuit of bolstered Jewish/Zionist identity, vision and destiny, contemporary leaders of the Jewish State should adhere to the legacy of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s Founding Father, who was the iconic leader of Israel’s Labor Party: “…. Our commitment to our history is a prerequisite to Israel’s political and military steadfastness in the face of our continued military struggle…. It is impossible to comprehend Jewish history and struggles, if one is not aware of the unique Jewish vision…. Jewish/Hebrew education is the precondition for Jewish unity and attachment to the Land of Israel…. The Jewish nation is not merely a national and political entity. Since its inception, it has possessed an historic vision [the Ingathering of Jews to their Homeland]…. The very small Jewish nation was able to defy major powers due to its determined spiritual and moral uniqueness…. While the ethnic, cultural and political environment of the Middle East has changed dramatically during the last 4,000 years – since the dawn of the Jewish people – the Jewish people has retained its language and culture, notwithstanding 2,000 years of exile…. The retention of the unique Jewish national character has served as a magic-vitamin, sustaining Jewish survival and independence and the power to withstand threats, challenges and temptations…. The establishment of the State of Israel has not ended the struggle for Jewish uniqueness and destiny…. The Ingathering is our central undertaking; it is a prerequisite to our independence…. Jewish history did not start upon the 1948 establishment of Israel or the 1897 First Zionist Congress.  Jewish history is a 4,000-year-old wealth of values, culture and heroic events, which are based on the Bible and the Land of Israel. It must be shared with the Jewish youth” (Ben Gurion, Uniqueness and Destiny, 1951).

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