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By MK Yosef (Tommy) Lapid

August 15, 2005

Original Article (English)

Chances are that an American Jew working in one of the key branches of the administration – the State Department or the Pentagon, for instance – won't be promoted to a sensitive position if he or she has family in Israel.

This is not official policy and cannot be put in writing. Were such a racist directive given it would cause a scandal and the people responsible would lose their jobs. There are things better kept quiet.

In Washington, the "anti" circles go about their business and the Jews prefer to let sleeping dogs lie.

We have never had a friendlier president in the White House than George W. Bush, except perhaps Bill Clinton. There has never been as friendly a vice president as Dick Cheney since Hubert Humphrey. And since George Schultz there has never been as friendly a secretary of state as Condoleezza Rice.

It is not the leadership that is calling the shots here, but the middle-level bureaucracy: senior State Department officials, some generals in the Pentagon and FBI security types. They are not anti-Semites of the classical model, but they are uncomfortable with the economic power, media presence, academic importance and political clout of American Jews. And they believe the Jewish neoconservatives – who bear-hug the Bush administration – are pushing America into a bloody conflict with the Muslim world for the benefit of Israel, among other reasons. Dual loyalty, you see.

Israel's Sale to China of Harpy Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Raised Hackles in Washington.

A clear indication of this hostile atmosphere is a campaign the Pentagon is leading against the senior echelon of our Defense Ministry because of the sale of spare parts for drones to the Chinese. Just as in the case of the surveillance plane, this time too the Israeli side failed to take the negative signals from the American seriously enough until it was too late. This time too a conflict erupted as the result of a misunderstanding and the Israeli tendency to exploit every opening to the maximum.

Maybe our Defense Ministry honchos did not sufficiently appreciate the near-hysterical American fear of China's strengthening. And maybe they did not take into consideration the fact that the Americans have long suspected that the Israeli military industry abuses American patents.

But even if you take all that into consideration there remains a lack of proportion between the marginal overstepping of correct procedure and the all-out assault by the American defense establishment against the top echelon of the Israeli system. The explanation of the disproportionate American attitude and insulting aggression the Americans are showing is an antagonism that has taken root in the Pentagon.

Alos characteristic of the atmosphere among the "anti" circles in the U.S. is the investigation the FBI launched against AIPAC's [American-Israel Public Affairs Committee]  former research director Steven Rosen and former Iran analyst Keith Weissman. They were charged with receiving classified information from (non-Jewish) Pentagon official Larry Franklin and handing it to Israeli diplomats. The FBI pressured Franklin into feeding the AIPAC people this false information – namely, that the Pentagon had learned that Iranian operatives were about to kill Israelis operating among the Kurds of Iraq. And, indeed, the information was passed on to an Israeli diplomat in Washington.

—NPR AUDIO NEWS: AIPAC Officials Indicted for Passing Information to Israel, Aug. 4, 00:04:35

To appreciate the degree of malice in this FBI "sting" one must ask why the FBI fabricated a temptation no Jew could resist: warning Israel that Muslim terrorists were about to murder its envoys. There was also a substantial amount of stupidity involved. After all, it is beyond doubt that, had such a report been true, the Pentagon would have anyway provided it to Israel through official channels.

This year I attended the closing session of AIPAC's annual policy conference in Washington and heard Condoleezza Rice quote Theodor Herzl. More than 4,000 delegates from throughout the U.S. participated in the gathering and nearly half the members of Congress were at the closing dinner. What could be more encouraging?

Condoleezza at AIPAC

At the conclusion they sang the American national anthem.

I opened my mouth to sing "Hatikva" too. But there was silence. I was dumbfounded. Because the leadership of AIPAC – the most important Jewish organization in the U.S. – had decided that, considering the atmosphere in Washington, it was preferable, this time, to skip singing "Hatikva."

I understand the desire of Jewish Diaspora leaders to bury their heads in a bowl of chicken soup until the storm blows over. Why cause unnecessary provocations? Why spark angry debates? Maybe we really were overly confident? Arrogant? Let's behave like good children for a while.

I differ with that approach, even if it does contain a modicum of Jewish wisdom.

The "anti" people will draw encouragement from the silence of the Jewish leaders. They will conclude that American Jews can be put in their place before their chutzpa gets out of control.

Alan Dershowitz is fond of saying that the Jews of America are not guests in somebody else's house. That being the case, a little Jewish courage wouldn't hurt. America is basically an open and enlightened society. No senior official would want to be accused of anti-Semitic motives or even of hating Israel.

The writer heads the Shinui Party and is leader of the Knesset opposition