The President of the United States took a shellacking the other
day, in his own words, so it is to be predicted that he might be
looking for someone weaker than him to bully. Historically, when
heads of government with tyrannical streaks confront the limits of
their power, they beat up a Jew to get their mojo back. Jews
thought that getting their own country would save them from this
sort of treatment; it has not worked out quite that way, but at
least they can grouse about it in cabinet meetings rather than in
squalid ghettos.
Obama was visiting Indonesia, full of good will for
another “new beginning” with the “Muslim world.” Apparently, saving
Muslims from Serbs and Saddam Hussein and Somali warlords worsened
our relationship with them. The program to use NASA to celebrate
great Islamic contributions to science has failed to launch. To
fire up the spirit of comity between West and East, Obama has
courageously
attacked those international menaces, the people of Israel, for
obstructing peace by building housing units in
Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Netanyahu fired back: “Jerusalem is not a
settlement. It is the capital of Israel.” Yet this new escalation
of American chastisement of Israel portrays the builders of new
apartments in Jerusalem as enemies of peace.
Who are these bellicose banes, these obstinate obstacles,
these improvident provocateurs? If you traveled to Israel and met
them, you might be very surprised.
THERE IS A SETTLER CLASS in Israel. They are frontiersmen
in the tradition of the Americans who tamed the Wild West. If you
trek out to their remote outposts, you find weather-beaten muscular
types fighting to carve lives for their families out of
inhospitable terrain. Trailers on mountainsides are the starting
point, and upward mobility does not aspire beyond prefabricated
structures which outdoorsy Americans might use for summer homes in
the Catskills or the Smokies.
These are some tough hombres. Some of them are religiously
inclined and speak of Biblical prophecies and divinely orchestrated
fate. Others are aggressively secularist types who credit their own
brawn and ingenuity for whatever they achieve. They have in common
an uncommon grit. They stand tall in the face of all the adversity
the earth and hostile populations can throw at them. But these are
not the folks buying apartments in the expanding urban
neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
The way these new apartments are developed relies heavily
on people who buy “on paper.” Say the plan is to put up 100 units.
The developer starts with limited capital and the banks help a
little, but there is not enough money there to make it work without
a presale of about 40 percent. Buying an unbuilt apartment entitles
you to a premium of about a third. So an apartment which will sell
for $120,000 when constructed can be purchased in advance for
$80,000. Naturally, the buyer with less cash is drawn to this
deal.
What this leads too typically is a building filled with
newlyweds. The two sets of parents chip in and the government helps
by subsidizing special mortgages. They sign on shortly after the
engagement and most often will be renting for a year or more before
their place is ready. These tend to be Yeshiva or college students,
entry-level working people, who fit your Manhattan straphanger
model; these are not the Paul Bunyans who are manning the
settlements.
They are ordinary Jews with — to borrow from Shakespeare
— eyes, hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions,
fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons. Suddenly their
starter pad around the corner from Mom who works in the
Municipality and Dad who drives a city bus has been designated a
militarized zone by Obama and Secretary of State
What’s-her-Name.
Maybe all of this will magically lead to a grand
rapprochement. Israel and the Arabs will dance the hora together
wearing burqas. White doves will fly overhead bearing olive
branches. The lion will lie down and the lamb won’t have to lam.
The swords will be beaten into plowshares. Yet the sensible person
must proceed sensibly until reality is officially called off in
favor of utopia. In sensible terms, this strategy looks to be
counterproductive. There cannot be peace between Israel and a new
country if the new country does not understand what is Israel and
what can reasonably become theirs.
The new version of the Merchant of Venice has Shellac in
the role of villain, as the world blames Jews for putting up walls.
Those who prefer to avoid another shellacking would be well advised
to direct their efforts more realistically, and more
fairly.
