As influential voices on both sides of the aisle turn on the Jewish state, responsible leaders must plan for a darker future — while doing whatever they can to prevent it
Brilliant and so timely. I have been pondering this very issue since October 8th when not so spontaneous anti Israel demonstrations broke out across the United States. It is certainly past the time for Israel and American Jews to counter the billions spent by foreign anti Israel forces here in the U.S. Revisionist history being taught not only in our colleges and universities but also in K-12 as it pertains to Israel must be countered by real history and the truth. The American mainstream media must also be held accountable for supporting these false narratives. Thank you AVI for this excellent yet disturbing editorial. We must heed your warning immediately.
Love your Fourth of July icebreaker of picking a favorite figure from U.S. history and especially intrigued by Brandeis’s views on Zionism. The American diaspora needs exactly that kind of wisdom now.
Unfortunately , while Jews practically invented the Public Relations Industry, they seem to be the worst at promoting the side of Israel in these troubling times ,,, while Hamas is winning the public relations war. Generally the Jewish Organizations spend their time, and my money and yours, in preaching to the choir instead of those ignorant of the true facts and thus siding against us.
Since nearly all Jewish organizations waste time and money preaching top their own choir, we need an organization that can disseminate complimentary facts about Israel and Jews in new ways among groups and countries that are totally ignorant of all that Jews have done for them, while deluged with lies, and thus often taking sides against Israel and Jews in general. I have considered several groups to start with, and ways to reach them, but my personal funds are limited as is my expertise in the internet. How next to proceed I am still considering , while open to advice, and support.
Outstanding. I can't believe I and my children and grandchildren are facing the same coordinated antisemitic hatred my Holocaust survivor parents endured over 80 years ago. Again the oldest hate keeps on giving.
and the Popes taught that Jews killed their G-d! This is generational, passed on by nuance in comments if nothing else...we drink baby blood, were dirty, were cheap and conniving, etc.
The article claims that anti-Israel sentiment was previous relegated to a small segment of the population in the US consisting of younger people on the left: "What had previously been relegated to younger demographic groups on the left has seeped into the American mainstream."
That statement is patently false.
Even within Israel, academia has for decades promoted the anti-Israel left wing intersectionality narrative that depicts Israel as the oppressor and casts the Palestinian Arabs as the oppressed.
Yoram Hazony, in his book, The Jewish State The Struggle for Israel’s Soul, related an article about this topic from Israel from 1994:
"For two or three decades now,
a few hundred of our ‘society’s best,’ men of the
pen and of the spirit—academics, authors, and journalists, and to these one must add artists
and photographers and actors as well—have been
working determinedly and without respite to preach
and prove that our cause is not just. Not only that it
has been unjust since the Six Day War (in 1967) and
the ‘occupation,’ which is supposed to be unjust in
its very nature; and not only since the founding of
the state in 1948, a birth which was itself ‘conceived
in sin’ … but since the beginnings of Zionist
settlement at the end of the last century.”
Mamdani is the physical manifestation of what has been the spirit of many if not most Jewish narratives among the elite and academia. Greta Thunberg is only the obvious follow through of the intersectionality narrative with her deft maneuver from the climate change cause to the Palestinian cause Yuval Abraham is the inevitable manifestation of this narrative and educational perspective.
Many, if not most, western Jews have been traditionally universalist as a vestige of the same spirit that inspired the Soviet Jews generations before. They never understood nationalism nor sided with it. They were never comfortable with Israel existing, and their perennial handwringing about the sins of Israel's existence have as much to do with the situation today as anything else, if not more.
A thoughtful and in-depth piece of analysis. In other countries and regions such as Latin America, anti Israel sentiment is also in the surge, a crystal clear trend mostly fueled by rampant ignorance about history and leftist leaders and organizations who buy and sell an effective emotion-based pro-Arab Palestinian narrative -my own country Chile under woke-leaning President Gabriel Boric is a regrettable example. Israeli diplomatic delegations and organized Israeli and Jewish civil society communities all around should dramatically ramp up efforts to get the message across as to the endless reasons why the existence of a vibrant Israeli State in ancient Jewish land is vital to the mere survival of the entire Western civilization. In so doing, they'd do well in exposing the immoral selfish policies and historic double-standard behavior of the surrounding Arab states towards the Arab Palestinians.
I don’t think that increasing anti-Israelism will make Jews feel uncomfortable, as you write here, I think that American Jews are abandoning support for a Jewish supremacist state in Israel as a part of their core identity.
We have 2000 years of Jewish writers, rabbis and theologians who describe an extremely robust Jewish life, practice and identity that is non or anti-Zionist. Zionist is a secular, assimilationist project. It’s proving to be a dead end for Jewish life.
