To My Former Dean and Other 'Court Jews'
by Josh Ruebner
Dear Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz,
I doubt it if you remember me. That’s okay though. I don’t think that I
did anything to merit drawing the attention of the dean as a graduate
student at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
(SAIS). I was pretty bookish at SAIS and spent more than my share of time
toiling over economic models in the library. As the dean of SAIS, I am sure
that you had fleeting contact with hundreds of students like myself. I
think that we shared a few coffees together during your weekly breakfast
meetings with students. I thought that custom was classy and demonstrated
the importance that you placed on being in touch with us. I liked the fact
that you invariably showed up at our Friday afternoon Happy Hour ritual in
the courtyard when we all unwound after an intense week of studies.
The comfortable, accessible relationship that you had with your students at
SAIS makes it difficult for me to address you as the Assistant Secretary of
Defense of the United States of America. It sounds so formal and removed,
doesn’t it? Yet I wouldn’t have the audacity to call you by your first name
either. Perhaps, for the sake of this letter, I can simply call you
"brother." I hope that you do not take offense at this intimate
appellation. But, you see, I am not writing this letter as a secular
American critic of a unilateralist U.S. foreign policy that has run amok.
Instead, I decided to write to you as one fellow Jew to another. And as
Jews, we do share that intimate connection and shared sense of destiny even
if we do not really know each other. Perhaps in Hebrew school you learned
the dictum kol yisrael arevim zeh la’zeh—that all Jews are responsible for
and to each other. It is in this spirit of mutual responsibility that I
write to you.
Brother, I am concerned about you. I am concerned that you are being
exploited and that you do not realize it. Before you discard my pro-peace,
anti-imperialism views about the war in Iraq as the ranting of an aberrant
SAIS student who somehow escaped from the school’s neo-conservative
straitjacket, I plead with you to engage in chesbon nefesh—that powerful,
beautiful Jewish tradition of "soul accounting" in which we engage during
the High Holidays. Before the bombs start falling on the long-suffering,
innocent civilians of Baghdad, please look into your heart and ask yourself
honestly whose interests you are serving by being such a visible symbol of
this policy.
Lately I have come to the disturbing conclusion that the Bush Administration
is using you as its "court Jew" par excellence. Rest assured, this is not a
term that I learned during my studies at SAIS. Rather I picked it up in the
course of my involvement with the Jewish peace movement which is calling
simultaneously for an end to Israel’s self-destructive military occupation
of Palestine and is helping to mobilize the millions of good-hearted
Americans who have taken to the streets to protest the war of aggression
that the Bush Administration is pedaling.
"Court Jew" is a term that originates in the context of anti-Semitism in
"enlightened" Europe. On that blood-soaked continent, the reigning monarchs
and other despotic rulers thought up an ingenious system to perpetuate their
oppressive systems of government. These shrewd, Machiavellian rulers made a
psychologically brilliant pact with an elite, assimilationist group of
Jewish subjects who craved nothing more than acceptance by the power
structure of society. Often, these ambitious Jews were so eager to serve
the interests of the rulers so that they could ease their feelings of
internalized self-hatred. They viewed serving the power structure as a way
to overcome the marginality and stigmas associated with being Jewish which
were built into the very fabric of society by the power structure to begin
with. The rulers understood this yearning to enter the halls of power and
took advantage of it by dangling a carrot of illusional power before the
hungry eyes of this wayward Jewish elite. These "court Jews" were given
politically unimportant, yet highly visible positions within the regime.
Why? So that when the subjected masses rose up from time to time in
justified outrage at the oppressive nature of the regime under which they
lived, there was a convenient, ready-made scapegoat in place. The "court
Jew," as a highly visible symbol of the regime, served as the lighting rod
to bear the brunt of the blame and deflect criticism from where it belonged
rightfully. Brother, need I remind you how disastrous it was for our people
to be the target of this rage? I think that you would agree that, in
retrospect, it would have been better not to have played the fool for those
European monarchs.
But, alas, the tragic mistakes of history do tend to repeat themselves.
(Brother, it makes we wonder sometimes if the global community of human
beings is making "progress" toward anything worth progressing to.) Maybe
you don’t see it coming, but I do. Your job is to interact in the high-brow
world of intelligence briefings and diplomacy. My job is to interact with
the people and mobilize them against the very steps that you’re taking.
