“Chutzpah” is a Jewish word. It cannot be accurately translated. Some render it asbrazenness, gall. In many languages, the word is used in its original Hebrew’Yiddish form.
The leaders of the Zionist Organization of America recently reached the very height ofChutzpah, when they demanded that the US Government abstain from appointing a pious Jew, DanKerzer, as US ambassador to Israel. In full’page ads in several American and Israelinewspapers, they called upon Jews to inundate President Bush and Secretary of State Powellwith letters accusing Kerzer of supporting the Oslo agreement and – God forbid ‘ sympathizingwith the Palestinians.
If this were to happen between two other countries – let’s say, the UK and Pakistan – such a callwould sound like monumental chutzpah. When it happens between the US and Israel, it seemsnatural.
History knows no example of a relationship between two states like this one. It is not justfriendship, not only an alliance, but a full symbiosis.
It’s manifestations are numberless. For example: the vast sums of money handed by the US toIsrael every year – more than to a hundred other states together. Or, the fact that PresidentClinton, in his effort to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians, appointed a teamcomposed solely of Jews, from Secretary of State Albright down to the assistant deputyspecial official in charge of the Middle East (and, of course, the ambassador to Israel, aveteran Zionist.) If Israel wanted it, 80 Senators and 400 congressmen/women would sign apetition tomorrow to transfer the White House to Jerusalem. Scores of governments around theworld woo Israel in the hope that it will induce the US Congress to grant them benefits.
What is the cause of this unique phenomenon?
Some explain it as a result of American democracy, which allows the relatively small Jewishcommunity to organize itself as a powerful lobby. The corrupt American campaign financingsystem makes it possibly to buy a congressman openly and cheaply. A quite small donation to hiscampaign fund will assure his support for a long time. The few congressmen who have dared toignore Israel’s wishes were kicked out at the next elections, when Jewish action committeesfinanced their opponents. Published material shows that President Harry Truman was savedfrom defeat in 1948 by a timely Jewish donation.
Another explanation points to the central position held by Jews in American society, thanksto their special talents. They “dominate” the media, are prominent in the sciences, law,medicine, cinema and more. They have great influence in the fields of finances and high’tech.When the officers of the Russian secret police invented the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”,they could not even have dreamt of such a situation.
Many Arabs believe that Israel was created by the British and the Americans solely in order toserve as a stick against the Arabs, to prevent them from becoming an independent, united forcecontrolling their own oil reserves.
Others, again, believe that the American arms industry is to blame for everything. Itsupplies Israel with immense quantities of weapons, in order to compel the Arabs to buy equalquantities. Saudi Arabia, for example, sells its oil cheaply and uses the money to buyAmerican arms that rapidly turn into junk.
All this, while true, does not really explain the uniqueness of the phenomenon.
I believe that the reason is more profound: the identification of the Zionist enterprise withthe foundations of America. The Puritans who founded American society believed in the Bible,knew Hebrew, bore Biblical names, saw themselves as the “New Israel”, called their countrythe “New Canaan”, justified the annihilation of the Natives with the Biblical injunctionagainst Amalek. The Zionist “pioneers” resemble the white settlers in America, the badPalestinians are a new version of the “Bad Injuns”.
Zionism is embedded in the Protestant religion, which dominates America to this very day.Years before the Zionist movement came into being, typical Zionist expressions were alreadyin vogue in America. Eighteen years before Theodor Herzl wrote “Der Judenstaat”, an Americanbest’seller called “The Coming of Jesus” proclaimed that the birth of a Jewish state inPalestine was a pre’condition for the second coming of Christ. William Blackstone, afundamentalist Protestant financier, traveled to Palestine nine years before the firstZionist Congress and planned the Jewish State. In 1891, six years before the First ZionistCongress, 413 prominent Americans, including newspaper editors, governors, congressmen,judges and multi’millionaires like Morgan and Rockefeller, signed a petition calling uponthe President and the Secretary of State to ensure that Palestine would be turned over to theJews.
George W. Bush represents all these old myths. But the new American generation is getting ridof them – just as the new Israeli generation is getting rid of our parallel ones.