Keuka College opinions & editorials

Why Do We Continue to Support Israel?

by Sander A. Diamond, professor of history, Keuka College

Published Aug 22, 2006

KEUKA PARK, N.Y.— Many people ask why we continue to give unlimited support to Israel in its war with Hezbollah.

In a nation no bigger than New Jersey—a mere 8,019 square miles—the Israelis have resolved to defend their land, no matter the cost. Israel is once again at war with an opponent unlike the nation-states that tried to uproot Israel in the wars of 1948, 1967, and 1973. Hezbollah is the well-trained terrorist finger of the Islamic Republic of Iran whose aim is to destroy the Jewish State and its people. Israel's aim is to destroy Hezbollah and has made the necessary preparations to deal with Iran if it develops nuclear weapons. It has a stockpile of atomic weapons and the missile system to deliver them, along with German-made submarines with cruise missiles.

For President Bush, the demise of Hezbollah is more than a welcome distraction from the war in Iraq. If Israel completes its task, it is hoped that Lebanon will not fall into the hands of Iran's forward legions of terrorists.

But the reasons we support Israel go far deeper.

In the middle years of the sixth decade of the Common Era, a group of Jewish extremists believed they could oust their Roman occupiers from the Land of the Jews, Judaea. Calmer heads cautioned them against taking on the world's mightiest empire but the Zealots prevailed. They made a fatal calculation that still haunts the Jewish psyche.

Vespasian, the Roman emperor and general, was determined to make an example of the consequences of raising a hand to Rome. Hugging the sea, this thin sliver of land had long been a thorn in the side of Rome. Only 30 years before, they put to death a man from Galilee whose followers claimed was the long expected Messiah. In 67 Vespasian struck, landing in Antioch with his legions. He began the systematic destruction of the land where the Jews had lived for more than 1,000 years. One by one, the cities were destroyed and the inhabitants slaughtered.

When his son, Titus, arrived at the gates of Jerusalem, he asked the defenders to surrender. They refused and in 70, the city was leveled along with the heart of Judaism. When the fires died and the rivers of blood dried up, all that remained were the foundation walls of the original temple, later called the "Wailing Wall" for good reason. The memory of what happened 2,000 years ago lives on in ways not fully understood by the outside world.

But what can be understood is this: if the Jews were removed from Western history, it would not be the West as we know it. They are the fountainhead of our traditions which began when Abraham began his epic journey from Ur (Iraq) 2,500 years before the Common Era and laid the foundations of the West.

As the late Pope John Paul II said, "the Jews are the Elder Brothers of the Church." The Jews have been called the "People of the Book" and it was expanded with the New Testament. We draw on the Bible for its wisdom, morality, justice, and a vision for the future; in essence, our core values.

Abraham Lincoln drew his strength from the Book during the darkest period in our history; Woodrow Wilson understood this when he used the word "covenant" to describe his vision of a world body to prevent war; Dr. King elevated his vision when he stood before the seated statue of Lincoln on that hot summer day in 1963 when he appealed to a nation for universal justice for all; and our greatest writers understood the contribution to our imaginations borne out of a small Hebrew tribe.

When John Steinbeck's Depression family crossed the nation in an old car for the land of milk and honey on the Pacific, they were in microcosm making the same epic journey as Moses and his people. So, too, were the millions who arrived on our shore from other nations. Rarely has such a small tribe of people shaped the world in such a great way, giving it its core values, its sense of self, Moses, the books of the Bible, Jesus, Christianity, and the countless Jews who have improved the lot of humankind in literature, the sciences, social sciences, and medicine with names such as Einstein, Salk, Freud, and Spielberg.

We support Israel to prevent a repeat of what happened in August 70 AD, because in so many ways we are all related to the ancient Hebrews, that small tribe whose vision conjoined with the Greco-Roman world and created our world, the West.

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