Too many in the Jewish community on this side of the Atlantic are increasingly downgrading their support for Israel; expressing pro-Israel sentiments in the progressive/leftist social and political environment that is home to most Jews is hardly a recipe for success and acceptance.
Anger at Prime Minister Netanyahu for speaking out in Washington against the administration’s position on Iran and resentment against Israel’s new right of center and religious coalition have fueled the growing divide between Israel and American Jews, particularly younger American Jews.
Jews whose fealty is to a leftist agenda see issues like the Iran nuclear deal and Palestinian statehood – which should be viewed as obvious dangers to Israel – in a positive light. And like Miliband, who tried to court the Jewish vote in the weeks before the election with disingenuous declarations of support for Israel “as a friend, as a Jew,” American Jewish liberals are trying similar tactics in order to promote their agenda.
Jews such as David Axelrod, Martin Indyk, Jeffrey Goldberg, and Jack Lew defend Obama’s Iran deal and oppose Israel’s stance toward the Palestinians. They happily tout Obama as “the first Jewish president,” a man who is “the closest thing to a Jew that ever sat in this office,” and one who “has Israel’s back.”
Obama himself donned a yarmulke and spoke at a Conservative congregation in Washington several weeks back in an attempt to hit the “reset button” on his relationship with American Jews. He basked in applause as he spoke of a Palestinian homeland and equated Jewish values with the 1960s civil rights movement.
But no number of yarmulkes on Obama’s head can negate the fact that Israel’s survival would be threatened by a nuclear Iran deal that even French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has called a “fool’s game.”
Yet, like Miliband, American Jews are turning on their own in defense of leftist dreams and dreamers. Alas, blood is not thicker than political considerations when it comes to the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Which is why serious soul searching on the part of American Jews is crucial before irreversible damage is done to Israel. They can start by studying the behavior of Jewish voters in Britain and the rise and fall of Ed Miliband.