Unsettled: Why Israel and liberal American Jews are drifting apart.

[Douglas Carpenter]

Unsettled

Why Israel and liberal American Jews are drifting apart.
By Jacob Weisberg

Right after it happened, Israel's ambassador to the United States described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "insult" to Vice President Joe Biden as the worst crisis to hit relations between the two countries in three decades. A week later, the blowup had largely blown over. Both sides realized what they usually realize when irritated with each other, which is that it serves the interests of neither to quarrel in public. Netanyahu, who is no fool, would be a big one if he antagonized his country's most powerful ally, especially while calling for a posse to hunt down Iran's nuclear program. President Obama, who was already unpopular in Israel, needs Jewish support to win re-election. All parties regret expressing their true feelings.

But even as the incident of the Mistimed Zoning Announcement fades, it points to an ongoing shift with large political implications in both countries. Relations haven't ruptured, but Israel and its historic allies in the Democratic Party have drifted away from each other. Simply stated, the instinctive solidarity that American liberals, many of them Jews, have long felt with Israel is on the decline. The frustration vented by various members of the Obama administration over Netanyahu's intransigence is an illustration of this fissure, not the cause of it. The more everyone says that nothing's changed in the relationship, the more you know it has.


snip: "If you want numbers, various polls document the disenchantment. Shmuel Rosner, an astute Israeli journalist who blogs for the Jerusalem Post and writes for Slate pays a lot of attention to the partisan gap in support for Israel. It has jumped dramatically of late, with 80 percent of Republicans expressing favorable view of Israel, according to Gallup, as compared with only 53 percent of Democrats. One recent study found that only 54 percent of Jews under 35 who aren't Orthodox are "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state" (as compared to more than 80 percent of those over 65). Among younger Jews, only 20 percent rated as "highly attached" to Israel in another poll. If you want examples of the shift in sentiment, read just about any Jewish columnist for a major newspaper. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times spent last week arguing that Biden under-reacted to Israel's announcement about the new housing units in East Jerusalem, comparing Israel's policies to drunken driving. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post is writing a book arguing that the founding of Israel was a well-intentioned mistake.

One might well fill a book with all the possible explanations for rising liberal, and in particular Jewish liberal, qualms about Israel. But the blame has to start with Israel's occupation of Arab lands and its settlements policy. Israel never meant to take over the West Bank and Gaza—it got stuck with them after the 1967 war. But decades of harsh occupation have made dispossessed Palestinians, the majority of whom have long favored a two-state solution, the sympathetic victims in the conflict. Revisionist Zionism—the Biblically based claim that Israel has a right to the territories—has wrought tremendous damage to the Israel's moral standing. Encouraging religious and political extremists to settle in those territories set a wedge between Israel and its liberal supporters, who see annexation as both impractical and immoral."

http://www.slate.com/id/2248416/

[Douglas Carpenter]

1. J Street 2010 Poll of American Jews

J Street 2010 Poll of American Jews

J Street has just released its third annual poll ( full pdf results - link: http://marchpoll.s3.amazonaws.com/J%20Street%20Survey%20March%202010%20Final%20Results.pdf ) of American Jewish opinion. It contains some very interesting findings. Considering that the Aipac national policy conference began today and Bibi Netanyahu and every Congress member will be there showing the flag, it’s instructive to know that only 10% found Israel to be the most important issue as they confronted the next Congressional election. Only 2% found Iran most important. Keep that in mind the next time Bibi rattles Israeli sabers or asks Obama to give him bunker buster bombs to destroy Iranian nuclear sites.

Of those polled who favored the U.S. taking an active role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 66% would do so even if it meant the U.S. stated its disagreements with Israel publicly. 63% supported the U.S. “exerting pressure” on Israel to achieve peace. 44% (to 40%) felt it was acceptable to take Israel to task publicly when it acts in ways that embarrass the U.S. or tarnish our credibility. 60% felt that Israel’s announcement of construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem damaged its relations with the U.S. 53% agree with those Jewish organizations (like J Street) which stated publicly that the Ramat Shlomo housing announcement was detrimental to peace and damaged U.S. interests in the Middle East. Only 47% agreed with those organizations (like Aipac) which claimed that Obama’s criticism of Israel was detrimental to the strategic partnership between two allies and that the U.S. should tone down its criticism in order to maintain such solidarity with Israel.

Unlike the AJC national survey, J Street didn’t poll people on their views about specific policy issues like Iran, settlements, 67 borders, sharing Jerusalem, two states, etc. If they had, no doubt, results might have appeared somewhat less progressive (or at least that’s what appears to be the case in the AJC poll). Regardless of that, the J Street poll indicates that Obama has carried along the majority of the Jewish community in his sharp response to the provocation that was the Ramat Shlomo announcement. And this runs directly contrary to Aipac’s approach.

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2010/03/22/j-street-2010-poll-of-american-jews/

[Ken Burch]

2. Good. Now, they need to invite Michael Lerner and Tikkun

There was never a good reason for J Street to keep Tikkun out.