The angry response to Walt and Mearsheimer’s writing on the Israel lobby was never about whether they were right or wrong. It was about the fear on the part of an empowered group that their power was being called out and questioned; and the righteousness of the response was a reflection of what a solemn duty the lobby has in Jewish life. The lobby is the guardian in the American power centers of Jewish lives abroad, because you really can’t trust gentiles to watch out for Jewish lives.
This sacred mission (as Dershowitz calls it) comes across in a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, reported by Josh Nathan-Kazis in the Forward:
After a speech that touched on the spiritual basis for and the threats to the state of Israel, Oren issued an unscripted condemnation of J Street.
“This is not a matter of settlements here [or] there. We understand there are differences of opinion,” Oren said. “But when it comes to the survival of the Jewish state, there should be no differences of opinion. You are fooling around with the lives of 7 million people. This is no joke.”
The Jewish generation that built and operates the Israel lobby, people in their 40s, 50s, and on up, who were energized by the ’67 and ’73 wars, largely accepts this responsibility. They do so with the backdrop of the Holocaust; in which they regard the U.S. as in some ways complicit. The changes in Jewish identity construction that we are pushing here depend on the younger generation, who do not see any criticism of Israel as a threat to Jewish lives.
By the way, J Street rejected Oren’s assertions in the Forward. Said Jeremy Ben-Ami:
“Perhaps if he would meet with us, he could actually find out what we stand for, rather than having to misrepresent our position… I don’t quite understand how it is in the State of Israel’s interest to look at J Street as a problem, to write off an organization that represents a large number of American Jews.”
