MY VIEW | An Israeli longs for the ‘America’ he knew

I was first introduced to the “America!” brand as a kindergartner on Kibbutz Ramat Yochanan in Israel, thanks to Elazar “Luzer” Halivni, whose ceramics studio was located at the junction of the main road to the kibbutz and the path to the swimming pool.  

One-eyed and misanthropic, Luzer avoided company and preferred his firing oven to his fellow kibbutzniks. But one thing lit a spark of mischief and love in his single eye: children’s laughter.  

When we ran to the pool, he would come out with a garden hose and spray us with cold water as we laughed and shouted “America! America!” Refreshing water streaming over me on a summer’s day was the first “America!” I knew.

For us, America represented all that was good and successful. American products were high quality. In American movies, the hero always won. The American Army was the strongest. America was always on the side of justice. I personally put the theory of “American quality” into practice: I married an American woman and received an American education.

But in recent years, America is no longer looking like the “America!” of my childhood.  

America has climbed down from the watchtower of the world, and that is very worrying. A class needs its teacher, an army unit its commander, a business its CEO. States need governments, and the world needs a leader. International relations, like nature, abhors a vacuum; when the good retreats, the bad advances. A world without a strong America, an America that recognizes its global responsibilities and is willing to shoulder them, is a world that is less safe. 

Israel also needs a strong, supportive America, whereas America does not need Israel. But need is one thing, obligation another. Israel is America’s little sister, in terms of shared values and worldview, whereas the other countries in our neighborhood are not even distant cousins. They may be treaty partners in the cause of common interests, but they are certainly not family.  

We only have to look back to the “Arab Spring” to see that the promise of democracy, human rights, women’s rights and enlightenment dissipated like clouds in the hot Middle Eastern sky, causing inestimable damage. 

From Thomas Friedman’s interview of President Obama on April 5, 2015, in which Obama presented his Iran Doctrine, we can draw three conclusions:

First, Obama may truly believe that Iran will keep its side of the agreement to limit its nuclear power. But anyone who has ever traded with Iranians will argue the opposite. Iranian friends of mine, successful business people whose families fled Iran to America after the Revolution, are convinced Iran will break the agreement before the ink has even dried.  

Second, although some see Obama as anti-Israel, I believe Obama sees himself as our friend. But a friendship is not family. Friendship depends on circumstances and cost/benefit considerations. When the personal relationship between the leaders of America and Israel are at a low point, then so is the relationship between the two countries.  

If the relationship were less “friends” and more “family,” this lack of chemistry could be overcome. Friends change, family is forever. 

And last, ironically, the asset of liberal, modern, intellectual values that Obama brought to the White House has become, in foreign relations, a liability. This is particularly true in his attitude to Israel. Sometimes a black-and-white approach is needed. Recently, I have begun to wonder whether a cowboy from Texas is preferable to an intellectual from Chicago.

I recently discussed the following question with my friend L., a leader of the Canadian Jewish community: What would it take for American public concern to return to the issues of existence, national identity, cohesion and willingness to sacrifice?  

Would it take (God forbid a million times) another, even crueler, 9/11-style attack to turn American attention from the cost of gas, the job market and the Dow Jones Industrial Average back to the values that made it the “America!” we all admired and wanted to emulate, the America of the Declaration of Independence, the Wild West, the Moon Landing, the defeat of the Nazis; America the proud, feeling itself obliged and willing to work hard and even risk the lives of its citizens and soldiers in its role as the leader of the free world?

Does America need a scourge to make it “America!”?  

Sagi Melamed sent this essay to his friend, Sarasotan Jean Weidner Goldstein. Melamed is vice president of External Relations and Development at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College in Israel. He earned his master’s from Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies. His book “Son of My Land” was published in 2013. Email: [email protected].

“For us, America represented all that was good and successful … But in recent years, America … has climbed down from the watchtower of the world.”

– SAGI MELAMED