It might serve Israel well politically to gradually stop receving funds from the United States. Right now, support for Israel is often measured in dollars. This means that for example, a president or party that makes every effort to unseat the israeli government, subtly encourages Europe to sanction and isolate Israel, and leads israels foes to become more intransigent in peace negotiations could still prove friendship to Israel by pointing to large subsidies for israeli military purchases. The same president may critique israeli self defense under fire and threaten to delay or essentially withhold military resupply in mid-conflict, but still be considered a friend if he subsidizes iron dome installations. Sometimes israel needs political and more importantly ideological support more than money. Financial need distorts the relationship and obscures the dynamics of who is giving and getting what. Money puts pressure on supporters and serves as a very poor and misleading scorecard of true support and friendship. This is also very much the case within the Jewish community where giving money becomes a proxy and substitute for real support. Here too it distorts. Philanthropists with no other virtue besides money are monikered leaders and the agenda of the community panders to the consensus of a set of givers with minimal or nonexistent levels of Jewish education or other jewish committment understanding or devotion. The sad part is that Jewish communities stateside would be horrified to consider ceasing the massive flow of dollars to Israel because giving to Israel is the main loss leader, the motivator, the unifier which funnels funds into local community agencies. But here too it distorts. Because of the massive amount of funds that are needed for Israel anti Israel organizations like J street are able to sneak their way in to Jewish communal settings because so called leadership thru financial qualification leads to a community co-opted by a leadership of donors without vetting of other perhaps equally or more important qualities of true leadership. Maybe we can learn something from the J Street challenge. In the anti israel climate of today israel needs strong advocacy and ideological supporters more than philanthropists. Israel needs observant, well Jewishly educated Jews who will remain Jews for generations to come. Consider for example, if leadership awards with all the cool hot rewards that accrue like great missions to cozy up and get closeup pictures posing with the prime minister and inside briefings with political and military leaders were proferred instead to leaders of day school education and to the most effective ideological supporters, the advocates for Israel, and to the leaders of religious observance and education. Think backwards for a moment. Going into the Obama administration would it not have been better if a president who spent decades in the tutelage of most virulent haters of Jews and opponents of Israel , and who himself opposes Israel on most every item aside from funding could not realistically self identify or pass as a supporter of Israel? Wouldnt it be better for Israel if local giving was reinforced and rewarded not for sheer amounts raised for israel but for the effectiveness and ratios of real support for pro-israel education, and even more importantly for day school education. If israel approached the future of the people of israel around the world as a strategic asset that must be preserved for generations even secular israeli generals and analysts would see the need to reinforce religious jewish observance as the most important and effective guarantor of jewish continuity and pro israel identification and aliya. Finally, shorn of its identity as a recipient, Israel could become the benefactor, influencing and developing allies through foreign aid mixed with technological assistance and directly supporting Jewish education and other issues it deems most important in Jewish communities overseas.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 08:55:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015