To:
I am not Jewish but...
Mar. 19, 2009
RUPERT MURDOCH , THE JERUSALEM POST
Over the years, some of my wildest critics seem to have assumed I am Jewish.
At the same time, some of my closest friends wish I were.
So let me set the record straight: I live in New York. I have a wife who
craves Chinese food. And people I trust tell me I practically invented the
word "chutzpah."
Ladies and gentleman, I am humbled by the honor you have given me - because
this award speaks more to your good work than it does to mine.
The American Jewish Committee started in response to the persecution of Jews
in czarist Russia. And your response took a very American form: an
organization that would speak up for those who could not speak for
themselves.
In the century since your founding, the American Jewish Committee has become
one of the world's most influential organizations. Yet though your concerns
begin with the safety and welfare of Jews, these concerns are anything but
parochial. The reason for this is clear: You know that the best guarantee of
the security of Jews anywhere is the freedom of people everywhere.
Your good work has helped bring real and lasting changes to our world.
Unfortunately, while some threats have been defeated, new ones have taken
their place. And these new threats remind us the AJC's work is more vital
than ever.
In Europe, men and woman who bear the tattoos of concentration camps today
look out on a continent where Jewish lives and Jewish property are under
attack - and public debate is poisoned by an anti-Semitism we thought had
been dispatched to history's dustbin.
In Iran, we see a regime that backs Hizbullah and Hamas now on course to
acquire a nuclear weapon.
In India, we see Islamic terrorists single out the Mumbai Jewish Center in a
well-planned and well-coordinated attack that looks like it could be a test
run for similar attacks in similar cities around the world.
MOST FUNDAMENTALLY, we see a growing assault on both the legitimacy and
security of the State of Israel.
This assault comes from people who make clear they have no intention of ever
living side-by-side in peace with a Jewish state - no matter how many
concessions Israel might make. The reason for this is also clear: These are
men who cannot abide the idea of freedom, tolerance and democracy. They hate
Israel for the same reasons they hate us.
As I speak, the flashpoint is Gaza. For months now, Hamas has been raining
down rockets on Israeli civilians. Like all terrorist attacks, the aim is to
spread fear within free societies, and to paralyze its leaders. This Israel
cannot afford. I do not need to tell anyone in this room that no sovereign
nation can sit by while its civilian population is attacked.
Hamas knows this better than we do. And Hamas understands something else as
well: In the 21st century, when democratic states respond to terrorist
attacks, they face two terrible handicaps.
THE FIRST HANDICAP is military. It's true that Israel's conventional
superiority means it could flatten Gaza if it wanted. But the Israel Defense
Forces - unlike Hamas - are accountable to a democratically chosen
government.
No matter which party is in the majority, every Israeli government knows it
will be held accountable by its people and by the world for the lives that
are lost because of its decisions. That's true for lives of innocent
Palestinians caught in the crossfire. And it's also true for the Israeli
soldiers who may lose their lives defending their people.
In this kind of war, Hamas does not need to defeat Israel militarily to win
a big victory. In fact, Hamas knows that in some ways, dead Palestinians
serve its purposes even better than dead Israelis.
In the West we look at this and say, "It makes no sense." But it does make
sense.
If you are committed to Israel's destruction, and if you believe that dead
Palestinians help you score a propaganda victory, you do things like launch
rockets from a Palestinian schoolyard. This ensures that when the Israelis
do respond, it will likely lead to the death of an innocent Palestinian - no
matter how many precautions Israeli soldiers take.
Hamas gets away with this, moreover, because it does not rule Gaza by the
consent of those it claims to represent. It rules by fear and intimidation.
It is accountable to no one but itself.
This is the chilling logic of Gaza. And it helps explain why even a strong
military power like Israel can find itself at a disadvantage on the ground.
THE SECOND HANDICAP for Israel is the global media war. For Hamas, the
images of Palestinian suffering - of people losing their homes, of parents
mourning their dead children, of tanks rolling through the streets - create
sympathy for its cause.
In a battle marked by street to street fighting, the death of innocents is
all but inevitable. That is also true of Gaza. And these deaths have led
some to call for Israel to be charged with war crimes by an international
tribunal.
But I am curious: Why do we never hear calls for Hamas leaders to be charged
with war crimes?
Why, for example, do we hear no calls for human rights investigations into
Hamas gunmen using Palestinian children as human shields? Why so few stories
on the reports of Hamas assassins going to hospitals to hunt down their
fellow Palestinians? And where are the international human rights groups
demanding that Hamas stop blurring the most fundamental line in warfare: the
distinction between civilian and combatant?
I suspect the answer has to do with the same grim logic that leads Hamas to
provoke a military battle it knows it cannot win. Whether Israel is ever
found guilty of any war crime hardly matters. Hamas gets a propaganda win
simply by having the charge made often and loudly enough.
In this, Israel finds itself in much the same position the United States
found itself in Iraq before the surge. There, al-Qaida realized that it was
in its interests to provoke sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni - no
matter what the cost to innocent Iraqis. That is the nature of terror. And
what we are seeing in Gaza is just one front in this much larger war.
IN THE WEST, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the
help of Europe and the United States. Tonight I say to you: Maybe we should
start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we
allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel.
In this new century, the "West" is no longer a matter of geography. The West
is defined by societies committed to freedom and democracy. That at least is
how the terrorists see it. And if we are serious about meeting this
challenge, we would expand the only military alliance committed to the
defense of the West to include those on the front lines of this war. That
means bringing countries such as Israel into NATO.
My friends, I do not pretend to have all the answers to Gaza this evening.
But I do know this: The free world makes a terrible mistake if we deceive
ourselves into thinking this is not our fight.
In the end, the Israeli people are fighting the same enemy we are:
cold-blooded killers who reject peace, who reject freedom and who rule by
the suicide vest, the car bomb and the human shield.
Against such an enemy, I will not second-guess the decisions of a free
Israel defending her citizens. And I would ask all those who support peace
and freedom to do the same.
Adapted from a March 4 speech to the American Jewish Committee by the
chairman and CEO of News Corporation on receiving its National Human
Relations Award.
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