Pro-Israel Groups Find Way To Ignore Trump’s Intelligence Blunder

Image by Getty Images

By Josh Nathan-Kazis May 17, 2017

The bombshell news that President Trump passed on sensitive Israeli intelligence to the Russians has been met by almost absolute silence from pro-Israel groups.

None of the leading Jewish or pro-Israel groups have put out statements about the disclosure, first revealed by the New York Times. Israeli media is reporting that intelligence officials there are now reconsidering their intelligence-sharing relationship with the U.S.

On Wednesday morning, Twitter feeds of Jewish pro-Israel groups were a string of non-sequiturs. AIPAC’s latest tweet is a video about its campus outreach.

#TuesdayMotivation ???? pic.twitter.com/ySmj5bDlsZ

— AIPAC (@AIPAC) May 16, 2017

The Republican Jewish Coalition has been tweeting about the Taylor Force Act. The Zionist Organization of America’s last tweet is a historical photo. The Jewish Federations of North America’s last tweet congratulated a local federation on its hundredth birthday.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations tweeted about administration statements on the status of Jerusalem. The Anti-Defamation League is tweeting links to an op-ed on Trump’s upcoming Israel trip.

The center-left group J Street was the only one of the bunch to mention the intelligence story in its feed, but the group simply retweeted the New York Times’s piece.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO