Oom Shmoom
Revisited: Sharett and Ben-Gurion
Paper for AIS Annual Meeting,
Neil Caplan,
Adjunct Assistant Professor of History,
Conference
Theme:
"Israel in the World"
Since independence,
We therefore aim to reflect upon
Reviewing his first year in office, and perhaps
even foreshadowing the surprise announcement which would come in September 1993
of the historic mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared before the Knesset:
The train that
travels towards peace has stopped this year at many stations that daily refute
the time-worn canard -- “the whole world is against us.” The
This optimistic snapshot of Israel’s place among
the family of nations reflected happier days some 18 years ago, and was part of
a deliberate attempt to break away from longstanding negative, cautious and
suspicious Israeli and Jewish attitudes reflected in the those two well-known
slogans, the whole world is against us and a People that dwelleth
alone. Such a negative worldview derives from a sweeping and general Jewish
and Israeli alienation from, and sometimes disdain for, all the goyim --
the entire gentile (non-Jewish) world.
Those
who share such a pessimistic worldview would no doubt also endorse the rallying
call attributed to David Ben-Gurion: “It matters not what the goyim say
but [rather] what the Jews do.” Taken
together, these slogans constitute something of a syndrome, reflecting a
complex set of negative attitudes to the outside world firmly entrenched in
Israeli political culture into which the colorful Yiddish phrase “oom-shmoom” fits perfectly.
The
phrase “oom-shmoom” has been a well-known one in Israeli public life
ever since the mid-1950s. It is a classic application of the all-purpose Yiddish
idiom of repeating a word and adding the prefix “shm-” the second time, to
indicate mockery of the original word. Thus, “oom” -- the Hebrew
abbreviation of ha-umot ha-me’uhadot (the United Nations) -- becomes,
derisively, oom-shmoom.
Today, the phrase
serves as a shorthand for negative Israeli attitudes to the United Nations. As
Aharon Klieman has written, “[r]esentment is deep at how
ORIGINS of the “OOM-SHMOOM” PHRASE
The first written evidence of the expression “oom-shmoom” entering the highest levels of Israeli political debate dates back to March 1955. Although the phrase has been attributed to David Ben-Gurion, it does not appear in any of the prime minister’s writings and papers,
Israeli
leaders were quick to learn that there was, operating within the United
Nations, a double-standard according to which more powerful states might have
no cause to fear critical or condemnatory resolutions, or could ignore them
more successfully than smaller, weaker states. This point was vividly
illustrated in late 1956, when the Soviet invasion of Hungary never evoked any
real threat of international sanctions while Israeli occupation of Egyptian
territory in the wake of the tripartite Anglo-Franco-Israeli attack did.
Yet the UN did have “teeth” at
selected moments, namely, when one or more of the great powers chose to employ
incentives or threaten sanctions in support of, or in conjunction with, the
world body. And if Israel (correctly) viewed the UN as unable, on its own, to
force compliance with all its declared wishes, in the early 1950s her leaders
could not help but notice when the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet
Union or (to a lesser extent) France stood ready to back the UN in pressing
Israel to accept an international edict.
Despite the growing list of UN
resolutions criticizing Israel’s behavior on several fronts (refugees,
Jerusalem, armistice violations), this cannot be attributed in the 1950s to
determined Israeli decisions to act on the basis of the dismissive oom-shmoom attitude. The following
examples testify to a pattern of Israel’s respect – rather than contempt – for
what the goyim at the United Nations
and in the United States might say or be prepared to do.
