Benjamin Netanyahu’s imminent return to the prime minister’s office is likely to force a long-overdue discussion in the American Jewish community over what it really means to be “pro-Israel.”
For decades, the organized Jewish community has successfully fostered solid support for Israel in the United States. As a result, American politicians vie for the pro-Israel label, and polls show that the broader public here — in contrast to other parts of the world — consistently sides with Israel, not with its neighbors. The American government’s funding and policy decisions speak for themselves.
Israel has always looked to the United States to guarantee its security — notably by assuring its qualitative military edge. More recently, it has looked to America to help it forge peace as well — finding success with Egypt and Jordan and making strides with Syria and the Palestinians.
For 61 years, the relationship between Israel and American Jews has rested on a solid foundation: a shared vision of Israel as the rightful home for the Jewish people in the community of nations, a shared commitment to democracy and a shared set of national interests in a volatile region. While disagreements over policy — such as settlement expansion — caused some discomfort, American Jews by and large defended the thrust of Israeli policy and comfortably wore the pro-Israel label.
The second coming of Netanyahu may, however, bring us to a fork in the road. On this side of the ocean, American Jews just helped usher in a new progressive era — with 78% of us voting to elect Barack Obama president.
American Jews overwhelmingly have opposed the war in Iraq and favor engagement, not conflict, with Iran. By and large, we want a sophisticated foreign policy that pragmatically advances American interests and security — not the simplicity of a neoconservative outlook that views the world in black and white.
At the same time, Israeli politics has taken a hard turn rightward. The incoming prime minister cannot bring himself to support a two-state solution, a proposition at the heart of American and Israeli policy for a generation. And the settler movement seems bent on making a viable Palestinian state a physical impossibility — putting at risk the notion that Israel can be both a democratic state and a Jewish homeland.
Meanwhile, the face of Israel to the world may well be Avigdor Lieberman, whose party rode to third place in last month’s election on a platform explicitly rejecting the very democratic values that have bound together the Jewish people on both sides of the ocean for three generations.
So how, exactly, do American Jews maintain a united pro-Israel front when the views and directions of the two communities appear headed in such opposite directions?
For organizations at the heart of the established Jewish community, the best strategy would be to welcome and encourage an open and respectful airing of differences of opinion over policies and strategies and on what it means to be pro-Israel. Insistence on unquestioning loyalty — and communal consensus — when it comes to Israel will become ever more difficult if the interests and values of the two largest Jewish communities in the world continue to diverge.
American Jewish organizations and leaders can choose to act as if it’s still the 1960s, with Israel fighting for physical survival and struggling to make the desert bloom. Or we can appreciate that it’s now the 21st century and that Israel boasts the dominant military in the region and a European standard of living.
In 2009, we don’t risk Israel’s survival when we question whether the decisions Israelis are making run counter to their own interests, or to America’s, or if we engage in debate here that is at least as open and broad as in Israel itself.
If the organized Jewish community won’t accommodate within its tent civil debate and questioning of Israel’s actions, I fear many American Jews may be driven away. This will risk not only their support for the State of Israel, but also their connection to the Jewish community and even to the Jewish religion itself.
An Israeli government built on rejecting peace, with coalition members who show little regard for democratic values, can expect far more loyal dissent than unquestioning loyalty from the broad base of Jewish Americans. The challenge on which our community’s leadership and institutions should focus as we hit this fork in the road is not how to maintain rigid loyalty to Israel in the Netanyahu-Lieberman era but how to welcome vibrant debate and healthy dissent within the pro-Israel tent.
Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street and of JStreetPAC.
The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community. In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, the Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.
Copyright © 2013, Forward Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Claims Conference Chief Knew of $57M Holocaust Fraud Probe Earlier 
Top Dog: Who Makes the Best Kosher Hot Dog in America?
Why Do Jews Intermarry at a Much Higher Rate Than Others?
End Orthodox Monopoly on Jewish Marriage in Israel
Boston Bombers Pal Slain in Florida Eyed in 'Jewish' Triple Murder
You've successfully signed up!
