May 2023

May 24, 2023 – ה׳ סִיוָן תשפ”ג – Erev Shavuot – ערב שבועות

ויחן שם ישראל. כאיש אחד בלב אחד, אבל שאר כל החניות בתרעומות ובמחלוקת
רש”י על שמות י״ט:ב׳:ב~

“And there Israel camped as one person and with one mind — but all their other encampments were made in a murmuring spirit and in a spirit of dissension” (based on the Mekhilta)

– Rashi on Exodus 19:2:2

How important is Jewish Unity?

I often find myself in situations in which I am asked to compromise “for the sake of unity.”  Frequently, at meetings of the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the American Zionist Movement, and more, our liberal movements are asked to compromise on our values in order to not be divisive. For example, during this year’s extra-ordinary World Zionist Congress, a member of the ultra-Orthodox party stood up and said that if we push forward a resolution supporting the LGBTQ+ community, they would not be able to support, we would be guilty of being divisive. Never mind what the Torah says about treating human beings – even if they behave in ways that are abhorrent to others – we are being divisive.

And the lack of unity will inevitably lead to… weakness.

Tonight, on Erev Shavuot, we get to reimagine that moment of standing together at the foot of the mountain and receiving Torah. It is a transformative revelatory moment when our collective memory and nostalgia tell us that we all stood together as one. The Book of Exodus (19:2) relates that we were all camped together in the wilderness. Rashi, commenting on the perceived redundancy of the Israelites being “encamped in the wilderness” and “encamped there in front of the mountain,” suggests that this phrase hints that the Israelites were כאיש אחד בלב אחד” – like one person with one heart.” In this moment of receiving Torah at Mount Sinai, the people were united in a way that they hadn’t been before and haven’t been since.

Let’s not pretend that we have always been so unified throughout our history. Our tradition teaches us that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed because of internal issues rather than from outside enemies. When we think about the last time we had sovereignty in our Land over two thousand years ago, we know that there was deep infighting. For instance, during the Great Revolt against Roman rule, during which the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the rebels split into three rival camps. Everyone was fighting everyone else: the rich vs. the poor, the moderates against the rebels, the Sadducees against the Pharisees, and the zealots against everyone else.

In another incident in the year 4 BCE, just after the death of King Herod, riots and violence broke out as the people took advantage of a mass assembly in the Temple to pour out their grievances, demanding lighter taxes, the release of prisoners put in chains by Herod over many years, and the replacement of the high priest appointed by Herod shortly before his death. Fierce battles broke out throughout the city as disorder was suppressed only by sending in the cavalry, which massacred three thousand Jews. The unrest which erupted in Judaea peaked on Shavuot of that year reminding us of how divided we were.

In more contemporary times, we think back to this season 75 years ago, weeks after the State of Israel was established. David Ben Gurion issued a decree to unify the various pre-state armed forces into one IDF (Israel Defense Forces), the Irgun brought in a ship known as The Altalena carrying arms and weapons to be used in fighting the War of Independence. Ben-Gurion was adamant that Irgun leader (and future Prime Minister) Menachem Begin surrender and hand over all the weapons and cease his separate activities.

“If he does not do so,” proclaimed Ben Gurion, “we will open fire! Otherwise, we must decide to disperse our own army.”

Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of the Altalena. One of the shells hit the ship, which began to burn. Although the captain flew the white flag of surrender, the automatic fire continued to be directed at the unarmed survivors. Begin, who was on deck, agreed to leave the ship only after the last of the wounded had been evacuated just weeks after the modern Jewish State was established and we were killing our own.

Indeed, Jewish unity is not the hallmark of Jewish history. Often, these calls for unity are insensitive and patronizing. It often feels like gaslighting when we are told:

“For the sake of unity, would you just compromise on all of the values that you hold as being sacred and at the core of who you are as Jews and as humans?”

What if this so-called “Unity” is not the right goal? The aspiration towards some sort of false sense of unity, some appearance that we are all of one mind, have become problematic and has led to toxic relationships among us. Rather than pushing for אחדות or unity, we should push for a shared and accepted set of values and principles that can be the basis for further interpersonal relationships. Just as unity doesn’t necessarily mean uniformity, it is also the case that equity is not synonymous with equality.

