Last Night in Paris

Three Questions Biden Should Ask Netanyahu at Wednesday’s Meeting

New York Times Opinion Columnist

This is the shortest column I’ve ever written — because it doesn’t take long to get things in focus:

President Biden, you are meeting Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, for the first time since he returned to office in December. He’s formed the most extreme government in Israel’s history and yet your administration is considering forging a complex partnership with his coalition and Saudi Arabia. There are enormous potential benefits and risks for the United States. I hope you won’t proceed without getting satisfactory answers from Netanyahu on three key questions — so we know just what Israel, and just which Bibi, we’re dealing with:

1. Prime Minister Netanyahu, your government’s coalition agreement is the first in Israel’s history to define the annexation of the West Bank as one of its goals — or, as it says, applying Israeli “sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.” But you earlier supported the Trump Middle East peace plan that proposed dividing the West Bank, with Israel controlling roughly 30 percent and the Palestinian state getting roughly 70 percent, albeit with tight security guarantees and no contiguity. Do you intend to annex the West Bank, or will you negotiate its future disposition with the Palestinians? Yes or no? We need to know. Because if you intend to annex, all your normalization agreements with Arab states will collapse, and we will not be able to defend you in the United Nations from charges of building an apartheid state.

2. Bibi, you told your first cabinet meeting last December that your top priorities include stopping Iran’s nuclear program, as well as expanding Israel’s growing relations with the Arab world. But we saw you decide instead to prioritize a judicial coup to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its ability to hold your government accountable. That, in turn, distracted your military leadership, fractured your air force and elite fighting units, bitterly divided your society and weakened your diplomatic alliances from Washington to Europe. Iran, meanwhile, moved in with a diplomatic offensive, patching up its ties with all your Arab neighbors and eating your lunch. Why should we make confronting Iran’s nuclear program our priority when you haven’t?

3. Prime Minister, the Saudis are ready to do something hard — normalize relations with Israel. We are doing something hard to help facilitate that — forging a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia. What hard things are you ready to do vis-à-vis the Palestinians to complete the deal? It feels to us that you don’t want to take any political risks — that you want everyone to do something hard except you.

Bibi, you’re out of focus for the American people. We need to know: Who are you now?

Is Israel becoming a theocracy?

Israel is a thriving democracy that has been the source medical and computer technology. Israel’s primary exports are Cut diamonds, refined petroleum, pharmaceuticals, machinery and equipment, medical instruments, computer hardware and software, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and apparel.

The ultraorthodox Jews in Israel want to impose their views of social behavior on the entire population. To achieve that goal they want to take control of the country’s judicial system. Large demonstrations against the take over have developed over the past week. However there have also been large demonstrations supporting the government’s plan to impose religious law on everyone.

In other words it is a battle between a secular society similar to the United States or a society similar to Iran. Iran’s formal name is Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel might then be titled the Jewish State of Israel.

CNN reports

Israel’s contentious judicial overhaul legislation will be put on hold until the next session of the Knesset, after the Passover recess in April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
His statement followed a nationwide protest that brought Israel to a standstill. The strikes and mass protests were sparked by Netanyahu’s decision to fire his defense minister after he spoke out against the far-reaching legislation.
The nation’s largest labor union called an end to the strike after Netanyahu’s announcement, but warned there would be more if the “prime minister returns to aggressive legislation.”
Under the proposals, the government would have control over the appointment of judges, and parliament would gain the power to override Supreme Court decisions. Opponents say the plan threatens the foundations of Israeli democracy.

American Jews are becoming appalled over the impact that the ultraorthodox in Israel are having on how the country functions.

The best example of the orthodox interference with the lives of its citizens is marriage law. The issue of civil marriages is a major issue for secular and non-Orthodox Jews, as they are required to follow Orthodox practice to marry in Israel.

As an American Jew I am appalled but what ever the majority want that is what they will have.

GOP removes Rep. Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee

Citing her comments on Israel and Jews the Republican-led House Thursday voted along party lines to remove Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over previous comments she had made.

