An Alternate Witness

As I listen to all the very legitimate concern over North Korea, overshadowing continued humanitarian crises in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, as I listen to American officials insist that they will not meet with North Korean officials outside the context of Six Party Talks, I am struck by a fundamental irony. On the opposite side of the world from North Korea, the U.S. is taking the opposite stance vis a vis Iraq, Iran and Palestine. There, the United States is not working with regional partners—Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Jordan, Syria and Turkey—who will bear the effects of any outcome, good or bad, in any of the embattled nations and territories of the Middle East. Instead, the Bush administration is determined to exert America’s time-honored tradition of DIY.

Ehud Barak put it quite eloquently when he spoke at Indiana University this evening. Advances in technology and communication, and increased economic interdependence of nations and peoples have created a world that is inescapably interconnected. In this new reality, nations and national leaders cannot afford to operate unilaterally or even bilaterally. There is no more “go it alone.” Nations must, perforce, work in cooperation with the each other, the United Nations, European Union, NATO and other multilateral organizations to make any lasting progress. Everything is interconnected. North Korea and Iran may not be geographically, economically, or politically connected, but surely they are watching each others’ interactions with world powers and learning from what they observe.

I am reminded of what a local rabbi said at an interfaith panel a few weeks ago. Jewish tradition, she said, holds that God made the world a little incomplete. He gave Adam and Eve wheat but not bread, flax but not cloth. Jews, she said, see themselves as partners in Creation. The Children of Adam are entreated to make the world more holy, closer to God, and to sanctify humanity. It is the foundation for the extensive dedication of Jews around the world to issues of social justice and the betterment of all peoples.

Ehud Barak tonight called for a long view of history, for politicians, nations and individuals to work towards more than the next year or political term, but for the long term. The fate of our children, he said, rests largely with those children of more than half of the world’s population, who suffer from poverty, disease, illiteracy, ignorance, oppression and neglect. Simultaneous to working for our immediate defense against our neighbors and a nebulous imminent terrorist threat, we must also work to alleviate poverty and disease, provide universal education, and oppose oppressive, brutal and neglectful governments around the world. It is not enough to kill the mosquitoes that bring disease, he said. We must make the extended effort to drain the swamp that spawns them. To drain the swamp, we must expend our resources, which might mean giving up some luxury we desire. Only through compromise can we find sustainable solutions.

I was very glad to hear Barak say these things today. It goes back to what I told that Israeli math professor in the laundry room when he wanted to know how Israel could have avoided war with Lebanon. I told him I wished that Israel would even occasionally speak out against American heavy-handedness in the Middle East, would call for moderation and compassion regarding Iraq or Iran, and multilateral dialogue between Arab states and the West. I wish more of Israel’s prominent statesmen would say many of the things Ehud Barak said tonight. Such statements could only benefit Israel’s image in the Middle East and, consequently, improve its security.

Regarding Israel’s supposed nuclear capacity, I must note for my friend the liberal Israeli professor that Barak did say, unequivocally, that no Israeli Prime Minister has ever confirmed or denied a nuclear capacity in Israel. And I sympathize with Barak’s statement that it is the first duty of the Israeli government to protect its citizens; that is the first principal of the Hobbesian idea of a social contract between a government and the governed. However, I caution moderation, and I say again that it does not matter whether Israel has 200 nuclear weapons as my Kurdish friend says, or none at all. So long as Israel’s neighbors believe the rumors of Israel’s nuclear capability, or even the nuclear capability of Israel’s allies like the United States, they will continue to develop weapons of their own to defend themselves against Israel.

In the Cold War, lines were clearly drawn. Some countries were communist or aligned with the Soviet Union, others were democratic, aligned with the Allies. The developing world was divided between nations where Peace Corps Volunteers and Western Europeans worked towards democratic equality, and where Soviets assisted in bringing about communist egalitarianism. Today the lines are far fuzzier, but the alliances of rich, free nations with poor, hopeful nations are no less important than they were. Our parents did not want us to grow up to be filthy communists or dirty capitalists. We do not want our children to grow up to be terrorists, or terrified. Avoiding that effort entails a global effort, and global compromise. In a tug-o-war, both sides can win if both sides give a little slack.