This came to me, and begged to be shared with concerned Jews during the
Holy Days.
May peace be our blessing.
Rebecka Snell Labson
Temple Micah
Denver CO
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 4:49 PM
R. JAMES WOOLSEY:
---------------------------------------------------------
We are all Jews
http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/FSB/030926/art.04.html
I sometimes get asked these days if I'm Jewish - it's my neoconish
views on defense and foreign affairs, I suppose. For a while I would just
say, "No, Presbyterian,' but I've started saying instead, 'Well, I anchor
the Presbyterian wing of JINSA (the Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs)."
What with anti-Semitism growing in Europe and a hideous variety
thereof metastasizing in the Middle East - not to speak of the American
Left's (and a small part of the Right's) hostility to Israel, which
sometimes veers off into anti-Semitism - it seems to me our Jewish
friends could use a bit of solidarity these days. Today, the first day of Rosh
Hashana, celebration of the Jewish New Year, is as good a time as any to
explain why.
It's not only the other two great Abrahamic religions,
Christianity and Islam, that owe a substantial debt to Judaism, it's the
world as a
whole. The reason is that between three and four millennia ago something
happened in the Sinai among a tribe of refugees from Egyptian oppression
that introduced the world to the concept of the rule of law - the idea
that the law is not the whim of, but rather has its source above, those who
rule.
This concept is at the heart of what makes decently-governed
societies possible, whether you sign on to Jefferson's formulation that
we are "endowed by our Creator" with basic rights or prefer the more secular
notion of natural law.
In the absence of one or the other of these bases for the notion
that the rule of law somehow derives from a source above the rulers, electoral
democracy can degenerate into mob rule and capitalism into theft. This
supremacy of the law is what most Americans mean when they say that we
have a "government of laws, not men."
Some aspects of this have gotten a bit muddled recently in the
largely academic debate about whether the United States is or is not an
"empire.' If the US is an empire it's a very odd one: Countries where it
has troops such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Germany suggest they are
unhappy about that and the response is, 'OK," and an offer to leave.
Nero and Napoleon would have been appalled. They would also have
had a hard time understanding the travails of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
One was driven from office by the people's elected representatives for
permitting a cover-up of a clumsy political burglary. The other was
impeached by the House, then acquitted in a Senate trial, for lying under
oath in a deposition taken in what was essentially a sexual harassment
case brought by a private citizen.
What, you may well ask, are the most powerful individuals in the
world doing, if they are emperors, getting held to account by members of
Congress for burglary cover-ups and by private citizens, no less, for
sexual behavior?
The answer is, of course, that neither Nixon nor Clinton, indeed
no American president, is even close to being an emperor. People (and
smaller nations wherein an empire maintains troops) obey emperors, if they
know
what's good for them, without much discussion. These two recent
presidents were, instead, held to account in a distinctly non-imperial way - in
pretty much the same way Elijah humbled Ahab for allowing his queen,
Jezebel, to
frame and execute Naboth and steal his vineyard, and in the way the
prophet Nathan confronted David over his taking Bathsheba and ordering her
husband, Uriah, to the front lines and certain death.
The US does not look back to Rome or France at the height of their
power in determining the way to deal with those who today govern the most
powerful nation in history. Thankfully, in regard to the powerful being
subjected to the rule of law we are, instead, all Jews.
I'VE MAINLY been in synagogues for the bar mitzvas and bat mitzvas
of friends' children. The next time you are, notice what the object of
veneration is - it is the Torah, the law itself. At a point in the
service it is carried, lovingly, around the congregation, greeted as an old
friend. I am convinced that it is this veneration of the law - with its status
above the ruler - that is at the heart of anti-Semitism.
Jews have almost always been the first target of tyrants, because
their beliefs and religious practices, honed by nearly two millennia in
Diaspora, clearly declare that in their view the law is above the ruler:
dietary laws, the dress of the Orthodox, a propensity to contend about
what is a fair interpretation of rules, all stamp Jews with this belief's
being the heart of their history and religion. As a consequence they are often
the first group that dictators, secular or theocratic, feel they must
suppress.
We should all reflect upon the historic reality that when
anti-Semitism raises its head, the rest of us, unless we are willing to
live with a foot on our neck, will be the next targets.
Jewish humor, a distinctive barrier against any propensity to
self-righteousness, permeates American culture. A number of times during
the Cold War, I was involved in arms control negotiations with the Soviets.
No matter how bad the tension across the negotiating table during the day,
Russian and American negotiators would often end up going out for dinner
together. Somehow, even in the most difficult periods, the conversation
frequently turned to trading jokes.
I always thought it remarkable how much Russian humor was suffused
with a wry, self-deprecating, ironic tone both quite funny and somehow
quite familiar to Americans. Later, finding versions of a number of these jokes
and stories in Leo Rosten's wonderful The Joys of Yiddish, I realized the
source of the familiarity.
Six years ago the Immigration and Naturalization Service
imprisoned eight Muslims, Iraqi freedom fighters who were refugees from
Saddam, for
allegedly being security threats to the US. The government's case was
worse than flimsy but it was protected by rules regarding secret evidence.
After a long struggle all eight were freed, and several are now working to
establish democracy in Iraq.
I was one of their lawyers. The majority of my co-counsel, all
acting pro bono, were Jewish. The law is, after all, above the ruler.
To all of us, happy Rosh Hashana.
The writer was director of the Central Intelligence Agency 1993-95.
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