Born in Somalia, Omar fled the country’s civil war when she was eight. The family spent four years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in the United States, according to her congressional biography. In 1997, she moved to Minneapolis with her family, living in the city that she now represents in Congress. Omar is a Muslim. She has been a fierce critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and routinely questions U.S. aid to Israel.

Omar faced criticism in 2019 from both sides of the aisle for comments she made during a town hall and for controversial Twitter replies.

During the town hall event, Omar suggested Israel demands “allegiance” from American lawmakers, adding that “a lot of our Jewish colleagues, a lot of our constituents, a lot of our allies, (think) that everything we say about Israel (is) anti-Semitic because we are Muslim.”

If it was up to me I would expel her from the House of Representatives along with others who have made racist remarks. Omar was just re-elected and so her constituents want her to continue serving. This is how democracy functions.

GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser. Greense was re-elected too.

Sadly Omar’s hate is no joke.

Israel is Becoming a Theocracy

This is complicated.

Israel’s biggest foreign supporter has been American Jews and American Jewish organizations. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the legislative and executive branches of the United States.

The number of Jews worldwide stands at approximately 15.3 million compared to 15.2 million in the 2021, according to newly released statistics from The Jewish Agency for Israel. Among the global Jewish population, the number of Jews in Israel is 7 million. Approximately 6 million Jews live in the United States. Clearly the American Jewish population is a significant part of the total.

The Right of Return has been the most important part of creating the Sate of Israel. Israel is the one place I can go when the crimes against Jews appears to resemble Hitler’s attacks on Jews prior to WWII. Now extreme Jews in Israel want to change that law. Candidates for Religious Zionist parties have long argued for closing a “grandfather clause” that allows the descendants of Jews to immigrate to Israel provided they have one Jewish grandparent. As part of Netanyahu’s prospective coalition, the traditional religious and Religious Zionist leaders alike have started to lobby to cancel this clause. This, too, would be a major change in Israel.

More than 300 U.S. rabbis have put their signatures to a letter warning that Israel’s new government under incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could do “irreparable harm” with extremist policies.

The letter cautions against policy proposals from extreme Jewish nationalist members set to join Netanyahu’s Cabinet and government, calling them “anathema to the tenets of democracy.”

The rabbis argue the policies could erode women’s rights, expel Arab Israelis and override Israeli Supreme Court rulings, among other actions they say could run counter to the country’s values.

If implemented, the policies “will cause irreparable harm to the Israel-Jewish Diaspora relationship, as they are an affront to the vast majority of American Jews and our values,” the letter reads.

The Washington Post reports Religious Zionist leaders already pursuing plans to restrict the rights of minorities, alter the system of governmental checks and balances, hollow out the Israeli judiciary, exert influence over the army and security forces, and allow harsher treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. AIPAC and other American Jewish organizations will have a difficult time receiving support of American Jews and other supporters of Israel.

Jewish Right to Return is under Assault

American Jews should be frightened about the rise of anti-semitism and where would Jews go if the hate becomes intolerable. Would American Jews be welcomed in Israel? It appears the right to return is under assault by Israel’s ultra-orthodox Jews.

Religious Zionist Party (RZP) MK and Otzma Yehudit faction head Itamar Ben-Gvir, expected to be a senior minister in the upcoming Israeli government, has made a number of statements over the past few days regarding his intentions for policy changes. The most concerning is Prioritizing Orthodox Judaism over other denominations. It would also mean no recognition by the Israeli government of Reform and Conservative conversions, as well as no more general support for these movements.

Most American Jewish groups voice their delight that Israel is a democracy but many are now voicing their concern of RXP’s participation in the Israeli government. The Washington Post reports “Criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government has been heard from American Jews for a while now, but a simple 20-word tweet from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest American Israel lobby, has sent shock waves through the political establishment in Israel.”

“The views of Otzma Yehudit are reprehensible. They do not reflect the core values that are the very foundation of the State of Israel,” AJC wrote in its statement. “The party might conceivably gain enough votes to enter the next Knesset, and potentially even become part of the governing coalition.”

AIPAC’s tweet simply said it agreed with the AJC and added that it “has a long-standing policy not to meet with members of the racist and reprehensible party.”

