by Isi Leibler
Hat tip: Jean-Charles Bensoussan
The real threat to the Jewish community on which the ADL should be focusing, is at the college campuses where anti-Israelism initiated by Muslim and far left groups has now morphed into open anti-Semitism with increasing manifestations of violence.
Throughout the 2000 years of Jews living
in the Diaspora, there has been no precedent comparable to the behavior
of major liberal mainstream sectors of the American Jewish community.
They are undermining themselves and provoking massive waves of
resentment from Americans, many of whom were favorably disposed towards
them.
The United States has been the home of
the largest Jewish community in the Diaspora for nearly a century and
was regarded by many Jews as the “goldene medina.” Traditional
anti-Semitism is at an all-time low with the exception of the current
anti-Israel agitation initiated on college campuses by Muslims and
far-left radicals. Many Jews have become affluent, powerful and are
highly respected by most Americans.
Until recently, all mainstream Jewish
organizations sought to maintain Democrat and Republican bipartisanship
with regard to Israel and major issues of Jewish concern. This, despite
the fact that for complex historical reasons, the vast majority of
American Jews were inclined toward liberalism and voted Democrat.
Even after eight years of President
Barack Obama’s efforts to create daylight between Israel and the United
States in order to appease Iran and the Arab countries and despite the
extraordinary support for Israel expressed by all sections of the
Republican Party, Jews still tended to vote Democrat. This contrasted
sharply with Anglo-Jewry, whose members defected in droves from the
British Labour Party when it became anti-Israel/anti-Semitic under the
leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Regrettably, a number of mainstream U.S.
liberal Jewish organizations broke with all tradition and displayed
unprecedented and extreme partisanship in the recent US election and its
aftermath. This may have disastrous long-term repercussions on the
standing and influence of the American Jewish community.
The Anti-Defamation League, a previously
respected body whose principal mandate is to combat anti-Semitism,
began crossing red lines as soon as its new CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, a
former Obama aide, assumed leadership after the retirement of Abe
Foxman. Even before the elections, Greenblatt assumed a J Street profile
and introduced left-wing policy initiatives, including pontificating
about and criticizing Israeli policies, which were totally beyond his
jurisdiction.
At the same time, he opposed legislation
to prohibit anti-Israel boycotts, suggesting that many of its
supporters were misled idealists seeking to promote the peace process.
He also minimized concern for the rabid anti-Semitic platform of the
Black Lives Matter movement, excusing it on the grounds that it was
engineered by a small minority.
More significantly, he downplayed the
escalating anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism on the college campuses
initiated by Muslim and far-left groups – highly ironic for the head of
the organization whose raison d’être is to combat anti-Semitism. But it
was in the course of America’s most bitter and brutal electoral race
that a number of liberal Jewish groups, headed by the ADL, initiated a
partisan campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump and his
supporters.
Like most Americans, many Jews were
distressed and polarized by the shameful and vulgar behavior of
candidates. As individuals, American Jews have every right to express
their political feelings. But officially, as Jewish mainstream
organizations – as distinct from politically left Jewish groups – they
had no right to speak on behalf of the Jewish community on issues
unconnected to Jewish rights or interests.
It is also understandable that many
Jewish long-time supporters of the Democratic party were bitterly
disappointed with the unexpected outcome of the elections. But to
hysterically proclaim the demise of democracy and the rise of fascism,
or to compare the Trump ascendancy to the 9/11 attacks and imply that
Trump supporters – half of the electorate – are extremists, is sheer
lunacy. Indeed the despair and frenzy reached such levels after the
elections that a number of Conservative and Reform synagogues conducted
formal mourning ceremonies. This is truly collective madness.
Yet ADL officials, together with Reform
and Conservative leaders, also publicly exploited anti-Semitism as a
vehicle to slander the Trump campaign, hurling accusations of
anti-Semitism and fascism. In so doing, these groups may have caused
irreparable harm to the Jewish community from among Trump’s supporters,
who comprise half of the American people, many of whom had previously
been positively inclined toward Jews.
The false allegations and innuendoes of
anti-Semitism were accompanied by counter-productive hysteria, warning
of the threat emanating from marginal right-wing anti-Semitic groups,
implying that these few hundred extremists were a critical component of
Trump’s support and thus the entire party was compromised.