Central to our identity is “Torah, marriage and good deeds.”
“An America that is intolerant of a core element of contemporary Jewish identity would be a place in which American Jews would feel — and be made to feel — increasingly uncomfortable.”
I'm beginning to wonder why it's not called the Hamas war against Israel since Hamas started it. To call it the Israeli war against Hamas seems to me to imply that Israel is the aggressor. No, Hamas is the aggressor and they have yet to surrender is all. Put another way, Hamas is losing the war against Israel.
The widely noted effort, in 2024, of AIPAC to primary so as to defeat pro-Palestinian Dems in NY and MO, using AIPAC’s ultra-deep donor pockets, hasn’t exactly endeared the pro-Israel—make that pro-IDF— stance to large groups of the US electorate.
Interesting take. Appreciate the viewpoint and the intelligence and thoughtfulness behind it. Very current-polling reliant. Very current- Gaza oriented. Overly so on both accounts.
There’s a fundamental mistake being made and that’s participating in the “Israel’s right to exist” cesspool. What is “post Zionism” anyway?
The fact is, Netanyahu has for two decades worked to repel non Orthodox American Jews who aren’t Likud (or right of it) policy supporters and same goes for the contempt with which he’s related to Democrats.
Permanent reliance on the U.S. isn’t a good plan regardless of polling. And Israel v Palestinians sympathies was destined to change given Israel military prowess and moving from underdog to super dog. And thank God!
How about this: Israel’s place among the nations of world just is. Don’t debate it or even address the “right to exist” morass. Countries act in their self interest. That’s what Israel should do. No apologies. And while Israel may need to be more self reliant on its own military industries (btw, US military exporters need to export for their own bottom lines), Israel has significant strategic and cultural (pro west) value for western countries (the lesser ones aren’t as aware of this).
With regard to American Jewry, was it realistic to think that American Jews wouldn’t trend toward how other immigrant groups related back to the “home country” (I recognize most American Jews didn’t come from Israel but I think you get my point). Italians and Irish come to mind.
Bottom line. Trust the foundation of the U.S.-Israel Trust what Israel represents and offers in the big picture. I’m not saying ignore the polls and trends. And if Israel wants something more from American Jewry, it’ll increasingly have to earn it. And I don’t see that as a bad thing.
Brilliant and so timely. I have been pondering this very issue since October 8th when not so spontaneous anti Israel demonstrations broke out across the United States. It is certainly past the time for Israel and American Jews to counter the billions spent by foreign anti Israel forces here in the U.S. Revisionist history being taught not only in our colleges and universities but also in K-12 as it pertains to Israel must be countered by real history and the truth. The American mainstream media must also be held accountable for supporting these false narratives. Thank you AVI for this excellent yet disturbing editorial. We must heed your warning immediately.
Thank you @Avi Mayer. Sharing wide and far.
Love your Fourth of July icebreaker of picking a favorite figure from U.S. history and especially intrigued by Brandeis’s views on Zionism. The American diaspora needs exactly that kind of wisdom now.
Unfortunately , while Jews practically invented the Public Relations Industry, they seem to be the worst at promoting the side of Israel in these troubling times ,,, while Hamas is winning the public relations war. Generally the Jewish Organizations spend their time, and my money and yours, in preaching to the choir instead of those ignorant of the true facts and thus siding against us.
Since nearly all Jewish organizations waste time and money preaching top their own choir, we need an organization that can disseminate complimentary facts about Israel and Jews in new ways among groups and countries that are totally ignorant of all that Jews have done for them, while deluged with lies, and thus often taking sides against Israel and Jews in general. I have considered several groups to start with, and ways to reach them, but my personal funds are limited as is my expertise in the internet. How next to proceed I am still considering , while open to advice, and support.
Outstanding. I can't believe I and my children and grandchildren are facing the same coordinated antisemitic hatred my Holocaust survivor parents endured over 80 years ago. Again the oldest hate keeps on giving.
and the Popes taught that Jews killed their G-d! This is generational, passed on by nuance in comments if nothing else...we drink baby blood, were dirty, were cheap and conniving, etc.
The article claims that anti-Israel sentiment was previous relegated to a small segment of the population in the US consisting of younger people on the left: "What had previously been relegated to younger demographic groups on the left has seeped into the American mainstream."
That statement is patently false.
Even within Israel, academia has for decades promoted the anti-Israel left wing intersectionality narrative that depicts Israel as the oppressor and casts the Palestinian Arabs as the oppressed.