With all due respect, I think that I am in a better position to hear what
the people are saying. Do you know what they’re saying already? That the
war in Iraq is being planned by a cabal of extremist Jews. That it is the
first part of a Zionist conspiracy to redraw the map of the Middle East.
That Israel stands to be the prime beneficiary of this war. And it’s not
just the marginalized skinheads who are saying this either. It’s also
mainstream folks who would swear up and down that they don’t have an
anti-Semitic bone in their bodies. I’m sure that you, like me, recoiled in
horror when you heard Congressman Jim Moran assert that it is the Jews who
are advocating for this war and that only the Jews have the power to stop
it.
It pains me that so many of my fellow citizens are falling into this age-old
trap of blaming the powerless Jews who seem so powerful because of the
existence of a handful of "court Jews" who front for the power structure.
This doesn’t mean that the "court Jews" of the unelected Jewish
Establishment haven’t been hawking for this war. They have been. There is
no denying that Israel sent Benjamin Netanyahu to Capitol Hill to testify
for the war in Iraq and "convince" Members of Congress that it was in the
interests of the United States to let loose the dogs of war (as if they
needed much convincing anyway). All of this is true. This is the beauty of
how the system works. Take a few "court Jews" and give them unimpeded
access to the mainstream media and, voila, you create the impression among
the masses that "the Jews" are spoiling for a war. Do you see brother how
you are misrepresenting us? I wish that we in the Jewish peace movement
could have as much access as you do to the mainstream media so that we could
shatter the monolithic view of the Jewish community which the "court Jew" by
definition is set up to propagate. Of course, we are denied that access by
the same power structure which has an interest in making sure that yours is
the only "Jewish" voice heard.
I’m really afraid that we are heading for a calamity. If the people are this
incensed now my brother, how do you think they will feel when American men
and women start returning from the sands of Kuwait in body bags? Who is
going to be blamed if, God forbid, we are subjected to another terrorist
attack? Do these thoughts keep you awake at night? Are you scared like I
am that this imperialistic war in Iraq threatens the existence of the Jewish
people?
My brother, I don’t blame you for accepting the starring role of "court
Jew." It must be a pretty amazing feeling to convince yourself that you
have as much power as everybody says that you do. I hope that I never get
close enough to the power structure of this crumbling, decrepit empire to
get a taste of it. In my humble opinion, there is only one honorable thing
that you can do to undo the shameful damage that you have caused already:
resign. For the sake of your own dignity, you must refuse to be exploited
as the "court Jew." Step down and deprive the power structure of its "court
Jew" and you will expose to the world the actors who really motivate the
Bush Administration. Please, before it is too late, tell the world that it
is not the powerless Jews who are pushing for this war, but the greedy,
venal barons of corporate America who stand to profit while cowering behind
the myth of the all-powerful Jew. Tell everybody what you and I both know.
That the real interests hawking for this war are the defense contractors and
the oil industry who will make billions of dollars to first destroy Iraq and
then "rebuild" it under the protective wing of American "democracy." And,
while you’re at it, please tell the world that the $100 billion the Bush
Administration will require to pay the military-industrial complex to
finance this war of aggression will be sucked from the wallets of the
impoverished American working class which is systematically being stripped
of government services by this rapacious regime.
I am not the type of Jew who generally bases his opinions on whether a
particular action "is good for the Jews." I would like to believe that I
have a more embracing, holistic view of humanity. Maybe it even seems
self-centered to worry about what will happen to the Jews because of this
war when thousands of innocent Iraqis stand to die in order for the United
States to "liberate" their country. I confess though that I’m worried and I
don’t know what else to do with my fear except express it. Brother, it
seems to me to be so painfully obvious that this war will benefit no one but
the corporate interests I mentioned above. Not Jews, not Americans, not
Israelis, not Iraqis, and not Palestinians.
If I’ve sparked even a sliver of doubt in your mind as to the wisdom of the
course you are pursuing, please call me and we can get together for a cup of
coffee over breakfast. It will be just like the good old days at SAIS.
With love,
Josh Ruebner
Josh Ruebner is co-founder of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel
(JPPI) and is a former Analyst of Middle East Affairs for Congressional
Research Service (CRS).
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