Example 1: Bnot Yaacov Water Diversion Project
In October
1953, Ben-Gurion (over Sharett’s protests) initially brought Israel into a
showdown with the United Nations over the UNTSO Chief of Staff’s recommendation
and the UN Security Council’s request to cease its water-diversion works at the
Bnot Yaacov bridge in the Israel-Syria DMZ. If Israel’s decisions had been
truly motivated by the syndrome of defiance and rejection illustrated by oom-shmoom
and “It matters not what the goyim say, but what the Jews do,” this diversion
of the Jordan waters would have gone ahead despite international criticism or
even condemnation. Yet, once the US administration suspended financial aid, a
pragmatic Ben-Gurion gave in (“without prejudice to Israel’s rights, claims or
position in the matter”) and within two weeks ordered a “temporary” work
stoppage -- an action that was immediately followed by a resumption of American
aid.[29]
This was the first of several illustrations of Ben-Gurion backing down when he
realized that he could simply not afford to ignore what the goyim associated
with oom-shmoom were saying -- largely because of what the goyim
in the American administration were doing in support of the world body.
Example
2: Cabinet Decisions on Reprisals
Israel’s
reprisals against neighbouring Arab states were decided by the Cabinet. During
1955, it rejected (usually for fear of provoking an international backlash) a
number of proposals developed by Defense Minister Ben-Gurion in concert with
his Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan, for far-reaching military
action against the neighbouring states. In late March 1955, Ben-Gurion urged
the Cabinet to approve the capture of the Gaza Strip; this proposal was
defeated on 3 April. The following day, the Cabinet voted down his proposal to
abrogate the Egypt-Israel GAA. Later that year, Ben-Gurion and Dayan elaborated
a plan to break the Egyptian blockade of Eilat’s access to the Red Sea by
capturing the Straits of Tiran. On 5 December, a slim majority of the Cabinet
rejected this proposal. In the spring of 1956, Ben-Gurion himself vetoed an IDF
request to respond with reprisals to fedayyun provocation from Gaza; the
Prime Minister was, on this occasion, urging restraint in deference to the UN
Secretary-General’s trouble-shooting visit to the region.
Whenever it came to a vote,
Ben-Gurion’s “activist” approach was espoused by only a minority of Israel’s
leaders, both in Cabinet and within the Mapai Central Committee.[30]
Being out-voted on a number of his pet proposals helps explain Ben-Gurion’s
growing vehemence in denouncing Sharett for what he felt was an exaggerated
concern for international opinion.
Example
3: Reactions to “Excessive” Reprisals
In the
cases of Israeli reprisal attacks on Qibya (October 1953), Gaza (February 1955)
and Syrian bases opposite Lake Kinneret (December 1955), the IDF did end up --
for various reasons -- inflicting greater death and destruction than originally
conceived or approved at Cabinet level. In light of the resultant international
condemnation of Israel, a majority of Israel’s Cabinet openly or implicitly
chastised Ben-Gurion and his Chief of Staff, Moshe Dayan. Not only Foreign
Ministry officials, but also many of Israel’s leading politicians, were
concerned about Israel’s standing in world public opinion, whether in the eyes
of the United Nations or, more importantly, in Israel’s dealings with its
western allies: the US, Britain and France.[31]
Such reaction was especially strong
after the Kinneret raid, which resulted in the killing of more than fifty
Syrian soldiers and which had involved a failure to consult the Cabinet.
Sharett, who was in the United States at the time, wrote mockingly in his
diary:
Ben-Gurion
the Defense Minister consulted with Ben-Gurion the [Acting -- during Sharett’s
absence] Foreign Minister and received the green light from Ben-Gurion the
Prime Minister.
Following
a storm of protest among the various coalition partners, a Cabinet decision
demanded that, in future, all reprisal operations be submitted for approval.
