American Jewish Opinion Is Increasingly Divided About Israel

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.” •