Suddenly, a speech by John McCain’s brother, Joe, is making the rounds on the internet. I have received it over twenty times in as many hours. And although it’s not new (it was given as an address to a synagogue in St. Louis in 2002), both it and the reception it is receiving are quite telling. I hope that you will read it in full and tell me what you think it means.
The talk includes the following lines:

There is a lot of worry popping up in the media just now — “Can Israel Survive?” Don’t worry about it. It relates to something that Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don’t realize — the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world doesn’t come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to die. It’s as simple as that….And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them….The Jews will not go quietly again.

Frankly, I find his appreciation of the centrality of Israel to so many Jews inspiring, his sense of the ferocity with which Israelis would defend their state largely accurate, and his apocalyptic version of the story combined with a somewhat skewed history to support it, quite troubling. To begin with, his use of the term, “the Jews” is a misnomer. There is no such thing as “the Jews”, except in the twisted fantasies of anti-Semites who imagine an annual conclave at which we all gather to elect a leader and spread across the world in some mutually agreed upon nefarious fashion.

Secondly, no matter how much McCain’s original audience, or any since, appreciates his remarks; the dark apocalypticism in which they are couched is really not so healthy. The doomsday scenario that he predicts, even if accurate, is surely not the basis upon which to support the existence of the State of Israel anymore than a relentless campaign of suicide terror is the basis upon which to support the creation of a Palestinian state.
His claim that “Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around race of people have been the Jews”, is hardly something of which to be proud, or the consciousness which should produce a commitment to continued Jewish existence. If the only reason we persist in existing is to prove that we can keep on existing, then it’s probably time to hang it up. Not to mention that Jews are hardly the only ones who would make this claim. I have heard it from Native American Indians, Koreans, and so many more. And in each case, such survivalist understanding of identity proves bad both for those who subscribe to it and for those around them.
It’s bad for those claiming it because they loose touch with any larger purpose to their existence as a community. They end up with no understanding of themselves beyond the winners of some agonizing endurance contest. If that is all that is left of Jewishness – and it is NOT – then I would be the first to encourage us all joining some other club. It’s like I told a friend of mine who was obsessed with his children remaining Jewish so that they could vigilantly fight against anti-Semitism.
When I asked him what they should fight for, not against, he really couldn’t tell me. So I told him that if he could not answer that question, I had a much better solution to anti-Semitism: mass conversion to anything else. My point was not that it was a good idea, but that an identity worthy of maintaining is worthy because of that which it does both for those who affirm it and for the world in which they live, not simply because one likes having something for which to fight.
So I appreciate Joe McCain’s words, but would appreciate them even more if they understood the fierce connection that so many feel to Israel because it is the great opportunity for Jews to take charge of their own destiny, create a good society, to nurture the only true democracy in the Middle East, to serve as a global leader in advancing medical and technological capacity, and so much more.
Israel is far from perfect and will never realize its full potential until it helps all those in the region to find a home of their own. But there is so much that is good, that we should focus on what the world would lose if it lost Israel, not how bloody the fight would be if that possibility ever looms before us.