Many years ago Ben Hecht, the famous Jewish playwright and Zionist, wrote a book called "Perfidy," which chronicled a libel trial in post-war Israel involving a Hungarian Zionist named Dr. Rudolf Kastner. Dr. Kastner claimed that Machiel Greenwald, a writer, wrongfully accused Kastner of collaborating with the Nazis in Hungary, resulting in the death of thousands of Hungarian Jews. Kastner, who became something of a cause celebre among many of Israel's elites, lost the case, appealed, lost the appeal and then died under mysterious circumstances before he could be called to account under Israel's anti-collaboration laws.
The book is a gripping tale of intrigue and betrayal in which Hecht lays out a case against not only Kastner but the entire left-wing Zionist political establishment for selling out the Jewish people in furtherance of its own political and ideological agenda. In Hecht's telling, the true heroes of Israel's founding were the followers of rightist European intellectual Zev Jabotinsky, like Menachem Begin and other leaders of the Irgun. David Ben-Gurion, Chaim Weitzman and the Jewish Agency establishment were no better than the British overlords who ruled over Palestine with a fist clenched toward the Jews, a view crystallized by the incident involving the weapons ship Altalena in 1948.
Needless to say, the book was and remains controversial. Some suggest that facts revealed in the decades since the book was published tend to support Hecht's stark accusations of the Left's collaborations with the Nazis. Others, including most American mainstream Jewish intellectuals and organizations, reject that charge strenuously, arguing that the real "perfidy" was in Hecht's imaginative rewriting of history to suit his own rightwing political agenda. (Hecht had been reviled by the Jewish establishment ever since--over their objections-- he joined with Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) in the 1940s to pressure the U.S. government to take more aggressive actions to save European Jewry from the Nazi death machine).
The book was immediately banned in Israel. It is almost impossible to find in libraries, and its subject matter has been off limits for discussion in polite, elite circles for decades. One cannot help but wonder: if the historical narrative presented in "Perfidy" was as inventively fictional as Hecht's detractors suggest, why did the Jewish Establishment go to such lengths to hide it from public view and analysis?
I mention all this because the public reaction this past week of the American government to the announcement by Israel of its intent to build 1600 units in the Jerusalem community of Ramat Shlomo carries a stench that is reminiscent of the sort of political betrayal by putative allies which was the subject of "Perfidy." The week's events present a shocking example of how the United States of America treats one of its most faithful allies even while it bows and appeases it enemies. Even the Jewish elites have taken notice of what appears to be an intentional ratcheting up by the Obama Administration of diplomatic hostilities with Israel.
By all accounts, the Interior Ministry's announcement of the planned construction caught visiting V.P. Joe Biden off guard, and reportedly even the Prime Minister was surprised by the timing, which is not hard to believe given Israel's fractious political climate. Still, Biden's reaction was
swift and severe, if not unprecedented. In a statement drafted by the White House, Biden "condemned" Israel for its decision and accused Israel of "undermining the trust" needed for continued discussion with the Palestinians.
In pure diplomatic terms, the statement is an outrage, and an intended one. The term "condemn" is used sparingly in public diplomacy, and typically against a nation's adversaries. A case in point: in December, after almost a year's worth of provocation and indisputable evidence of brutality, President Obama condemned the "violent and unjust suppression" by Iran of its citizens. Obama has also condemned violence against Americans in Mexico, anti-semitic language by Louis Farrakhan, an anti-gay bill in Uganda, the nuke policies of Iran and North Korea and the virulent comments of his own pastor. But I am hard pressed to find the term employed against any actions of our allies.
Many sources in diplomatic circles believe that the Obama administration is deliberately overblowing a diplomatic faux pas into a crisis. According to Abe Foxman, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League and a figure with whom I have taken issue publicly, none of this is accidental. "We are shocked and stunned at the Administration’s tone and public dressing down of Israel on the issue of future building in Jerusalem," he said. "One can only wonder how far the US is prepared to go in distancing itself from Israel
Then came Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the once and (hopefully) not future presidential candidate, to warn Israeli prime minister Netanyahu that the relationship was at risk unless Israel toed the administration's line in renewed talks with the Palestinians. This included the outrageous demand that Israel puts Jerusalem in play in talks with the Palestinians. According to Debkafile, Clinton threatened Israel with the possible withholding of arms and military equipment in any upcoming engagement with Iran if Israel didn't bend to the will of the U.S.
(Late breaking news suggests that Netanyahu has caved to U.S. pressure by now extending the freeze on building that was in place in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) to Jerusalem as well. The irony here is that Ramat Shlomo is an area never considered subject to negotiation with the Palestinians.)
It is clear that Obama has taken advantage of a misstep by Israels' diplomats to turn the screws against Israel publicly in a manner that is unprecedented, at least since the days of President Eisenhower. In forcing this crisis the administration seems to be the doing the bidding of American left-wing organizations like J Street, Israeli academic leftists, Netanyahu's Laborite opponents and even Israel's Arab enemies by trying to bring Israel's government to its knees. A humiliated and weakened Netanyahu will either do Obama's bidding or pave the way for a Leftist government that will.
Some observers suggest that having failed to rally America's allies to take substantive action against Iran, Obama has no choice but to bully Israel into refraining from military action against Iran using the "bluntest instruments in its diplomatic armory to a degree unheard of against a friendly government." The implications are breathtaking: because America has failed to remove the greatest existential threat to Israel in its history, Israel must be prevented from doing so. It is almost as if Israel must risk annihilation so as not to show America to be the feckless power that it appears to be.
As a conservative critic of Obama, the open hostility towards Israel by Obama is neither surprising nor unexpected. Anyone who did even cursory reading into Barack Obama the candidate (and church-goer) could have seen this coming. But as a Jew and a frequent visitor to Israel, the events of this past week have been shocking and dispiriting. Someone ought to write a book about this frightening turnabout in American-Israeli relations.
If there wasn't already a book by the same name they could call it "Perfidy.
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