One of the most important articles I have encountered, ever: I believe that today the major leaders within the American Jewish establishment are failing to stand up and be counted, despite chilling signals that the United States administration is about to abandon Israel, effectively revoking the U.S.-Israel alliance on which we are deeply dependent. There are even hints that U.S. President Barack Obama may forgo the U.S. veto at the United Nations Security Council that protects Israel from censure and sanctions -- which could have disastrous repercussions. This is taking place at a time when much of the world regards Israel as they did Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Tensions have escalated over the past 12 months and the vicious and humiliating manner in which the Obama administration has treated Israel, its purported ally and the only democratic state in the region, is unprecedented. The administration’s condemnation of Israel‘s “disproportionate response” and directive to withhold replenishment of arms during the Gaza war, is hardly the behavior of a genuine ally. In contrast, the Obama administration serenades Iran and Qatar which promote global terrorism, kowtows to Saudi Arabia despite its horrific abuse of human rights, and embraces Turkey’s anti-Semitic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has failed to make a single concession, opting to merge with the genocidal Hamas. He deliberately incites hatred of Israelis, having just last week hailed the murderer of the 3-month-old Israeli baby as a shaheed (martyr) and extended condolences to the family of Rabbi Yehuda Glick’s attempted assassin, whom he described as “rising to heaven while defending our people’s rights and holy places.” And yet, despite all of the above, the Jewish leadership seems to have hibernated. The only voices consistently protesting against the bias and condemnations directed against Israel are the Zionist Organization of America and the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, which was the first to respond with a well-deserved fusillade against the “chickenshit” outburst, demanding an apology and repudiation. Amazingly, the National Jewish Democratic Council condemned the outburst in harsher terms than the Jewish establishment, expressing “surprising disappointment at the profane and inappropriate language” employed. These are times when one would expect the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (whose raison d’etre is surely to respond to such situations) and the American Jewish Federations to publicly protest at the manner in which Israel is being treated. Most Jewish leaders with whom I communicate admit that they consider Obama’s behavior toward Israel as reprehensible. Many seek to rationalize their behavior by stressing that they are lobbying vigorously behind the scenes and maintain that public criticism of Obama would encourage him to become even more extreme. This is the classic Diaspora approach of the “Trembling Israelites.” It has been proven wrong in the past Certain myths and falsehoods need to be dispelled. Israel is not creating new settlements. To the contrary, the only real change on the ground in the last decade has been the dismantling of settlements in Gaza which were transformed to launch rockets. Nor are any Arabs being displaced or Palestinian land being appropriated. The entire area engaged in current settlement is about 3% of the former Jordanian occupied territories. The Oslo accords never required limits to settlement growth and certainly not natural growth of existing communities. That is the message that AIPAC and Jewish leaders must urgently promote. Failure by the Jewish leadership to act now will massively undermine the entire Jewish community as a political force in America, sending a message to the American people and Congress that American Jews are distancing themselves from Israel. This would invariably impact on the very high levels of support that Israel currently enjoys. -- Isi Liebler
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 14:32:11 +0000
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