The value of the Torah was that it was given without interpretation or commentary. Over the years, centuries, and millennia, it was our job, as adherents of Torah, to interpret and adapt it to our lives. Of course, rather than being unified or even uniform in our understanding of Torah, we took it and said that there are 70 faces of Torah, meaning that there are many interpretations of the same classic text. We taught that as long as we keep the Torah at the center of our lives and as our foundation, we can disagree on how it should be interpreted, applied, and followed.

Our tradition teaches something more. We have learned that even before the Torah was given there was derekh eretz (proper behavior). Before we turn to the Torah we must establish civility, respect, good character, and yes, proper behavior toward one another.

On this issue of derekh eretz, we are reaching a tipping point in Israel. Tonight, many of us will stay up all night studying Torah. A couple of days ago, the Knesset pulled a “Tikkun-Leil-Takziv” pushing through an all-night legislative session to pass the 2023 and 2024 budgets. This means that the far-right and ultra-religious coalition of PM Netanyahu will be stable until early 2025 (elections are slated for a full 4-year term in the fall of 2026).

However, the budget that passed this week reflects the opposite of Derekh Eretz. It takes funding from marginalized communities and puts it squarely in the hands of the ultra-Orthodox and the ultra-nationalist sectors.

The rift in Israeli society can be broadly delineated along these lines, as David Rosenberg explains. There is the “first Israel,” which is liberal, secular, educated, worldly, and wealthy. Then there is the “second Israel” (religious, less educated or yeshiva-educated, isolationist, and less tolerant, if not intolerant). This coalition’s current agenda reflects the extent to which Israeli society is deeply divided.  The largest current sources of tension are with the Haredi population and their growing political power (which we discussed last week), which is driving a self-serving agenda. The Haredi “economy” is no longer sustainable, not just for the rest of Israel that supports it but for the Haredim themselves.

Today we’re seeing a clash of the pro-democracy camp vs. the Coalition – which is tearing the country and the Jewish world apart. Our job today is to protect the victories we have previously won – such as upholding recognition for Reform and Conservative conversions and funding Reform rabbinic salaries and programs promoting pluralism. More broadly, our challenge is to stave off civil war and avoid situations such as the Jewish people have suffered in the past.

It is our job to remind the Jewish people and the world that our revelatory moment when we received Torah at Sinai did not bring holiness because of a sense of unity and collectivity, but rather because of the values the Torah taught us. Those who adhere to the Torah have the responsibility to act with civility, respect, good character, and yes, proper behavior toward one another.

The rest, my friends, is commentary. Let’s go and learn.

Shavuot Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.

Friday May 19, 2023 – כ״ח אִיָיר תשפ”ג

אַךְ אֶת־מַטֵּה לֵוִי לֹא תִפְקֹד וְאֶת־רֹאשָׁם לֹא תִשָּׂא בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ וְאַתָּה הַפְקֵד אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם עַל־מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת וְעַל כׇּל־כֵּלָיו וְעַל כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ הֵמָּה יִשְׂאוּ אֶת־הַמִּשְׁכָּן וְאֶת־כׇּל־כֵּלָיו וְהֵם יְשָׁרְתֻהוּ וְסָבִיב לַמִּשְׁכָּן יַחֲנוּ׃ (במבדר א:מ”ט-נ’)

“Do not on any account enroll the tribe of Levi or take a census of them with the Israelites.

You shall put the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Pact, all its furnishings, and everything that pertains to it: they shall carry the Tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall tend it, and they shall camp around the Tabernacle.”
(Numbers 1:49-50)

Are the Haredim in Israeli society the modern-day Levites?

We are taught in this week’s Torah portion, in beginning the Book of Numbers, that the Levites, or descendants of the Tribe of Levi, were not accounted as part of the general census and were kept separate from the rest of the tribes of Israel.

The Levites fulfilled particular religious duties and functions for the whole of Israel and carried political responsibilities as well. In return, the other 11 tribes gave tithes to the Kohanim, the priests working in the Temple in Jerusalem, particularly the tithe known as the Maaser Rishon. The Levites, who were not Kohanim, served in other ways (such as playing music in the Temple or serving as Temple guards). In other words, the Levites performed duties and functions that served the common good of the entire people and, in exchange, they were economically supported by the people.

