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March 26, 2023
Key Takeaways:
- The Israeli government is undermining the pillars of the U.S.-Israel relationship. If we support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, we should vocally back the Israelis opposing the Israeli government and urge the organizations we support, as well as our elected officials, to join us.
- The Knesset's repeal of the 2005 Disengagement Law violates a written commitment from Israel to the U.S.
- New data shows that rising antisemitism is driven primarily by right-wing extremism. If we are serious about fighting antisemitism we cannot ignore the Republican Party's embrace of antisemitism and white supremacy.
- The rise in antisemitism matches broader societal trends, which is why it is important for the Jewish community to ally with and support other victims of hatred and bigotry.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
If you've ever spoken out when you thought a U.S. president or his party (either party) was endangering the U.S.-Israel relationship, why did you speak out? Were you trying to score partisan points or were you concerned about the relationship? If your organization spoke out, why did it speak out? Was its mission to support the government of Israel right or wrong or was its mission to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship? If you chose the second alternatives, you and your organization should be speaking out against Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies and questioning those who claim to care about the U.S.-Israel relationship but are remaining silent.
Rifts between the U.S. and Israeli governments are the norm, not the exception. But from Eisenhower's pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Sinai, to Ford's "reassessment" of U.S. policy toward Israel, to Reagan's support for U.N. condemnations of Israel and embargoing sales of F-16s to Israel, to Secretary of State James Baker's (under George H. W. Bush) exhortation to Israel that “the phone number (for the White House switchboard) is 202-456-1414. When you’re serious about [peace], call us,” to George W. Bush's rescission of loan guarantees to Israel and reticence on Iron Dome, to Obama's disagreement with Israel on the Iran Deal, the fundamentals of the U.S.-Israel relationship have never been challenged as they are today.
The knee-jerk reaction of the American pro-Israel community to these rifts has been to blame the American government, not the Israeli government (except for the Iran Deal, where many Israeli security experts agreed with Obama and Jewish members of Congress supported the deal by more than a 2-1 margin).
Today's growing rift is between an administration led by Joe Biden, a president who entered office with a longer and stronger pro-Israel record than any previous president, and a coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli prime minister willing to sacrifice the U.S.-Israel relationship if that's what it takes for his coalition to give him his get-out-of-jail-free card.
Ben Samuels characterized the Knesset's repeal last week of the 2005 disengagement law, which banned Israelis from the area where the West Bank settlements of Homesh, Ganim, Kadim, and Sa-Nur once stood, as "a new level of disrespect from Israel, embodying everything the U.S. administration could possibly find offensive. The steps not only violate the entire U.S. approach and worldview, but they directly renege on promises explicitly made by Israeli governments to U.S. administrations dating back to 2005 and as recently as this past weekend."
Netanyahu said that the government had no plans to establish settlements in those areas, but former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer called the repeal "an egregious violation of a commitment to the United States, as well as a reversal of law and policy enacted back in 2005 in the context of the disengagement." Kurtzer noted that this was the second reneged commitment to the United States by Netanyahu’s governing coalition – the first being the plan to legalize nine outposts.
The State Department strongly urged "Israel to refrain from allowing the return of settlers to the area covered by the legislation, consistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon and the current Israeli Government’s commitment to the United States," noting that the repeal "represents a clear contradiction of undertakings the Israeli Government made to the United States. Nearly 20 years ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on behalf of Israel affirmed in writing to George W. Bush that it committed to evacuate these settlements and outposts in the northern West Bank, in order to stabilize the situation and reduce frictions."
Team Amnon, the leaders of the 1976 raid on Entebbe wrote that their commander, Yonatan Netanyahu (Bibi's brother), who died during the raid, "consciously and with eyes wide open, sacrificed himself for the State of Israel and the people of Israel. Sadly you, Bibi, are consciously and with eyes wide open sacrificing the State of Israel and the people of Israel for your own interests."
The question we have to ask ourselves is whether, at this critical time, we agree with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu or Team Amnon and the hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting in the streets. Israelis will make the final decision, but if the U.S.-Israel relationship is a partnership, then those of us in the U.S. have the right--and if we care about Israel, the duty--to speak out and ask that our members of Congress do the same.
