Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Israel is trapped in the defeatist and self-effacing rhetoric of contemporary public discourse. I am happy to report, however, that with the help of some very talented and politically astute colleagues in Israel and America, I have founded the Israel-America Renaissance Institute, and one of its functions is to overcome this lethal character of contemporary public discourse. What’s wrong with it?
It’s boring, its weak, and it allows the enemy to set the terms and rules of engagement. Its rhetoric of “peace,” “security,” and “democracy” is self-effacing. The word “peace” appeals to the weak, people who fear violent death. Fear of violent death is most prominent in regimes that have forsaken their spiritual ideas and ideals—regimes steeped in materialism where the Mall and the sports arena have taken the place of the church.
The “peace” people seek in such regimes means nothing more than comfortable self-preservation—security plus commodious living. Peace and security have become the shibboleths of the declining secular democratic state.
Israel’s government fixates on security. Its timid and pedestrian politicians emphasize security because there’s nothing controversial or distinctively Jewish about this mantra. Security is the legitimate concern of any country. You don’t have to think out of the box. But has Israel’s fixation on security made her more secure? Has it elevated and energized Israel’s morale—the first ingredient of a nation’s ability to defend itself? I don’t think so.
Security is not a defining national goal, one that distinguishes Israel from any other country. It’s not a positive goal that inspires people with national pride. It doesn’t strengthen our ancient faith and fighting spirit.
The one thing lacking in Israel is a goal that systematically invigorates the nation’s collective memory and political creativity, that enhances her identity as the world’s one and only Jewish commonwealth—the nation that gave mankind the Book of Books, the Torah. Yes, it was the Torah that liberated men and nations from idolatry and paganism. It was the Torah, by its lapidary sentence in Genesis that man is created in the Image of God that elevated humanity and proclaimed the moral unity of the human race denied by Islam. This should be Israel’s message, conveyed quietly, as on cat’s paws.
While Islam’s arrogant leaders trumpet Allah, Israel’s leaders should unpretentiously refer to God’s sacred Covenant with the Patriarchs and quote the benign teachings of Isaiah and other prophets. They should softly remind Jews and Gentiles of the centrality of Eretz Yisrael, both in God’s Covenant with the Patriarchs and in the teachings of the Prophets, and they should project a partnership of Jews and Gentiles in building the Jerusalem Temple. Nor is this all.
Israel’s leaders should speak and act in a manner that does justice to what Gentile scholars and statesmen have said about the Jewish People, for example by Harvard graduate John Adams, the second President of the United States and perhaps the most learned of America’s Founding Fathers, who fondly declared: “The Jews have done more to civilize men than any other Nation. They are the most glorious Nation that ever inhabited the earth. The Romans and their Empire were but a bauble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of Mankind more, and more happily than any other Nation, ancient or modern.”
Of course this praise should be said to Jews, but it will be heard abroad, and it will inspire Israel’s Christian friends and perhaps make Muslims stammer and stutter.
Further, Israel’s leaders should sometimes quote the presidents of America’s colonial colleges, such as Ezra Stiles of Yale and Samuel Langdon of Harvard, who were learned in Hebrew, conversed with Rabbis, and regarded the Hebraic Republic of antiquity as an excellent model of government. In fact, prominent Catholic and Protestant Hebraists in Europe praised the laws of the Hebraic Republic as the wisest and most just in history. The great English polymath and Hebraist John Sheldon proposed that Britain scrap its parliament and substitute the Sanhedrin!
Surely discreet references to such historical facts would enhance Jewish national pride on the one hand, and disconcert Israel’s enemies on the other. And it will also bolster Christians in America harassed by the politically-motivated atheism currently sweeping that country—with the encouragement of a post-American president whose left-wing supporters are undermining the American Constitution and trashing what Lincoln deemed the heart and soul of America—her theologically inspired Declaration of Independence.
I have virtually finished a book on the subject, showing that Christian Hebraism profoundly influenced America’s foundational documents, and I believe Israel owes it to America to help her restore her ancient faith. This is a major purpose of the Israel-America Renaissance Institute (I-ARI) mentioned earlier and which I am currently heading.
We shall have more to say about our Institute in future articles. But I want to reiterate one of its goals: to change the subversive language of contemporary public discourse, as we have begun to do in this article. We want to encourage Israel and America to go on the ideological offensive against the enemies of our God-given rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness—immutable rights proclaimed in America’s Declaration of Independence whose authors were educated in colleges that emphasized Hebraic studies in order to better understand the Bible of Israel.
The Israel-American Renassaince Institute website is at http://i-ari.org.
Smarty the Sarah
By Jim Robbins
Sarah Palin’s critics routinely mock her intellect, so when the state of Alaska released 24,000 emails she wrote while serving as governor, “AOL Weird News,” an offbeat component of AOL.com, had a representative sample analyzed to see how well she wrote. They expected the results to confirm their anti-Palin bias, but they were in for a surprise.
Far from being an illiterate bumpkin, the standard Flesch-Kincaid readability test showed that Ms. Palin’s emails were written at an 8.5 grade level. This was “an excellent score for a chief executive,” AOLWN reported. To put some perspective on this number, Martin Luther King’s August 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech — much more heavily edited than Ms. Palin’s emails — ranked at 8.8 on the same scale, while Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address came in at 9.1.
A study by Smart Politics on the readability ratings of recent State of the Union addresses also showed Ms. Palin in good company. President George H.W. Bush’s average SOTU score was 8.6. Bill Clinton came in at 9.5. Ronald Reagan, who like Ms. Palin was heavily criticized by liberals and regarded as a doddering old fool, logged an impressive 10.3 rating. And George W. Bush, who earned even more left-wing contempt than Mr. Reagan, if that’s possible, edged the Great Communicator with a10.4 ranking.
Then there is President Obama, heralded as the smartest president and the most gifted orator in living memory, but whose 2008 “Yes we can!” victory speech came in at a comparatively anemic Flesch-Kincaid rating of 7.4. Some numbers just speak for themselves.
James S. Robbins is senior editorial writer for foreign affairs at the Washington Times. His latest book is “This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive,” published by Encounter Books. He can be contacted at jrobbins@washingtontimes.com.
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