Barry Farber
Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004

It was a harmless publication that encouraged third-graders to read, and on the back cover it had a puzzle which the other kids loved and I hated. It depicted a very busy, crowded and complicated street scene under the headline "There Are 99 Things Wrong With This Picture. How Many of Them Can You Find?"

Story Continues Below

Nobody came close to 99, but Andy would always spot 40 or 50 and David 35 or 45. Even the sluggards and the laggards in the class would come up with 20 or 30.

I rarely spotted more than two; like maybe the mailbox was upside down and the school bus was going the wrong way on a one-way street. So in a way I grew up looking at certain things and saying to myself, "Something's wrong with this picture, but I can't figure out what."

One night in Laredo, Texas, during the Clinton administration I nailed it. Not right away, but before dawn the next morning I had it – and held it tightly.

For over 30 years, beginning in the 1960s, I was on the speakers team for Bonds of Israel, the organization that organized lunches and dinners in Jewish communities to tell Israel's story, emphasize Israel's financial need, and try to spur the sale of bonds put out by the Israeli state to finance infrastructure projects. My speeches took me from coast to coast, from Boston to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and from New York City to towns no bigger than Tyler, Texas.

It was easy to turn out all the local leaders - almost always non-Jewish - as well as mayors, governors and occasionally even the vice president. Both major parties accepted the invitation to be part of an Israel Bond rally even before we finished asking. They understood the reasons America supported Israel and they welcomed the association with this quite overt way to show solidarity with Israel and their Jewish neighbors.

And for those 35 years every one of those Bonds of Israel rallies had four things in common: the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the singing of the Israeli anthem "Hatikva," the Hebrew breaking-of-the-bread prayer called Hamotsi, and speeches by the NON-Jewish speakers praising and vowing support for our valiant ally Israel.

That night in Laredo lacked something. The guest of honor was a local Jewish woman who had achieved a high rank in the U.S. Customs Service and was in charge of a huge hunk of the Mexican border. And flying in from Washington to praise her and congratulate her on her big night was none other than the chief himself of the whole Customs Service.

Her subordinates took turns behind the podium praising her. Her boss lavished praise upon her. And he brought a personal note from President Clinton also praising her on her record of excellent service to the United States.

So, what was missing?

I was back at the motel and halfway into pajamas before it hit me. That night's Israel Bond drive was the first in all those 35 years in which NOT ONE SINGLE KIND WORD WAS UTTERED BY ANY OF THE VISITING DIGNITARIES ABOUT ISRAEL!

They had no UNkind words about Israel. But excepting my remarks, the whole evening could just as well have been a Kiwanis Club banquet, a garden club banquet, a country club dinner party or a church gathering to raise money for a new rectory.

Where were those passionate bursts of praise, support and solidarity with Israel from the non-Jewish dignitaries? For the 35 years I had had to sit and listen to them, I was bored. When all of a sudden evidence of that Christian support was absent, I was rattled. I missed the usual 25 or 30 thunderous cliches in support of the Israeli nation.

A few months later I described the above - no more and no less - to the late mayor of Beersheva, Itzhak Rager. I found that disturbing, I told him.

I find it frightening, Rager replied.

The people who will now accuse me of paranoia are the same people who will spiral into depression if their spouse suddenly forgets - or omits - the instinctive and obligatory "I love you" upon parting in the morning.

I recovered from that depression. Upon returning to other cities in other parts of the country I rejoined the legions of Christian leaders eager to voice those 30 pro-Israeli cliches I was denied in Laredo. Laredo, in my mind, was downgraded to less than a tropical storm; an aberration, perhaps.

And now comes Super-Laredo, Mega-Laredo, Laredo-in-Spread-Peacock-Tail glory. This new Laredo is known as the Kerry campaign.

