This election campaign is compelling me to look again at a country I left more than 30 years ago.
I wrote the following to some internet friends.
It's not too much of a stretch to see the presidential campaign focusing on:
Who is better looking? Obama or Palin?
Who gives a better speech? Obama or Palin?
Who has less experience? Obama or Palin?
If that is the way the world's most powerful country selects its leader, God help the rest of us.
One member of the group wrote to me:
You may think this is clever. I think it's insulting.
I grew up as an American patriot. From kindergarten through sixth grade in my public school during the 1940s, I said the Lord's Prayer and saluted the flag every morning. My parents were Republican and my father a McCarthyite.
I am not altogether certain why I came to Israel. I did not flee the United States. I had a good career there, and felt comfortable interacting with people at the summit of national and state government, as well as the military. I have also done well here, occasionally mixing with the elites of several sectors. My students have dealt with presidents and prime ministers.
I do not claim to have influenced either the United States or Israel, but I think that I have learned by observing both countries, and numerous others where I have traveled or resided.
I both admire and fear the United States, and pity many Americans.
The United States is the source of most advances in medicine and gadgetry that make life longer and more productive. The aspiration of creative Israelis is to develop something of value, polish it in the context of a start-up, and sell it for $100 million or more to an American company. We read about one of more of those just about every month.
The size and wealth of the United States has a lot to do with the discoveries and inventions. The structure of taxes and government outlays rewards investment and creativity. Yet they weigh heavily on all but those fortunate enough to have access to the best education and medicine. The students I have met on numerous campuses impress me as woefully unprepared for life. I pity adults who are not healthy, and do not enjoy unusual insurance. They suffer from medical opportunities both stingier and more difficult to comprehend than those in Israel and Europe.
Israel has, without a doubt, benefited from American patronage. Yet American adventures elsewhere in the Middle East have added to the dangers of Americans and the rest of us. I worry about American insistence in influencing the details of Israel's relations with its neighbors. The Secretary of State insists that Israel move a roadblock and avoid building an apartment block, while not chiding the Palestinians for their insistence in moving the clock back by 60 years.
A prospective Vice President says that she receives policy guidance from the Bible. As long as she reads the Bible as I would want her too, I can sleep well. But it is possible to find a variety of commandments in the Bible. I would prefer another way of making policy. While most Vice Presidents spend four years attending ceremonies, this Vice President, if elected, will be the backup of a President who shows signs of his age. Barak Obama has an impressive education, but not much experience. Some of his advisors are frightening in what they have expressed about Israel and Palestine.
Americans chide me for my comments. It is their country, and they will decide who rules.
That is only partly true. Outsiders may not vote, but given American inclinations to police the world and intervene where they will, residents of every country have a right to express themselves. Bill Clinton proposed drawing an international boundary 100 meters from my home. Condoleezza Rice has been insistent about areas that I see from my balcony. My neighbors in French Hill have as much right as residents of Hope, Arkansas, Birmingham, Alabama, or Wasilla, Alaska to comment on the choice of an American President and Vice President.
Most of all, I would like modest aspirations about remaking the Middle East and elsewhere. There is no sign of that in any of the candidates.
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Home tel: 972-2-532-2725
Cell phone: 054-683-5325
Fax: 972-2-582-9144
msira@mscc.huji.ac.il