The campaign against the extremist
fringes and the national media exposure to these relatively unknown
marginal neo-Nazis and degenerates, such as David Duke and Richard
Spencer and the email hate peddlers, achieved the undesirable result of
catapulting them into the national spotlight, which they could never
have dreamed of occupying.
Stoking the fires of hysteria after the
elections, Greenblatt proclaimed at an ADL conference that anti-Semitism
in the United States had never been as bad since the 1930s. He was not
relating to the real threat of burgeoning campus anti-Semitism at the
but referring to the few hundred Ku Klux Klan lunatics, white
supremacists and neo-Nazis allegedly empowered by Trump. Whatever his
failings may be, Trump is certainly no anti-Semite. He has a daughter
who converted to Judaism and is religiously observant and he is
surrounded by Jews.
The real threat to the Jewish community
on which the ADL should be focusing, is at the college campuses where
anti-Israelism initiated by Muslim and far left groups has now morphed
into open anti-Semitism with increasing manifestations of violence.
Freedom of expression is being denied to pro-Israeli speakers who are
frequently howled down by these “progressives.” Given that graduates
from these institutions will become the leaders of the future, it is
truly worrisome that they are being nurtured in such a hostile
environment and that it requires courage to support Israel on many
campuses.
Displaying double standards, incredibly
the ADL provided an imprimatur to Congressman Keith Ellison to become
the new head of the Democratic National Committee. Ellison is a Muslim
who previously had ties with Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan and
has a long record of anti-Israeli hostility. Yet Greenblatt went so far
as to describe Ellison as “a man of good character… an important ally in
the fight against anti-Semitism.” Instead of combating anti-Semitism,
the ADL was whitewashing an opponent of Israel with an anti-Semitic
background in order to promote its leftist agenda. However, the public
outcry was so overwhelming that that a week later Greenblatt was forced
to state that after seeing “disturbing” remarks expressed by Ellison,
the ADL now had “serious doubts about his ability to faithfully
represent the party’s traditional support for Israel”.
Alas, the extent to which the Democratic
Party has veered from its traditional pro-Israel stance was exemplified
by the fact that the Charles Schumer, the incoming Jewish Senate
Minority Leader, shamefully reiterated that “I stand by Rep. Ellison for
the DNC chair…”while I disagree with him on some of his past
positions”.
Fortunately, the new administration is
unlikely to be anti-Semitic. Aside from other factors, Trump is
surrounded by Orthodox Jewish officials who are also passionately
pro-Israel. But nevertheless, these partisan mainstream Jewish
interventions and refusal to accept the outcome of a democratic election
create major tensions and have the potential to severely undermine the
standing of the Jewish community.
The only major organization explicitly condemning this behavior is the Zionist Organization of America headed by Mort Klein.
To their credit, following the
elections, Malcolm Hoenlein on behalf of the Conference of Presidents of
Major Jewish Organizations and David Harris of the American Jewish
Committee called on Americans to reunite as a nation, encouraged Trump
to calm the passions, and asked that the incoming administration be
judged on its actions.
This enlightened approach is highly
commendable. But it is unlikely to suppress the hysteria among those
sections of the community that define their Judaism as comprising
liberalism and universalism while placing the welfare of Israel low
among their priorities. Moreover the links with Israel, which until now
were the primary source of Jewish identity for non-Orthodox Jews, will
tragically continue to erode.
In addition to the polarized division
between Orthodox Jews and the rest of the community, the assimilatory
tendencies will further increase, which will lead to the ongoing
contraction and quality of the Jewish community.
Far left-Liberals are as free as anyone
else to engage in political campaigns, but those heading mainstream
Jewish organizations must be compelled to cease exploiting their
positions and using anti-Semitism as a vehicle to promote their partisan
agenda.
They should also ask themselves one
question. Who represents a greater threat to democracy and American
Jews? A handful of marginal neo-Nazis and White Supremacists who nobody
had ever heard of or a Muslim with a long record of anti-Semitism and
hostility to Israel who heads the Democratic National Council?
American Jewry is the most successful,
powerful and respected Diaspora in Jewish history. If organizations like
the ADL refuse to hearken to the wise counsel expressed by leaders like
Malcolm Hoenlein, Mort Klein or David Harris but maintain their current
politically partisan policies, American Jews will be marginalized and
be perceived as the extension of a Democratic Party that is drifting
increasingly further away from its traditional pro-Israel policy.
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Isi Leibler
Source: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/american-jewish-liberals-have-lost-the-plot/
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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