Next Yom Kippur, our Jewish Day of Atonement, I will have to apologize to God for the sin of sadism. There's no mention of sadism per se in the liturgy, but I'm pretty sure God hates it. I'll have to bow my head and beat my breast and atone for enjoying the misery of liberal Jews who always vote Democratic, who despise President Bush, who hate Cheney and Ashcroft, AND WHO CAN'T ESCAPE THE FACT THAT JOHN KERRY NEVER ONCE MENTIONED THE STATE OF ISRAEL IN HIS ACCEPTANCE ADDRESS!

If Mayor Rager were alive, he'd drop dead. In that omnibus no-base-left-untouched, no-button-left-unpushed speech, Sen. John Kerry couldn't even once muster the guts to say something supportive of the state of Israel. Harry Truman recognized Israel five minutes after it declared itself a state. Eisenhower and Kennedy were never bashful to speak out for Israel. Lyndon Johnson: resupply to Israel during the Six-Day War. Richard Nixon: resupply during the Yom Kippur War. Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were never asked to support Israel militarily, but none of them had trouble saying nice things about Israel, even when twisting Israel's arm for concessions in the name of even-handedness.

And now comes the big moment for presidential candidate John Kerry to define himself before the Democratic convention and he pulls a Laredo on us.

Did he forget? Who asked that? Throw him out of the think tank. Why didn't we hear at least one, or HALF of one, of those standard cliches about our steadfast Israeli allies who've maintained their democracy despite the sworn threats of their Arab neighbors to destroy them?

Easy. John Kerry knew the mention of Israel at that convention would have been booed. And robustly. This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party. This is not even your father's Democratic Party. John F. Kennedy himself would not have been allowed to speak at this Democratic Party Convention. (Pro-life; anti-condoms for high school students? C'mon!)

Maybe we'd fail to prove in an American court of law that Al Sharpton's invidious mention of diamond merchants from outside our community somehow referred to Jews in his harangue outside Freddy's emporium in Harlem that resulted in the loss of seven lives. But it's a damned good bet.

And it's also a good bet that only a tiny minority of those assembled Democrats realize that the only Arabs in the Arab world living under Democracy are the Arabs living in Israel. And the hated Israeli fence is there as (thank God) an effective lifesaver against homicide bombers, ready to be removed when the bombers quit coming.

There are Jews reading this right now who wish it had never been written. There are Jews who fear that the media barrage against Israel, unjust though it is, has nonetheless been effective. And an American Jew openly lamenting the fall-away of support from the likes of John Kerry, an American Jew who pleads for a return to the same fervent ritualistic support of non-Jewish leaders that Israel enjoyed from 1948 until Laredo? Well, some Jews will fear we're merely pouring kerosene upon the dry grass in a high wind of potential anti-Semitism.

They'll say to themselves: "Hey, we all feel that way. But cool it! You'll only give ammunition to the real anti-Semites! They'll view this lament as an unfortunate wave-maker."

I view them as that classic cartoon captured by columnist William Safire. A line of Jews in Poland during World War II is up against a stone wall about to be shot by a German firing squad. One of theJews says to the Jew standing beside him, "Do you think I could ask that SS guard for a cigarette?

"Shut up!" says the adjoining Jew. Don't make trouble!"

Israel, the Jewish state supremely tolerant of Muslims and Christians, is the only democracy in the region. There are Arabs serving in the Israeli Parliament. Many Americans critical of Israel dismiss support of Israel as a religious issue.

When Americans of any religion come to regard the survival of any democracy as a religious issue, we Americans have become political atheists.

They don't serve prime ribs at vegetarian banquets. There are no condom-dispensing machines in the men's rooms of the Vatican. But we're about to see the overwhelming majority of American Jews vote for John Kerry despite his refusal to lead his party into support – or at least a kind word – for Israel.

Listen again to the understated wisdom of Rabbi Daniel Lapin, founder of Toward Tradition:

"The American Jewish voter says to the Democratic Party, 'No matter what you do to us, we will always be for you.'

"And the American Jewish voter says to the Republican Party, 'No matter what you do FOR us, we will always be against you.'

"And that," concludes the wise rabbi, "contradicts the myth of Jewish intelligence."

It's hard being the only democracy between the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

One good apple ruins the whole rotten bunch.