No light unto the nations

(The Jerusalem Post, Israel, November 24, 1999)

By DAVID NEWMAN

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, is in Israel this week to attend an inter-denominational conference in Tiberias and to receive a prestigious ecumenical prize at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

It is not his first visit here, but because Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg agreed to meet him, this visit has received more publicity than his previous ones. The Foreign Ministry, though, had made it clear they would have preferred his visit to have remained as low-key as possible without any meetings that could damage Israel's growing relationship with China.

If ever there was an example of the double standards of international diplomacy, it is the world's attitudes towards China. There is no other economic market which is as sought after as that of China, with its market of over one billion people, many of whom are only now being introduced to Western products. The economic potential is too great to worry about such trivialities as the lack of democracy, the negation of human rights, the Tiananmen Square massacres, and the denial of autonomy for Tibet.

It is okay to take a stand on Kosovo or Iraq, perhaps even Rwanda, where there is little damage to Western economic interests - but hands off China! The stakes are too high.

Britain, the US and France, to name but a few, have rolled out red carpets for Chinese leaders during the past few months. In some cases, they have even attempted to prevent anti-Chinese demonstrations, or kept them out of sight of the visiting leaders who would be "embarrassed" by such behavior - the kind of behavior they would have met with force in their own countries.

In England recently, the Chinese prime minister was even invited by the queen to stay overnight at Buckingham Palace, so he should not have to witness the demonstrations protesting his government's continued denial of human rights.

Israel, like all other international players, has a similar moral stance on developing its economic and research links with China. Indeed, Israel's foreign policy over 50 years has rarely had any strong moral foundations, as governments pursued relations with just about any country that would recognize the Jewish state. That Israel is prepared to sell its sophisticated weapons to just about any country prepared to buy, including to oppressive regimes who then use them to put down their own populations, does not do much to enhance the moral underpinnings of Israel's foreign policy.

But the counter-argument is well known. Why should Israel adopt different moral standards than the rest of the world? Why should it adopt a "holier-than-thou" approach to international relations when the leaders of the free world maintain a more pragmatic approach? Why not use the technological spin-offs of its sophisticated military industry as a means of retaining its strategic superiority in the region? After all, it is not our fault that we have developed one of the most advanced armaments industries in the world; we needed to do so to save the country from being extinguished by its enemies.

Why should we be different from the rest of the moralizing Western world, which declares support for human rights and self-determination for oppressed minorities on the one hand, but continues to do business with many of these countries for economic benefit?

We are also careful to show our humanitarian face to the international community. Israel is always among the first to offer aid to earthquake victims in Turkey and to refugees in Kosovo. This is the true nature of international realpolitik: Sell arms with one hand, and comfort the victims of disaster with the other. The objective is to maintain relations with as many countries as possible and never give up on any potential for expanding economic markets, while at the same time to publicly demonstrate the human dimension of a caring Jewish state.

The reaction of the Foreign Ministry to the Dalai Lama's visit this week only served to highlight the tension between wanting to "look good" on the one hand, while not ruining any links with China on the other.

It sounds very nice to adopt the moral high ground and call ourselves a "light unto the nations," but the reality is very different. Israel plays the games in the international arena, - for good or for bad - exactly like everyone else.