‘We have to do better hasbara,’ Israeli PM says — and Ted Deutch rises to the challenge

The big news in the Israel lobby today is that Florida Congressman Ted Deutch is stepping through the revolving door from being an advocate for Israel as the chair of the Middle East subcommittee of House Foreign Affairs to being the head of the American Jewish Committee, starting in October. Deutch spent more than a week in Israel lately, on a Pelosi junket followed by an AIPAC junket, surely getting ready for his new job.

The smooth transition makes smart people cynical, but it’s business as usual inside the Israel lobby, and Israel advocates are celebrating.

As they should. Deutch is 55 years old and much more plausible than the man he’s replacing. David Harris has gone on tone-deaf rants about Why young Jews don’t see the miracle of Israel; I’m grateful to Harris for exposing the cloddish arrogance of pro-Israel thinking and I’m sure the AJC has tried to keep Harris away from the microphone. Deutch is way more media savvy, he’s attractive and easygoing, and surely won’t browbeat anyone on MSNBC about the ancient biblical promise to the Jews to take the land. No, he’ll talk about the one Jewish state in the world and the supposed antisemitic effort to single it out.

Deutch’s comments to Jewish Insider reflect the fact that he was happily doing the Israel lobby’s work in Congress already: “I didn’t make a decision to move on from Congress, I really made a decision to move into this incredible opportunity to spend all of my time focused on the issues that I’m so passionate about — defending the global Jewish community and Israel’s rightful place in the world and defending democratic values.”

Same job, new office. Deutch auditioned for his new job with a vicious performance last September on the House floor. During a discussion of military funding for Israel, Deutch called his colleague Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian, an antisemite because she “besmirched” Israel by using the word “apartheid” to describe Israel.

Bear in mind: Rashida Tlaib had quoted two leading human rights reports giving the apartheid news. And one in four American Jews believe Israel is an apartheid state. But Deutch doesn’t care about those Jews. He’s a Zionist who believes Israel is The Project of the Jews:

I cannot– cannot allow one of my colleagues to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives. … to label the Jewish Democratic state of Israel an apartheid state. I reject it…. I say to my colleague who just besmirched our ally… [T]o falsely characterize Israel… is consistent with those who advocate for the dismantling of the one Jewish state in the world.. When there’s no place on the map for one Jewish state, that’s antisemitism.

Again– what does it tell you that the chair of the Middle East subcommittee of House Foreign Affairs has been such a hack for Israel? It tells you that the Capitol will crumble and fall before the Democratic Party walks away from Israel, as Nancy Pelosi told us. And there’s a lot of political money in supporting Israel. A former commercial real estate lawyer, Deutch is surely cutting a good deal for himself. Congresspeople make $174,000 a year (per google), while Harris made $874,000 lately, per this charity-watch site.

Israel needs all the help it can get because it is losing the progressives.

My headline refers to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s speech to an Israel lobby group last week, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Bennett said Israel’s advocates have fallen down on the job of explaining the miracle of Israel against the supposed antisemites. Hasbara = explaining = propaganda.

[T]he truth about Israel is that it’s a remarkable miracle of democracy in the toughest place on earth, and we ought to be proud of it and fight for it and never give up. But we also have to do better hasbara. I think Israelis have always been not good enough at explaining. It’s something we have to work on. Let’s make no mistake those who are out there to tarnish Israel, it’s not from real motives. It’s because they don’t like who we are and what our heritage is. So we’ll fight back everywhere.

I am sure Deutch agrees with every word of these marching orders.

The Israeli Prime Minister is worried about American Jews straying off the reservation, a process accelerated by COVID and the inability of Americans to travel to Israel. Bennett called on American Jews to speak up for us against the bad guys.

We’re one. We’re one. We have to strengthen this, we have to keep this relationship going…. We need you. All we need is one thing, to speak up and fight for Israel. That’s all we need. Always speak up. Never be silent when someone slanders Israel and be proud of Israel. Be proud of this amazing miracle. 8 percent growth. Fastest growth in the modern open world… while we have got all these bad guys around us. And it depends on us being beyachad– together.

Bennett emphasized a theme of the lobby: that American Jews need Israel, in order to stay Jewish. And Israel needs American Jews to stay Jewish — i.e., be good Zionists.

We need you, you need us, and we’re one. In order for us to stay together, we need Judaism to stay and exist in America.

Ted Deutch is getting a very hard job. He needs to keep American Jews on board at a time when Israel is practicing apartheid and thumbing its nose at the “peace process.”

He’s on the same page as the prime minister though. Deutch’s statement yesterday announcing his career move mentions Iran three times. This is one of Bennett’s constant themes too. That and antisemitism. They will always change the subject from human rights.