There is ample evidence of Ben-Gurion being put “on the defensive” among his
colleagues in late December because of the Kinneret raid.[32]
While maintaining a confident and unapologetic facade before Israeli and world
opinion, Ben-Gurion reportedly confided to one of his commanders that the
operation might indeed have been “excessive” and “too successful.”[33]
The timing of the Lake Kinneret raid — the eve of Moshe Sharett’s return from
the US — also seriously compromised the Foreign Minister’s personal credibility
with John Foster Dulles, and thus Israel’s relations with the US. Sharett and
Eban both complained bitterly at the time that the raid had the effect of
undermining Israel’s quest for American arms, which they believed (erroneously,
it turned out) was on the verge of receiving a positive response.[34]
Example
4: “Preventive” War
Intense
worry mounted inside Israel in the months following the Soviet-(Czech-)Egyptian
arms deal announced in September 1955. Much public and secret discussion
revolved around whether Israel ought to launch a pre-emptive strike or
“preventive” war against Egypt, at a time of Israel’s choosing and before Egypt
had successfully absorbed its latest arms acquisitions. During this period
Ben-Gurion, serving as both Prime Minister and Defense Minister, found himself
frequently reining in his more-consistently activist Chief of Staff, Moshe
Dayan, and other IDF commanders who believed Israel had to act quickly in
initiating such a “preventive” war. For example, when in mid-November 1955
Dayan recommended a massive military confrontation with Egypt as soon as
possible, Ben-Gurion ordered him to hold off until the end of January, claiming
there was still a prospect of obtaining arms from the US. As Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov has argued,
Ben-Gurion,
who usually attributed minimal importance to external constraints in
implementing his policy of retaliation
against the Arab states, was now more
restrained. When the question became one of [initiating a] war with
Egypt, he considered the constraints of the great powers more seriously.[35]
Although
the main considerations in Ben-Gurion’s calculation were timing and arms
procurement, his decision against preemptive military action was one which
showed respect for what the goyim -- especially those in Washington --
might do or say with regard to Israel’s arms requests.
An even more striking illustration
of Ben-Gurion in the perhaps-unexpected role of “restrainer” rather than
“activist” was his mid-December 1955 address to the IDF General Staff,
conveying and justifying the Cabinet’s recent rejection of the “preventive war”
option at that time. Once again,
the overriding factors in his analysis were timing and arms procurement, but
the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister presented two further reasons
for restraint at that time. The first was the heavy cost of even a victorious
war to Israel’s border villages, youth and economy -- “a loss that will set us
back as much as five to seven years.” Ben-Gurion’s second reason was his
concern for Israel’s image in international opinion:
Up to now
the Arabs have attempted to denounce us as expansionists, and aggressors, with
varying [degrees of] success. If we were to start this war, we would indeed
become known as the aggressors, and it will not redound to our credit.... As
the victims of aggression they [the Arabs] will receive arms from all sides.
One thing I am sure of: we will receive no arms.... Israel will have no arms,
and we shall have to face the Third Round. We shall be in the same position as
today, but the circumstances will be much more difficult, and whatever
satisfaction we may have experienced on the day of victory will have been
dissipated. It will be much as it is today, except that in the eyes of the
world we shall have been at fault.... We must take all these matters into
consideration.... [We must] do everything to obtain arms, to improve the Army
and not become involved in a preventive war. The belief that the best thing for
us to do now is to attack immediately is an emotional and hurried decision
which fails to take into account all the factors involved....[36]
Such
appreciation for Israel’s need to be seen by the outside world as being in a
defensive, rather than an aggressive, posture harked back to Ben-Gurion’s
preference, since the 1930s, for havlaga (restraint) over activism and
revenge in the face of Arab provocation. It displayed a concern for attempting
to set Israel on the moral high ground of international opinion, rather than
appearing to behave as a nation defiantly promoting its narrowly-defined
security interests.[37]
Example
5: Preparing for the Sinai Campaign
In
September and October of 1956, Ben-Gurion considered the possibility of
collaboration with France and England in an attack on Egypt. In elaborating a
set of conditions he wanted to place on such collaboration, Ben-Gurion
displayed a remarkable sensitivity for what at least certain goyim might
say or do. While the conditions he sought to lay down did not, in the end,
govern Israel’s collusion arrangements, the following two diary entries are
nevertheless noteworthy illustrations of his approach:
(1) On September 27th, 1956, Ben-Gurion wrote:
I made three negative assumptions: (1) We shall not be
the ones to open [hostilities]. (2) We shall not participate unless there is
British agreement and their agreement must also include our defence against a
Jordanian and Iraqi attack. (We on our part will promise not to attack either
Jordan or Syria.) (3) That no action will be taken contrary to US opinion and
without it being informed.[38]
(2) During his secret meetings at Sèvres, near Paris,
on October 22nd, Ben-Gurion recorded in his diary:
I explained my reasons for rejecting the ... proposal
that we start the war against Egypt and, 48 hours later, after an ultimatum to
both sides, the English and the French would take the Canal. There are ethical,
political and military reasons. Why should we all of a sudden become the
aggressors -- and have our friends in the world denounce us? (Pineau tried to
explain that with their veto they will prevent a condemnation in the Security
Council.) The US would disapprove, and there’s no telling what Russia would do.