The truth is that the election of a proud Zionistic Right Wing government is the best thing that even happened to Israel. Israelis were sick and tired of the defeatist "Queen of Surrender to Arab Terror" known as Tzpi Livni and therefore handed her a resounding defeat in the recent elections by voting overwhelmingly for Right Wing parties. Israeli democracy has loudly and proudly declared enough surrender of Jewish land to Arab terror regimes in return for absolutely nothing (land for NO peace). Israelis are proud of the brave settlers which are Israels future and are sick of left wing governments that grovel at the feet of Arab terrorist regimes. For more about this please see WWW.LIVNIMUSTGO.BLOGSPOT.COM to learn about why the Israeli public has finally decided to consign the self hating defeatist Livni and her Kadima party to the dust-bin of history.
Robert Schwartz: "All Arabs are evil!" "Arabs are terrorists, Israelis are god's gift to the earth, they do no wrong!" Did I sum up your opinion Mr. Schwartz? In the midst of reading the hate speech that spewed out of your head onto your keyboard, I may have misinterpreted it, a bit, MY BAD.
As a Jew, I understand oppression. I understand discrimination. I understand what it is like to live under false pretenses of freedom, in ghettos. I understand what it is like to be ignored, to have my religion hold me back from expressing my views. I understand what it is like to be a scapegoat, to be the illegitimate cause of strife.
I understand that I must never forget these memories, and that I must not allow them to repeat again, for if I do, I am the oppressor. I understand that I must take action against those who oppress and those who oppress must be held accountable for their actions. And I understand I must not be blinded by the oppressors, as they will try and try to divert me from ending their reign. And I understand that as a nation we have failed, failed miserably in achieving this task. We have stood up for the oppressed, in Tibet, in Darfur, and in Russia, yet here we say nothing. We support it. We legitimize it.
I see what road the Jewish nation has taken Mr. Ben-ami, Mr. Schwartz, and it is blind support for the illegitimate nation, the nation founded on oppression of the natives, the nation founded on historic premises not in existence for 3000 years, the nation kept in existence through the use of force. A non-natural nation, a forced nation, a plastic nation. This is what it means to support Israel.
Israel is the antithesis to the Jewish story, and I pray that we wake up before it destroys our nation.
Robert Schwartz: "All Arabs are evil!" "Arabs are terrorists, Israelis are god's gift to the earth, they do no wrong!" Did I sum up your opinion Mr. Schwartz? In the midst of reading the hate speech that spewed out of your head onto your keyboard, I may have misinterpreted it, a bit, MY BAD.
As a Jew, I understand oppression. I understand discrimination. I understand what it is like to live under false pretenses of freedom, in ghettos. I understand what it is like to be ignored, to have my religion hold me back from expressing my views. I understand what it is like to be a scapegoat, to be the illegitimate cause of strife.
I understand that I must never forget these memories, and that I must not allow them to repeat again, for if I do, I am the oppressor. I understand that I must take action against those who oppress and those who oppress must be held accountable for their actions. And I understand I must not be blinded by the oppressors, as they will try and try to divert me from ending their reign. And I understand that as a nation we have failed, failed miserably in achieving this task. We have stood up for the oppressed, in Tibet, in Darfur, and in Russia, yet here we say nothing. We support it. We legitimize it.
I see what road the Jewish nation has taken Mr. Ben-ami, Mr. Schwartz, and it is blind support for the illegitimate nation, the nation founded on oppression of the natives, the nation founded on historic premises not in existence for 3000 years, the nation kept in existence through the use of force. A non-natural nation, a forced nation, a plastic nation. This is what it means to support Israel.
Israel is the antithesis to the Jewish story, and I pray that we wake up before it destroys our nation.
Having read Robert Schwartz's comment, I can say that Kabbage has certainly not summed it up, nor even understood it. Bombastics, selective misinterpretation, and posturing do little to advance debate. Kabbage may well stand against the existence of the State of Israel, and may wekll feel that the Jewish people does not have the right to self-determination under international law, or that they should exercise that right, that they do not constitute a people that has that right in the first place. He does not really say. Instead, he spits venom. I wonder whom he thinks he will convince?
