Israel advocates are pushing a new front. They say that progressive are antisemitic when they characterize Jews as privileged, and don’t acknowledge history and “the unique collective Jewish vulnerability.” So the anti-Zionist understanding that Israel is a powerful settler-colonial state is antisemitic because that leaves out the origins of Zionism in Jewish persecution in Europe, according to Jonathan Greenblatt of ADL and the Reut Group of Tel Aviv.
The Israeli government minister Nachman Shai says that a “crisis” is coming between the U.S. government and Israel over the Iran deal, and Israel will need American Jews to come to its side. “During many crises… many issues between Israel and the United States, American Jewry has always been there supporting Israel,” he told the Park Avenue Synagogue.
The growing list of those who say Israel practices “apartheid” in occupied territories and west of the Green Line is joined by Michael Benyair, a former Israeli attorney general. But US advocates maintain a taboo on that word in the U.S. discourse, enforced by Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL and Rep. Ted Deutch.
Openly demanding that the U.S. abandon talks with Iran, Israeli PM Naftali Bennett has just violated his deal with Biden that differences are to be worked out behind closed doors. He does so because the “special relationship” between the countries gives him power: the Israel lobby works inside the U.S. to make sure there is no daylight between the White House and Israel and to immunize apartheid. But the American people want distance.
The Israel lobby group J Street initially joined an international chorus condemning Israel’s designation of Palestinian human rights orgs as “terrorist.” Then in November, the group took a delegation of six Members of Congress to Israel and Palestine and met with several Palestinian civil society and human rights groups– but none of the six designated groups– and on that trip, the delegation was briefed by Israeli government officials about the “secret evidence” in support of the terrorist designation, a source who was not on the trip tells me. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s disclosure statement from the trip supports that assertion: She says the delegation received “briefings on Israel security” from “senior” government officials.
The Israeli government “fully supports and assists” the recent spike in settler violence against Palestinians. Because “Continuous, systemic violence meted out by settlers is part of Israel’s official policy, driving massive takeover of Palestinian” lands, B’Tselem says in a groundbreaking report. But the Washington Post’s recent article on settler violence suggests that the Israeli government is taking it on vigorously.
Rabbi Wendi Geffen of a Reform congregation outside Chicago gave a sermon after the last Gaza conflict saying anti-Zionist Jews must not be allowed inside the Jewish “tent” because the “vast majority” of Jews support Israel. And she said the assertion by some Jews that Zionism contradicts progressive values is a threat to the Jewish people more dangerous than external threats. Her views are important because they reflect official Jewish statements that conflate Zionism and Judaism.
After Oberlin instructors organized a winter trip to Israel to help progressives understand Israeli democracy– without any mention of Palestine– Students for a Free Palestine circulated a petition on the Ohio campus against the trip that has gotten 600 signatures. The organizers have revised the trip to include Palestine and dropped its price from a whopping $4500 to $2500.
Liberal Zionist organizations could provide Joe Biden with the political capital inside the Jewish community and Democratic Party to confront Israel on its recent designation of six Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist organizations.” But so far they have have done little to take on the designation and even offered a platform to the Israeli government to defend the charge. It’s little wonder the Biden administration is keeping its mouth shut.
It is “uncouth” in mainstream media to say that the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Republican funder Miriam Adelson are devoted to the pro-Israel cause. Even as FDD told the IRS that it was founded to promote Israel’s image in America, and Adelson has begun conducting the “Adelson primary,” in which possible Republican candidates for president show off their love of Israel in order to get campaign funds.