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Stephen Gottlieb: Enough Already - The US, Israel And Iran

On a recent Friday evening, the rabbi asked a congregant to sing a traditional song based on Psalm 133, “Hinneh mah tov umah na'im, Shevet achim gam yachad,” which means “Behold how good and how pleasing, to sit together in unity.” Except she wasn’t singing the tune as I learned it in the summer of 1948 at the age of seven. The rhythm and cadence I remembered was a version being sung in Israel, like many of the songs we learned that summer. For years we were fired by the Israeli example, by the kibbutzim or farms on which people shared everything, and by the struggle for independence. I grew up thrilled by their example and wanting to learn Hebrew the better to enjoy traveling there – until our Temple kicked me out because I‘d become a young critic of our Sunday school and refused to go.

I later discovered that someone I knew and admired was running guns to the Israeli army in 1948. A colleague on the Board of the NYCLU, Jerry was also a member of the Israeli analog to the Civil Liberties Union, fighting against abuses by the State of Israel.

I too became disgusted not only by its denial of civil liberties to its Palestinian minority but also by Israel’s baleful influence on the Middle East. While Iran was quietly working with America to fight both the Taliban in Afghanistan and the terrorists from Arabia, Israel convinced the Bush Administration that Iran was the major problem. Saudi Arabians were responsible for 9/11 but Israel convinced the leadership of this country that Saudi Arabia was the good guy and Iran was the danger. Iran called attention to the radical madrassas that the Saudis supported to develop the extreme version of Islam that led to 9/11. But we stayed friends with Saudi Arabia and haven’t been able to shake off the politics that branded Iran part of the Axis of Evil. Never mind that Iran would have nothing to do with the other so-called axis members – Iran fought a bloody war with Iraq and helped the US deal with the Iraqis but no matter, Iran had to be the enemy.

An increasing body of scholarly literature based on deep dives into diplomatic documents traced that distortion to Israel. Apparently, Israel needed a powerful enemy to convince America it needed more weapons. When Iraq was crushed by American forces, it started warning about Iran – though Israel and Iran were cooperating, and Iran, by popular vote and then with clerical blessing, got rid of the demagogue prime minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Let’s be clear – few nations are angels. Everywhere nations slaughter each other over race, ethnicity, wealth, resources and other ill-gotten gains. I’d like to see Israel succeed, but not by allying itself with evil and extreme Middle Eastern forces, risking American blood and increasing the problems the Middle East poses for our country. I have no more obligation to support the hard wrong in Israel than the alt-cruel in America. The US needs its own foreign policy, for its own interests, not as a proxy for the worst versions of Israeli politics. And as a distinguished physicist pointed out over lunch a few days ago, even if the Iranians made “enough” fuel to create a “bomb,” with the technology they were using, it would be too heavy to deliver to a target. Instead the nuclear material they’re creating was clearly intended for medical use in hospitals, not as a weapon. America needs to get straight who its enemies are and who is doing what. Let the hawks fly in a cage.

Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.