Jeremy Ben-Ami's article is better spoken than Kabbage's, but I fear it suffers from a similar problem. It is windmilling against a straw man.
Mr. Ben-Ami charges that "the organized Jewish community won’t accommodate within its tent civil debate and questioning of Israel’s actions". That premise is the basis for his piece.
However, that basis appears inverted. Debate and questioning of Israel's actions -- something in which Kabbage is uninterested (it is Israel's existence, not its actions, which disurb him) -- is frequent. But, almost invariably, any attempt to respond to such criticism by engaging a debate is met by shrill posturing which seems to insinuate that anyone who dares disagree is, on account of that disagreement, "silencing" dissenting voices.
There is no shortage of fora or spaces in which, not only to criticize Israel, but to do so in a vehement, caricatured, and goading manner -- indeed, the uncivil tone of much of that criticism polarizes debate.
The question, however, is whether such critics are prepared to meet Mr. Ben-Ami's challenge. Indeed, is Mr. Ben-Ami himself prepared to do so? When voices rise up to challenge a Charles Freeman, or to insert civil debate and questioning into the critic's tent, is the reaction to engage that debate? Or is it to bully such voices into silence with loud proclamations as to the omnipotence of a unified Israeli lobby (sorry, "The Lobby") -- and under no circumstances to participate in the debate?
In the right-wing Israeli lobby, the definition of "civil debate" is "debate that we agree with." They accuse anyone who disagrees with them of "serving the interests of anti-Semites," as the American Jewish Committee says.
The right wing is trying to destroy our centuries-old tradition of free and open debate. We won't let them. As the Germans said, we will not be silent.
The truth is that the settlements are illegal. The settlements are at the center of the problem. The Arab world has offered Israel peace and recognition, if they would go back to the 1967 borders, but the Israeli governments have refused. They are falling for the sickness of nationalism.
The world is getting tired of Israel's brutality. American Jews are getting tired. You are no friend of Israel if you encourage Israel on the path of destruction. The real friends of Israel are trying to get Israel to make a fair and just peace with the Palestinians.
Norman Your peace loving Arab victims of Zionist aggression have started the wars and rejected compromise as the path to peace. Then again perhaps I should be more open minded? Maybe Arab leaders like the Mufti,Arafat,Hamas,Hizbollah,Assad,Qadafi,Mazan,Bin Laden are just misunderstood?
Hey Cabbage I'm with you. Zionism is racism and Israel oppresses the natives. Let's put an end to it one Jew at a time. So as we prepare to celebrate Passoveer let's relive the Exodus. I call on all Israeli (Jews) to leave their homes and for good measure American and British Jews should leave their homes too. No need for these countries to be dominated by Zionists is there? Let us return to our rightful homes in Minsk and Pinsk. I give you the honor to go first. Regards
Here's Henry Siegman, who knows more about the middle east and Hamas than you will ever know (he met with Israeli and Hamas leaders) and who has done more for the Jewish people than you will ever do (he was responsible for getting the refuseniks out of the Soviet Union when he was executive director of the American Jewish Congress). Siegman says that the Arabs are willing to make a peace agreement -- backed up by the entire Arab world, including Saudi Arabia -- and the Israeli government has consistently refused to do so.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n02/sieg01_.html
London Review of Books 29 January 2009 Israel’s Lies Henry Siegman
Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network. (more)
there is no such an ethnicity as "jewish people"; there are, however, euro-asian ethnoses armed with a the worst shamanism/cult imaginable.
and there is an eternal verity: the folks with a wierd cult have stolen another folks' land. and the cultists are surrounded by longtime enemies. to make 'eternal' enemies israel's friend, we need one state solution; tho, in palestina only.
if israel has N-bombs, they appear more than useless for israel's and world peace. their use against iran wld cause unprecendented and negative events for whole world.
and US must be aware of it. however, if muslims obtain capabilities to destroy or severely damage israel, israel wld finally seek peace. thus, we can conclude peace is coming; especially in view that eventually, perhaps in just decades, world may put pressure on judeo-christian world to go for peace.
i do not see how oo2% of world pop can forever threaten even MD let alone the world. let's face it, nothing lasts forever. tnx
israel will have to learn how to survive without america.no i'm not some angry jew hater though i am nonjewish.we americans jew and nonjew must face reality our day in the sun is passing.