Sound like a good system?

Maybe.

Of course, there was corruption. Of course, the Levites were not democratically elected – one could only become a Levite by being born into the tribe.

In many ways, the modern State of Israel sees itself as a continuation of the ancient and biblical kingdoms. Some say that Israel is a tribal society (see former President Rivlin’s 4 Tribes Speech). If so, have the ultra-Orthodox communities assumed the same role as the Levites? And if they have, are they performing duties and functions that serve the common good of the entire people – thus being deserving of the people’s economic support?

I pose this question now because Israel is 10 days away from the most fateful deadline it currently faces: the budget. If Israel does not pass the national budget by May 29^th the government will fall. So, this is the opportunity for the Coalition partners to use their leverage and get as much out of the budget as possible. We are witnessing the irony of the ultra-Orthodox pushing for as much “pork” as they can get.

For instance, this past Wednesday night, a faction within the Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism (UTJ) threatened to withhold its support for the budget, or actively oppose it, unless the government funds full-time religious scholars to the tune of NIS 600 million ($164 million), in addition to the billions already pledged to the ultra-Orthodox.

This late addition came days after the government approved NIS 13.7 billion ($3.7 billion) worth of discretionary funds to meet coalition commitments, largely to support ultra-Orthodox institutions and programs.

The Haredim have every right to advocate for their communities. Every political party and politician advocates for its constituency. The problem, however, is threefold:

1. Within the larger segment of Israeli society, the Haredim are perceived differently than the Levites. Their behavior is not perceived as performing duties and functions that serve the common good. Rather, they are perceived as takers and not givers. Of course, that is not how they characterize themselves. But the critique from the larger segment of Israeli society is that the Haredim largely exempt themselves from military and national service while demanding a level of economic support that is, per capita, significantly higher than what is provided to the rest of Israelis.
2. The funding coming to them is designed to perpetuate their dependence on the State for handouts paid for by taxpayer shekels. There are Haredi communities living in dozens of other countries around the world (see “Rough Diamonds”) who are self-sustaining. Israel is unique in that the government not only supports the Haredi communities but also treats them as the “Levites” who are tasked with the responsibility for religion and ritual. It is no shock that with monopolies comes corruption.
3. The Haredim operate as a minority while they increasingly move into majority status. As of January, of this year according to the 2022 annual statistical report, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population has risen to 1.28 million, 13.5 percent of the 9.45 million total national population,. The CBS data showed that with the ultra-Orthodox population’s current growth rate of 4% — the highest of any group in Israel — by the end of the decade, they will constitute 16% of the total population and will increase in their political power. This growth will require a significant shift in attitude for Haredi leaders. What will it look like if Haredim bear responsibility for the general population beyond their insular boundaries? Will they seek to turn Israel into a Haredi-State in which the entire country looks and feels like Bnei Brak or Meah Shearim? Past and current behavior suggests that they will. If they do, it will have detrimental consequences for the Zionist enterprise that gave them free license to rebuild and grow.

Haredi life was largely decimated during the Holocaust, and the rabbinic leadership that arrived in Israel (or were already there) adopted their laser-focused goal to build back their way of life.

That meant two things: expanding education by building yeshivot and having children, lots and lots of children. They also regarded anything that was an obstacle to those two supreme and sacred goals as a threat and anything that could support their goals as an asset. So, IDF service, which serves as the great melting pot of the Jewish State, is a threat and should be opposed, while Governmental/Parliamentary representation – which could unlock purse strings and support their communities – was considered, for practical purposes, as a positive, despite the Haredim not being Zionists nor ideologically endorsing the notion of a Jewish State.

This strategy came with a huge societal price tag. Many in the Haredi world are terribly resented and are definitely not regarded by the vast majority of Israelis as Levites, but rather as parasites who refuse to accept the Zionist ideal of service and being productive and contributing members of society.

The most recent example of the Haredi strategy that is self-serving and  not in service of the common good is the latest scandal of the “Arnona Fund.” The proposal is to create a new fund that would amass percentages of property taxes from local businesses in financially successful cities and allocate them to lower-income cities around the country. The proposal is widely seen as a Haredi (and Settler) attempt to pillage the collective coffers in order to support their own institutions. While appearing to prioritize wealth equity, this is no Robin Hood take-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor initiative.