Israel Laws are NOT Apartheid

Israeli laws are designed to assure Israel will remain a Jewish state. Non-Jews are free to go anywhere they wish and live where ever they want. Intermarriage between Jews and others is permitted. Intermarriage has always been considered unacceptable as best displayed in the play “Fiddler on the Roof”. European Jews viewed anyone marrying a non-Jews the equivalent to a death.

During most of the 20th century, South Africa was ruled by a system called Apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning ‘apartness,’ which was based on a system of racial segregation.

An Israeli human rights group has put up billboards in the occupied West Bank with a stark message for President Joe Biden, saying “this is apartheid.”

Israel was created as a Jewish State. The country was created as a homeland for Jews. Jews have experienced discrimination and in some instances faced death in almost every country in the world.

The Holocaust (6 million Jews were killed) was the seed for creating Israel. Jewish Israelis have arranged their nations laws to protect their rule over their country.

There is no other way to write this or say this reality. Israel will always be a Jewish state. If that fact changes, Israel’s purpose to exist will end.

A Never Ending War built on HATE

It’s hard to believe but reported today that “Hundreds of masked Hamas fighters brandishing assault rifles paraded in Gaza City and the group’s top leader made his first public appearance on Saturday, in a defiant show of strength after the militants’ 11-day war with Israel.”

President Joe Biden chooses to ignore the Israeli Palestinian continuing battle that is really, from the Palestinian view point, the right for the Jewish state to exist.

Here are some facts.

Israel occupies a space barely larger that the state of New Jersey. Or if you are looking for another comparison consider Vancouver Island. At its inception in 1948 Arab nations opposed the creation of the country that was carved out of British Palestine (a protectorate created after World War One) that created Israel and Jordan. The Jewish state’s initial boundaries were only part of the protectorate. Despite its small size adjoining nations immediately attacked Israel on the day it declared itself a nation. Hamas purpose, as stated in its charter, is to destroy Israel. So the question is what would you do if someone said I want to kill you? Or to put it another way:

How should Israel respond to Hamas and Hezbollah when their objective is the destruction of their state?

The Cycle of Revenge

President Joe Biden just dodged a bullet. Biden’s focus has been on COVID-19 vaccinations, seeing everyone returning to work, and stimulating the economy. He needs every Democrat on board with his plans. What he did not want was a confrontation with the liberal left of his party over support for Israel. So he was likely saying to his staff “Whew, we have peace in the Middle East without me taking a stand on Israel Palestinian feud.”

Since neither side wants to resolve the Israel Palestinian issue there is sure to be many more hits on Gaza because the loss of life and injuries in Israel was small (12 lives) that the prime minister of Israel is willing to accept every few years rather than reaching a conclusion of a treaty with a Palestinian state.

The cycle of revenge will continue to be part of Middle Eastern life for many more decades.

The deepening American Jews’ divide on Israel

by Samuel G. Freedman, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, is the author of nine books, including “Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. This commentary appeared on cnn.com

The Trump-Netanyahu bromance deepened American Jews’ divide on Israel.

A few weeks shy of 54 years ago, as Arab armies massed on its borders vowing extermination, Israel launched the preemptive attack that set off the Six-Day War. In that sudden transformation from looming genocide to military triumph, American Jews rallied behind the Jewish state as never before — with unprecedented cash donations and public demonstrations.

The spectacle of the Diaspora’s largest Jewish community mobilizing around the Jewish nation set a model to be repeated during the 1973 war and the suicide bombings of the second intifada in the early 2000s. When Israel was in trouble, American Jews spoke in a single voice.

Measured by that benchmark, the response of American Jewry to Israel during its current battle with Hamas represents a striking departure.

Two of the Jewish people serving in the US Senate — Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Jon Ossoff of Georgia — have taken leading roles in calling for evenhanded American policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue and for an immediate cease fire, respectively. And the liberal Jewish lobbying group, J Street, has provided important political support for politicians, whether Jewish or not, to criticize Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza in response to Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel without the risk of being smeared as being anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic.