Norman Two points: Henry Siegman formerly of the AJC was not primarily responsible for saving Soviet Jewry.Now tell me what is there to know about Hamas? That they will not accept Israel? That they are suicide bombers? Is that too crass? Why is it that certain people here in the states would argue that even the Meretz party is too hawkish?
Danny,
Some soldiers in the IDF want to exterminate all Palestinians, while some want negotiations and peace.
Similarly, some members of Hamas want to exterminate all Israelis, while some want negotiations and peace. This is according to people (including Jews) who have actually met Hamas leaders. I doubt that you have ever met a Hamas member, much less a Hamas leader.
That's what to know about Hamas.
As Siegman and others reported, Hamas held to a cease-fire, and prevented the extremists from firing rockets, until an Israeli excursion into the West Bank that killed several Hamas members. After that, Hamas resumed firing rockets.
Israel obviously wanted Hamas to fire rockets, since they deliberately and needlessly provoked Hamas.
The oldest rule of war is tit for tat. If you don't want Hamas to attack you, don't provoke them. Put yourself in their position, and ask yourself how you would act.
That's what to know about Hamas.
Norman Hamas wants to destroy Israel. Saudi Arabia wants Israel to return all the land from the six day war. Abba Eban who championed a 2 state solution
The Arabs rejected a 2 state solution and rejected peace many times. Remeber Abba Eban's quip that they neve r mis an opportunity to miss an opportunity. That said I have no reason to trust the Saudis. Furthermore I have never met anyone from Hamas nor do I want to. Do you actually think that the Israeli voter is choosing land over peace. Didn't Israel evacuate the Siani twice, Lebanon and Gaza? Wasn't it Olmert's intention to leave much of the west bank? Didn't Tsipi Livni receive the most seats of any party? Didn't Barak accept the Clinton Plan that would have provided the Arabs with a contiguous state with Jerusalem as its capital? Concerning Soviet Jewry perhaps you confuse Henry Siegman with Henry Jackson.
The fundamental process of an education is to meet people you disagree with, and understand their position. Everyone who does this finds out that the viewpoint of the other side is different from what they expected.
If you never met someone from Hamas, and would never want to, then you have never learned the fundamental lesson of education. You will never understand the Middle East, and you will never understand how to make Israel safe.
Norman Did you ever meet a Nazi? How about Ferdinand And Isabelle? If you had would you understand them better? Do you feel cheated that you never met bin Laden? The views of Hamas are well known. Their murderous actions that they proudly take credit for are also well known. Did you ever meet with anyone injured from one of those attacks? Have you ever spoken with a Zakka volunteer? Have you ever tried to match body parts? To your point Norm, J.Goldberg has interviewed them and I know someone else personally who has interviewed them. They don't believe in reconcilliation but they do believe that Jews are apes and pigs. So pardon me if I don't want to meet these people and risk being blown up but I would watch Satanic Versus if it would come out on dvd.
Henry Siegman had little to do with the rescue of Soviet Jewry. He is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, a group that has a long history of trying to undermine Israeli sovereignty. The CFR gets a lot of funding from Saudi Arabia. Thus, the only difference between CHas Freeman and Siegheilman is that Freeman is better looking
Thank you Elvis. Good night Norman.
American Jews should make a clear distinction between supporting Israel's security and supporting Israel's actions taken in violation of international law.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders MUST know that this is where US Jews stand.
Israel is entitled to security (and so are the Palestinians). Israel is not entitled to break international law by building a wall in occupied territory or by inserting settlers in occupied territory.
The settlers must be removed. All 500,000 of them. The wall must also be removed and may be re-built (if Israel chooses to do so) inside pre-1967 Israel.
