The Charlotte Jewish News -February 2014 - Page 22
Ariel Sharon’s Forgotten Legacy: Jews Marching to the White House
By Rafael Medoff/JNS.org
Although Ariel Sharon will be
remembered primarily for his
aehievements on the battlefield
and his deeisions as an Israeli po-
litieal leader, an often-overlooked
aspeet of his legaey was his im-
paet on the Ameriean Jewish eom-
munity.
In Mareh 1980, Sharon arrived
in the United States in the midst of
an uproar over the Carter admin
istration’s support of a United Na
tions resolution branding
Jerusalem “oeeupied Arab terri
tory.” Sharon, as a member of
Prime Minister Menaehem
Begin’s eabinet, was invited to ad
dress an urgent meeting of the
Conferenee of Presidents of Major
Ameriean Jewish Organizations,
in New York City.
In his remarks, Sharon eriti-
eized U.S. Jewish leaders for not
responding more vigorously to the
Carter administration’s aetion. He
reealled the hesitant response of
some Jewish leaders during the
Holoeaust, and added, “Jewish si-
lenee will bring disaster upon the
Jewish people and upon Israel.”
Sharon eharged that reeent
friendly meetings between Jewish
leaders and White House offieials
had served to “eover up” the ad
ministration’s tilt away from Is
rael. He urged Ameriean Jews to
speak out strongly against Carter’s
pressure on Israel, and said he was
“shoeked” that 100,000 Jews did
not mareh to the White House to
protest the U.S. vote on the U.N.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld (left) escorts Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon (center) into the Pentagon at the conclusion of a
full honor arrival ceremony for Sharon at the Pentagon on March 19,
2001. Credit: Robert D. Ward via Wikimedia Commons.
resolution.
No transeript of the meeting
was released, but one press report
at the time elaimed that some of
the Jewish leaders in the room
“took umbrage at the interferenee
of the Israeli in sueh strident tones
in Ameriean Jewish affairs.” An
editorial in the New York Jewish
Week said Sharon’s adviee was
“eounter-produetive” beeause it
might give the Ameriean publie
the impression “that all of Amer-
iea’s foreign poliey and domestie
problems are based on Israel.”
But the Jewish Week also em
phasized that “Ameriean Jews, as
voters, have a means of express
ing themselves.” With the 1980
New York presidential primaries
just weeks away, the Week
seemed to be eneouraging Jewish
voters to oppose President
Carter’s re-eleetion.
Sharon was also strongly at-
taeked in the pages of the Jewish
magazine Midstream, by historian
Bernard Wasserstein. “If 1,000
rabbis had marehed up and down
in front of the White House and
had refused to disperse until
something eonerete was done for
the Jews, then, he believes, the ad
ministration’s eonseienee might
have been stirred,” Wasserstein
wrote. “It is a pieturesque see-
nario—and one whieh would no
doubt earn the warm approval of
Ariel Sharon—but, alas, is unae-
eompanied by any supporting ev-
idenee that might raise it to the
level of a serious politieal propo
sition.”
Wasserstein was evidently un
aware that in 1943, just before
Yom Kippur, some 400 rabbis did
mareh to the White House. That
protest garnered important publie-
ity for the eause of reseuing Jew
ish refugees, and helped galvanize
eongressional pressure on the
Roosevelt administration on the
reseue issue.
As it turned out, Sharon was
ahead of the eurve: Ameriean
Jewry did follow his adviee—22
years later.
In the spring of 2002, Israel
was roeked by a series of major
Arab terrorist attaeks, ineluding a
suieide bombing at a Passover
seder in Netanya, whieh killed 30
eivilians, most of them elderly and
many of them Holoeaust sur
vivors.
Sharon, who by then was prime
minister, ordered Operation De
fensive Shield, a major eounter-
terror offensive throughout the
West Bank territories. More than
20,000 Israeli soldiers were mobi
lized to earry out hundreds of
raids, whieh went on for several
weeks and ineluded eapturing or
killing numerous terrorists, seiz
ing weapons depots, and sealing
up safe houses.
Within days, the George W.
Bush administration was pressing
Sharon to halt the operation and
withdraw the troops. Ameriean
Jews responded preeisely as
Sharon had been hoping baek in
1980: on April 15, 2002, more
than 100,000 protesters gathered
near the White House to support
Israel’s aetions. Many evangelieal
Christians also joined the rally.
The New York Times reported
that the rally illustrated the strong
support for Israel, and uneasiness
over President Bush’s position,
among an emerging eoalition of
Jews and eonservative Christians.
Aeeording to the Times, the pres
ident “attempted to mollify the
eonservatives” by sending “one of
the most hawkish members of his
administration. Deputy Seeretary
of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz,” to
speak at the rally. But Wolfowitz
was greeted with boos and ehants
of “No More Arafat!”
In 2002, unlike in 1980, there
were no Jewish leaders “taking
umbrage” at the idea of sueh a
rally, and no expressions of fear
that supporting Israel would eause
a baeklash among the Ameriean
publie. Sharon had been vindi-
eated, and a new standard for pro-
Israel aetivism in the United
States was beginning to take
shape. ^
Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of
The David S. Wyman Institute for
Holocaust Studies, in Washington,
D.C. His latest book is “FDR and
the Holocaust: A Breach of
Faith. ”
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