Months ago I declared that Gaza had cracked the Israel lobby. It did so by causing non-affiliated Jews to at last speak out about Israel/Palestine policy. These Jews had traditionally ceded the foreign-policy turf to their pro-Israel cousins (as I did, deferring politely to Marty Peretz out of the stupid guilty feeling that he was a better Jew than I was) till they realized that their cousins were nuts.
The Israel lobby is slowly waking up to the new landscape, and blaming anyone but the real culprit: a state practicing Jim Crow with millions of Palestinians under occupation and promoting a policy of permanent war with its neighbors.
The latest evidence of the lobby's puzzlement is a highly-tendentious piece by Gary Rosenblatt in the Jewish Week about "Whispered Worries About Obama" that–while poohpoohing the settlements and feeding suspicion about Obama– states that the body of American Jewry is with Obama, even if the "mainstream supporters of Israel and Jewish causes" (i.e. Jewish chauvinists) are against him.
Leaders
of American Jewish organizations note an unease among mainstream supporters of Israel and Jewish causes… who say they voted for and admire Barack Obama and support many of his policies, but feel he is being overly critical of Israel and too soft on the Palestinians and on an Iranian regime bent on developing nuclear weapons that could end up aimed at the Jewish state…
An interview with Malcolm Hoenlein follows. The third paragraph, which I've emphasized, is the plum in the pudding:
he told me the other
day that "judging from phone calls" he has received, and other
responses, "there is an increasing unease" about a number of the Obama
administration’s recent statements and actions.
Those include… the public pressure on Israel to
halt settlements — as if they represented the key to peace rather than
the Palestinians’ consistent refusal to recognize a Jewish state in the
region — and the lack of specific demands on the Palestinians; and the
concern that the president is still determined to engage in dialogue
with Iran, despite the regime’s brutal behavior following national
elections last month.
..[I]s the gap growing between
leaders of mainstream Jewish organizations and the majority of American
Jews, more than three-quarters of whom voted for Obama, support a
two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian crisis and may well agree
that settlements are a hindrance to peace?
More evidence of the same trend. Here's Jennifer Rubin fulminating at Commentary, and calling on the "sliver" of American Jewry that agrees with her:
Where is the outrage in the U.S. — especially among the 78% of Jews
who voted for Obama? Where are the major Jewish institutions that in
the past offered rhetorical and political support for a vibrant
pro-Israel policy? Yes, Marty Peretz is pretty peeved these days, but
an irate column or two from a previously enthusiastic Obama defender
are less than what one would expect when Washington decides to launch
this sort of policy. One wonders what those offering themselves as
official representatives of the American Jewish community and friends
of Israel think they are accomplishing by their relative silence.
The sliver of American Jewry originally wary of Obama who had warned
of just this result is outraged, but not surprised.
