Chemi Shalev Messianic U.S.-Israel Axis Showcased at Jerusalem Embassy Ceremony Is Gut-punch for Most American Jews
The stark contrast that played out on split screens throughout the world Monday, between the Israeli celebration in Jerusalem and the Palestinian casualties in Gaza, was worthy of Charles Dickens’ immortal opening to “A Tale of Two Cities:” “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Whether one accepts the Palestinian narrative of
hungry masses demonstrating for dignity, or the Israeli version of a
cynical exploitation of human lives as cover for homicidal intent, there
is no doubt that the scores of dead and many hundreds of wounded on the
Gaza border spoiled Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump’s
extravaganza. The more the casualties in Gaza mounted, the more those
assembled at the site of the new American embassy in Jerusalem seemed
arrogant, detached and mainly devoid of compassion. As more and more
reports and tweets came in about the mounting casualties in Gaza’s day
of bloodshed, the worst since the 2014 Protective Edge operation, the
more the claim that the embassy move could actually help achieve peace
seemed both cynical and ridiculous.
The knockout to Israel’s image was built-in in
the script. When a modern, sophisticated and armed-to-the-teeth army
confronts unarmed masses sporting kites and stones, the propaganda
debacle is inevitable. Even the best hasbara points – sorely lacking in
this case, except for domestic consumption – cannot contend with so many
killed and wounded. Hamas recruited the embassy ceremony as a catalyzer
for its Nakba campaign,
which could escalate in the coming days, and exploited the
international media’s coverage of the Jerusalem ceremony to its own
ends. But while Israelis told themselves that they’re dealing with a
terrorist organization that is callous to the lives of its own people
and rules over a territory that Israel supposedly withdrew from,
international public opinion could only see strong versus weak, occupier
against occupied, a heartless state confronting despair and
desperation.
At the same time, the makeup and participants in
the Israeli-American Jerusalem hoopla made clear – if there were any
doubts – that Netanyahu and his colleagues couldn’t care less these days
about international public opinion. Israel has only one king, and his
name is Donald Trump. He is Israel’s salvation and his word – or at
least his benefactor Sheldon Adelson’s – is the bond that fuses
Jerusalem and Washington together. The participation of pastors John
Hagee and Robert Jeffress in the ceremony accentuated this new axis of
fundamentalist, messianic End-Times-adoring elements that increasingly
dominate ties between the two countries. Hagee once described Adolf
Hitler as God’s hunter and Jeffress consigned unrepentant Jews to hell,
but in the era of Trump-Netanyahu, old-style aversion to Jews is cast
aside for the sake of unqualified support for Israel’s rejectionist,
settler-dominated agenda. A shared hostility to Islam, which Jeffress
once depicted as a religion of pedophiles, underpins the ties that bind
the two countries together.
In this regard, the ceremony also marked the
demise of bipartisan support for Israel and even dispelled the notion
that anyone really cares. The U.S. delegation didn’t include even one
Democratic legislator – an absence that spoke volumes. And even though
most Israeli opposition leaders came to the ceremony, out of true
conviction or fear of public opinion, Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg was
right to stay at home. A genuine, peace-loving leftist, even one who
supports the embassy move in principle, shouldn’t be seen in the
nationalistic-messianic forum that convened in Jerusalem under the
guidance and orchestration of left-loathing U.S. Ambassador to Israel
David Friedman.
For
most American Jews, especially those who still see themselves as
supporters of Israel, the ceremony was nothing less than a punch in the
gut. Not only do they consider Hagee and Jeffress beyond the pale, but
the tumultuous standing ovation that preceded Trump’s videotaped
greetings highlighted the growing schism between Israel and the largest
Jewish Diaspora. For American liberals, Jews and non-Jews alike, there
is no more incriminating evidence of their distance from Netanyahu’s
Israel and its steady veer toward the rabid right than Israel’s adoring
embrace of a president who is seen as a clear and present threat to the
enlightened values they cherish.
All
of this probably doesn’t bother Netanyahu at all. The Israeli prime
minister is riding an unprecedented wave of public support for what is
seen as his unstoppable stream of successes, from Trump’s decision to
abandon the Iran nuclear deal all the way to singer Netta Barzilai’s
victory in Saturday’s Eurovision contest. Netanyahu has chosen to put
all of Israel’s chips on a U.S. president whose foreign policy,
according to Monday’s Washington Post, is based on a principle of “buy
now – pay later.” Trump is already a hero for unilaterally reneging on
the nuclear accord, despite the immediate damage to the trans-Atlantic
alliance and the still-unknown repercussions and ramifications of his
decision. On Monday he was anointed “King of Mercies” by Sephardic Chief
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef – who recently compared black people to monkeys –
even though the consequences of his decision to move the embassy,
including the smothering of faint hopes for peace and the threat of a
third intifada, will only become known in the coming weeks and months.
In
the meantime, Israelis rejoice and Palestinians remain despondent.
Only time will tell, as the cliche goes, whether the “historic day” so
joyfully pronounced in Jerusalem on Monday heralds the arrival of a
spring of hope or a winter of despair, or, as only the Middle East can
sustain, of both together.
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