Netanyahu’s honesty towards Palestinians casts unwelcome light on American Jewish leadership

This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

In the closing hours of his political campaign, Benjamin Netanyahu came out of his thinly-veiled imperial closet by announcing his opposition to a Palestinian state and evoking Jewish fears of Palestinians outside and inside of the state of Israel. Yet everyone in the world already knew what Netanyahu really believed.

Why, then, the revulsion expressed by President Obama and other leaders around the world? The reason is simple. Netanyahu’s honesty threatens to out political, religious, media and intellectual leaders who, at least in their policy choices, more or less share Netanyahu’s primary values of Israel’s exceptionalism and structural racism.

As with other leaders around the world, Netanyahu has caught the American Jewish religious community up short. Netanyahu’s honesty now demands their own.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs is one example. As head of the Reform movement, hours after the election results were announced, Jacobs released a statement regarding the outcome of Israel’s elections that exemplifies the deficiencies of Jewish leadership:

We will have the opportunity over the coming hours and coming days to reflect with the entire leadership of our Movement on the results of yesterday’s election in Israel. I especially want to hear from our Israeli colleagues. For now, I just want to share a few thoughts.

The final hours of the campaign – including the Prime Minister’s renunciation of his commitment to a two-state solution as well as his naked appeal to his hard-right bases’ fears rather than their hopes – were disheartening. Israel deserves better, especially from a Prime Minister who holds himself out as the leader of entire Jewish people.

Elections are, by their nature, divisive. Putting together a government, and governing, require a different set of skills, and a different mindset. We hope and pray that all parties, especially those who will be charged with assembling a government, will keep that truth foremost in their thoughts.

Our Movement is, and remains, committed to democracy, to peace, and to pluralism. We will reach out to the new government, partnering where possible, challenging where necessary.

Some commentators think Jacobs is being bold by naming names. Yet his most direct reference is to the office of the Prime Minister. He doesn’t even call Netanyahu out by name. That’s just the beginning. The real story of Jacobs’s statement is what remains unnamed.

To begin with Jacobs is hesitant; he first wants to hear from “our” Israeli colleagues. I doubt Jacobs’s Israeli colleagues include Israeli dissidents like Amira Hass, Gideon Levi and Ilan Pappe. Jacobs then refers to the Israeli election without mentioning Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem and the West Bank, now approaching its fiftieth year. He is silent about the ongoing Israeli-imposed tragedy of Gaza.

When Jacobs reiterates the Reform movement’s commitment to “democracy, peace and to pluralism,” he does so without mentioning specific commitments that confront Israel’s shocking lack of commitment to all of these goals. Is the Reform movement committed to one person, one vote within Israel? Is pluralism limited to cultural celebrations of exotic food and dress or a politics of equality and respect? If so, let’s hear it.

Jacobs and others within his movement seem unable to understand that democracy, peace and pluralism are abstractions without a commitment that refuses to hide behind a time-worn rhetoric. The trouble is that a political foundation for these commitments is as yet nonexistent in Israel’s history. Is there still a foundation for these goals in American Jewish life?

Netanyahu’s honesty caught Jacobs by surprise. It seems that Netanyahu compromised a special Jewish Occupation Code honed over many years. In essence, Netanyahu cast an unwelcome light on a thoroughly compromised American Jewish leadership that has enabled Israeli policies toward Palestinians for decades.

Like the leadership of any community, Jewish leadership doesn’t want to be exposed in public, especially when Jews claim to be a beacon of hope in a difficult world. Instead of being a light unto the nations, however, the Jewish community has inhabited the darkest realms of injustice for the longest of times.

Jewish leaders have been caught with their hands in the Occupation cookie jar. What they will do in the days ahead is uncertain. Will they come to understand that Netanyahu has given them yet another opportunity to disavow the occupation policies of Israel in a bold and confrontational way?

Netanyahu stood up for injustice without apology. It’s time for Jewish leaders to tell us – without apology – where they stand.