The London-based Spectator Magazine is the oldest magazine in the world. Its founder, the Scottish Robert Stephen Rintoul, launched its first issue in 1828. Today, it focuses on news, politics and culture and has a pronounced conservative outlook.
Some of its writers will be immediately recognized by readers of The Jewish Press like Douglas Murray and Boris Johnson, ex-Spectator editor and former British Prime Minister. It is staunchly pro-Israel.
That makes its recent series of interviews on “Spectator TV” all the more baffling.
The Assistant Editor is Feddy Gray who chose to interview Professor John Mearsheimer.
You may have heard of him. John Mearsheimer is the joint author of the 2007 book called The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.
The book caused a storm of criticism that it was antisemitic and used classic anti-Jewish canards about Jews controlling the U.S. government.
The authors denied that their work was intended to propagate antisemitic conspiracy theories and claimed that they never intended to solely blame Israel for America’s problems in the Middle East.
A summary of the controversy from the internet says, “The question of whether ‘The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy’ is antisemitic is complex and contested. While the authors deny any antisemitic intent, their work has been widely criticized for its potential to reinforce antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories.”
The question of Mearsheimer’s alleged antisemitism was firmly settled for me by that Spectator interview.
After only three minutes, he volunteered the opinion that Israel was guilty of “genocide.” This Hamas propaganda weapon is routinely damned as such by several of the Spectator’s star writers, but this time the Deputy Editor let it pass without comment.
Later Mearsheimer accused Israel of “Ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.” Again, this passed without challenge from the interviewer.
As I sat watching and getting hotter under the collar, Mearsheimer went on to blithely deny that Israel faced any real threat to its existence from Iran or its immediate neighbors.
At this point my collar nearly caught fire when he suddenly added, “The greatest threat to Israel is internal. It’s the centrifugal forces that are tearing apart Israeli society.”
He then quoted a figure of 60% of Israelis believing there’s a serious threat of civil war and concluded, “This tells you that Israel has internal problems that need to be fixed if this country is to have a bright future.”
I don’t know if he said that with pleasure, savoring the prospect or not, but it immediately replaced my feelings of anger with deep concern. What he said struck a chord and it was a familiar and a jarring one.
Sitting here in Jerusalem on day four of Israel’s preemptive attacks on Iran, I recall the message I posted on my social media page on day one:
My belief, based on Rashi’s commentary on the story of Noach and hundreds of other sources, is that unity amongst the Jewish people, especially at a time of a threat to our very existence, is our greatest defense and persuader for Heaven to intervene on our behalf.
At this moment then, if there is any way that a Jewish person can cancel a grudge or a severed relationship, that would be creating a shield and “currency” that can be spent on our behalf above. Every act of kindness shown and expression of concern for others is part of that investment.
So, sitting in my “safe room,” I am thinking about all the resentments and hurts I have felt from or about other Jewish people and working hard to delete and cancel every last one. I’m also thinking hard about anyone I might have to ask for their cancellation of anything I have done to hurt them.
I think that this will help us all. Am Yisrael Chai, and the Alm-ghty, the Shomer Yisrael…Protector of Israel… should have mercy on us all.
That post immediately garnered 62 “likes” but one person wrote to protest, “The problem is can there really be unity in Israel when some people like my sons are carrying the burden of protecting the country against its enemies, whilst others use the Torah as an excuse for not risking their lives to do so?”
I replied suggesting that there are many who genuinely and passionately believe that the Torah is protecting Jewish lives, military and civilian.
We two are now in a positive dialogue about this seemingly intractable issue.
But I believe that it is one that can be solved and since the Oct. 7th attack from Gaza it seems that solution appears to be happening.
He is not the only one I have been in touch with about this problem.
The tzaddik, Rabbi Leo Dee from England, made aliyah in 2014. Tragically and appallingly, his wife Lucy and two daughters, Maia and Rina were slaughtered by Palestinian terrorists while driving to Tiberias for Pesach.
The World Mizrachi website writes of him, “Now he spends his time trying to promote shalom, with messages of personal shalom, national shalom and global shalom.”
In an intriguing essay entitled, “The charedim are our Secret Weapon” he debunks some myths about this section of Israeli society. “Some people are warning that the exponential growth of Israel’s charedi population spells disaster for its economy because they don’t work or fight in the army. This prediction is wrong…. Firstly, 65% of charedi men and 85% of charedi women do work; the numbers have grown steeply over the past three years.”
Rabbi Dee argues that fact shows charedim significantly contributing to the State’s economy. This is far from the secular belief that they are a drain on Israel. Then Rabbi Dee addresses the army question. “I do believe that charedim should volunteer for the army, or for national service and “pull their weight” in the institutions that support our society. But if we draft them in an aggressive or haphazard manner in order to “modernize” charedi society, we might end up killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
A solution to integration of charedim into Israeli society is clearly needed, but we must be sensitive to maintaining their culture and way of life so that we can continue to benefit from the birth and education of many more Israeli children for generations to come.”
Balanced and wise words and ones that can change that centrifugal threat to the State of Israel.
This is something we can and should revisit after Hashem delivers us a victory against a Persian enemy as evil and cruel as Haman.
In the meantime, my sincere belief, based on hundreds of Torah sources, is that unity amongst the Jewish people, especially at a time of a threat to our very existence, is our greatest defense and persuader for Heaven to intervene on our behalf.
Anything we can do to create it…we must.