At the level of daily Jewish life in America, experts sense a distinctly muted mood. “There’s a fairly dramatic lack of urgency,” Dr. Kenneth Wald, an emeritus professor of American Jewish culture and society at the University of Florida in Gainesville, told me in a telephone interview. “I’ve been on our local Jewish Federation board for 20-something years and nobody has jumped up and said, ‘We’ve got to run an emergency campaign for Israel.’ It struck me that there’s an absence of calls for mobilization. And in shul last Shabbat, our rabbi, who does not normally talk about current affairs, gave a very nuanced talk — the need for us to stop thinking about the other as the other.”

It would be a historical mistake to view the American Jewish stance during this war as an anomaly. Despite the surges of mass grassroots advocacy for Israel during times of existential threat, the seeds of dissent took root during what might be described as volitional conflicts like the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the first intifada in the late 1980s.

Americans for Peace Now, one of the earliest hubs of American Jewish dissidence on Israeli militarism, took both its name and inspiration from the Israeli organization founded in reaction to the Lebanon war. Then, the revelation of secret peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian delegations in the Oslo process of the early 1990s gave American Jews permission to voice support for a two-state solution without being disparaged as disloyal. And, as early as 2001, the scholar Steven T. Rosenthal was warning of the “waning of the American Jewish love affair with Israel.”

And this trend is started to reflect in the polling of American Jews. A newly-released survey of American Jewry by the Pew Research Center found that, as of 2020, about one in five American Jews say the US is too supportive of Israel. Meanwhile, those who say the US is not sufficiently supportive of Israel declined to 19% — down 12 points since 2013.

There can be no doubt, however, that the relative estrangement accelerated due to the flagrantly divisive roles played by former President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A year before Trump won the election, Netanyahu defied the second term American President, Barack Obama, by taking an invitation from Republican leaders to denounce Obama’s proposed nuclear deal with Iran before a joint session of Congress.

Once in the White House, Trump essentially gave Netanyahu everything for nothing. He moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reduced American diplomatic engagement with the Palestinian Authority — all without asking the Israeli prime minister to make genuine concessions to the Palestinians.

Whatever happened to Jared Kushner’s peace plan?

Then the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner brought Israel diplomatic relations with four Muslim nations — Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco — in return for the meager promise to pause new annexation in the West Bank. More treacherously still, the accords reinforced the notion on the right-wing in both Israel and America that somehow the century-long Palestinian national movement had all but disappeared.

We now know how self-deluding that fantasy was.

For all of Trump’s seeming courtship of American Jews based on his “bromance” with Netanyahu, he won only about 30% of the Jewish vote in 2020 — a proportion well within the norms for Republican presidential candidates over the past 50 years. And the Pew survey found only a minority of those polled approved of Netanyahu’s performance (40%) and considered Trump friendly to American Jews (31%).

Which, actually, should come as no surprise. For both Trump and Netanyahu, the moderate and liberal majority of American Jews were never their real audience. Rather, it was evangelical Christians. Ron Dermer, formerly Netanyahu’s ambassador to the United States, recently was caught saying the quiet part out loud at a conference hosted by the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon: “People have to understand that the backbone of Israel’s support in the United States is the evangelical Christians. It’s true because of numbers and also because of their passionate and unequivocal support for Israel.” As for American Jews, not only are their numbers much smaller, he said, but they are overrepresented among Israel’s critics.

There can be no doubt, however, that the relative estrangement accelerated due to the flagrantly divisive roles played by former President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

We now know how self-deluding that fantasy was.

By aligning Israel with both the Republican Party and the Christian right, Netanyahu tacitly associated it with a series of positions on American domestic issues that are anathema to the preponderance of American Jews who reliably vote Democratic — outlawing abortion, rolling back gay rights, eradicating Obamacare, suppressing voting, and, of course, attempting to seize power through insurrection.

By turning Israel into a partisan wedge issue, and alienating many American Jews in the process, those cynical siblings — Trump and Netanyahu — ensured that when the time came for Israel to need bipartisan support and a united front of American Jews neither would be readily available anymore.