And most important -- Egypt would bomb the airports in Tel Aviv and in Haifa.[39]
Indeed, as Shabtai Teveth has noted,
Ben Gurion’s deep concern over the possibility of
aerial bombardments on Israeli population centers was at the heart of his
conviction that Israel should not go to war without a strong ally.... The need
for a powerful ally seemed so vital to Ben Gurion that at one time he thought
Israel should join the British Commonwealth and tried to suggest as much to the
British Government. Later his aides explored the possibility of Israel joining
NATO. Both of these attempts came to naught, and without allies Ben Gurion felt
that Israel would gain little or nothing from war with the Arabs.[40]
When
finally recommending Operation “Kadesh” to his cabinet on 28 October 1956,
Ben-Gurion realized full well that power would “be brought to bear to force us
to retreat from Sinai,” adding the confession that he feared America most of
all since it was fully “capable of forcing us to withdraw. She doesn’t need to
send an army for that purpose. She has other effective means which are powerful
enough.”[41] All in all, the
calculations made by Ben-Gurion along his road to Suez seem hardly those of
someone who cared not what the goyim might say or do.
Example
6: From “Victory Speech” to Agreement to
Withdraw
On 7
November 1956, Ben-Gurion pronounced what was seen as a great “victory speech”
to the Knesset. Expounding his “new revelation at Sinai,” he declared the GAA
with Egypt null and void, claimed that the Sinai Peninsula had never been
recognized as belonging to Egypt, and argued that the Jews had an ancient
historic claim to the islands of Sanapir and Tiran at the entrance to the Gulf
of Aqaba.[42] Michael Brecher describes the speech as “a
tactical error of the first magnitude,” noting that “it alienated not only ‘oum
shmoum’ and Israel’s enemies -- but her friends as well.”[43]
There were a number of intersecting
external pressures building up on Israel to retreat, both prior to and
following Ben-Gurion’s speech. These included:
(a) a
menacing letter from Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin, made worse by French and
US indications of a real danger of Soviet missiles being used, and the noteworthy
absence of any offer of US protection against such attack;[44]
(b) a
request for assurances of Israel’s withdrawal from US President Eisenhower,
accompanied by not-so-veiled threats of both losing America’s international
diplomatic support and suffering an embargo of US financial aid;[45]
(c) early
indications that American Jewry would not unanimously back Israel in a struggle
against the US Administration;[46]
and
(d)
persistent requests for Israel’s immediate withdrawal from Egyptian soil made
by an impatient and unfriendly UN Secretary-General, accompanied by a movement
within the General Assembly for condemnatory resolutions with the prospect of
sanctions, and Israel’s total isolation in world opinion.[47]
“Within less than 48 hours,” notes
Shlomo Avineri, “after Bulganin’s letter and the clear indication from
Eisenhower that Israel would be on its own against a Soviet threat, Ben-Gurion
changed course completely.”[48]
For purposes of our analysis, Ben-Gurion’s about-face illustrates that he was
making difficult decisions based on conscious calculations of what the powerful
“goyim” -- including those involved in the UN (oom-shmoom) --
were thinking, saying and threatening to do. Despite his apparently cavalier
dismissal of what he called Ambassador Eban’s “frightened” communications of
those tense days and Foreign Ministry Director-General Walter Eytan’s reports
of Israel’s near-total isolation in world opinion, even Ben-Gurion was not
exempt from sharing the general sense of alarm -- including fears of bringing
the western world to the brink of a world war involving the Soviet Union -- in
the days following his “victory speech.” On November 8th, he instructed Eban to
announce Israel’s conditional
compliance with the UN call to withdraw, while he himself took to the airwaves
at 30 minutes after midnight to make the difficult and painful announcement to
the Israeli people.[49]
CONCLUSION
Students
of Israeli foreign policy should be wary of accepting at face value simplistic and overdrawn applications of the admittedly
useful “activist”-“moderate” dichotomy sometimes popularized through self-serving memoirs, political
rivalries, personal backstabbing and electoral rhetoric. Differences over oom-shmoom
and “It matters not what the goyim say ...” between the fondly-remembered
David Ben-Gurion, on the one hand, and his non-charismatic and much-forgotten
partner, Moshe Sharett, on the other, were not always the contrasting
polar-opposites that have commonly been presented.
