Mona Charen: Reform Jews' take on Iraq is illogical

[question everything]

Originally published Monday, December 19, 2005

Reform Jews' take on Iraq is illogical

Ultraliberal Jews and Protestants are ignoring history by urging U.S. to cave in to terrorism.
By Mona Charen

Apparently eager to disprove the Jewish reputation for intelligence, the Union for Reform Judaism recently adopted a resolution condemning the Iraq War and demanding that President Bush provide "a clear exit strategy," including a plan for troop withdrawals. In a letter to President Bush alerting him to the URJ's action, Robert Heller and Rabbi Eric Yoffe lost no opportunity to flaunt their supposed moral sensitivity.

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There is nothing new about Reform Jews adopting leftist positions. But this one is particularly galling. Consider the irony: Throughout the Muslim world, from Indonesia to Egypt to Pakistan, huge numbers are convinced that the United States is engaged in Iraq only because a powerful cabal of Jews lured the nation into it. Millions are certain that Jews did not show up for work at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, because they were in on the sinister plan by the Israeli Mossad or the CIA to hijack planes, fly them into the buildings and then blame al-Qaida. There is only one group that our Islamist enemy hates more than Americans, and that is -- guess who? Surely, of all people, American Jews ought to have the clearest insight into the stakes in the war on terror. Is Daniel Pearl's fate not instructive?

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What is unforgivable is the way these American Jews are being chumps. In their pompous proclamation, they distance themselves from ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and Racism), but they offer a big smooch to the United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society (UMC), declaring that these (among others) have "goals and values more consistent with our own." These are ultra liberal church groups (though obviously none of these groups can claim to speak for every person within the denomination).

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The Islamists know this full well and are banking that just a few more roadside bombs will tip the balance of American public opinion. Reform Jews would have us abandon this struggle for the sake of "world opinion." They might want to revisit former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's robust reply when confronted with condemnation from many nations: "We are not going to die so that the world will speak well of us."

Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C. Her e-mail address is [e-mail].


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