The president of the Synagogue Council of America today assailed individuals who draw a “simplistic equation” between Israel and Vietnam. Rabbi Solomon J. Sharfman said it was “politically and morally reprehensible” to suggest that U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam “must inexorably lead to a betrayal of Israel.”
Rabbi Sharfman spoke at the annual dinner of the Synagogue Council, the representative body of the lay and rabbinic branches of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism in the U.S. He criticized sharply “public statements that Jews who are critical of the Nixon Administration’s policy in Vietnam are doing a disservice to Israel.” Without identifying those alleged to have made such statements, the rabbi said they “ignore the fundamental distinction” between Israel and Vietnam and “do a major injustice to Israel no less than to our own country.”
He said there is a sharp distinction between the Southeast Asia War and the situation facing Israel. “The survival of Israel is a moral imperative that transcends the transient, shifting grounds of short-range strategies and interests. Rabbi Sharfman said. “Sooner or later American soldiers will be out of Vietnam, and it is the Vietnamese themselves who must inevitably determine their own fate. The issue for them is not whether there is or is not to be a Vietnam on the map. Rather it is what kind of government, coalition or otherwise, will govern them. There is no danger that Vietnam will cease to exist.” he said. “For Israel, however, that indeed is the issue will Israel stay on the map….or will it be destroyed? For it is the destruction of Israel that remains the constant objective of Arab policy.”
Rabbi Sharfman said he did not speak for or against President Nixon’s Vietnam policy. He noted that whatever the position of American Jews, “be it one of confidence in the Administration’s policies or one of criticism and dissent, it is a position that flows from a profound concern that we have as American citizens for the long-range interests and welfare of this nation.”
He conceded that “the effect of a withdrawal from Vietnam on the security and survival of small nations who are dependent on us for assistance is also a relevant moral and political concern. But it is both politically and morally reprehensible to suggest that an American disengagement in Vietnam, which in any event is the stated goal of President Nixon no less than of the dissenters, must inexorably lead to a betrayal of Israel.”
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