Yesterday's great report on this site from East Jerusalem contained a shrewd statement about the power of the Israel lobby. Antony Loewenstein was interviewing Yehiel Grenimann of Rabbis for Human Rights outside the protest of the seizure of a Palestinian home in East Jerusalem, when Grenimann said the following:
A lot of Jews in the Diaspora don't want to know what really goes on. They have a very powerful emotional reaction to the Holocaust– state of Israel. They are very much locked into a position Israel, right or wrong. I grew up with it and I understand it. And I think it's a tragedy.
While I don't know the full context for Grenimann's remarks, this is not just a beautiful analysis of Jewish identity. It is a political dissection of the Israel lobby. Grenimann's remarks tie into Mike Desch's view that "the myth of (U.S.) abandonment" of the Jews during the Holocaust underlies the U.S. special relationship to Israel. And when Grenimann says this delusion is "powerful" and tragic, he is suggesting the power that Jews have in America to shape U.S. policy in the Middle East. In a word, the Israel lobby. Yes it's changing. Along with Jewish identity. But in time?
