Chemi Shalev Liberal Jews of the World, Unite! The Only Thing You Have to Lose Is Your Pain
American Jews of the liberal persuasion and
Israelis who view themselves as left of center cannot be defined as
birds of a feather, but in the days of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu,
they should be flocking together nonetheless. Both groups feel
threatened by the anti-democratic, right-wing turn of their own
countries and both are crestfallen because of the similarly ominous
direction taken by the other country they love.
American Jews have it
worse. Israelis, like the proverbial frog in boiling water, have
gradually grown complacent, despite the steady erosion of the very
foundations of their imperfect liberal democracy. American Jews, on the
other hand are still in shock over Trump’s election and his turbulent
first two years in office. Their distress grows deeper by the day,
including Saturday, when the U.S. Senate confirmed the Supreme Court appointment of Brett Kavanaugh, a tainted judge whose views on the U.S. Constitution are anathema to their core values.
Not just millennials: These older U.S. Jews are disillusioned by Israel too
At the same time,
American Jews are not only repelled, like many Israelis, by Netanyahu’s
overall policies on issues such as the occupation, democracy and the
rule of law, but also feel specifically targeted and personally rejected
by Israel’s Orthodox monopoly. They are still smarting from Netanyahu’s
June 2017 decision to renege on the signed agreement concerning prayers at the Western Wall.
Israelis who oppose
Netanyahu, on the other hand, have no reason to feel singled out or
spurned by Trump. On the contrary, although Trump receives his strongest
support by far from the Israeli right, appreciation for his policies on
Israel and the Middle East crosses party lines and includes significant
parts of the center and center-left. According to the most recent
Peace Index published by Tel Aviv University, less than 30 percent of
Jewish Israelis believe that negotiations with the Palestinians can lead
to a peace agreement. The Israeli peace camp may not like Trump’s
get-tough attitude toward the Palestinians, but they don’t blame it for
the stagnating stalemate in relations between the two enemysides.
At the same time, however, it is clear to all
Israelis that Trump is the chief enabler of the Netanyahu coalition’s
hyper-nationalist, ethnocentric drive to elevate Jewish Israelis above
all others, as expressed in the recent nation-state law, and of its efforts to stifle dissent by demonizing the left.
Trump’s
general indifference to violations of human and civil rights and
admiration for “strong leaders” are destructive in and of themselves,
but they are doubly critical when it comes to Israel and his BFF
Netanyahu. Even Israelis who were not enthused by Barack Obama’s
policies toward Israel can now appreciate his vigilance in curbing
Netanyahu’s darker urges.
And
while the liberalism of a majority of American Jews is in no way
synonymous with the leftism of a minority of Israelis – the latter are
less committed, for example, to the rights of immigrants and minorities –
both groups feel that their democracies as well as their core beliefs
are under siege. Both fear that their countries are crossing hitherto
sacrosanct constitutional red lines. Both are apprehensive that sooner
or later, they themselves will be targeted by their governments and even
more so, by the hate-filled mobs their leaders’ regularly inspire and
incite.
Both groups have also
grown increasingly suspicious and even hostile toward their own.
American Jews watch in dismay as their small but vocal and committed
right-wing section sides with Trump and whispers in his ear, as
evidenced by the tight relationship between the President and Sheldon
Adelson. Israeli leftists, on the other hand, are ever more aware that a
fanatic religious-right minority not only directs Netanyahu’s policies
but is actively seeking to suppress the Israeli left and silence it.
Nonetheless, despite
their common agenda and shared fears, the two groups remain distant from
each other. Israeli leftists follow the long tradition of their
political camp, which originated with the country’s socialist Eastern
European founders and first leaders, to disregard American Jewry and to
belittle their contribution to their own security. American Jews, on the
other hand, have kept their distance from the Israeli left, deterred by
the stigma that the right has succeeded in attaching to the peace
camp’s patriotism and loyalty. They prefer to defer to the Israeli
powers that be, whose values they often despise, rather than form a
coalition with their opponents, whose worldview they share, at least
partially.
Leftist Israelis, of
course, may not be of much help to American Jews in resisting Trump, but
they can serve as a vital lifeline to maintaining their ties to Israel,
for those who are still so inclined, in hope of better times. American
Jews, for their part, won’t ensure regime change in Israel, but they
could provide crucial assistance, both material and inspirational, that
might lift the Israeli left out of its current doldrums and strengthen
its ability and resolve to resist Netanyahu and his policies.
The
call for a new liberal alliance is not new – I, along with several
others, have made it in the past – but it is now more urgent and vital
than ever. Establishing a new partnership between the liberal factions
of the world’s two largest Jewish communities can no longer be relegated
to the random efforts of well-meaning private individuals and dedicated
groups on the fringe. A formal framework that would represent both
groups, foster ties between them and formulate joint policies that both
can pursue could very well be the only way to address their shared
concerns and aspirations.
Such a group should
not include representatives of the Israeli government, whose only
mission would be to defend Netanyahu and his policies and to sabotage
efforts to counter them. Likewise, it should not include representatives
of the American Jewish establishment, especially from groups such as
the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, whose main
purpose in life is to paper over differences between Israel and the
United States and to serve as apologists for both. Both groups cannot
allow themselves to be deterred by the expected right-wing assault on
such a renegade institution, for that would be a capitulation to the
same oppressive groupthink that enables Trump and Netanyahu
anti-democratic onslaught in the first place.
Rather, a new
Coalition of Liberal Americans and Israelis, as it might be called,
could not only dedicate itself to nurturing ties between the two
beleaguered groups, but also map out their shared liberal values,
including support for democracy, equality, free speech and the rule of
law, and adopt joint programs to fight for them. Such a partnership
could relieve Israeli leftists of their increasing sense of dejection
and isolation and provide American Jews who have yet to turn their backs
on Israel with a new anchor for their continuing attachment to the
Jewish state.
Jewish liberals of the world must unite, because
the only thing they have to lose is their frustration and pain. Whether
through a formal framework, as proposed above, or by more energetic and
concerted efforts to build up informal ties, at the very least, a new
partnership between like-minded Israelis and American Jews could help
both groups survive their current travails both intact and motivated.
The first task of
this new all-liberal Jewish framework would be to formulate a shared
declaration of independence, espousing their values, denouncing those
who would undermine them and pledging to work together to maintain them.
It is a tall branch to hang on, but both sides would do right to heed
Benjamin Franklin’s famous admonition to the Continental Congress on the eve
of the signing of America’s own Declaration of Independence in 1776,
"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all
hang separately."
Chemi Shalev
Commenti
Posta un commento