As Raoul Wootliff explains: “It disproportionately impacts cities with thriving business sectors and industrial parks, penalizing communities that have diligently worked to attract employers and diverting much-needed funds from improving essential services. Rather than benefitting the intended municipalities, the plan is likely to serve sector-specific demands. Furthermore, the structure of the fund hampers its effectiveness for Arab municipalities, while West Bank settlements are conveniently exempt from contributing.”

This is why local civil servants are striking and over 4,000 protesters marched through the streets of Bnei Brak (Israel’s most easily recognizable Haredi city). Beneath the innocuous (if flawed) veil of financial redistribution and social justice lies a disturbing truth: as Wootliff explains:

“The Arnona Fund plan represents a brazen power grab by the ruling coalition. By diverting municipal tax revenues to a centralized resource, it consolidates control in the hands of a distant authority. This move undermines the investments made by communities to bolster their local economies and enhance citizen services, effectively eroding the autonomy of local governments. It places citizens at the mercy of faceless bureaucrats, directly challenging the very essence of democracy and diminishing local empowerment and citizen representation.”

Leading the opposition to this move is Likud Mayor of Modiin, Haim Bibas, who serves as Chair of the Federation of Local Authorities. Bibas launched a fierce broadside attack against his longtime ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in comments published Wednesday, saying that this could bring down the Likud, and with it the Haredi parties.

There is no question that the Haredi communities play an integral role in the Jewish State. They also offer a great deal from which the rest of us might benefit. Their system of care for one another, tzedakah, serious Jewish education, religious fervor, and commitment to a life of Torah and Mitzvot are admirable. However, there is a very dangerous power grab –in Israel and North America – through which Haredi leaders and communities are capitalizing on their power and influence to implement their way of life AND to radically diminish the resources available for others to live their lives according to their understanding of Judaism.

We, as religiously liberal Jews, must understand the seriousness of this deliberate attempt to control the budgets and policies of Israel’s and the Jewish people’s National and communal institutions.

Theoretically, the Haredim could act as the Levites performing duties and functions that serve the common good of the entire people. But, by focusing on lining their pockets and serving only their own interests they have created an economically unsustainable model and provoked a great deal of resentment among Israelis generally and Jews around the world.

It is high time for us to say: “Enough!” Instead of disproportionate financial support from the state, let the Haredim be allotted a fair share and only a proportionate level of public support in exchange for a proportionate contribution to the common good of Israeli society.

Shabbat Shalom.

Friday May 12, 2023 –תשפ”ג  כ׳ אִיָיר

הַבּוֹנִים בַּחוֹמָה וְהַנֹּשְׂאִים בַּסֶּבֶל עֹמְשִׂים בְּאַחַת יָדוֹ עֹשֶׂה בַמְּלָאכָה וְאַחַת מַחֲזֶקֶת הַשָּׁלַח׃ (נחמיה ד:יא)

 “Those who were rebuilding the wall – The basket-carriers were burdened, doing work with one hand while the other held a weapon.” – Nehemiah 4:11

At the time of writing, rockets are falling on a 40km range from the Gaza strip, and Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Islamic Jihad targets continue as part of “Operation Shield and Arrow.”

The Israeli news is filled with images of people running to shelters, huddling together, and covering each other in-between parked cars. And, of course, we see the fireworks display of deterrence as the Iron Dome and David’s Sling technology intercept and destroy the rockets and mortars being shot at Israeli cities, towns, and villages from Gaza.

In a natural almost automatic reaction many Israelis have reverted back into full-on solidarity mode. People in the North are opening their homes to those fleeing the South, popular musicians are freeing up rows of their concerts for those under attack, and messages of unity are abundant. If one were to watch this moment in isolation, it might not be obvious that the country is at one of the most divisive moments in its history with weekly protests against the coalition’s legislative agenda,

The cynics among us accused Netanyahu of “wagging the dog,” as there’s nothing quite like being under attack and demonstrating toughness and strength as a response to the rockets to boost his popularity. PM Netanyahu’s ratings in recent polls, by the way, have sunk to record lows.

