The American dream comes to Israel

On Vacation: this is my last essay until the week of May 1, 2014.


US Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to present his ‘framework’ for peace. Thanks to Leftists in Israel, the framework Kerry presents will be hailed with a Chamberlain-like triumph. The Left will be happy. The media in Israel will also be happy. Their headlines will read something like, ‘Look, peace in our time is finally near’.

But Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas will ignore it. He will attack it. He will accuse the US and Israel of attempting to decapitate ‘Palestinian’ dreams.

Kerry will ignore those attacks. Instead, he will lock in on ‘peace’ with a laser-like concentration. He will be relentless in his pressuring of Israel to take what he may call, ‘the deal of the century’.

During these current peace talks, Kerry has demonstrated extraordinary focus. Some have characterized that focus as a psychological obsessiveness. But it isn’t—at least, not in a negative sense. It’s American. It’s how American business leaders have become icons in the marketplace. It’s how America won World War Two. It’s a ‘full speed ahead—damn the torpedoes’ attitude.

It’s the attitude, Americans believe, that always wins. It’s the attitude, Kerry apparently believes, that will bring peace to the Middle East.

His obsessiveness at the diplomatic table is as purely American as apple pie, baseball and Apple computers. He’s Ted Williams and Steven Jobs as diplomat.

That obsessiveness is what made Henry Ford, Jonas Salk and Vince Lombardi great men in their respective fields: the absolute, almost blind commitment to succeed no matter what.

It’s a story-book attitude. It’s what created the American dream. It’s what pushed Thomas Alva Edison to fail 6,000 (or, some say 10,000) times before he found the right filament to make his crazy dream of an electric light bulb become a reality. It’s the obsessive focus that motivated Henry Ford to ignore every failure he faced until he had bullied his way to a workable V-8 engine for a low-cost Ford automobile.

It’s what motives and pushes John Kerry. His focus is not just an obsession. It’s the American magnificent obsession.

It’s wonderful. It’s magical. It’s the stuff of a 1940’s Hollywood classic: once again, success is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.

There’s just one problem. The Arab Middle East is not America. The Arab Middle East sees Hollywood as worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. The Arab Middle East doesn’t obsess over inventions or creating a faster and cheaper way to make hamburger, pizza or personal hygiene products. The Arab Middle East obsesses over spreading Islam. The Arab Middle East obsesses over the sword.

This is why John Kerry ignores PA hostility. If he listened to it, he’s throw up his hands and say, these Arabs don’t want peace. He won’t throw up his hands because he will not be deterred. He will say, full speed ahead—damn the torpedoes.

Kerry is as American as Thomas Edison. Edison was not known for compassion or doing what is ethical and proper. He was not sensitive to those who questioned him.

Kerry wants to be the Vince Lombardi and the Thomas Edison of international politics. Vince Lombardi was a man obsessed about winning on the football field. Edison was obsessed to win with his electricity.

You did not say no to Vince Lombardi. You did not say no to Thomas Edison. You do not say no to John Kerry.

Lombardi and Edison succeeded with that attitude. Kerry aims to succeed, too.

He won’t. The Lombardi-Edison-Ford school of success doesn’t work in the Arab Middle East—unless, that is, you apply it to destroying Israel. Then, obsession makes you famous.

In America, when a struggling businessman says, ‘do or die’, the death he refers to is not a literal death. It is the ‘death’ of his enterprise. His obsession is to work 24 hours a day to make his business work.

But in the Arab Middle East, that ‘do or die’ attitude is literal. Death is part of the obsession.

That’s the difference between the Arab and the American. The Arab is prepared to blow himself up. The American is not.

To the Arab, killing yourself is the ultimate act of commitment. It is the fulfilment of the ultimate religious devotion.

This is why Kerry will fail. His obsession is not the Arab obsession. His commitment is not the Arab commitment. His love of life cannot compare to the Arab embrace of death.

All Kerry can do in the Middle East is pressure the Israelis. He can do that because the Jews who lead Israel do not have the save sense of commitment as the Arab. They lack America’s commitment to ‘success at any cost’. The Jews who lead Israel have no commitment at all.

Kerry knows that. He can see it.

That’s why he keeps coming back to Israel.