‘There Is This Very Pious Jew Named Goldberg…’

Marty Peretz needs to hear Thomas Friedman’s joke, even though I doubt he’ll get it.

There is this very pious Jew named Goldberg who always dreamed of winning the lottery. Every Sabbath, he’d go to synagogue and pray: “God, I have been such a pious Jew all my life. What would be so bad if I won the lottery?” But the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldn’t win. Week after week, Goldberg would pray to win the lottery, but the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldn’t win. Finally, one Sabbath, Goldberg wails to the heavens and says: “God, I have been so pious for so long, what do I have to do to win the lottery?”

And the heavens parted and the voice of God came down: “Goldberg, give me a chance! Buy a ticket!”

Drum riff here.

But seriously, what Friedman is saying while riffing on a conversation he had with Pres. Obama is simple when boiled down:

“Stop saying one thing behind closed doors and saying something else publicly.” – Barack Obama

Israeli leaders don’t seem to care what they say in public, because they have no intention of buying a ticket. The truth is that they’re so accustomed to getting free rein, with a shrug from the U.S. no matter what they do, that it never dawned on them that the tide could shift.

Shift it has.

But the opening will be short, as we saw recently when House Dems decided to get their AIPAC on after being shocked that people were starting to get seriously tough on Israel. Barack Obama, with a no daylight voice coming from Hillary Clinton as well, are the ones providing the cover, giving rational people space to step up and say what’s true and needed to be said.

The Arabs need to invest in the Palestinian state, not just talk, which means putting their money where their grievances lie.

Then there is Obama’s comment to Friedman on Iran that goes like this: “There are a lot of Arab countries more concerned about Iran developing a nuclear weapon than the ‘threat’ from Israel, but won’t admit it.” At the Saudi conference I attended, Turki al-Faisal admitted that if Iran goes nuclear the country most in danger is Saudi Arabia. But that was mentioned only once. It coincides with the fears of Shia dominance in the region as well. However, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was mentioned time after time after time by the Saudis and other Arabs that day. Far be it from me to argue with the President who has the Arabs’ ear, but I’m not buying his quote or the rationale behind it. Mainly because it was begun from Netanyahu’s mouth.

When Pres. Obama speaks in Cairo there will be a lot of young minds listening, young men especially. The best news about this is that they won’t be hearing the American voice through George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. Instead, we will be heard through a man whose name is Barack Hussein Obama and whose heritage gives him a vein or two that includes the Muslim world.

Don’t expect a sea change from Obama’s speech. But again, it is a shift.