ALIENATION FROM ISRAEL GROWS IN REACTION TO
NETANYAHU REGIME
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
April 2023
As Israel’s far-right regime advances its agenda, both the American Jewish
community and the U.S. Government are increasingly critical.
When Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich visited Washington in March to
address an Israel Bonds meeting, no U.S. Government official would meet with him.
Neither would the representatives of leading American Jewish organizations.
Smotrich, a leader of the Religious Zionism Party, was criticized, in particular,
for calling for the Palestinian village of Huwara in the West Bank to be “wiped
out.” Speaking in Paris on March 19, Smotrich said, “There’s no such thing as
Palestinians because there’s no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
Washington Jewish Week (March 16, 2023) reported that, “Outside the hotel…a
multitude of people representing area synagogues and…organizations…chanted, sang
songs and listened to speakers who called Smotrich a homophobe, someone who
doesn’t consider Reform Jews Jewish, a supporter of segregated maternity wards
for Jews and non-Jews and a person who considers women subservient…Senior Rabbi
Jonathan Roos of Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C. was at the protest with…
congregants. ‘We are here to continue to stand against hate and for democracy.’
Rabbi Esther Lederman from the Union for Reform Judaism urged Jews to raise their
voices…She called Smotrich “a fascist homophobe.’”
Only two Jewish organizations were willing to meet with Smotrich, the Orthodox
Union and the right-wing Zionist Organization of America. In a statement, the
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington declared, “The hateful
views long expressed by Minister Smotrich are abhorrent…and run contrary to
Jewish values…No public servant should ever condone or incite hatred or hate-
motivated violence, and when they do, they will be fiercely condemned by a wide
swath of American Jewry.” William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish Organizations, called Smotrich’s statements
“disgusting.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 3, 2023).
The Gallup polling group revealed in March that in their most recent polling on
“sympathies in the Middle East,” 49% of Democrats placed their sympathies with
Palestinians over 38% with Israelis. This was the first time in the poll’s
history that it landed in the Palestinians’ favor. **
|