If you missed Democratic Jewish Outreach Pennsylvania's Zoom event with Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) and Israel Policy Forum's Nimrod Novik discussing the situation in Israel, watch it now. Wild shared details and insights from her recent trip to Israel, and Novik, a member of the Executive Committee of Commanders for Israel’s Security, said that "when the U.S. speaks out, Israelis do hear it. We do our job in demonstrating here, and we are eager to hear your voices in encouraging the administration and Congress to speak out."
Over 400 former senior commanders in the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet, Police, and NSC as well as Foreign Service Ambassadors, all members of the non-partisan Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), wrote that they "are appalled by the 'Constitutional Revolution' (aka 'Judicial Reform') initiated by the Netanyahu Government, and its dramatic departure from the Democratic Liberal Jewish State of Israel we are so proud of." Read their statement to understand why, in Israel as in the U.S., there is no security without democracy.
Whose side are you on, Steve?
Antisemitism is increasing. On Thursday, the ADL released its 2022 audit of antisemitic incidents, which found a 36% increase in antisemitic incidents nationwide since 2021, of which white supremacist activity was the major component. Antisemitism is real, and if we are serious about fighting it, then we have to set priorities: Fighting right-wing extremism must be the top priority.
I know this will break the hearts of those who daily chant the mantra of bipartisanship, but that means recognizing, as JDCA CEO Halie Soifer rightly noted, that right-wing extremism "has been tolerated, embraced, and normalized by the Republican Party."
And yet as Rob Eshman points out, Americans like Jews, at least according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. So how do we square rising antisemitic attacks with Jewish popularity?
After noting that "a cynic might say no Jewish defense organization ever raised a dime telling donors that Jews are well-liked," Eshman writes that "Jewish Americans are Americans, and subject to the same problems as all Americans. Hate crimes are up for everyone. Mass shootings are up for everyone. There is less tolerance and civility across the board — none of these trends uniquely targets Jews, but Jews are among their targets. If antisemitism is a problem — and it is — it may not be the problem, but one symptom among many: more guns and gun violence, more ideological division, a crumbling public mental health network, and a social media environment that turbocharges extremism."
This means not that we should ignore antisemitism or lessen our efforts to fight it, but that we should form alliances with other groups victimized by hate and bigotry. For example, we should urge our members of Congress to support Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) resolution honoring victims of the March 15, 2019, shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and committing to fight Islamophobia and white supremacist ideology, conspiracy theories, and violence.
Corrections. I'm entitled to my own opinions but not to my own facts. In last week's newsletter, I referred to "former Likud Prime Minister Ehud Olmert." Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Olmert served in the Knesset and in the Cabinet as a member of Likud. But Olmert joined Ariel Sharon and several other Likud ministers to form the centrist Kadima party, and Olmert became Prime Minister as the leader of Kadima. In addition, the second bullet point of last week's newsletter contained a rogue comma. Thanks to the careful readers who brought these errors to my attention.
In Case You Missed It:
- Trump again trotted out antisemitic tropes and Holocaust distortion to incite his supporters in advance of his indictment. Not one Republican member of Congress, not one Republican presidential candidate, has ever condemned Trump for his antisemitism. It's almost as if antisemitism is a feature, not a bug, of the Republican Party.
- As of today, 85 days into 2023, we've experienced at least 119 mass shootings and 9.499 gun violence deaths. We need to stop fighting on our own ten-yard line. We are arguing about assault weapons bans that would allow people who currently own assault weapons to keep them and we aren’t even talking about banning handguns. Republicans won't even pass background checks. We should be talking about a ban on private ownership of all guns and let those who disagree make the case for exceptions. Let’s put lawmakers on record and let them explain to families and voters why they voted the other way even if today we don't have enough votes. Let them explain why their gun culture trumps our culture of letting children live. We once thought that banning smoking in restaurants and bars was politically impossible. We once thought that recognizing same-sex marriage was politically impossible. Nothing, for better or for worse, is politically impossible unless we don’t try.
Tweet of the Week. Medhi Hassan. Speaking of which: Yair Rosenberg correctly points out that antisemitic stereotypes are antisemitic regardless of whether the person invoking the stereotypes thinks they are positive or negative. Remember when someone got in trouble for saying that "Israel hypnotized the world"? Last week, Danny Gordis wrote that "Israel mesmerizes the world" and not a peep from anyone. I don't know if that's a double standard or if people don't know what "mesmerize" means, but I remember when perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes for any reason was frowned upon.
Video Clip of the Week. The Absent-Minded Waiter.
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