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MANNA 105: Autumn 2009

Written by Rabbi Dr. Tony Bayfield Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Eighteen months ago I was at a briefing at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. There was only one message. Never mind the Palestinians. Never mind the West Bank. The only thing to be concerned about is Iran. Iran is a menace to the whole world, not just to Israel. Please help get that message across. Iran is the enemy.

I came away thinking that Israel was overplaying its hand and used the Iranian threat to avoid the hard decisions required to reach a peace
settlement. But the intensity of concern about Iran did not go unnoticed and was reinforced by the rise and rise of Hamas, Iran’s proxy.
Three months ago I completed a draft chapter for a book that I am co-editing on relations between moderate Jews, Christians and Muslims in Britain. Early in the chapter I wrote, “There are 14 million Jews in the world of whom 5 million live in Israel. Demographers suggest that in two generations’ time – Iran and Hamas permitting – the majority of world Jewry will live in Israel.”

My Christian co-editor, a much trusted friend of long standing, queried the throw away “Iran and Hamas permitting”. What did it mean and would it not be better just to leave it out. Our Muslim co-editor – also a much trusted friend of long standing – went further. He expressed himself to be totally perplexed and described Iran as, “A country which never attacked its neighbours over a millennium [and exhibits] strong resistance to its president’s anti-Semitic remarks.” He argued that Iran is not a monster but a victim of American policies and American imperialism.

In early September, Sky News, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post all carried stories about the Russian freighter hijacked. in the Straits of Dover. They reported strong rumours that the Arctic Sea was carrying x-55 cruise missiles and S-300 missiles, Russia’s most advanced anti-aircraft weapon. They were convinced that Mossad, the Israeli secret service, had been intimately involved with the hijacking. Those keenest on arming Iran are Russian arms dealers. The hijacking stopped the shipment yet gave the Kremlin a way out by claiming to have mounted a brilliant rescue mission.

In September it became apparent to President Obama and Prime Minister Brown that Iran was indeed making nuclear weapons, that delivery systems to hit London or Washington might still be ten years off but that Riyadh, American bases in the Middle East and, of course, Tel Aviv could be in danger within a year. It so often seems as though the entire world, except for Republican America and Israel are out of step. Everyone
thinks one way and Israel thinks another.

Here is a clear demonstration that Israel was and is right and everybody else was and is wrong. Hitler said it and meant it. Ahmadinejad says it and he means it, too. American policies have undoubtedly helped make Iran the terrorist state it is. There may be many in Iran who reject Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitism. But a great many people voted for him and support him. It is clear whose hand will be on the nuclear trigger.

However tempting it may be, Israel needs to avoid the belief that because it was right about Iran and everyone else was wrong, Israel is also right to resist a Palestinian state and try to retain all the land on which settlements have been built. Tony Blair recently expressed a degree of optimism about the peace process, quoting Senator George Mitchell. Blair argued that Israel does have partners for peace both amongst the Palestinians and within the Arab world. Indeed, the hands of the moderate Arab states can only be strengthened in this regard by the threat to them as well as Israel, posed by Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

Whilst the situation in Gaza is simply appalling – locking the door and throwing away the key was never going to be the right policy, either ethically or strategically – the situation on the West Bank is improving. Many checkpoints, the source of so much friction and indignity, have been removed over the last months. Ramallah is booming.

Blair also said that the West will continue to pay an extremely high price for Israel’s security. But not for its intransigence. That makes me almost as nervous as Ahmadinejad’s Hitlerian ravings and Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

The situation continues to look grim from outside Israel itself even if life in Israel is remarkably upbeat, with the worst of the banking crisis avoided. But I believe that how things look from outside Israel is at least as important as how things feel inside Israel. The Iranian nuclear threat – or the decision by the West finally to acknowledge the Iranian nuclear threat – is real and Israel is entitled to say loudly, ‘we told you so’. But it would be a huge mistake to overplay the threats with President Obama and once again surrender the moral high ground and all hopes of a settlement.

I have a suspicion that God loves ironies and an alliance of the Palestinian Authority, moderate Arab states, the United States and Israel against Iran would, for once, be a delicious and positive irony. It might also be the best strategy for saving the world from nuclear catastrophe.