AIPAC Leaders Warn Netanyahu Of ‘Crisis Of Faith’ On Western Wall
Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three AIPAC leaders reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we have lost the incentive to act for Israel” and of a “crisis of faith” among American Jews in the aftermath of the freezing of the Western Wall agreement.
Outgoing president Lillian Pinkus, her successor, Mort Fridman, and managing director Richard Fishman also said at the emergency meeting Thursday that activists and donors have threatened to stop working with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee over the controversy, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Thursday evening.
The leaders spent about a day in Israel and left Thursday night after their meeting with Netanyahu, The Times of Israel reported.
AIPAC has not commented on the meeting.
On Wednesday, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which represents more than 50 national Jewish groups, in a letter to Netanyahu said that a lack of unity between Diaspora Jews and Israel over the Western Wall agreement “could lead to an erosion of support.”
On Sunday, the Israeli government voted to suspend most of the compromise passed in January 2016 by the Cabinet dealing with the status of the non-Orthodox section of the Western Wall.
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.
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
