Learning the Hard Way

“The Israelis now possess all the nuclear secrets of the United States.”

This is the conclusion of Sean McDade, an investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, after studying a sophisticated Mossad computer theft operation against the United States two years ago. Evidently the Mounties don’t spend all their time riding horses.

“Compared to this espionage coup,” McDade added, “it can be categorically stated that the Jonathan Pollard case is insignificant.”

McDade’s memorandum is quoted in Gordon Thomas’s recent book Seeds of Fire (Dandelion Books), which also deals extensively with Israel’s secret dealings with the Chinese government. Since China sees the United States as its enemy, U.S. nuclear secrets would be a precious bargaining chip for the Israelis.

McDade surmised that this story, “if made public,” might cause a “major scandal.” That depends on whether the American media and American politicians want to make an issue of it. And when it comes to our Israeli “allies,” they are very, very forgiving. The Israelis have never paid a penalty for Pollard’s spying, though they still refuse to return, or even to identify, the stolen documents. So the full damage still can’t be assessed. And the Israelis keep pressing American presidents for Pollard’s release from prison!

Israel, we are told, is “our only reliable ally in the Middle East.” It’s bad enough having Israel’s friendship, but we also get its enemies into the bargain. All this for a mere five billion bucks a year! What a deal!

When it comes to foreign policy, the U.S. Government isn’t playing with a full deck. It’s naive, weak, and corrupt. No other Western government has been foolish enough to get so deeply entangled in Jewish-Muslim hostilities. And Thomas’s book makes it clear that the United States is as far out of its depth in international intrigue as in general policymaking.

Pro-Israel pundits like Daniel Pipes urge us to read the Koran in order to learn what the Islamic world really thinks of us “infidels.” Good advice, but we should also acquaint ourselves with the Talmud to learn how the Israelis regard us “goyim.” Neither religion flatters us, though the Talmud is far more insulting.

It might come as a shock to most Americans to discover that neither Jews nor Muslims live by the New Testament. When President Bush called Islam “a religion of peace,” he displayed the typically American assumption that all religions preach justice, mercy, and universal benevolence. Isn’t that what religion means?

Well, not exactly. Many religions have celebrated conquest and extermination. Christians have even managed to interpret the New Testament as authorizing rough stuff. The Old Testament offers precedents enough for wiping out your enemies, right down to the infants and livestock. The colorful Aztec religious festivals culminated in human sacrifice, nice and slow. The Talmud teaches that all gentiles deserve death; and though it doesn’t urge Jews to kill us all, it does help explain Ariel Sharon.

Even most American Jews are naive about this. In America, Judaism, like Catholicism, has been “refined” into a virtual Protestant denomination, part of what has been called our “civil religion.” Muslims in this country are beginning to be similarly protestantized.

But in the Middle East, people of all faiths still practice that old-time religion. They don’t attend interfaith brotherhood banquets. In Israel, a Christian who tries to convert a Jew is apt to serve a longer prison sentence than a Jew who murders a Christian. In some Muslim countries, a Christian who preaches publicly will be put to death.

This is the world America is eager to barge into, hoping to cajole, bribe, and if necessary bomb these countries until they embrace pluralistic democracy and women’s rights. Visualize liberated Mecca: a city of neon lights, porn shops, and abortion clinics, girls with faces and navels exposed.

Why is the world’s most powerful country also one of the most provincial? Having lost our own cultural roots, we seem to have no sense of the depth of foreign cultures. Isn’t everyone just like us, really? Aren’t the differences only superficial? And can’t these people see how much better off they’ll be if they just abandon their ways and adopt ours?

Assuming that the other fellow is just like you may be a kindly attitude, but in the Middle East it’s a good way to get your pocket picked.

Joseph Sobran