Balagan: Israeli Government v. American Jews
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Aauuugghhh.
First, I click on a link to Arutz Sheva to check out their minute-by-minute coverage of the Jerusalem Conference, only to see a picture of PM Olmert holding an umbrella over Abbas like he's some sort of man servant to the palestinian chairman. Then, I read Arlene Kushner's report from the Conference via Israpundit:
"We have to write down the principle of two states," [Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni] told us. Israel as a homeland for Jews, and Palestine as a homeland for Palestinians. If we don’t write this now and establish the principle, we might not have another chance. For we are facing people who want us gone.And these are the people governing our nation. Incredible.
Got it? She is so afraid of forces that would destroy us, that she's willing to accept what may be less than we are entitled to, just for the opportunity to get it in writing that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. And she believes that if we are to do it, it must be "today," because another chance might not come.
Meanwhile, American Jewry continues to go through its own identity crisis of sorts. Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League told the Knesset today that One-third of Americans believe that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States according to the latest research. "'This belief is so out of sync with everything else happening in America, with the fact that there's so much acceptance of Jews in all phases of life - academia, commerce, media, politics,' Foxman told The Jerusalem Post." Take a survey of the opinions expressed by the "accepted" Jewish Americans in academia, commerice, media, and politics, and I guarantee that you'll find the majority are left-wing in their views regarding America, and prefer to keep Israel out of the discussion completely. (Been there, done that, got the college ring and degree in television & film to prove it.) Foxman blames the poll results on the popularity of Walt & Mearsheimer's hack piece, "The Israel Lobby" and Jimmy "Peanuts" Carter's latest pro-pally tome. "MK Colette Avital (Labor)...told the Post that the figures indicated 'a failure to explain - I hate to use the word hasbara - that you can be loyal to both. In the US, people can live with several identities, such as Italian-Americans and African-Americans, and Jewish Americans should be seen in that context.'" How can you take on a hyphenated identity that is a total oxymoron? Can you honestly see anyone who truly identifies themself as a Jewish person identifying with a country that wants to divide Jerusalem and elect a guy named Hussein into the Presidency?
In a companion article in the JPost, Haviv Rettig writes, "Malcolm Hoenlein [Executive Vice Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations] has been telling everyone who will listen that something dangerous is happening among the American elite. A short version of his view holds that pro-Israel positions among American Jews are being delegitimized by being defined as "anti-American." ...Is support for what they see as the "Jewish interest" - supporting a safe haven outside America for their brethren worldwide - somehow against the interests of America?"
That question is easily answered in one word: No. However, the question is far more interesting in light of the fact that it illustrates the classic conundrum of "Jewish-American" identity: If 'Jews from around the world' need a safe-haven, and America is so great that the Jews here never plan to leave, why shouldn't the world's Jews seek their safe haven in America? If America is so safe, why should we bother supporting Israel?
Anyone with half a brain cell could take one wink at America today and comprehend that the question above is ironically rhetorical. Yet, for many loyal, patriotic American Jews, the duality of supporting a safe-haven for international Jews while maintaining squatter's rights on your own American turf has never hit home. I have heard American Jews proudly declare that Israel wouldn't exist without Jewish American money, and I have been to Seders where the older generation sings "G-d Bless America" instead of "L'Shanah Haba B'Yerushalayim" without blinking an eye. What? Is Israel for those "other Jews" whose ancestors weren't smart enough to get out when the getting was good? Why is Israel okay for the rest of the world's wandering Jews? What, just because we've managed to finally get accepted into Harvard Law, or pass a joke about being a shanda on premium cable, or scored a seat on Wall Street, we're suddenly supposed to feel "at home"? At least the most ultra-Orthodox anti-Israel protestors are willing to accept the idea that they'll return to Israel once Moshiach arrives. When will the successful American Jews head home-- when they're forced into early retirement by the kids who think that the be-all and end-all of being Jewish involves reading HEEB on Friday nights before going out to party?
The article ends with a sharp inference comparing today's anti-Israel American elite with the fascists of the 1930s, another ironic twist considering that most American elites of the 1930s were just as anti-Semitic as their modern day counterparts. Thanks to the anti-Jewishness of the 1930s, FDR's Administration of Elites (see Whittaker Chambers' Witness) put the kabosh on any anti-Nazi messages being sent out by "Jewish Hollywood" (thanks to the ripe anti-Semite Joe Kennedy, who warned Jewish studio owners that if they didn't quit inserting anti-Nazi messages into their films, the gentile population would "blame the Jews" for "getting them into the war"--see An Empire of their Own by Neal Gabler) and effectively aided and abetted Hitler in the mass murder of six million European Jews (see The Abandonment of the Jews by David S. Wyman and The War Against the Jews by Lucy Dawidowicz) by implementing a strict immigration quota in the 1930s and doing absolutely NOTHING when presented with clear and precise information regarding the activities going on in concentration camps across Europe. If that was the effect of elitist American thinking then, what of today?
I recently spoke with an Israeli who told me real estate in Israel is on the rise. Along with an increasing western European Jewish immigrant population, many American Jews are beginning to buy second homes in Israel, "just in case." I wonder how many of those Jewish Americans had parents who walked around with JNF tin tzedekah cans at Pesach and mortgaged their homes during the Six Day War. I wonder, would they be pleased or horrified at the realization that their investment was paying off a lot closer to home than they ever thought.
The Israeli government operates on fear. American Jews operate on confusion. I am a Jew born in America who believes fervently in a whole and united Israel with a whole and united capitol of Jerusalem, even if that means calling negotiations a joke and fighting for it. And, perhaps, in all the logical sense of my commentary I am the greatest engima of all.
Labels: identity, Israel, Jerusalem, Jewish, Jewish American
posted by Shoshana @ 7:09 PM
