American Jewish institutions have defied immoral Israeli policy before. They need to do it again

People are arrested by police during a march by Jewish peace activists protesting the war in Gaza, New York City, Aug 4. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In 2019, ten major Jewish organizations — including the Anti-Defamation League, the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism — took the unusual step of warning President Donald Trump against Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

It was a small but striking break: legacy groups openly defying an Israeli government policy in the name of safeguarding Israel’s Jewish and democratic character.

Annexation “would damage Israel’s fundamental security while putting its core interest in maintaining a Jewish and democratic state at risk,” they wrote. It “would effectively run counter to shared American and Israeli democratic values and long-standing US-Israel mutual interests.”

For progressive Zionists and mainstream American Jews, it felt like a turning point. Perhaps, at last, American Jewish leadership was ready to put principle ahead of deference to the Israeli government. But after Oct. 7, it appeared that, for many, any bullish momentum that had begun to coalesce around their relationships to Israel had all but dissipated.

Avoiding any acknowledgement of responsibility the Israeli government has in ending the Gaza war, much of Jewish institutional leadership today appears to have reverted back to old tendencies. Placing themselves on the sidelines, they have enabled extremists in Israel to drag the country down a path of endless conflict, occupation and fading democracy that most U.S. Jews are against.

U.S. Jewish groups were tested once again just three years after the historic 2019 letter, with the ushering in of Israel’s most extreme, right-wing government in its history.

Upon being sworn into office in December 2022, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners wasted no time hatching plans to cripple Israel’s judicial system. They put forth legislation that would undermine not only one of the only checks on the Israeli government but also Israeli democracy in the process.

Two-thirds of Israelis saw the proposed judicial “reforms” as a danger, and masses took part in the pro-democracy protests —an unprecedented demonstration of Israeli patriotism and civil disobedience that was sustained for nine months.

The protests gave cover for Jewish groups outside of Israel to weigh in on the domestic debate.

Prominent American Jews like Rabbi Rick Jacobs and Sheila Katz expressed their opposition to the government’s efforts as featured speakers at the protests in Tel Aviv. And powerful Jewish organizations like the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Jewish Federations of North America and the American Jewish Committee voiced concern to various degrees throughout 2023.

It seemed like the start of a new era of Israel-diaspora relations — one in which Jewish leadership outside of Israel recognized their right to have a voice on matters related to the Jewish state, even if not a decisive one.

Then, of course, came the horrors of Oct. 7 and the ensuing Gaza war. The democracy protests froze. And, for a time, unity prevailed in Israel and across much of the Jewish world, with focus fixed on the hostages and broad agreement that Hamas could not remain in power in Gaza.

As the war dragged on, however, protests in Israel began to reemerge — first for the government to prioritize the release of the hostages, then for an end to the war, and now with some even calling for an end to the humanitarian crisis being inflicted upon Gazan civilians.

Most of the pre-Oct.7 forthrightness was erased by fresh Jewish trauma. And in the process of surrendering their newfound right to speak up on issues related to Israel beyond blanket defense and deflection, Jewish institutional leaders have turned a blind eye to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting their government – most of whom, I suspect, are the same ones they supported two years ago.

In recent weeks, as conditions in Gaza have worsened, more Jewish organizations have begun calling for an end to the war and a surge in aid. But for much of the past two years, too many in the Jewish community today have peddled the idea that only Hamas — by releasing the hostages and laying down their arms — could stop the war.

Unlike Israeli citizens, American Jewish organizations have largely refrained from rightfully assigning blame to Netanyahu’s government for blocking a deal. Jewish legacy institutions have effectively absolved Israel’s government of agency by perpetuating the assertion that only Hamas can end the war, leaving Israel’s future and the hostages’ fate to the whims of their kidnappers.

Ironically, these Zionist organizations for decades have adopted a very non-Zionist tack of essentially recusing themselves from critical debates on Israel’s future. Where there have been moments to exert influence and guide Israel toward a more prosperous and peaceful path, many have chosen a laissez-faire approach — the antithesis to the tenets of Zionism.

Zionism is about more than simple support for a Jewish state. It’s about Jewish self-determination: the promise in Israel’s Declaration of Independence that the Jewish people would be “masters of their own fate.” Instead of embracing their diasporic roles — however limited they may be — in shaping Israel into the ideal envisaged by its founders and desired by the majority of U.S. Jewry, American Jewish leaders have relinquished their power to a wannabe despot like Netanyahu and his messianic ministers.

While de jure West Bank annexation did not come to fruition after the 2019 letter warning against it, extremist settlers have continued their land grabs over the last six years, making the practical possibility of a Palestinian state increasingly faint. In fact, Smotrich recently announced plans to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 zone, as he hopes it “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded by backtracking from decades of U.S. policy, saying that “it is not a violation of international law.”

For the few Jewish establishment groups that chose to weigh in, the overall response was a tepid objection to unilateral measures by any party—an approach that will impose zero deterrence upon this Israeli government. While the world has been distracted by the calamitous war in Gaza, Netanyahu has continued pushing forward his agenda to weaken Israel’s judiciary and consolidate power.

The remaining 50 hostages are nearing 700 days in captivity in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have died, with more suffering from malnutrition and hunger. And the Israeli government is rejecting the overwhelming desire of its citizenry to end the war and instead mobilizing thousands of reservists for a Gaza City offensive that is all too easy to anticipate as the beginning of the indefinite occupation of the entire Gaza Strip.

If the red lines for the American Jewish establishment have been muddled over the past six years, what’s been clear is the disregard and disdain extremists in the Israeli government have for them.

It is time for Jewish organizations to reclaim the Zionist moral courage they had begun to summon prior to Oct. 7. It is time to determine what comes after their words of concern are ignored, and make it known. Because we are sadly seeing that words have not been, and will not be, enough.

The moment when the Israel we know is unrecognizable is fast approaching. And after the fact, we will be left with one question: Did American Jews do everything in our power to change the course of our collective fate?