Israel deemed this mission a success as it was able to take out Ali Ghali, the senior commander of the rocket-launching force of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, as well as a handful of senior IJ operatives. Ghali was responsible for all rocket fire by Islamic Jihad at Israel, including the barrage of hundreds of rockets fired over the last few days.

The current military escalation with IJ in Gaza, and last month’s terror incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank – with expected tensions next week during the Jerusalem Day Flag March – all accentuate the reality that the Palestinian front calls for constant attention, reminding us that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a tinder box which can easily ignite.

The big question is: What will happen with the pro-democracy protests this coming Saturday night?

After the terrible tragedy a few weeks ago in which three members of the Dee family were murdered, the protests began with a moment of silence to acknowledge their deaths, which is a possible precedent.

One of the protest organizers in New York commented to me:

“The cannons roar and the muses are silent?’ We will not be silent. And in Israel, they will not be silent. They are trying to obscure and take down the protest. There is no reason to do that. Our friends in Israel will do everything to protest, and if they have to sit in shelters, it will be a significant comfort for them to know that we continue [our protests] here. We cannot be accused of this being a protest against the [current] operation, or against Israel, because we are waving Israeli flags, so I think we will get through this in peace.”

In addition to our feelings of national solidarity in the midst of this conflict, there is an important moral question also on the table. The large number of Palestinian civilians killed (the wives, children, and neighbors of the Islamic Jihad targets – 19 overall at the time of writing) raises difficult questions about the moral and legal aspects of such military operations like “Shield and Arrow .” This isn’t the first time Israel carried out missions in Gaza with the hope of eradicating the terrorist infrastructure there. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, to put it mildly, is not ideal – indeed, it’s insanity, as the saying goes. I’m not a military strategist, nor here to tell the Israeli Defense establishment how to operate. However, Israel is already on thin ice in the international community as the government is perceived as dismantling its democracy, so another moral crisis will not help Israel’s image abroad.

It’s not only a question of “Should the protests take place?” It’s also a question of “Should the protests break with the solidarity of the moment and protest the military strikes?” Anat Kam shared her thoughts on this in Haaretz:

“These days of untargeted assassinations in Gaza, which is followed by rockets, which are followed by more assassinations and dead children, are exactly the time for the protest to say out loud that the fight against the regime coup is only part of a bigger picture. The fight for the image of the State of Israel is not only internal. It’s about the way the state treats its citizens …and about the way it treats the Palestinians around it whose lives depend on its actions.”*

The moral question must go both ways. While there is no lack of voices quick to jump down Israel’s throat on account of  the  “collateral damage (בין בזדון ובין בשגגה),” I believe that the world also needs to ask the Palestinians – and this time it’s Islamic Jihad while other times it’s Hamas – a simple question:

Why are you shooting rockets at Israel?

What is it that you hope to achieve by this?

Israel’s response is always under a magnifying glass, but the Palestinians have something better than Iron Dome. They can choose not to shoot rockets. In response, Israel won’t shoot at Gaza, nor carry out targeted assassinations, nor destroy buildings. That may not quickly solve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza nor improve the situation for the Palestinians nor inspire greater sympathy for them on the world stage, but it will prevent the loss of innocent lives.

What happens now, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant explained this week, is up to Islamic Jihad and its terrorist big brother Hamas, which controls Gaza.

David Horovitz, editor of the Times of Israel answered the early question with broader reflection:

“Ever since Hamas seized power in Gaza and turned it into a terrorist state, it has underlined that 75-year-plus message from our implacable enemies that opposition to Israel is not about our presence in areas captured in the 1967 War, but about our very existence, in any territory. It is a rejection, that is, of Israel itself in any configuration.”

That’s what this moment is about. Whether or not Israel remains a democracy, we will still have to live by the sword. If it does not remain a democracy, we can be sure that we will not make any progress vis a vis the Palestinians. Horovitz is right that shooting rockets into Israel is not about the Occupation, but that doesn’t mean we are free to desist from doing all we can to end the Occupation and work for a secure and democratic Palestinian State alongside a secure and democratic State of Israel. We can forge ties with as many other Arab countries as possible, but that will not change the situation in Gaza nor will it bring the Palestinians closer to their acceptance of the Jewish State.

