JERUSALEM–Politics moves by symbols and slogans. Policymaking operates under an umbrella of politics, but gives more weight to the details of reality.
Examples of the symbols and slogans that have moved American politics are war on drugs, war on terror, and–in the words of a Washington observer with a fancy title– “the writing is on the wall that Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu and the Israeli political right with whom he has formed a governing coalition are going to clash on final status.”
The item comes from the New York Times, a reputable organ that operates both in the realm of politics and that of policymaking. It is quoting Robert Malley, the director of the Middle East program at the International Crisis Group.
The problem is that Mr. Malley is wrong, for the most part. He is correct when he indicates that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition is more right than left of center, but he is wrong when he indicates that it is the Israeli right causing problems for the United States. It is also the Israeli center, and a fair slice of the Israeli left.
The American administration is dealing with other issues where slogans are coming into conflict with reality. A war on drugs and a war against terror have acquired the statue of sacred icons in American politics. Richard Nixon declared war against drugs, when drug use was spiking along with soldiers returning from Vietnam. George W. Bush and 9-11 produced the war against terror. Now the Obama administration is moving away from both labels, seemingly in recognition of the Afghan reality.
The United States military is up to its neck in that country, and the problem of getting out seems to involve recognizing the key role of opium in the economy, and that victory against terror is be beyond the capacity of anyone.
Details about drug use, production and interdiction make the “war on drugs” more like prohibition in the 1920s than what the United States and its allies did in the 1940s against Germany and Japan.
Actions against terror are also less than a full blown war, insofar as they run up against Islam and western multiculturalism.
Signs that the White House is thinking of something other than time honored slogans is its accommodation to a drug-saturated local economy in Afghanistan, and encouraging what may be rapport with hitherto hostile factions. Perhaps the White House will eventually declare success and leave that miserable place to its own future.
Can we hope that the simplicity of an American campaign against an Israeli right will also bow to realities? Much of the Jewish Israeli public looks with wonder at the White House’s obsession about the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The same broad swath of the population asks what is so different in Palestine as to hope that chances for agreement are better now than in 2000 or 2008.
A respected Israeli pollster recently asked respondents if they agreed or disagreed with the characterization of Barack Obama as anti-Semitic. That he even felt it appropriate to ask such a question says something about Israeli concerns. Fifty-six percent of the respondents said that they disagreed. Twenty-seven percent said that they agreed. (Ha’aretz, March 19, 2010).Thus, a majority of Israelis are not willing to demonize the American president. That a significant minority of Israelis said that they agreed with the characterization points to a White House problem of communication.
It is only one survey question, “antisemitism” is a hot button in Israel, and it is a problematic leap from this query to the chances of an Israel-Palestine agreement. However, without convincing more than 56 percent of Israelis about his good intentions, Barack Obama is not likely to accomplish his aspirations.
Barack Obama has had a good week. His success in ratcheting down from initial promises, identifying and accepting workable compromises in health care may assure his reputation as an effective president. Still open is his capacity to go beyond slogans and deal with the realities of Israel and Palestine.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University