More from Joshua Muravchik about Israel's present danger

The May 16 issue of WORLD Magazine includes an interview with author and international analyst Joshua Muravchik about why much of the world turned from support of Israel in 1967 to fervent opposition several decades later. This continuation of the interview before students at Patrick Henry College examines recent nuances.

As the pressure on Israel has grown, has it shown the world a face that is less endearing to the left? Israel has become more right of center. That is less enduring to leftists but also less endearing in general, in one important way, which is that right-of-center Israel is more inclined to say, “This land is ours. God gave it to us.” It’s an argument based on Revelation, so if some don’t share your understanding of Revelation, you can’t convince them on that basis. That has made it harder for Israel to maintain support and sympathy.

Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin certainly spoke that way. What about Benjamin Netanyahu? He’s from the same political movement as Begin, but he doesn’t argue in that way. He has said he favors a two-state solution and having a Palestinian state, which by definition means Israel yielding large parts of territory that in Revelation were given to the Jews. He’s willing to countenance that. Begin’s dogmatism did hurt Israel’s standing along the way, but it’s not the dominant position in Israel—even in Begin’s own party.

I know Israel has a strong left-wing movement, but is it anything like our Hate America First movement? America, especially since the demise of the Soviet Union, is a deeply secure country. Terrorists can kill us, but at least at this stage of our history, no other country could conquer us or completely destroy our country. Most of the countries in history haven’t lived with the degree of security we enjoy. Those Americans who hate America can do us only so much damage. But Israel is a terribly insecure country. It’s stronger than its neighbors but it’s certainly a very small country surrounded by violent people who hate it and want it to disappear. So I’ve been astonished to see that in Israel there are Israelis who hate Israel, who think it should disappear. They are not so numerous and can’t get many votes, but as is true here, they are concentrated in academia and in journalism, so they can make their voices heard. Even though they don’t influence Israel very much, they are a tremendous resource for people outside who dislike Israel, because any time critics or haters of Israel want to try to prove a point about how bad Israel is, they can pull out a quote from an Israeli.

Does Israel have some allies in the Arab world? The government of Egypt is working more closely with Israel than any Egyptian government before. There’s a good deal of under-the-table cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Jordan and Israel have close cooperation. Some in the Arab press are writing if there is another war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, a lot of the Arab world will quietly back Israel. This past summer during the war in Gaza, we saw really angry, even nastily anti-Semitic demonstrations in European capitals, but there weren’t any in Arab capitals, which is a first, because in the past there is usually a war between Israel and some part of the Arab world.

Is what’s happening in Europe largely a revival of the old anti-Semitism? For example, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion scam has come back. There certainly is an ancient tradition of anti-Semitism in Europe. Even though anti-Semitism may not be the causal factor of hostility to Israel, there’s a reverse relationship: Hostility to Israel has gotten so feverish and unreasoning and angry and so filled with hatred that it’s overflowing the boundaries that used to make anti-Semitism unacceptable. It’s turned into raw Jew hatred because Israel is a Jewish state. If you think that Israel is the most horrible state in the world, as many have said, then how can you hold the Jewish people blameless for this horrible state? That’s frightening to me. I’m a Jew, born just after World War II. I grew up in this wonderful country and lived in a kind of golden moment for Jews. In my life I have encountered very little prejudice or hatred toward me because I’m a Jew. Now I have the feeling that this ancient prejudice and hatred is flowing back and that my grandchildren are going to grow up in a world in which they are going to have to face a lot of the ugly things that my grandparents had to face.

It’s psychologically permissible for intellectuals now because it doesn’t have to come out as pure anti-Semitism; it can be anti-imperialism, solidarity with the people of color, and so forth. What about media complicity in this? How much is ideology and how much is fear? For example, Associated Press reporters in Gaza witnessing a rocket launch right beside their office but not reporting it because if they do—pow! Israel affords freedom to journalists but in Gaza they face threats unless they toe the line. There are threats and it didn’t start with Hamas. Early during the 2000-2003 intifada two Israelis took a wrong turn, wandered into Ramallah, and were lynched there. It was terribly shocking to Israelis because Ramallah is right near Israel. PLO militants, thugs, officials, whatever you want to call them, confiscated and destroyed the film, but one roll got out through an Italian film crew and was broadcast throughout the world. Then a representative of the main Italian television station RAI wrote a letter to Arafat saying, “It wasn’t our crew that brought out this film because we always make a point of following the guidelines given by the Palestinian Authority.”

Any news report coming out of a dictatorial country should say, “What you’re about to watch is probably propaganda because if it weren’t it probably wouldn’t have gotten out.” Our journalists don’t get training for this kind of situation, which is a conflict between a democratic country and a dictatorial country. And they get basic journalistic training, you have to say A said this, B said that. But what if A comes from an open and democratic government with a lot of internal constraints against deception and lying, but B is in a dictatorship in which no one goes against the government and the government tries to manipulate the news? If a person dies and the claim is that Israelis killed him, the Israeli spokesman says, “We’ll look into it, and if we did, we are certainly sorry. We didn’t mean to.” On the other side, there’s no regard for the truth. Our own journalists don’t know how to negotiate between these two dissimilar camps.

So where do we go from here? The saving grace for Israel is the United States. Poll after poll shows that the American people remain staunchly supportive of Israel. A key reason, maybe the key reason for the American support for Israel being so strong, is that evangelicals have taken Israel into their heart. But the American government now is not supportive of Israel. American governments come and go, but the current U.S. government would jeopardize Israel’s position for the long term, even after this government leaves office, by allowing Iran to achieve a nuclear weapon.