Dec 6, 2012 By: yunews
Moshe Sokolow on Israel's Endangered Ally, the Island Country of Palau
The recent UN General Assembly vote granting observer nation status to Palestine was 138 in favor, 41 abstentions, and nine opposed. In addition to the United States, along with Canada, Panama, and the Czech Republic, the few nations that supported Israel鈥檚 opposition to the resolution were Palau, Micronesia, Nauru, and the Marshall Islands. It would be tragic if Israel were to lose the vote of any of its few reliable supporters at the United Nations, but that is just what might happen over the next few years鈥攏ot due to any political intrigue but on account of global warming! At the moment, the endangered ally is the island republic of Palau, and just this summer PBS aired a report, titled , calling attention to the potential of climate change to inundate and eliminate Palau and its Pacific neighbors.
An archipelago of 300 islands lying in the Philippine Sea north of Australia, with a total area of only 459 square miles, or, one for every Palauan (Israel, by comparison, has 21,000 square miles), Palau more than makes up for its diminutive size with its consistent support of Israel in world forums. Although all of Palau cannot scrape up even a minyan (a quorum of 10 Jews), its ambassador to the United Nations since 2004, Stuart Beck, is Jewish, as is Larry Miller, who served for 14 years as an associate justice of Palau's Supreme Court. Somehow, Palau also produced two cyclists who competed in the 2009 Maccabiah Games.
Palauans, grateful for American support in rebuilding the country after the ravages of World War II and in establishing an independent constitutional government, voted in 1984 to adopt a Compact of Free Association with the United States. They have exercised their vote on behalf of Israel鈥檚 interests without fail鈥攁nd without obvious recompense. In a word, they have acted altruistically, as genuine friends.
Nothing in its national profile would mark Palau as an obvious backer of the Jewish state. Nearly 75 percent of its people are Christian, mostly Roman Catholic; an additional 10 percent follow Modekngei, a hybrid of Christianity and the ancient Palauan religion. The island鈥檚 economic mainstay, apart from subsistence farming and fishing, is tourism; but, in spite of its tropical climate and its world renown as a diving destination, it has never been a port of call for Jewish midwinter cruises or Passover vacations.
Perhaps Palau鈥檚 unusually high literacy rate of 92 percent contributes to its open-mindedness? Perhaps its geographical isolation frees it from restrictive diplomatic alliances or affiliations? Perhaps its legacy of American largesse inclines it to a more Western and liberal political stance? Perhaps, like other Asian cultures, it shares an affinity for millennia-old traditions?
Or perhaps it is reciprocal? After Palau formally declared its independence in 1994, Israel hastened to afford the new country its first non-Pacific diplomatic recognition.
In January, 2005 a group of students from 黑料社 All High School, organized by then-high school senior Avram Sand, was appreciative enough of Palau鈥檚 foursquare support of Israel, and curious enough about the motives for its support, to pay a courtesy visit to the island to check it out.
Dr. Moshe Sokolow is the Fanya Gottesfeld-Heller Professor of Jewish Education and associate dean at YU鈥檚 . He is the author of .
