Uneasiness Among American Jews

General James Jones, head of the U.S. National Security Council, was recently the guest of honor at an event for the 25th anniversary of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a group very much in favor of Israeli diplomacy.

Given the disagreements between the White House and Jerusalem, he thought to discharge the atmosphere with a joke. A member of the Taliban is dying of thirst in the desert. He finds a Jewish merchant’s stall and asks him for some water. The stallholder replies that he only sells ties. The Taliban warrior gets mad. The stallholder agrees to help. “If you go over that hill and walk about two miles there is a restaurant there and they have all the water you need.” And the Taliban, instead of saying thanks, still muttering under his breath, disappears over the hill, only to come back an hour later and, walking up to the merchant says, “Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant.”

The room burst out laughing. But the editor in chief of the weekly Jewish newspaper The Forward wondered, “Was it appropriate?” In fact, it’s an old joke in Israel, where an Arab takes the place of the Taliban member. But what image does this send out for Jews, or rather Israelis (as the general was referring to them)? It gives the Israeli a dominating and indifferent attitude toward the sufferings of others, and reflects the deterioration of the image of the Jewish state and its policies in the United States.

At the institutional level, the pro-Israel lobby certainly still has the ability to exercise considerable influence. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise is pleased to point out that 14 Senators out of 100 are Jewish. In the House, they represent 7.1 percent (31 out of 435 Representatives). An undeniable success for a community that makes up two percent of the overall population. The huge majority of these elected figures actively support Israel.

AIPAC, the official pro-Israel lobby, has played a key role in the two messages recently sent to Barack Obama, pressing him to “galvanize the international community for immediate, devastating steps” against Iran. These letters have been signed by 81 Senators and 366 Representatives. In the lobby, many fear a disastrous evolution of the image of the Jewish state, including among the Jewish population. They trace it back to the Gaza offensive in the pivotal period of 2008-2009.

Israel’s later delegitimization of Judge Richard Goldstone, the U.N.’s rapporteur on “war crimes” committed by the Israeli army, has been very effective at the institutional level; the report has been forgotten. But it was catastrophic for the public, exacerbating its distrust of the Israeli government. Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL) noticed it, himself the initiator of a petition from intellectual European Jews, worrying that “[t]hese policies are morally and politically wrong and feed the unacceptable delegitimization process that Israel currently faces abroad.”

After having defended the military operation in Gaza to France, Mr. Lévy was scolded two months later by the Middle East specialist, Mark Danner, at New York University. He saw that the room was far from being convinced by his point of view.

Since then, this movement has grown. In this vein, a debate sponsored by the Rosenkranz Foundation is held each month in New York City. A question is posed before a live audience, then two people argue “for” and two people argue “against.” The question is asked again. On Feb. 9, the subject was “The U.S. Should Step Back From Its Special Relationship With Israel.” At the beginning, 42 percent replied “no”, 33 percent “yes” and 25 percent undecided.

After the joust between two notable favorites of the status quo — the former Israeli Ambassador to Washington, Itamar Rabinovich, and Stuart Eizenstat, former commerce secretary under Bill Clinton — and two opponents of the “special relationship” — Roger Cohen of the New York Times and a political scientist from Columbia University, Rashid Khalidi — 49 percent wanted to end it, and 47 percent wanted to maintain it. The undecided had gone over to the opposing side, against Israel.

Not only is the “moral” image of Israel deteriorating in the United States, but a number of Jews are also having greater difficulty identifying with this Israel. On May 2, a show of support was held before the Consulate General of Israel in New York. Critical voices within the community have been vilified in a tone resembling that of André Darmon, Editor-in-Chief of Israel Magazine in Jerusalem, titling his recent column “The Idiots,” captioned under a picture of BHL…

On May 6, the New York Times devoted the opening pages of its domestic politics section to these “idiots.” The investigation is full of examples from Jews of different backgrounds, who are uneasy about Israeli policies and are worried that American support is gradually retracting to the most right-wing political circles that completely detest Obama. “Most Jews have mixed feelings about Israel,” explains Tamar Kolton, a female Reform rabbi. “They support Israel, but it’s complicated.”

Another expression in vogue at the moment is symptomatic of the doubts that are appearing. “Bibi Netanyahu really does want peace. So much so, he is willing to discuss it for another 50 years.” There’s less and less laughter in the largest Jewish community in the diaspora.