Israel is in a moment of crisis. Why was the speech its president gave to Congress so out of touch?
Isaac Herzog did not mention the massive protests roiling Israel until the very, very end of his 49-minute speech
Israeli President Isaac Herzog addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol on July 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. Herzog’s speech on the floor of the House of Representatives stirred controversy as some liberal Democrats planned to boycott of the Israeli president’s Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Deputy Opinion Editor Nora Berman July 20, 2023
The day before Israeli President Isaac Herzog was set to address the U.S. Congress, Thomas Friedman published an op-ed in The New York Times after sitting down with President Joe Biden. In it, he conveyed a personal message Biden had for Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “You are going to break something in Israel’s democracy and with your relationship with America’s democracy, and you may never be able to get it back.”
Biden isn’t overreacting. The judicial overhaul Netanyahu is cramming through the Knesset despite unprecedented internal protests would obliterate the checks and balances essential to a functioning democracy. Tech companies are leaving, delivering a blow to Israel’s booming economy. Jewish immigration to Israel is down 20% in the first half of 2023, especially from the United States. And the Palestinian Authority, which Israel relies on to keep relative peace in the West Bank, is on the verge of collapse.
This is the background against which Herzog spoke to Congress. And as I settled in to watch his speech, I expected the Israeli president to convey a sense of urgency. Instead, the experience was like dropping a grand on tickets to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, only to discover a Swift cover band performing instead.
Instead of using this opportunity to acknowledge and grapple with existential challenges to the U.S.-Israel relationship head-on, Herzog came across as tone deaf and unequipped to handle the emergency in which Israel finds itself.
Disconnect from reality
Herzog could have given his July 19 speech at any time during the last decade. It was wholly disconnected from the moment and the existential crisis Israel faces.
It was gravely concerning to see the president of Israel parrot — and American politicians applaud — tired platitudes at a time when Israel’s future is anything but certain. I hoped to hear profound moral courage, urgent diplomacy and political action. Talking points reigned instead.
After an initial walk down memory lane — Herzog’s experiences in America, the rosy history of President Truman recognizing Israel just 11 minutes after its birth — he proceeded to articulate that “the greatest challenge Israel and the United States face at this time is the Iran nuclear program.”
What?
Greatest Hits
Iran’s nuclear program is certainly an existential threat to Israel. But Iran is certainly not America’s greatest challenge, not even close. It may not even be Israel’s greatest problem at the moment, if those marching daily in the streets of its largest cities give any indication.
I watched C-SPAN, dumbfounded, as the Israeli president rehashed the “greatest hits” of American Judaism (Rabbi Abraham Joseph Heschel was an American hero. But did we need to be reminded again that he marched with Martin Luther King Jr. 57 years ago?), and the history of the U.S.-Israeli friendship, to standing ovations.
Herzog thanked the U.S. for its role in brokering the Abraham Accords. He praised the U.S. assistance in the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia, who is likely to become the next state to join the Accords. “We pray for this moment to come,” Herzog said earnestly.
This development would be incredibly significant. Yet when Israeli protesters are locking themselves inside the Knesset in order to save their democracy, it was jarring to watch Herzog prostrate himself in thanks to the Americans.
Mention of the constitutional and democratic crisis that has been rocking Israel since January did not come until the very end of the 49-minute speech.
The Saudis matter. But doesn’t Israel’s democracy matter more?
Times have changed
Herzog, who has led negotiations within the government and called Bibi’s proposed legislation “oppressive” during the judicial revolt, is not ignorant of the gravity of the moment.
He also addressed — late in his speech — the growing disconnect between American Jews and Israel. He acknowledged that there are new voices leading American Jewry that are highly critical of Israel.
However, Herzog clung determinedly to the past, saying that “it is clear that the shift in generations does not reflect changing values.”
Actually, Bougie, that is precisely what it means.
Younger American Jews in particular are increasingly disturbed by the human rights violations that come with a 55 year-long occupation. They see settler pogroms in Hawara go unchecked by the Israeli military, racist rhetoric of Israeli politicans like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, and reports from respected human rights groups like B’tselem that label Israel an apartheid state.
I wouldn’t expect the Israeli president to address these concerns so plainly. The Palestinians have long been low on Israel’s list of priorities. But to so baldly misinterpret changing American attitudes about Israel seems naive at best. At the very least, isn’t a speech to American leaders the perfect time to talk about it?
Hope for the future?
In the end, Herzog finally addressed the elephant in the room: mass protests over Israel’s judicial overhaul. He acknowledged that Israel has been in a “heated and painful debate” over the “balance of our institutional powers in the absence of a written constitution.” He called the moment in Israel “painful, and deeply unnerving.”
Yet instead of taking a strong stance, he characterized the massive protests as, essentially, a family squabble: “They [Israelis] are, and will always remain, family.”
When army reservists are refusing to show up for duty in protest of the judicial overhaul — especially when the issue of security historically unites all Israelis — the family squabble has become a catastrophe.
In conclusion, Herzog said: “Israel’s first 75 years were rooted in an ancient dream. Let us base our next 75 years on hope.”
It’s a pretty flourish from a speechwriter, a vague acknowledgement that one chapter of the U.S.-Israel relationship is over and another is beginning. There was little, however, in Herzog’s address, that gave me hope.
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