World politics: We’ve been down this road before

By Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM — The preacher, i.e.. Kohelet,said in the Book of Ecclesiastes, that is as much Greek as Judaic in its philosophy,

מַה-שֶּׁהָיָה הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה וּמַה-שֶּׁנַּעֲשָׂה הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה וְאֵין כָּל-חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Other Greeks warned about the excess of democracy, mob rule, or the tyranny of the majority. American founders were aware of the problem, and the government they created via the Constitution had a number of checks against the mob or majority.

Those checks still exist between Executive, Congress, Court and the States, but they have been undercut to a considerable extent by the way presidential candidates are selected in party primaries. Currently our American friends are suffering the results with two candidates that a majority of neither party wants. The cacophony of dispute is as loud as ever, about who is worse, more self-centered and aggrandizing, or more dangerous with respect to the management of the US or international affairs.

At least since the end of World War II, what happens in the US is crucial world wide. The country no longer has the overwhelming economic and military power that it did in 1945, but it remains more powerful than any other single country. And despite the pull-backs, timidity, or wafflings of Barack Obama, it continues to use its economic and military muscle on the international stage.

So it should be no surprise that Europeans, Israelis, and others are at a high level of concern over a presidential contest between two losers.

Among the items flowing into my mailbox have been competing collections of cartoons. Call them funny, creative, insightful, or ugly as you wish. You can see them here, and here.

What happens in Israel also excites the emotions of its own people and observers.

Interest in Israel does not come from anything like the economic or military might of the US, but world history. We’re saddled with the love-hate that goyim and Jews have displayed toward Jews since the beginning of relevant history, and the turn of events from being victims of the Holocaust and Arab persecution to acquiring the status of Goliath against the Palestinian David. What differs from the Biblical analogy, however, is that the Palestinians, while portraying themselves as the David, have proven as impotent as the Biblical Goliath.

The madness of Palestinians appears in a plan a day, none of which seems to have any substance. Most bizarre is an effort to get the Arab League behind a suit against the British government’s Balfour Declaration of 1917. Palestinian failures to turn history back to 1967 have led them to take an even more daring step over another 50 years.

Perhaps it is necessary for the Palestinians to gamble on the political equivalent of a Hail Mary pass, when the Saudi Foreign Minister speaks publicly about cooperation with Israel.

Blood libels continue to excite Christians, even in Germany where post-Holocaust legislation has generally worked against racial, ethnic, or religious incitement. A university lecturer has created a modern version, whereby the IDF kills Palestinians and harvests their organs for transplant. When faced with a complaint, a university administrator responded that the lesson was not anti-Semitic.

We’ve heard more reliable reports that Egyptian physicians harvested the organs of Africans seized by Bedouin while trying to cross the Sinai desert toward Israel. Those stories have been overshadowed by the fence Israel created against illegal immigrants.

Israeli and overseas Jews also delight in portraying Israel as unholy. Not only are Jews active in BDS in behalf of Palestinians, but Jewish religious extremists to the right and left, ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform compete for attention by their various claims of abominations. For the ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox, those are the “anti-Semitism” or “Christianity” they perceive in Reform and Conservative practices, as well as homosexuality and the demonstrations of lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgenders. Reform and Conservative extremists charge anti-Semitism against the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox for their refusal to allow non-Orthodox rituals at the Western Wall, or to expand the rights of non-Orthodox rabbis to perform marriages, conversions, and divorce.

Even the laid-back British are not free of extremism. The unexpected vote against membership in the European Union unhorsed the existing government, and set Europeans and Brits wondering about individual and collective harms that will transpire.

None of the charges portrayed here are without their rational explanations and justifications. The Western Wall is arguably an Orthodox site, or a site for all Jews. Reform and Conservative Jews should be equal to the Orthodox, or seen as spin offs that produce a situation parallel to Protestants and Catholics who share the label of Christians, but do it differently, and do not demand free expression in one another’s churches.

The British may justify their own rights as a historic nation capable of governing itself, or must remain sufficiently integrated into Europe in order to preserve 70 years of peace and cooperation. The European Union is the greatest event to have occurred since World War II, or has gone off the rails due to extremists among politicians and bureaucrats who crave their own priorities above member countries.

We shouldn’t forget Turkey. Estimates have reached 100,000 for the number of military personnel, journalists, government officials, academics, and others put out of work or arrested by the Erdogan government, in a purge that seems to have gone beyond what is fit for a country claiming to be democratic.

Among the problems for those wanting rational order is the impotence of international law. It comes up against the capacity of “sovereign” governments to act independently, as well as the plethora of radical Islamic terrorists militia. They are accountable to no one. There are also lots of unattached individuals, incited and capable of committing mayhem with easily obtain munitions. They do their thing, and are retroactively included in the accomplishments of terrorist gangs that did not know of their existence.

Going back to the Book of Ecclesiastes, this, too, is not new. Anarchism has a long history, and became prominent in the latter half of the 19th century. The IRA helped define terrorism from the early part of the 20th century.

Whether we start with the Preacher, the Greeks, or the American founders, we are stuck with a great deal of clamor, and either the excess of democracy or simply its expression.

It won’t be clear for some time if the items noted above are passing blips, or episodes that change the drift of history.

All can join the noise. Comments welcome.

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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University.  He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)
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