Oil conservaton bill good for Israel as well as America

By Robert Horenstein

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Most major American Jewish organizations are actively involved in pro-Israel advocacy. This takes many forms, from monitoring the media for anti-Israel bias to opposing mainline Protestants on divestment to lobbying Congress for U.S. foreign aid that helps Israel sustain a qualitative military advantage over its adversaries.
These activities are critical and must continue, but the paradigm for pro-Israel advocacy needs rethinking. I'm now convinced that the single most important thing the Jewish community should be doing on behalf of Israel is getting behind efforts to break America's oil addiction.
If we don't get serious about it, not only will the U.S.-Israel relationship become precarious in the not-too-distant future, but we ourselves, in effect, will be undermining our own pro-Israel agenda.
Changing the paradigm won't be easy. For one thing, we have to get beyond the notion that the need to step up both the development of cleaner alternative fuels, such as ethanol, and the manufacture of plug-in hybrid cars is a narrow environmental concern—and therefore not a "Jewish" issue.
Never mind that Jews, like all of earth's inhabitants, should be worried about carbon emissions from cars warming up the planet. Think about how the Jewish community of New Orleans was impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Now magnify that by a hundred times and you begin to approach the catastrophe that awaits the Jewish (as well as non-Jewish) residents of South Florida if the massive Greenland ice sheet were to melt and raise sea levels by several meters. Even from the most parochial perspective, then, climate change is definitely a Jewish issue.

But you don't have to get involved with the Jewish environmental movement to understand that our oil addiction is dangerous, especially where Israel is concerned.
Recent studies project world oil production to increase by 65 percent over the next 25 years. According to Dr. Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security who recently addressed a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington, D.C., "By 2030, Middle Eastern producers will supply 50 percent of America's oil imports, 50 percent of Europe's, 80 percent of China's and 90 percent of Japan's."
The outlook is even more alarming, Luft warns, when it comes to control over oil reserves, 95 percent of which will be concentrated in OPEC countries by 2030. Without decisive action to free ourselves from our addiction, America will become increasingly dependent on unsavory Middle Eastern governments that have the ability to manipulate oil prices and exert considerable political leverage on our foreign policy.
Do we really want to return to 1973, the year of the Arab oil embargo, i.e., to a situation in which the United States has to choose between oil and support for Israel? Unlikely as this scenario may seem at present, the longer we keep driving gas-guzzling SUV's, the more realistic it becomes.
In the meantime, our oil addiction renders our pro-Israel advocacy less effective. On the one hand, we're urging our members of Congress to support sanctions against Iran, which is pursuing weapons of mass destruction and threatening to wipe Israel off the map. On the other hand, windfall oil profits are financing Iran's rogue activities.
Similarly, there are a multitude of Jewish organizations—federations, community relations councils, local ADL chapters—that have volunteers writing pro-Israel letters to the editor, speaking against divestment in mainline churches, and challenging anti-Israel bias in global-studies textbooks. Yet, it's precisely because of our destructive oil habit that Saudi Arabia has the resources to fund a global campaign of anti-Western, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda.
Thus, while we're monitoring textbooks, the Saudis are underwriting the dissemination of high school teaching materials that denigrate the Jews' religious and historical connection to the Holy Land. While we're arranging opportunities for Israeli officials to speak to the media, the Saudi royal family is buying the media, such as the 5-percent share in FOX News now owned by a Saudi prince.
Then there's this disturbing irony: We Americans are conducting the war on terrorism and, at the same time, indirectly paying the very terrorists who are out to kill us and destroy Israel. Going to a pro-Israel rally may make you feel like you're doing your part as an American Jew, but how about acting on your concern for America and Israel's security by replacing your 15-mpg Ford Explorer with a 45-mpg Toyota Prius?
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has proposed a $2-per-gallon gas tax in order to reduce our dependence on oil. Although such a tax would likely prompt large numbers of Americans to demand plug-in hybrids and flexible-fuel vehicles, it would also push poor people off the roads.
A more economically feasible—and politically palatable—approach is bipartisan legislation already introduced in both houses of Congress to create a serious oil conservation plan, including measures to improve fuel economy and tax credits for hybrid cars and alternative fuels.
Israel, of course, isn't mentioned in the twin bills, S. 2025 and H.R. 4409, which rightly stress our own national security and economic stability. Even so, the positive impact that enactment of this legislation would have on Israel's long-term well-being cannot be overstated.

Robert Horenstein is the staff director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Community Relations Committee.