US Jewry no longer in Netanyahu's pocket
Op-ed: J Street has introduced a new type of pro-Israeliness into the Jewish-American discourse, which sees its main mission as advancing a two-state solution for two people, even if it contradicts the israeli government’s worldview.
Bernie Sanders of Vermont, another Jewish senator who run quite a successful campaign against Hillary Clinton as part of the Democratic primary election ahead of the 2016 presidential election, was one of the supporters of the nuclear agreement. He will also be remembered as one of the eight senators who chose to skip Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Congress speech before the 2015 Knesset elections.
Cardin and Sanders represent different, and sometimes contradictory, approaches within the Democratic Party concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it’s no coincidence that both of them—along with other senators and Congress members—attended J Street’s 10th Anniversary National Conference, which was held in Washington this week.
In the past decade, J Street, a nonprofit liberal advocacy group, has become the little sister of the big and powerful AIPAC. It challenges the convention, which was unshakable for years, that being pro-Israel means supporting all moves made by the Israeli government without any criticism.
J Street introduced a new type of pro-Israeliness into the Jewish-American discourse, which sees its main mission as advancing a two-state solution for two people as a necessary move for fortifying a Jewish and democratic state and as the most important Israeli interest according to its worldview, even if it contradicts the Netanyahu government’s worldview.
Ten years after J Street’s establishment, AIPAC also decided to make its support of the two-state solution public in its latest conference. “We must all work toward that future: Two states for two peoples. One Jewish with secure and defensible borders, and one Palestinian with its own flag and its own future,” the lobby’s Executive Director Howard Kohr said. This statement was met with attacks on AIPAC from the Israeli Right, which saw it as a violation of the unwavering support for the Israeli government, which is doing everything in its power to thwart the solution.
The common thread between Senator Cardin and Senator Sanders’ joint appearance at the J Street conference and AIPAC’s decision to stress its support of the two-state solution is that there seems to be a crack in the Jewish American leadership’s uncompromising support for the Israeli government’s policy. And the more Netanyahu and his government celebrate the Trump administration—perhaps the least popular administration among the US Jewry—this crack keeps growing.
The Jewish leadership, even its more conservative part that includes AIPAC leaders and less progressive senators like Ben Cardin, is attentive to the voices emerging from the Jewish American public, most of which is unhappy with the stalemate in the peace process led by the Netanyahu government. It is hearing and it is listening.
Granted, the support for Israel on the right-wing side of the American political map is at its peak, but less than 30 percent of the US Jewry leans towards the Republican Party, and Israel can’t afford to lose not only America’s Jews but also their political leadership.
Instead of burying their head in the sand, Israeli government leaders must understand that the US Jewry and its leadership, whose support has always been taken for granted, won’t keep pledging unequivocal support if the government keeps rejecting negotiations.
Yael Patir is the director of the Israel Program at J Street.
