WILLIAM KRISTOL Weekly Standard -- Three moments stood out for me
as I watched Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech Tuesday from the gallery of
the House of Representatives. Shortly after 11:00 a.m., with the chamber and galleries
full and buzzing with anticipation, the doorkeeper announced in his
stentorian voice, “Mr. Speaker, the prime minister of Israel.” As one
watched Prime Minister Netanyahu enter the chamber, one couldn’t help
but reflect that those words—“the prime minister of Israel”—had never
been uttered, could never have been uttered, prior to 1948. And then,
for the prime minister of Israel to be welcomed enthusiastically by
legislators of the world’s most powerful nation—this was a moment to
savor for anyone, Jew or Gentile, who has been moved by the creation,
survival, and flourishing of the state of Israel. The Zionist song
“Hatikvah,” now the Israeli national anthem, closes by expressing The hope of two thousand years, / To be a free nation in our land, / The land of Zion and Jerusalem.
And here was the prime minister of that free nation, in its historic
land, being warmly greeted by the elected representatives of a great and
free nation both a century and a half older than, and millennia younger
than, Israel.
Second, there was the passage in Netanyahu’s speech that
prompted perhaps the loudest roars of approval, certainly from the
predominantly Jewish spectators in the gallery, but also from Gentiles
on the floor of the House: “We are no longer scattered among the
nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in
our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless
courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people,
can defend ourselves.” Israel as not just a new nation in its ancient
land, but as a nation that can defend itself—that was the Zionist hope.
The prime minister of Israel proclaimed the hope reality, and the
audience was moved by the proclamation and even more by the fact.
Finally, it was moving when Netanyahu quoted the Bible
(Deuteronomy 31:6) in Hebrew. He then of course translated the passage
into English: “Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them.” To
see an Israeli prime minister, speaking to a world audience, quoting the
Bible in the language in which it is written, a language brought back
to day-to-day life in modern Israel . . . this was a moment that will
stay in memory.
One also couldn’t help noticing that Netanyahu quoted only
the first part of Deuteronomy 31:6. He left unsaid the remainder of the
verse: “For the Lord your God Himself marches with you; He will not
fail you or forsake you.” Jews and Christians trust that this is the
case—just as Americans profess, “In God We Trust.” But in neither Israel
nor America do we simply trust in divine providence. In both, “we the
people” have to act, as best we can and on behalf of what is right “as
God gives us to see the right.” Here too one was reminded of the deep
kinship between the two nations, the United States and Israel.
At the end of the speech, as I joined in the sustained
standing ovation for Netanyahu, I thought of a sentence in the 1956
letter by the political philosopher Leo Strauss, in which he tried to
convince the editors of the recently launched National Review
that conservatives should be pro-Israel: “Political Zionism was the
attempt to restore that inner freedom, that simple dignity, of which
only people who remember their heritage and are loyal to their fate are
capable.” One felt, watching the prime minister of Israel speak, that,
whatever other challenges await, in this task political Zionism has been
successful. One also looked forward to the day when the United States
would once again stand unswervingly and unstintingly in the ranks of
those fighting for human freedom and dignity.
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