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.They understoodthe power of the Holocaust ideology in framing and terminating debate,and were not afraid to use it, in the face of Israel s obvious and growingregional hegemony and their own success and prominence.During the 1981AWACS fight, AIPAC would send a copy of the novel based on the televi-sion series Holocaust to every member of Congress, to remind them of themoral debt owed Israel.Begin and the Revisionist LikudIn June 1977, Israelis elected their first government not led by the LaborParty.Menachem Begin, the new prime minister, had been a leader of the 34 The pro-Israel community prior to 1981Irgun, the military arm of the Revisionist Party of Vladimir Jabotinsky.TheIrgun had used terrorist methods against the British Mandate.It had refusedto obey David Ben-Gurion s provisional government or to integrate intoHaganah forces until the Haganah sunk an Irgun arms ship, the Altalena, andput down the armed revolt that followed.Begin s Herut Party, successor tothe Revisionist Party, advocated the establishment of biblical Eretz Y Israel.Itmerged with the Liberal Party in 1965 to form Gahal, which was brought intothe unity war government in 1967, only to leave the government in protestover the 1969 Rogers Plan, the 1970 ceasefire and the implications of territor-ial compromise.16 Just after the 1973 war and before the December 1973 elec-tions, Gahal had merged with minor parties including the Eretz Y Israelmovement to form Likud.The merged parties grew in strength until theytook a plurality of the votes in the 1977 election.Begin had long been a political pariah Ben-Gurion called him a fascist and excluded Herut from coalitions and was viewed with alarm by manyAmerican Jewish leaders.When Begin visited the United States in 1948,Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt joined others denouncing his Fascist and Nazi tactics.Nahum Goldmann reportedly persuaded Dean Acheson that thebest argument for recognizing the Ben-Gurion-led government of Israel wasthat it would block Begin s ambitions (Tivnan 1987: 107).Rabbi Arthur Schindler met with Begin after his election and stated thatthe American Jewish community would support any incumbent Israeligovernment.That was a major gift to Begin, since Schindler was chair of thePresidents Conference and head of the Reform movement.Nahum Gold-mann thereupon urged President Carter to break the lobby, arguing thatits support of the Begin government was a major obstacle to peace in theMiddle East (Tivnan 1987: 120, 121).Yet it is not true that Begin s election was a shock to American Jewry as awhole.Most American Jews knew little about Begin.Most defended Beginreflexively as a product of Israeli democracy, particularly after he wasattacked in Time magazine as a terrorist whose name rhymes with Fagin. Many persuaded themselves that Begin s positions on territorial compromisewere tactical, that he would negotiate hard but rationally and that he wasreally not the anti-Arab ideologue that he seemed to be (Hertzberg 2002:400).As Schindler saw it, there was little choice: support of Israel was crit-ical, Carter was suspect and it was impossible to say, Begin s terrible, butwe want you [the American government] to support the State of Israelanyway (Tivnan 1987: 110).Rabbi Hertzberg, president of the AJCongress since 1972, was one of fewAmerican leaders who had maintained a friendship with Begin.The newnational security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, asked Hertzberg to go toJerusalem to tell Begin that the U.S.would generously support Israel ssecurity, but could not be pushed into supporting an expansionist, nation-alist, and ultimately religio-mystical Jewish ideology to allow Israel toretain the Occupied Territories (Hertzberg 2002: 398).Hertzberg did as he The pro-Israel community prior to 1981 35was asked, and thus ended the friendship.Begin told Hertzberg heatedlythat he had been elected to maintain sovereignty over the land, and wouldexplain his ideology to Carter (ibid.: 399).Hertzberg believed that while many American Jewish leaders swallowedtheir doubts and publicly supported Begin s government in order to preservetheir dinnerability, (Marcus 1990: 548) others had long been hardliners,as frustrated as Begin had been during many years of Labor governments(Hertzberg 2002: 390 1).The election of a Revisionist Zionist began toexpose differences in beliefs among American Jews, and between AmericanJews and Israelis [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.They understoodthe power of the Holocaust ideology in framing and terminating debate,and were not afraid to use it, in the face of Israel s obvious and growingregional hegemony and their own success and prominence.During the 1981AWACS fight, AIPAC would send a copy of the novel based on the televi-sion series Holocaust to every member of Congress, to remind them of themoral debt owed Israel.Begin and the Revisionist LikudIn June 1977, Israelis elected their first government not led by the LaborParty.Menachem Begin, the new prime minister, had been a leader of the 34 The pro-Israel community prior to 1981Irgun, the military arm of the Revisionist Party of Vladimir Jabotinsky.TheIrgun had used terrorist methods against the British Mandate.It had refusedto obey David Ben-Gurion s provisional government or to integrate intoHaganah forces until the Haganah sunk an Irgun arms ship, the Altalena, andput down the armed revolt that followed.Begin s Herut Party, successor tothe Revisionist Party, advocated the establishment of biblical Eretz Y Israel.Itmerged with the Liberal Party in 1965 to form Gahal, which was brought intothe unity war government in 1967, only to leave the government in protestover the 1969 Rogers Plan, the 1970 ceasefire and the implications of territor-ial compromise.16 Just after the 1973 war and before the December 1973 elec-tions, Gahal had merged with minor parties including the Eretz Y Israelmovement to form Likud.The merged parties grew in strength until theytook a plurality of the votes in the 1977 election.Begin had long been a political pariah Ben-Gurion called him a fascist and excluded Herut from coalitions and was viewed with alarm by manyAmerican Jewish leaders.When Begin visited the United States in 1948,Albert Einstein and Hannah Arendt joined others denouncing his Fascist and Nazi tactics.Nahum Goldmann reportedly persuaded Dean Acheson that thebest argument for recognizing the Ben-Gurion-led government of Israel wasthat it would block Begin s ambitions (Tivnan 1987: 107).Rabbi Arthur Schindler met with Begin after his election and stated thatthe American Jewish community would support any incumbent Israeligovernment.That was a major gift to Begin, since Schindler was chair of thePresidents Conference and head of the Reform movement.Nahum Gold-mann thereupon urged President Carter to break the lobby, arguing thatits support of the Begin government was a major obstacle to peace in theMiddle East (Tivnan 1987: 120, 121).Yet it is not true that Begin s election was a shock to American Jewry as awhole.Most American Jews knew little about Begin.Most defended Beginreflexively as a product of Israeli democracy, particularly after he wasattacked in Time magazine as a terrorist whose name rhymes with Fagin. Many persuaded themselves that Begin s positions on territorial compromisewere tactical, that he would negotiate hard but rationally and that he wasreally not the anti-Arab ideologue that he seemed to be (Hertzberg 2002:400).As Schindler saw it, there was little choice: support of Israel was crit-ical, Carter was suspect and it was impossible to say, Begin s terrible, butwe want you [the American government] to support the State of Israelanyway (Tivnan 1987: 110).Rabbi Hertzberg, president of the AJCongress since 1972, was one of fewAmerican leaders who had maintained a friendship with Begin.The newnational security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, asked Hertzberg to go toJerusalem to tell Begin that the U.S.would generously support Israel ssecurity, but could not be pushed into supporting an expansionist, nation-alist, and ultimately religio-mystical Jewish ideology to allow Israel toretain the Occupied Territories (Hertzberg 2002: 398).Hertzberg did as he The pro-Israel community prior to 1981 35was asked, and thus ended the friendship.Begin told Hertzberg heatedlythat he had been elected to maintain sovereignty over the land, and wouldexplain his ideology to Carter (ibid.: 399).Hertzberg believed that while many American Jewish leaders swallowedtheir doubts and publicly supported Begin s government in order to preservetheir dinnerability, (Marcus 1990: 548) others had long been hardliners,as frustrated as Begin had been during many years of Labor governments(Hertzberg 2002: 390 1).The election of a Revisionist Zionist began toexpose differences in beliefs among American Jews, and between AmericanJews and Israelis [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]