The US (my country) should insist that the wall and settlers be removed, and should point out that neither the wall (where it is now) nor the settlers are necessary for Israel's security or are, in fact, at all helpful for Israel's security.
The US should demand the removal of the wall and settlers even as it continues to guarantee Israel's security. US Jews should LEAD the DEMAND for this change in US policy, a change toward a policy favoring Rule of Law and Human Rights and away from a policy favoring lawlessness, immunity, and impunity for Israel and renying human rights to Palestinians.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders MUST know that this is where US Jews stand.
Jeremy Ben-Ami fears that "many American Jews may be driven away" from Jewish community life as a result of the re-election of Netanyahu. How utterly silly, how totally unperceptive. Jewish life in America is in the midst of deep crisis for generations. It is a Jewishly illiterate community. The collapse of the historic Jewish identity is symbolized by the high rate of intermarriage and the empty synagogues. It's fine to criticize Israel. We in israel criticize ourselves all the time. It's about time that the Jewish community in the Diaspora would criticize itself as well. It has problems that are its own making. A discussion of Israel is one topic of discussion, but the quality of the Jewish quality of life in America is quite another topic.
Should I believe Norman and Mr. Ben Ami or the Hamas and Hizzbullah charters? i do not care what some people in the Hamas will tell a naive and left wing western stooge, but what they tell their own people in the mosques, on TV,internet,at home and daily rallies."Death to Israel" and Death to America". By the way, the same is said by Fatah,but more kindly.Who believes them: people whi are still in the 70's and fell for the upside down interpretatrion of the israeli-arab conflict.It has nothing to do with "settlements".For the arabs tel aviv is a settlement as much as Maalet Adunim. Arabs not accept the existence of a jewish state,just like kabbage(sounds like garbage to me),like all muslims who consider jews apes and pigs,and should be slaughtered. Just read the coran and hadiths of the prophet..
Peter How will returning to the pre 6 day war 'borders' enhance Israeli security? This land was seized in a war of self defense when Arab states threatened Israel's existence. The Arab-Israeli conflict has nothing to do with the west bank or Golan heights as Israel did not occupy them prior to that war. Shouldn't the aggressors be held responsible for their actions? I believe Peter Belmont that you care about the Palestinians but not about Israel's security needs or the rule of law. By the way, what if the Jews of America don't happen to agree with you?
I have read Norman's comments with some interest. If he will recall in the waning days of the Clinton administration, The then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, offered the Pa a really sweet deal 97% of the lands captured in the Six Day War, Jerusalem and other territory to offset the other three perecent. It was rejected by the PA. So the claim that the the Palestinian id wants peace for the return of the disputed territoties is at best questionable.
As to the cease fire, I would note that Hamas decided to allow it expire and started firing rockets into Sderot. Actually started is not quite the right word since there was still rocket fire into Sderot even when the "ceasefire" was in place. Escallate would be more accurate.
It is unclear to me as whether or not Israeli Towns in the West Bank are violations of international law. Legally ambiguity aside, how does making the West Bank Jew Free enhance Israeli security?
