AIPAC’s cancellation of its annual conference in 2022 shows that the Israel lobby is in complete disarray, with young American Jews distancing themselves from a country that 38 percent of them call an “apartheid” state. The liberal Zionist group Americans for Peace Now has repeatedly credited the “apartheid” charge against Israel, while J Street rejects the label.

Liberal Zionist groups ran away from a rally in DC equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism– as even an organizer admits that Israel is just too “divisive” an issue in the Jewish community these days. The event had a rightwing religious feeling. The Washington Post said “hundreds” attended the affair.

Liberal Zionist Rabbi Jill Jacobs says that American Jews who give up on the two-state solution have abdicated a “moral and spiritual imperative.” The journey to the two-state solution is like the journey from Egypt to the promised land in the bible, with lots of setbacks and no shortcuts. “Instead of sinking into despair let’s reconnect with the moral and spiritual imperative before us.”

Netanyahu easily moved U.S. policy for over a decade, due to the force of his will and the use of the powerful Israel lobby in U.S. politics, especially on the Democratic side. Today one force is gone– Netanyahu is an opposition politician to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — and the other is in disarray.

Liberal Zionists are secretly exultant over Naftali Bennett unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, hoping it will end the politicization of Israel in U.S. politics. But Apartheid is a hard sell and Bennett will quickly be on a collision course with a lot of people in the United States who think Palestinians should have rights.

The US Jewish crisis over Israel mounts: Liberal Zionist Rabbi Shira Stutman of Sixth and I Synagogue in DC gives a sermon expressing love for an Israel “terrorized” by rockets, and refuses to judge its response, but also says Israel “categorically dismisses, discriminates, ethnically cleanses and …cares little for the basic human rights of millions of people that live under its administration.” And which statement do you think she had to apologize for?

Don’t look now, but mainstream Democrats are defying Israel over the Gaza attack. Chuck Schumer calls for a cease fire, joining 30 other Senators, and Gregory Meeks, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for a hold on a $735 million sale of missiles and bombs to Israel that the White House approved May 5 — till he backed down today. But liberal Zionist J Street group is for all military aid continuing to flow to Israel.

Liberal Zionists Aaron David Miller, Daniel Kurtzer, and Eric Alterman are surely afraid that Israel will be ostracized in the manner that South Africa was due to the Human Rights Watch report finding the crime of apartheid. And their response is, Israel is nothing like South Africa, and cannot be ostracized.

The Human Rights Watch report accusing Israel of apartheid has gotten far more attention than similar reports in recent years. And it’s gotten an incensed vitriolic response from the right-wing Israel lobby. While the liberal Zionist lobby has tried to argue that the report is about the occupation. HRW’s finding was far more wide-reaching than just the occupation.

There are horrifying images from Jerusalem last night of a mob of racist Jews saying the city belongs to them and Arabs should burn. The young American Jewish group “IfNotNow” labeled the mob a “pogrom,” in another assertion of moral leadership over community elders who ignore the violence.