Fearing For Israel

Ron Rosenbaum's essay on the possibility of a "Second Holocaust" is a profoundly weird piece of work. He loathes Walt and Mearsheimer, of course, and accomplishes the remarkable feat of arguing against Leon Wieseltier from the Right, as he apparently considers Wieseltier unacceptably leftwing on Israel/Palestine issues.

But the bulk of the essay is dedicated to exploring the possibility and dangers of what Rosenbaum calls "the Second Holocaust." "I am not the only one who has written about the potential for a second Holocaust," he says. "It has gone from a marginalized to a virtually mainstream concern among those in touch with the grim reality of the situation. The Israeli historian Benny Morris...recently published an essay in the Jerusalem Post titled "The Second Holocaust Will Be Different." ("Different" in that it will take six seconds or six minutes for a bomb or bombs detonated in Tel Aviv to kill millions of Jews, while it took Hitler six years to kill that many.)"

That's scary stuff, to be sure. Indeed, I agree that a bomb in Tel Aviv is the eminent contemporary threat to worldwide Jewry. But Rosenbaum never says what should be done here. Israel, after all, already has the maximal in retaliatory weaponry: Nuclear capabilities. They already have the protection of America and our unbelievably precise and powerful atomic arsenal. They're building a wall. If that's not security enough, if you still believe that a terrorist will sneak in with a suitcase of uranium and a detonating device, then there's really no answer save to throw up your hands on the Israel thing, conclude that concentrating Jews in a small sliver of land surrounded by hostile nations wasn't a good idea, and begin another diaspora. Or you could possibly try and ratchet down anti-Israeli sentiment in the region, dismantling the settlements, creating a viable and contiguous Arab state, really working to end the root causes of the hatred that would underlie such an attack (my preferred solution).

But Rosenbaum suggests neither of these. Indeed, he doesn't suggest much of anything at all, but given his opinions on Walt and Mearsheimer (and thus American foreign policy), appears to believe we should keep antagonizing the Arab (and Persian) world, keeping them disarmed and semi-colonialized. This will...what? It won't keep terrorists from a nuclear device, nor end the longing for Israel's destruction. It's the worst of all worlds. Yet it's Rosenbaum's apparent conclusion: The greatest danger to global Jewry is an attack on the concentrated Jewish population in Israel that's motivated by Arab hatred for the state, its policies, and its people. In defense, we will continue to make them hate us, continue to live in Israel, and continue to pursue the offending policies.