On Tony McPeak's Article and Statements About the Jewish Vote in America

The flap over Gen. McPeak’s recent statements as well as his fine analysis in the April 1976 edition of Foreign Affairs (which I have read in its entirety) on Israel’s security give this Jewish observer absolutely no cause for concern whatsoever. McPeak’s piece in Foreign Affairs was a brilliant analysis of what he felt it would take to bring an overall peace to the region. Unfortunately, little has changed in the 32 years since he wrote the piece with the exception of the peace with Egypt, which incidentally formed a large element of his analysis, and the exit from Gaza. McPeak warned against handing back territory to anything other than a responsible government which could demilitarize the de-occupied zones. This has worked in Egypt; it has not in Gaza as Israel did not hand that territory back to a responsible government which could demilitarize that area in order to ensure that the “land for peace” would actually work in practice. The rockets that rain down on Sderot and other areas from Gaza prove McPeak’s thesis.

As far as his statement about Miami and New York Jews, let me just say that it is organizations like AIPAC and others whose sole raison d’être is to actively seek to guide American policy toward Israel; nothing McPeak said should come as any surprise to anyone. The Jewish relationship to Israel is directly tied to the fear we feel of another Holocaust. Debate about Israeli government policy is more open and vigorous in Israel than it is here between American Jews. He is only speaking the truth and, to borrow a line from Jack Nicholson “[we] can’t handle the truth.” Anyone who strays publicly from Likud politics in America is branded as anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, a self-hating Jew or some combination thereof. The problem of late for Jewish Americans is the veneer of respectability given to Anti-Semitism in the guise of legitimate criticism of Israel, as recent works by Jimmy Carter and Professors Mearsheimer and Walt attest. This is a new and more pernicious form of anti-Semitism of which all of us, Jewish or not, should be concerned.

As far as Tony McPeak is concerned, he should just stay put. I recommend reading the Foreign Affairs article to get an idea of his views about Israel’s security. They are important to him. That the Republican Jewish Committee and others would call for his ouster borders on insanity. This is the result of doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result.