The splintering of the American Jewish consensus on Israel continues apace. Liberal Zionists are organizing against Trump, and finding themselves in coalition with anti-Zionists. Rightwing Zionists are backing Trump to the hilt, and aligning with settlers/racists/nationalists of all description.
This week rightwing Rabbi Shmuley Boteach tweeted a photograph of himself with Trump strategist Steve Bannon, inviting widespread scorn. Bannon is an “incredible Zionist,” who “loves Israel,” vouches Jared Kushner, the president-elect’s son-in law (who had me fired ten years ago).
So what. Bannon’s other social values are repugnant to liberal Zionists. J Street is petitioning against Bannon’s appointment. And Peace Now is protesting the decision by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, of which it is a member, to hold its Hanukkah party in a Trump hotel this coming Wednesday in partnership with Azerbaijan. The Forward reports that eight groups, all stalwart Zionist, will boycott the party.
So Trump is doing what even Netanyahu could not do: shatter the Jewish establishment monolith in the United States. I appealed to Peace Now to break with the Conference of Presidents again and again in the past over settlements and the Iran deal. They didn’t say a word. Though now Peace Now’s leaders tell us they did so privately: “Dear Stephen [Greenberg] and Malcolm [Hoenlein]… We have communicated with you many times in the past about the need to seek consensus among CoP members regarding sensitive decisions and positions.”
The argument is public as never before. On Thursday night on CNN, Don Lemon had to break up a fight between Boteach and Peter Beinart and a Jewish Trump supporter named Andy Dean. All these guys support Israel, but they were at each others’ throats. Dean called Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti Defamation League a “far left guy” for his criticisms of Steve Bannon. And called the ADL a “far left group.” Even though the ADL opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and has vilified Keith Ellison, it’s far left?
Beinart countered that the reason the ADL opposes Bannon is that it’s “concerned about misogyny, racism and Islamophobia.”
Message: Jews care about other values besides Israel. “I wouldn’t accuse Steve Bannon of being an anti-Semite,” Beinart said. He noted that at his former perch at Breitbart news, Bannon ran a racist piece praising the Confederate flag, ran demeaning articles about women, and anti-Muslim pieces, too. I’m with Beinart on this. There’s no real evidence that Bannon is anti-Semitic, and plenty of evidence that he doesn’t like Muslims. (In this Vatican speech in 2014 he spoke of “long history of the Judeo-Christian struggle against Islam.” He has praised Israel and run lots of pro-Israel articles. It’s become common on the left now to refer to Steve Bannon as an anti-Semite, with reference to the famous Trump ad that pictured George Soros, Janet Yellen and Lloyd Blankfein, among others, as part of Clinton’s global elite that is hurting ordinary Americans. I’m not convinced. Part of the price of taking prominent positions is getting pictured in populist ads.)
Back to my point. The CNN argument shows the shattering of the Jewish establishment brought on by Trump. Peace Now and Beinart too are now aligned with non-Zionist voices Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow over Trump. This breakup of consensus will no doubt lead in time to anti-Zionists getting a hearing in the mainstream. And it could have repercussions in Israel too. So Trump is bad for the Israel lobby, as Yakov Hirsch keeps saying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zz_SoOSmUo
P.S. Boteach is trying to kosher Bannon the same way that he once koshered Samantha Power with pro-Israel groups, so that she could become ambassador to the United Nations. He promoted Charlize Theron and Sean Penn in those days too. But I reckon his magic dust won’t work the way it used to.
Good move, Rabbi Boteach! You can depend on Steve Bannon!
Doesn’t that photo look like each can feel the point of the other’s knife against their back?
Great that all these Zionists are fighting with each other in public but this is a dismal situation. They’re fighting over Bannon, not Israel. For the ADL to be defended by Beinart for opposing misogyny (but not Israeli govt rape culture), racism (but they’re slandering Ellison) and Islamophobia (but they’re fighting to ban campus speech critical of Israel – and they opposed the lower Manhattan Islamic Center) is a travesty, we need to defund the ADL. And if Bannon isn’t an anti-Semite (his site’s pro-Israel content certainly doesn’t clarify that he isn’t, since anti-Semites have no problem supporting Israel), he runs a site that’s a magnet for anti-Semites.
“Part of the price of taking prominent positions is getting pictured in populist ads”. ( the alliteration is nice, but)
1. Do you think it was mere coincidence that three jews were chosen to be pictured.
2. If not, then what do you mean? If you see it as purposeful, you seem to be saying that a little jew hatred is the price paid for climbing the ladder too ambitiously.
Regarding this commercial, considering the fact that 90 to 99% of the viewers could not identify the people depicted nor to identify them as jews, the commercial was not meant to incite hatred in the masses of viewers. It was meant as a message to a particular group of jewhaters. The message, “I am of your side.”
The wink and nod is too subtle to matter to idiots like Boteach, so beinart is right to emphasize the blatant stuff rather than the subtle stuff.
Even before reading the article I felt the need to comment on the picture. How would you like to open the door Halloween night and see these two guys standing there? I mean Jeez.
Breitbart is about white power and the end justifies the means. There was vile harassment of Jewish journos during the election. Trump is like a Venus Fly trap for Zionists. The trap works by luring in insect Schmucks via nectar which for Zionists is power and then entrapping them so they can be eaten. Zionists will worship power even if it means schmoozing with Nazis. It is an old movie and throwing Jews under buses has a long history. Israel is the least safe place for Jews in the wored.