Open Letter to Ambassador Kurtzer

The following is in response to the OpEd piece of former Amb. Daniel Kurtzer that appeared in the Wahington Post on November 21st. That piece appears below my letter.

Sherwin

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Open Letter to Amb. Daniel Kurtzer


Dear Ambassador Kurtzer,

In reading your recent op ed in the Washington Post (11/21/10) I was reminded of a visit I paid to the Ambassadorial Residence in Herzlia a few years ago when you held the position of US Ambassador to Israel.

Your mother of blessed memory had just passed away, and you took a week off from your busy schedule at the time to observe the traditional weeklong shiva period in her memory. When I came to the residence and saw the many people lined up to pay their respects, Jews (both religious and secular), non-Jews, Arab dignitaries and others, I thought to myself that this was a real kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God’s name. Why? Because it demonstrated to the entire community here in Israel that continuing the line of Jewish tradition was important to you and that even as busy as you were at the time with your official duties, you took the time to honor the memory of your mother by respecting the tradition. I was especially taken to see the tremendous pride on your face as you watched your son, a student at the Har Etzion Yeshiva (located in one of the “settlements” that you regard as an obstacle to peace) share his knowledge of Jewish subjects with those in the audience. No doubt your mother’s entry into the next world was accelerated in merit of his learning and this act of devotion on your part.

Why did your op ed remind me of this? Because I believe that the Washington Post piece, no doubt written with the best intentions, is exactly the opposite, a chillul Hashem, a desecration of God’s name.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinions and your long years of experience in the region, both as US Ambassador to Egypt and later US Ambassador to Israel has given you a perspective that few others in the world enjoy. But that experience coupled with you, as an identified Jews from an observant family and the beneficiary of a religious education, places upon you an even greater responsibility for the continuation of the line of Jewish tradition than that of the average member of our faith.

Your words carry special meaning, your position gives you increased credibility and your ability to express ideas imbues you with the means to convey your thoughts in an intelligent and cohesive manner. As such you need to be especially careful about what you say and how you say it, recognizing that it is specifically because of whom you are that our enemies can use your words against us.

Somewhere in the near future we will read in the press that Daniel Kurtzer, the Jewish former Ambassador of the United States to Israel said:

• …the United States is poised to reward Israel for its bad behavior.
• …the United States has turned a blind eye to indirect U.S. subsidies for Israeli activities in the territories
• Israel’s security requirements are now merely a bargaining chip with which to negotiate what Jerusalem will or will not do to advance the peace process.
• …how seriously should our (i.e. the US’) defense planners and congressional budget watchers take Israel’s arguments about its security needs….

and, of course, they will be taken out of context, as I have done, and ultimately used against us.

Further, where is the balance? Where is the reference to the fact that the first freeze was in place for 10 months and for the first 9 months the Palestinians refused to come to the negotiating table? Where is the reference that in spite of continual efforts at peace by Israel the people now referred to as Palestinians have not budged one inch from the position taken on November 29th 1947 when partition was voted by the U.N.? Where is the reference that Chairman Abbas has now made it clear that the nascent Palestinian state, when it is established, must be Judenrein and that the same must apply to any international troops stationed there to maintain the peace. And what about the fact that the same U.S. that is now demanding continual freezes from us has never permitted Israel to win any war against our enemies who waged those wars in an effort to destroy us?

Ambassador Kurtzer, when intelligent, informed and well respected Jews write pieces like you wrote, they can only be classified as a chillul Hashem, because the result, however well meaning your intentions might be, is that the line of Jewish tradition maintained at such cost over the years, runs the risk of being broken. There are plenty of things that are wrong about Israel, but the thing that most challenges the Jewish people is our ongoing battle against the deniers of truth as they expediently rewrite historical facts to support their anti-Semitic instincts. We have seen enough examples of that this year in the Goldstone Report, Turkey’s response to the flotilla episode and similar diatribes.

The word is still out on whether the current US president has discarded the teachings of the Rev. Wright for a more worldly and universal approach to problem solving. There are, of course, well founded suspicions that he has not. But until we know, we Jews need not do his work for him.

As Jews, it is incumbent upon us to remember that this is the only country that we can call our own and, as such, all of is have an obligation to defend its long term viability. Nothing less will be acceptable.