While we pray for peace and quiet, we must also internalize the notion that these protests, now closing their 19^th week, are not just about keeping, or changing the rules of the game within our system. This is a struggle to define the character of the Jewish State in the most fundamental way. We must state loudly and clearly that we want Israel to be an enlightened, progressive, liberal, egalitarian nation, open to the world, and not a separatist, religiously coercive, dark and insular island; and exist as a nation that will dwell alone, and heathens will not be counted.  As Nehemiah teaches us, we can have one hand on our weapons (tanks, fighter jets, and iron domes, etc…), but one hand must also and simultaneously continue building under the canopy of peace.

Shabbat Shalom,

Josh

*Translation from the Hebrew by the author

Friday May 5, 2023 – י״ד אִיָיר תשפ”ג

The Knesset returned to full action this week launching its summer session and resuming the Netanyahu government’s legislative agenda. This agenda is hell-bent on pushing through its judicial “reforms” to limit significantly the Supreme Court’s independence and essentially dismantle Israel’s democratic institution. There is much speculation about the timing and the politics. Some analysts think that Netanyahu will stall the proposals for a few months or let them go through gradually. Whether or not that is the case, few protesters are willing to sit back and wait to see what happens as they continue with deliberate disruption and perpetual pressure against the ruling majority.

But, beyond the current crisis, the wedge dividing American Jews (and possibly Americans as well) is about identity and values, morality and worldview (השקפה). Increasingly in today’s world, the dividing line between people is not along tribal or ethnic lines, nor along nationalist or religious lines – rather, our values and morals determine our identity.

Ehud Barak, in his speech to the weekly Saturday night rally on Kaplan St. in Tel Aviv in February, posed the following binary choice: “Either you’re in the Megilat Haatzmaut (Declaration/Scroll of Independence) camp or you’re in the ‘D-9’ (bulldozer) camp.” No gray area, no nuance, no complexity.  A polarizing dichotomy that has no middle ground.

I am concerned about this, not because I am wavering about which side I fall, or upon which side our Movement falls (we are firmly in the Jewish and democratic camp). I am concerned because of what happened this week that has severe and lasting ramifications for American Jews.

Israel received a few high-level American delegations that arrived to celebrate Israel at 75. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy became only the second Speaker to address the Knesset. Florida Governor Ron Desantis also showed up for mere hours to demonstrate his support, as did Minority Leader Representative Hakim Jeffries with a Congressional delegation.

Haaretz journalist and former NY Consul General Alon Pinkus set the scene:

“Here was McCarthy, leading a bipartisan delegation ostensibly marking Israel’s 75th Independence Day, assisting Netanyahu’s latest phase of a 25-year quest to dispense with bipartisanship and align Israel tightly and unequivocally with the Republican Party.”

After McCarthy’s counterpart, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana welcomed him with a rousing rendition of ‘Hotel California’ on electric guitar in front of the Knesset’s famous Chagall tapestry, McCarthy delivered an address to Israel’s parliament:

“Our values are your values. Our heritage is your heritage. Our dreams are your dreams,” McCarthy stated. “America is grateful for our friendship with Israel. We are a better nation because of it, and we must never shy away from defending it.”

When we throw out the “shared values” adage, we often infer the shared values of democracy, freedom, and equality that were stalwart values in the US-Israel relationship. However, neither McCarthy nor DeSantis made mention of the judicial overhaul, save for the dig at President Biden for snubbing Netanyahu.

McCarthy’s arrogation of this coded vocabulary increases the partisan wedge between Democrats and Republicans, and more importantly, between different moral teams.

Is the current climate in Israel forcing liberal American Jews to make a choice between their values and their people? Is it forcing a choice between a commitment to freedom and equality against a commitment to support the well-being and security of the Jewish State?

Over the past few months, the strains between Israel and the Democratic Party, and particularly an American Jewish community that remains predominantly liberal, have only grown worse. Of course, there are some prominent conservatives who are outspoken and critical of Netanyahu’s overhaul, but most are hesitant to be critical, and many – including those in the Orthodox Movements – are, in fact, supportive.