Yoram Hazony, in his book, The Jewish State The Struggle for Israel’s Soul, related an article about this topic from Israel from 1994:
"For two or three decades now,
a few hundred of our ‘society’s best,’ men of the
pen and of the spirit—academics, authors, and journalists, and to these one must add artists
and photographers and actors as well—have been
working determinedly and without respite to preach
and prove that our cause is not just. Not only that it
has been unjust since the Six Day War (in 1967) and
the ‘occupation,’ which is supposed to be unjust in
its very nature; and not only since the founding of
the state in 1948, a birth which was itself ‘conceived
in sin’ … but since the beginnings of Zionist
settlement at the end of the last century.”
Mamdani is the physical manifestation of what has been the spirit of many if not most Jewish narratives among the elite and academia. Greta Thunberg is only the obvious follow through of the intersectionality narrative with her deft maneuver from the climate change cause to the Palestinian cause Yuval Abraham is the inevitable manifestation of this narrative and educational perspective.
Many, if not most, western Jews have been traditionally universalist as a vestige of the same spirit that inspired the Soviet Jews generations before. They never understood nationalism nor sided with it. They were never comfortable with Israel existing, and their perennial handwringing about the sins of Israel's existence have as much to do with the situation today as anything else, if not more.
A thoughtful and in-depth piece of analysis. In other countries and regions such as Latin America, anti Israel sentiment is also in the surge, a crystal clear trend mostly fueled by rampant ignorance about history and leftist leaders and organizations who buy and sell an effective emotion-based pro-Arab Palestinian narrative -my own country Chile under woke-leaning President Gabriel Boric is a regrettable example. Israeli diplomatic delegations and organized Israeli and Jewish civil society communities all around should dramatically ramp up efforts to get the message across as to the endless reasons why the existence of a vibrant Israeli State in ancient Jewish land is vital to the mere survival of the entire Western civilization. In so doing, they'd do well in exposing the immoral selfish policies and historic double-standard behavior of the surrounding Arab states towards the Arab Palestinians.
I don’t think that increasing anti-Israelism will make Jews feel uncomfortable, as you write here, I think that American Jews are abandoning support for a Jewish supremacist state in Israel as a part of their core identity.
We have 2000 years of Jewish writers, rabbis and theologians who describe an extremely robust Jewish life, practice and identity that is non or anti-Zionist. Zionist is a secular, assimilationist project. It’s proving to be a dead end for Jewish life.
Central to our identity is “Torah, marriage and good deeds.”
“An America that is intolerant of a core element of contemporary Jewish identity would be a place in which American Jews would feel — and be made to feel — increasingly uncomfortable.”
Love it! Bravo! Well done, Sir.
I'm beginning to wonder why it's not called the Hamas war against Israel since Hamas started it. To call it the Israeli war against Hamas seems to me to imply that Israel is the aggressor. No, Hamas is the aggressor and they have yet to surrender is all. Put another way, Hamas is losing the war against Israel.
The widely noted effort, in 2024, of AIPAC to primary so as to defeat pro-Palestinian Dems in NY and MO, using AIPAC’s ultra-deep donor pockets, hasn’t exactly endeared the pro-Israel—make that pro-IDF— stance to large groups of the US electorate.
Interesting take. Appreciate the viewpoint and the intelligence and thoughtfulness behind it. Very current-polling reliant. Very current- Gaza oriented. Overly so on both accounts.
There’s a fundamental mistake being made and that’s participating in the “Israel’s right to exist” cesspool. What is “post Zionism” anyway?
The fact is, Netanyahu has for two decades worked to repel non Orthodox American Jews who aren’t Likud (or right of it) policy supporters and same goes for the contempt with which he’s related to Democrats.
Permanent reliance on the U.S. isn’t a good plan regardless of polling. And Israel v Palestinians sympathies was destined to change given Israel military prowess and moving from underdog to super dog. And thank God!
How about this: Israel’s place among the nations of world just is. Don’t debate it or even address the “right to exist” morass. Countries act in their self interest. That’s what Israel should do. No apologies. And while Israel may need to be more self reliant on its own military industries (btw, US military exporters need to export for their own bottom lines), Israel has significant strategic and cultural (pro west) value for western countries (the lesser ones aren’t as aware of this).
With regard to American Jewry, was it realistic to think that American Jews wouldn’t trend toward how other immigrant groups related back to the “home country” (I recognize most American Jews didn’t come from Israel but I think you get my point). Italians and Irish come to mind.
Bottom line. Trust the foundation of the U.S.-Israel Trust what Israel represents and offers in the big picture. I’m not saying ignore the polls and trends. And if Israel wants something more from American Jewry, it’ll increasingly have to earn it. And I don’t see that as a bad thing.