Barack Obama sent a reassuring signal to Jews who doubted his
commitment to Israel by choosing Rahm Emanuel as his chief of
staff. Rahm’s father is an Israeli who fought for the Irgun under
the late Menachem Begin. Rahm himself went to Israel to volunteer
on an army base during the Gulf War of 1991, making sure the
weaponry was in a functional state.
To the Palestinians, hearing that a Jew was the first pick can’t
be encouraging. To hear he’s an Israeli must be galling. But to
hear he comes from an Irgun family will enrage them to a fever
pitch.
The Arabs, even the most simpatico among them, are not fans of
the Zionists who liberated Israel from British rule. The fact
that Ben-Gurion, Weitzmann and their Haganah force were political
leftists endears them but little. Still, through gritted teeth
they learn to tolerate. But try and mention Begin’s Irgun or
Yitzhak Shamir’s Lehi to any non-Jewish Middle Easterner and
watch smoke coming out of their ears. The Irgun and Lehi were the
right-wing, and a much tougher crew. The story of Anwar Sadat is
rendered far more amazing by his willingness to make peace not
only with Israel, but an Israel led by archenemy Begin.
The Irgun (full name Irgun Zvai Leumi, i.e. National Military
Organization) was a group that used guerrilla tactics very
effectively to undermine British confidence. They even
successfully stormed a British prison in Acre to free some of
their arrested comrades. Once the British left, the Arabs took up
the fight, including Muslims from countries as far away as
Yugoslavia.
The bloodiest battle in the Jerusalem area took place in a
village called Deir
Yassin. There are many competing versions of what happened
there between April 9 and 11 of 1948, but over one hundred Arab
villagers were killed. This became a major public-relations coup
for the Palestinian combatants, who claimed it was a massacre of
women and children. The clearest fact to emerge from that
troubled event is this: Palestinians hate anyone associated with
the Irgun.
For them to see Emanuel as the first pick out of the box is
certainly not helping their digestion any.
At the same time, Republicans are not very thrilled, because his
political style is strictly of the Chicago-junkyard-dog variety.
He attends a modern Orthodox synagogue named Anshei Sholom, which
means ” people of peace,” but his path to global tranquility is
through the Republican jugular. Like many peace activists the
world over, he views straight-laced conservative types as the
dogs of war in drag. Don’t ask me to explain it, that’s just an
odd fact of life; maybe a stern teacher once rapped his knuckles
too hard.
Still, the symbolic message to the people who thought their boy
Hussein was going to put out the prayer mats and the welcome mats
for the imam-mullah-ayatollah brigade is ringing loudly in their
ears. Emanuel was also the only Chicago Democrat in Congress to
vote for the Iraq war in 2003. Jews on the right who believe the
Oslo Accords were misconceived may have cause to grumble; Emanuel
was in on that deal, in the selling if not in the shaping. But
they have to like that Obama’s first thumb went into someone
else’s eye.
The best guess at this point would be that Israel will limp along
in its usual way, taking a pot shot here, making a peace overture
there, and continuing to thrive as a Western country in the
Eastern world. Presidents of the United States will come and go,
each hailing the newest version of the old plan, and the newest
negotiations with the old troublemakers, and the newest proposals
from the old playbook. Eventually one of two things will happen:
the Messiah will come or everyone will just decide to embrace a
perpetual state of war.
Then again, perhaps the better plan would be for Obama to hire
Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari, the high-powered Hollywood agent.
Send him to the Middle East with a deal: everyone signs on the
dotted line, George Clooney will play Abbas, Russell Crowe will
play Olmert, Johnny Depp will play Ahmadinejad, and everyone gets
royalties. Peace on earth, no more massacres, and everyone lives
happily ever after, with the possible exception of John McCain.