Most writers presume, along with Avi
Shlaim, that “the dominant school of thought” in Israeli foreign policymaking
during this period “was inspired and led by Ben Gurion” while Moshe Sharett
“was an independent and original thinker on the basic questions of Israeli
security” who “represented a clear and serious alternative, albeit one which
was never tested.”[50]
The examples cited above of actions taken and not taken are evidence that --
notwithstanding the mid-1956 ouster of Sharett as Foreign Minister and the
heroic mythology surrounding the Sinai campaign[51]
-- the dominant trend during this period was not a “Ben-Gurionist” or
activist approach, but rather a blend of tough reprisals along the
frontiers, on the one hand, tempered by a “Sharettist” sober appreciation of
international opinion, on the other. In their day-to-day political decisions,
both Ben-Gurion and Sharett showed a healthy respect for the United Nations,
for the great powers who stood ready to back UN decisions, and for what the
goyim might do should Israel act in open defiance of international
opinion on selected issues.
ENDNOTES
* This paper is adapted from my “‘Oom-Shmoom’
Revisited: Israeli Attitudes towards the UN and the Great Powers, 1948-1960,”
in Global Politics: Essays in Honour of David Vital, eds. Abraham
Ben-Zvi and Aharon Klieman (London: Frank Cass, 2001), 167-99.
[29]
Primary documentation from the Israeli and American perspectives can be found,
respectively, in Israel State Archives, Documents on the Foreign Policy of
Israel, vol.8 (1953), ed. Yemima
Rosenthal (Jerusalem: 1995), 645-1025 passim [docs. 366-620], -- hereafter ID8, and United States, Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States:
1952-1954, vol.IX, eds. Paul Claussen, Joan M. Lee and Carl N. Raether,
(Washington: USGPO, 1986), 1303-1434 passim [docs 658-9, 661, 663, 665, 673,
675, 682, 725, 734-6]. Critical
discussions of the episode are given in:
Brecher, Decisions, chap. 5; Stephen Green, Taking Sides: America’s Secret Relations with a Militant Israel
(New York: Morrow, 1984), chap. 4; Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, “The Limits of
Economic Sanctions: The American-Israeli Case of 1953,” Journal of Contemporary History 23 (1988), 425-43; See Abraham
Ben-Zvi, The United States and Israel:
The Limits of the Special Relationship (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1993), chap. 2; Sheffer, Moshe
Sharett, 682.
[30]
Cf. Bar-Siman-Tov, “Ben-Gurion and Sharett,” 352; Shlaim, “Conflicting
Approaches,” 191, 195, 198; Sheffer, “The Confrontation,” 135-40.
[31]
For primary documentation on the negative fallout in western capitals, at the
United Nations and among diaspora Jewry after the Qibya raid, see reports and
correspondence in ID8, 756-913 passim
[docs. 433-35, 439, 448, 461, 471-72, 477, 479, 483, 490-91, 495, 499-501, 503-05,
514-15, 518, 533, 539, 544]. Cf. Neil
Caplan, Futile Diplomacy, vol.3: The United Nations, the Great Powers
and Middle East Peacemaking, 1948-1954 (London: Frank Cass, 1997), 222-25; Benny Morris, Israel's Border Wars,
1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the
Suez War, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 244-62; ‘‘The 1953 Qibya Raid
Revisited: Excerpts from Moshe Sharett’s Diary,’’ special document introduced
by Walid Khalidi, annotated by Neil Caplan, Journal
of Palestine Studies 31:4 (Summer 2002), 77–98.
