We fear what we just don't know

On Saturday, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, in place of the sounding of the shofar, which cannot be blown on the sabbath, Conservative rabbis across the country read the following message from the Rabbinical Assembly to their congregations:

Friends,

On this Rosh Hashanah our brothers and sisters in Israel face the threat of a nuclear Iran – a threat to Israel’s very existence.

Today, we Jews around the world also confront the anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment of the Goldstone report which blames Israel disproportionately for the tragic loss of human life incurred in Operation Cast Lead, which took place last winter in Gaza. This unbalanced United Nations sponsored report portends serious consequences for Israel and the Jewish people.

On this holy day, which is not only Rosh Hashanah, but also Shabbat, the Shofar is silent in the face of this spurious report, the world is far too silent.

Today the state of Israel needs us to be the kol shofar, the voice of the shofar!

We ask you to write to our governmental leaders and call upon them to condemn the Goldstone report and to confront the threat of a nuclear Iran.

While the shofar is silent today, all Conservative rabbis, cantors and congregations have been asked to sing Hatikvah at this moment in the service.

We rise in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel.

While I am not terribly upset about singing Hatikva during a Rosh Hashanah service, longtime readers of my blog could rightly guess that I am not a huge fan of this letter. Let's set aside whether this aggressive stance is in any way good for Israel or for the Jews; or whether a better approach to dealing with Iran would be to let the brewing revolution inside that country - this week the Iranian people co-opted the annual pro-Palestinian rally in which Ahmadinejad spewed anti-Semitic venom to instead demonstrate against Iran's corrupt and evil regime - create the potential for lasting reform without creating a unifying enemy; or that the Assembly's perspective on the Goldstone report may suffer from a bias problem of its own. (And no, that doesn't mean I endorse the Goldstone report.) What really gets me is how out of touch the statement is with the words out of the Israeli leadership's mouths. To Josh, last week:

Israeli Defense Minister (and former PM) Ehud Barak has told one of Israel's leading dailies, Yedioth Ahronoth, that an Iran with nuclear weapons would not pose an existential threat to Israel. And PM Netanyahu, albeit cautiously and more opaquely, says he agrees with him.

The argument is pretty elementary. Whatever nuclear capacity Iran may have, Israel's deterrent capacity is so overwhelming that it can deter any nuclear attack. It's what most people already think. But having it said by the Israeli Defense Minister sounds a very different note.

So, which is it? Is Iran an existential threat, or isn't it? And does this even register?