If Tel Aviv and/or New York get a-bombed by Islamic fanatics, it will be delusional intellectual like Mr. Ben-Ami who can take the credit. His words are like narcotic smoke in UN diplomatese. He would say, Israel doesn't need American Jewry, or American Jewry should become more strict and manipulating, more "hawkish" towards their friends and family in the only Jewish state we know of in this large universe. So who else will Israel turn to, if American Jews turn their backs. Liberal Tough Love, I suppose. Of course, this is exactly the kind of ignoring the 900-lb gorilla in the room which led to the Holocaust. European Jews ignored the growing Nazi threat until it was too late to get out. Today, liberal Jews worldwide, drunk on Jim Jones Kool Aid, think Ahamedenijad or the Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, etc, can be made into peaceful partners, if only Israel is sufficiently supplicating. They have taken up the Muslim cause, without ever being asked to do so... which is to say, that the victims of murderous Islamic rage are responsible for their own deaths. This is just as the Nazis and Communists blamed their victims. But sufficient numbers of Israelis had to recently duck enough Islamic bombs and missiles such that they no longer believe the c**p published by the left-wing appeasers, and so voted in a (gasp!) conservative. Years of Olmert's bungling and appeasement led to more war and violence, not less. Rather than giving up Gaza, he should have annexed the West Bank, and sent the Holocaust-denier Abbas and his innumerable jihad-cop organizations packing, and, and, and, and, which never happened, because he was delusional that "if only we Jews bow and scrape low enough, and kiss enough Muslim and UN feet, then they will like us." It is Never Going To Happen. Muslims are Medieval in thinking, and understand only the Mailed Fist. You offer them flowers, and they will kill you and take your family as slaves. Islam holds for no appeasement or negotiations, nor "peace treaties" with the hated infidels, especially Jews, except as Takiya deception towards befuddling the stupid infidels who read leftist appeasement garbage. With Obama now in the USA, we will probably have the same hard lesson to learn. What will our Gaza be? A nice a-bomb in New York?! This whole article, and the comments given, reminds me of how the Democratic Socialists were talking in 1937: "Maybe if we sent Herr Hitler a Petition, with a thousand signatures, asking him to please not throw Jews out of the universities, and to please restrain the SA thugs...." Delusional!!!
Mr. Ben-Ami's political stance appears line with Forward readers, he much prefers to ask American Jews to sacrifice Israel rather than address the American political machine himself. His eloquence obscures the fact that he speaks not for some ubiquitous majority but for a select 800 individuals whose opinions have been expertly massaged and manipulated by Gerstein Agne, a firm committed to "advancing a vision and agenda" for its clients. Mr. Ben-Ami's real agenda--to turn Israel into a U.S. satellite--furthers America's role as a Colonial power.
If we are to buy his pretext, it would do Mr. Ben-Ami well to consider history and fact before committing his words to print; not everyone suffers from amnesia.
Prior to 1967, U.S. support of Israel was perhaps ideological but surely not material. Israel's War of Independence, though imminent from the start, was fought with Czech-made weaponry; the majority of armaments used in the Six Day War of 1967 were French. Israel's military dominance in the region is not due to American interests but out of necessity; it has been a successful deterrent in dealing with Syria or Iran, among others. Surely, Israel has the capability to pursue large-scale destruction on her neighbors, many of which remain openly committed, as is Hamas, to 'ousting the Zionist entity from the region.' Yet no one is quibbling about Syria's Russian-made A-300s (which will also soon be sold to Iran) or Saudi Arabia's large force of F-16s.
Mr. Ben-Ami hopes that readers will remain blind to the fact that American oil interests always trump ideology. It may be true that U.S. dollars proved inspirational for agreements with Egypt and Jordan. He fails to remind us that historians note these the treaties were forged in spite of U.S. involvement; Jimmy Carter, hobbled by his Saudi-banker money, almost broke the deal.
Mr. Ben-Ami also preys on American ignorance of Israeli politics. Whether we like Leiberman or not, the Yisrael Bitaynu platform includes a Two-State solution that would actually avert the uprooting of Palestinians who prefer to live in Palestine. Citizenship laws of foreign countries have never been fodder for American or Jewish politics. If it were, Mr. Ben-Ami would complain that Palestinian refugees have been prevented by their Arab neighbors from repatriating elsewhere in the Arab world, make note that most of the Arab world's citizenship laws specifically exclude Jews, or point out that millions of European Jews died because no one would take them in.
Finally, Mr. Ben-Ami speaks as if Israel has much choice in the matter: As of today, there is no willing capable partner in the Palestinian world with whom to negotiate. At best, Israel is left to protect its citizens from rocket fire and terrorists through unilateral action.
If Mr. Ben-Ami truly cared about peace in the region and the survival of Israel, he would urge Americans to pressure Egypt into opening its border to the Gazans who want to work, he would have us demand that the Arab world offer citizenship to those Palestinian refugees who choose to leave, ask us to adequately educate those who don't and beseech us to help the people of the West Bank and Gaza create the necessary infrastructure to reduce Palestinian dependence on Israel. Instead, Mr. Ben-Ami, in the name of regional responsibility, demands Israel carry the entire burden and that American Jews look the other way.
