The Jewish community of the US is by and large showing indifference to the existential threat of a nuclear Iran and is steering clear of any controversy related to Netanyahu’s planned visit.
By OPHIR FALKAmerican and Israeli flags(photo credit: REUTERS)
Most Americans, including most of their representatives, support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled speech before a joint session of Congress concerning the imminent threat of a nuclear Iran and the dangers of a decadent deal with the ayatollahs. Some, including the White House, are outraged. A fickle few are indifferent. While support and outrage are integral components of any thriving democracy and democratic debate, indifference is dangerous. As Eli Wiesel once put it, indifference, which in his view was the facilitating factor to the Holocaust, is “tempting and even seductive” yet must be uprooted from human nature.The Jewish community of the United States is by and large showing indifference to the existential threat of a nuclear Iran and is steering clear of any controversy related to Netanyahu’s planned visit. This behavior is disappointing and dangerous.Rather than “minding their own business” and only tending to their hedge funds, law firms, banks, brokerages and bakeries, American Jews should be outraged and act accordingly. The Jews of America are not being asked to take sides between their president and Israel’s prime minister. Instead, they are required to choose between right and wrong. They should not stand idle as Jews are once again being killed on European streets simply because they are Jews. They should be outraged when their president absents himself from an international march in protest of these murders and is now boycotting an AIPAC conference because it has dared invite the prime minister of the Jewish state to speak. America’s Jews should be outraged when their president refers to the slaughter of four Jews in as an incident where “a bunch of criminals... randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.” There is nothing random about Jews being killed because they are Jews.Obama has been wrong on every major foreign policy decision since taking office and has specialized in alienating allies. His unique form of foreign policy has failed in Ukraine, Poland, China, Syria, Iraq and Libya. He has strained relations with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the moderate Gulf states and with Egypt, not to mention the Russian “reset.” Now he is on the brink of striking a derailing deal with Iran – the leading global sponsor of terrorism, responsible for the slaying of thousands of Americans and Israelis, not to mention about a million Sunnis.A tyrannical regime led by Holocaust deniers, who in an effort to spread their Shi’ite fanaticism have expanded their ground presence to dominate Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, are now on the threshold of becoming a nuclear power.In that context, Iran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit New York or any other city in the United States. Leaving Americans with the question: Why does Iran need those intercontinental missiles? By enabling Iran to become a nuclear or even nuclear-threshold state, Obama will be remembered as the Chamberlain (Neville, not Wilt) of the 21st century. American Jews will be remembered for giving him 70 percent of their vote and being indifferent in the face of infamy.Obama sees “doctors, lawyers, dentists and folks who have never fought before” as unable of removing a ruthless regime. The Jews of America should prove their president wrong.The author is a licensed lawyer, a research fellow at ICT and a PhD. student at Haifa University; the opinions expressed are his own.
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