Sherwin Pomerantz
Jerusalem

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With settlement deal, U.S. will be rewarding Israel's bad behavior
By Daniel Kurtzer

Sunday, November 21, 2010;

It was only a little over a year and a half ago that the Obama administration demanded a freeze on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, including even the "natural growth" of existing settlements. At the time, the administration called settlement activity "illegitimate" and appeared ready to go to the mat with Israel to show just how strongly the United States believed that settlements impede peace.
But now, the administration says it is prepared to pay off Israel to freeze only some of its settlement activity, and only temporarily. For the first time in memory, the United States is poised to reward Israel for its bad behavior.

Here's the offer that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is reported to have put on the table recently: The United States will provide a package of advanced weaponry and military assistance to Israel totaling several billion dollars, all in return for an Israeli commitment to freeze settlement construction for just three months, excluding construction in Jerusalem. During this period, the United States hopes Israel and the Palestinian Authority will negotiate an agreement on the final borders of a future Palestinian state. The Israeli cabinet is weighing the offer, having demanded a letter from Washington confirming the terms.

This is a very bad idea. And while Washington will almost certainly come to regret bribing Israel, Israel may regret receiving such a bribe even more.

Previously, U.S. opposition to settlements resulted in penalties, not rewards, for continued construction. Washington deducted from its loan guarantees to Israel an amount equivalent, dollar for dollar, to the money that Israel spent in the occupied territories. While it's true that the United States has turned a blind eye to indirect U.S. subsidies for Israeli activities in the territories - such as tax deductions for American organizations that fund settlements - the deal now being offered to Israel is of a totally different magnitude. If it goes forward, it will be the first direct benefit that the United States has provided Israel for settlement activities that we have opposed for more than 40 years.

It is not clear that Washington has thought through the implications. Will the United States similarly reward Palestinians for stopping their own bad behavior? Will Washington pay them to, say, halt the incitement against Israel and Jews in their public media and some educational materials - something that shouldn't have
been going on in the first place?

Will the rewards for Israel be automatically renewable? Meaning, if Israel is willing to continue the settlement freeze after three months, will another set of rewards be the price for that?

And what about enforcement? Will the United States demand its money back if it learns about construction during the freeze, even if that construction was not authorized by the Israeli government?

The list of problems is so long that it would not be surprising if the administration were already experiencing buyer's remorse. But the arrangement has an even more serious long-term implication, one that should worry Israel profoundly.
If it goes through, this deal will shake the foundation of the U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership. Since the early 1980s, the two countries have cooperated closely on assessing Israeli security, and Washington has promised to ensure Israel's "qualitative military edge" over any combination of potential Arab adversaries.

This commitment has been insulated from the vicissitudes of politics and diplomacy. Whatever the state of U.S.-Israeli relations or the peace process, America's commitment to Israel's security has been manifest. Not so, if this deal materializes. By subjecting Israel's defense needs to the political demands of an American administration, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has done something quite dangerous for Israel - he has made those needs contingent, negotiable, optional. Israel's security requirements are now merely a bargaining chip with which to negotiate what Jerusalem will or will not do to advance the peace process.
Today, the United States has "purchased" a short-term settlements freeze; what will be for sale tomorrow? For that matter, how seriously should our defense planners and congressional budget watchers take Israel's arguments about its security needs when it is prepared to market different elements of its policy for another squadron of advanced aircraft? Does anyone really believe that there is a substantive connection between a three-month settlement freeze and Israel's professed need for more airplanes?

These short-sighted tactics will lead both the United States and Israel into a long-term bind. Washington will be left fending off a landslide of demands from others who hope to be rewarded for their bad behavior, to be paid for stopping what they should never have been doing. Israel, meanwhile, will be left struggling to explain how precious its settlements really are if a payoff - albeit a high one - is enough to see them frozen.

And both countries will need a new rationale for the exceedingly steep price of what Israel calls its security requirements, but which will now look more like poker chips used to secure American aid.

This bargaining exercise has been unseemly all along. If it proceeds, both sides will probably regret it. But the deal has not yet been sealed. And it is not too late to start over.

(Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, teaches Middle East politics at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.)