It is not a fork in the road that should concern American Jews but rather the gilded forked tongue with which Mr. Ben-Ami speaks.
Yehuda, you state that American Jews are "Jewishly illiterate," whatever that means. I have been married to my Jewish husband for 28 years. Both of my sisters also married Jewish men. But our generation has been assimilated completely into American society -- to which I say, "good." I consider myself to be an Agnostic and only "Jewish" in an ethnic sense. I believe that assimilation into American society is a good thing. I do not feel any particular loyalty to Israel itself. But, of course, I am not in favor of it ceasing to exist, either.
And, Black Eagle, contrary to your insulting statements about Muslims, I refuse to believe that all Muslims hate all Jews. However, I must admit that personally, I am skeptical that there will ever be peace between Israel and the Arab states. Why? Because every single time someone like Rabin (or Sadat) steps forward to actually make peace, either he is murdered or something goes wrong. This mutual hostility has been going on for my entire life (I'm a baby boomer), so I don't see it changing anytime soon. The only hope I have is when I think about the fact that the Irish and the British finally made peace in Ireland, after decades of hostility and murder. Like the Arab-Israeli conflict, or the Shiite-Sunni feud, these mutual hatreds are fundamentally tribal in nature.
Another reason that I am not optimistic regarding a two-state solution is because of the Israeli fanatics who live in the settlements. As long as there are settlements, there cannot be a two-state solution, in my opinion. And because every single Israeli government has tolerated these ILLEGAL settlements, I do not believe that these people can ever be forced to leave. No Israeli government can remove these people, because the political price is simply too high.
I believe that people like Avigdor Lieberman are racists and fascists. As long as there are extremists like him in the Israeli government, there will never be peace. How is making Palestinians sign a "loyalty oath" any different from the views of the lunatic, Meir Kahane?
And as for Jeremy ben-Ami, at least he is trying to do something productive, unlike some of the people who have commented on this site. I say, "bravo" for his even making the effort to try to conduct a rational dialogue between the two parties. Good for him!
Robyn You are certainly illiterate about Israeli politics. First the settlements were not the cause of 3 wars between 1948-1967. Second Israeli leaders have ceded territoy unilaterally from Lebanon to Gaza without assination attempts on their lives. Barak and Olmert offered peace deals that would have ceded much of the west bank and Jerusalem to the Arabs. These offers were declined because the Israelis' wanted an end of conflict and limited return of refugees. Third Liberman is not Kahane. He proposes a 2 state solution and no transfer of population. I am saddened that people like you don't have an appreciation for Israel. I would think you would be proud that Israel brought the Ethiopians to Israel or that Jews who have suffered from Soviet oppression have settled there. I would thinkyou would respect Israel for her democratic institutions even if you don't agree with her policies. I am saddened that you equate Israeli politicians with Abu Mazen or the Hamas leaders. After all the Israeli parliment banned Kahane from serving in parliment for his racist views. Abu Mazen however is a holocaust denier. You are a Jew with a stake in Israel. We can disagree with her policies or with each other but I'm sorry that your knowledge seems shallow and by admission your depth of commitment is shalow. Maybe your grandchildren will give a damn.
The ignorance of the writer is appalling.
" Israel has always looked to the United States to guarantee its security — notably by assuring its qualitative military edge. "
From 1948 until after the 1967 War of Liberation the United States maintained a total military and economic boycott of Israel. Not one dollar or one bullet was supplied by the USA. Despite this we achieved our two greatest military victories.
The authors political views may make him popular with his left wing friends in the clubs of Tel Aviv but his time would be better spent in a library.
What is this? Defeatist attitude. The government is not rejecting peace! Do you even know what peace is? Do you really thing the terror leaders of Fatah PLO and HAMAS will have peace with us if we forfeit the lands of our fathers? You are delusional and an extreme threat to the future of the Jewish people. Jeremy Ben-Ami you are an enemy to the Jewish people!