[32]
Yoman Ishi V: 1310 (16 Dec.
1955). Cf. ibid.,
1314 (25 Dec. 1955); Mordechai Bar-On, The Gates of Gaza: Israel's Road to
Suez and Back, 1955-1957, transl. Ruth Rossing (New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1994, 62f.; Ben-Gurion to Eban, 19 Dec. 1955, in David Ben-Gurion,
Rosh ha-Memshala ha-Rishon: Mivhar Te'udot (1947-1963) [The First Prime Minister: Selected
Documents], eds. Yemima Rosenthal and Eli Shaltiel (Jerusalem: Israel State
Archives, 1996), 288-9 [doc. 75]; Ben-Gurion speech to Mapai Political
Committee, 28 Dec. 1955, op. cit.,
290-2 [doc. 76]; Eban, An Autobiography,
198-99 and Personal Witness, 248-49; Morris,
Israel’s Border Wars, 365-68.
[33]
Ariel Sharon, with David Chanoff, Warrior:
The Autobiography of Ariel Sharon (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989),
126f. Cf. Mordechai Bar-On, Sha’arei Aza: Mediniut ha-Bitahon ve-ha-Hutz
shel Medinat Yisrael: 1955-1957 [The Gates of Gaza: Israel’s Defense and
Foreign Policy] (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1992), 78 and 437 n.15; Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 366, 368.
[34]
Isaac Alteras, Eisenhower and Israel:
U.S.-Israeli Relations, 1953-1960 (Gainsville, etc.: University Press of
Florida, 1993), 154, 161; Bar-On, Gates
of Gaza, 58-61, 352 n.19; Sharett, Yoman
Ishi V: 1314-5 (25 Dec. 1955); Eban, An
Autobiography, 198-99 and Personal
Witness, 248-49; Gideon Rafael, Destination
Peace: Three Decades of Israeli Foreign Policy: A Personal Memoir (New
York: Stein and Day, 1981), 47-48; Herzog, A
People that Dwells Alone, 241; Morris, Israel’s
Border Wars, 368.
[35]
Bar-Siman-Tov, “Ben-Gurion and Sharett,” 341, citing Moshe Dayan, Avnei Derekh: Autobiografia [Stepping
Stones: An Autobiography] (Jerusalem: Edanim [with Dvir, Tel Aviv], 1976), 164-65
(13-14 Nov. 1955). See also Shabtai Teveth, Moshe
Dayan: The Soldier, the Man, the Legend, transl. Leah & David Zinder
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), 249, 254-55; Shlaim, “Conflicting
Approaches,” 194. On the internal
debates for and against Israel’s launching of a preventive war, see, Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, chap. 4, and Motti
Golani, Israel in Search of War: The
Sinai Campaign, 1955-1956, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1998.
It
should be noted that Ben-Gurion’s argument against a war initiated by Israel
was consistent with the IDF’s chosen policy of deliberately attempting to provoke Nasir into being the one to
initiate -- and be seen by the world to be the one who initiated -- full-scale
hostilities. See: Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, chap. 4; Neil Caplan, Futile
Diplomacy, vol.4: Operation Alpha and the Failure of Anglo-American
Coercive Diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1954-1956 (London: Frank
Cass, 1997), 164-68.
[36]
Address to General Staff, 16 Dec. 1955, English text as transmitted to Allen W.
Dulles, 10 Jan. 1956, US National Archives, NEA Lot59 D518 Box33. Cf. Dayan, Avnei Derekh, 174-75; Teveth, Moshe
Dayan, 248-49, 255; Shlaim, “Conflicting Approaches,” 196; Bar-Siman-Tov,
“Ben-Gurion and Sharett,” 342; Lorch, “David Ben-Gurion and the Sinai Campaign,”
294; Bar-On, Gates of Gaza, 66-68.