American Jewish Opinion Is Increasingly Divided
About Israel
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
August 2016
American Jewish opinion concerning Israel is increasingly divided about West
Bank settlements, the nuclear agreement with Iran, the lack of religious
freedom for non-Orthodox strains of Judaism, and a host of other issues.
“There are really two Jewish Americans,” the journalist Peter Beinart has
written, “One is older, more Republican, more Orthodox and more interested
in shielding Israel from external pressure than pressuring a two-state
solution. The other is younger, more secular, less tribal, overwhelm¬ingly
Democratic, less institutionally affiliated and more troubled by Israel’s
direction.”
Polls show that only a quarter of Jews aged 18-29 (compared to 43% of those
over 50) believe that the government of Israel is making a sincere effort to
make peace with the Palestinians. A quarter of young Jewish Americans
(compared to 5% of their elders) say that U.S. support for Israel is
excessive.
In June, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) issued a warning to the
Israeli Cabinet. According to JPPI’s findings: “The liberal, Reform,
Conservative and secular parts of the American Jewish community may become
more distant from Israel as the country’s demography becomes more Orthodox
and nationalistic.”
JPPI’s President, Avinoam Bar-Yosef explained that while there is
significant support for Israel in North America, it isn’t compensating for
“the young generation of liberal and secular American Jews which is
increasingly critical of the Jewish state, and concerned that Israeli
society is becoming more religious and more right-wing.” (The Jerusalem
Post, June 30, 2016).
In a new book, Trouble In The Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict Over
Israel, Dov Waxman, professor of political science at Northeastern
University, argues that for younger, non-Orthodox American Jews, who have
grown up in a country in which Jews are powerful and privileged, and have
married non-Jews in large numbers, solidarity with Israel and an “us versus
them” worldview has diminished dramatically. Indeed, only 30% of them think
that “caring about Israel is essential to being Jewish.”
Dr. Waxman predicts less common ground, growing mistrust, and a face-off
that may pit Orthodox Jews against less religious Jews. Discussing his
thesis, Prof. Glenn Altschuler of Cornell University notes that, “Secular
liberals who are committed to human rights, equality and post-ethnic,
multicultural societies, increasingly perceive Israel as a violent,
oppressive pariah state. As their inter-marriage rates skyrocket, moreover,
their attachment to Israel may decline even more. For Orthodox Jews in the
U.S. … support for Israel is a political litmus test.” (International
Jerusalem Post, May 20-26, 2016).
Dov Waxman has been harshly criticized for his analysis. Responding to
critics, in an article in The Forward (June 10, 2016), “Right-Wing Critics
Who Slammed My Book Proved Its Point,” he writes: “Instead of addressing the
claims and evidence I actually present, these critics have misrepresented my
arguments or even deliberately distorted them. They have also resorted to ad
hominem attacks. I have been accused of being a self-hating Jew … Sadly, the
American Jewish conversation about Israel has not only become argumentative
and angry … It has become a dialogue of the deaf. Nowadays, it seems
impossible to have an honest, reasoned nonpoliticized discussion of Israel,
or even of the American Jewish relationship with Israel. Rather than address
the real challenges facing American Jews and Israel today, it’s easier to
simply shoot the messenger. The cheapening and coarsening certainly of
American Jewish public discourse about Israel and anything to do with it is
probably bad for Israel itself. It’s bad for American Jews.” •
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