The condition of American Jewish leadership is in a state of disarray and, if this reflects the rank-and-file American Jew, then American Jewry is in deep trouble.
At the most troubling time for Israel and for American Jews since the Yom Kippur War fifty years ago, we Israelis clearly see deep divisions have opened up between an American Jewry tied to traditional ethics and a profound support for Israel, and the progressive wing increasingly critical of Israel to the extent that they represent the views of those who oppose the Jewish State.
The leaders of the latter group have adopted a Judaism of “universal values” while Israelis are fighting an existential war against an enemy that has no notion of what their universal values represent.
This deep divide exploded following an apparently failed Zoom meeting between members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (American do love grand sounding names to add a faux prestige to a grouping of Jewish NGOs that are diametrically opposed to one another) and Jewish Democrat Senate Leader, Chuck Schumer, battered from the enormous kick back he received following his disgraceful call to Israelis to overthrow our democratically elected Prime Minister at a crucial stage of our existential war to eradicate the military capability of the Palestinian Hamas terror organization.
The fifty-member grouping is so utterly divided over Israel and basic Jewish values that they could not unite against Schumer’s official remarks against Israel an its elected leader at a critical moment in Israeli history.
Added to that, Israel is deeply involved in repelling the danger across our northern border from Hezbollah.
Two leaders of the divided Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Harriet Schleifer and William Daroff, released a statement following the Schumer meeting which said, “The pro-Israel community and our membership continue to have deep reservations about Senator Schumer’s speech on the Senate floor last week regarding impediments to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We believe that at a time when Israel is fighting an existential war, on the embers of the 1200 innocents massacred on October 7, it is not a time for public criticism that serves only to empower the detractors of Israel, and which foster greater divisiveness, when unity is so desperately needed.”
They were right both in the moral message but also in their description of the opposition within the greater American Jewish community.
The “detractors of Israel” included URJ, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Association of Reform Zionists of America, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Jewish Labour Committee, Women of Reform Judaism, HAIS, MERCAZ USA, all of whom had sympathy for Schumer’s grotesque public statement welcoming his criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu.
They quickly turned on Daroff and Schleifer for being “divisive and unfair” in their harsh criticism of Schumer.
The question that needs to be asked of American Jews is if it is right for Jewish leaders, elected or self-imposed, to stand solidly with Israel at a time of great peril, or to support the leading Jew in American politics in demanding that Israel tears itself apart in the midst of a bloody and deadly war against an immediate existential enemy?
That remains the sole critical issue. It requires a simple answer. Yes, or no?
Apparently, the view of the majority of American Jewish leaders seem to support Schumer’s vile notion to create a rift within Israeli society that will hand our enemy a pyrrhic victory.
I cannot believe that the 300,000 Israel supporters that gathered in Washington DC on 14 November chanting “Never Again!” in front of Senator Schumer are pleased by his dastardly remarks in the Senate four months later.
If Jewish leaders who gave comfort to Schumer have their way, their preferred leaders, Schumer and Biden, may take their next declared step against Israel if we press on with the final stage of our war against Hamas.
That would be the threatened drawback of weapon resupplies to Israel which would leave Israel denuded. Perhaps able to finish the job against Hamas, but unable to respond to the potential Doomsday rocket bombardment by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.
Iran, seeing Israel robbed of essential munition, would order Hezbollah to launch their 160,000 powerful and precise missiles against a defenseless Israel.
The Hamas rocket bombardment will make Hamas rocket attacks seem like a children’s firework display.
This harsh scenario sees massive devastation to the coastal headland of Israel from Haifa down to Tel Aviv and a death rate that would dwarf the seventh of October.
If winning progressive votes comes above the survival of Israel something is dreadfully wrong in America. particularly among the leftist wing of American Jewry who seem to be willing to do everything possible to align themselves with Israel’s lethal enemies.
(Barry Shaw of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies is the author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS, and Anti-Semitism.’)