THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

slaughtered peace and freedom activists in Beijing’s central square. It should havecaused an earthquake in Israel. Shamefully, it did not.We must turn the poles upside down. Instead of acting like a major power whenwe attack, then like a small vulnerable country when we are assaulted or criticized,we must act as a superpower at all times. Konrad Adenauer, Germany’s first postwarchancellor, once said, “World Jewry is a superpower.” He was right, though hedid not define the character that this superpower should assume. There are all kindsof powers, money-based and demographics-based. There are powers of the pastand of the present, based on force and militarism. What about us, then? Shall wealways be a superpower of memorial politics? Or maybe it is time to become asuperpower of moral statesmanship?We, the Jewish Israelis, are the core of the world’s Jewish superpower, and mustact toward our enemies as a moral superpower: forcefully, uncompromisingly, andfearlessly. We should not evade the ethical challenges that face a Jewish foreignpolicy. We can declare a moral war against China, fight Indonesia on the basis ofethics regarding East Timor, and even argue with the United States in the samemanner that Abraham argued with God on Sodom: “Far be it for you, will the judgeof all the land not do justice?” 8 As a bonus, moral-based policy will give us as theopportunity to change Israeli domestic policy, a chance to mount a no-holds-barredstruggle for justice that will rid Israel of sick and malignant policies vis-à-vis ourminorities and occupied neighbors. Indeed, the world is full of preachers who fight tothe death about other people’s consciences when their own remains spotless for lackof use. The time is ripe for a different morality, not the kind that defeats its ownconscience daily, but the kind whose conscience wins all. I do not want a preaching,sanctimonious, and hypocritical Israel. I want an Israel that fights for its inherentconvictions in the world arena, whether it rallies supporters or not. It is time for onestate to call out “Follow me!” and hope that others will join in. But even if they do notjoin, we should carry out our moral charge and not relent.Until then, we remain veiled by the Shoah blindfold, which causes us time andagain to side with the worst evildoers of recent history. Take Yugoslavia, for instance.In the early 1990s the communist Yugoslav federation disintegrated into its ethnic andtribal components. This was a multinational state that functioned well for decades, butwas suddenly torn by a civil war. The basis for the violence and atrocities, the worstin postwar Europe, was a decades-old conflict that remained unsolved. During World