At stake here is the risk of losing a whole generation of American Jews. There is a serious risk of alienating those who simplistically perceive Israel to be ruled by a corrupt, illiberal, and anti-democratic government that aligns with everything they abhor – including the new McCarthyism (Kevin, not Joseph) and the Likud-GOP alliance.

Jewish pollster Harry Enten argues:

“When you put it all together, [a majority] of Jewish voters are Democratic for a reason. They believe in the party’s liberal ideology and identify with its core values. They will not be swayed by Republican attempts to switch allegiances, because on the key issue on which the GOP (partly under Evangelical influence) highlights — diehard support for Israel — just doesn’t impress Jews much. They don’t view Israel as essential to their political allegiances in the United States, and even if they did, they think Democratic policy is just fine.”

My sense is that Speaker McCarthy lacks a real interest in Israel (unlike Pres. Biden) and brings neither a genuine or deep understanding of the political dynamics in Israel.  It is likely that Netanyahu is manipulating McCarthy which is bad news for Jews and Judaism around the world because it will likely result in dividing Jewish electoral votes and Jewish political donations in America. Netanyahu knows McCarthy is only interested in those two things and will not hesitate to exploit them.

We must desperately avoid Israel’s fight for democracy to be seen as a fight between Democrat and Republican, American “right” and “left” (as well as “right” and “wrong”). While this may be savvy on Netanyau’s part in the short term it will prove to be disastrous for all Jews in the long-term.

We are facing a situation in which many American Jews might decide to cut off ties with Israel because they perceive Israel as not representing “our values.” This is not all that new, but it is manifesting in an irreparably damaging way, especially among young liberal American Jews.

The political and ideological love affair between Netanyahu and the Republicans/Neocons goes back to the Reagan presidency and the last years of the Cold War when Netanyahu served as Israel’s representative to the United Nations. The first generation of neoconservative intellectuals (Richard Perle, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Elliott Abrams, Kenneth Adelman, and Max Kampelman) were serving in top foreign policy positions in the Reagan administration.

To the ruling Likud Party, the policies of the Republican Party seemed to offer Israel time to consolidate its hold on the West Bank and Gaza as it encouraged Washington to view the Arab‐Israeli conflict through a Cold War lens and to identify Palestinian nationalism as an extension of Soviet‐induced international terrorism. In that context, Republican-led Washington could view Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands with benign neglect.

The Obama presidency threw a wrench in Netanyahu’s plans, only to have the pendulum swing the other way when Donald Trump was elected. As Netanyahu plastered billboards of his picture with the American President, threatened annexation, and furthered his agenda, he also succeeded in further distancing liberal American Jews from the Jewish and democratic state. President Biden clearly expressed his Zionism and strong affinity for the State of Israel and pushed back against Netanyahu. By stating plainly that Netanyahu is not (yet?) invited to the White House – because of the systematic dismantling of democracy – Biden risks a backlash of Republican partisanship which will exacerbate the use of Israel as a wedge issue.

McCarthy invited Netanyahu to Washington. If he addresses Congress, it will be the fourth time that PM Netanyahu has addressed a joint session of Congress. The controversy around his 2015 appearance, which took place largely to spite President Obama, will pale in comparison to what could happen if that is repeated – especially with a presidential election looming in the next 18 months.

In response to Netanyahu’s blatant meddling in American politics, let us assert, as Rabbi Eric Yoffie once wrote, “without equivocation or apology, that American Jews have the absolute right to involve themselves in the arguments and the politics of the Jewish state. … Israel is the state of the Jewish people, and Zionism affirms that Israel is the concern and the potential home of Jews everywhere.” Let us also assert to American Jews that we must involve ourselves in the arguments and the politics of the Jewish State just as we do in the U.S.

We also must work closely with the pro-democracy camp of Israelis to build the cooperation and support of American Jews with similar values. As absurd as it sounds, and despite the myriads of public protesters, many American Jews seem to think that support for anything Israeli is tacit support for the government of Israel. Today’s lines are delineated by values, and as liberal American Jews, we have more in common with the Israeli street than does the MAGA Republican Party. It is high time we champion our liberal Jewish values and our liberal Jewish identity.

Shabbat Shalom.