A Growing Divide Between American Liberal Jews and Zionists

The Growing Rupture in American Jewry

Peter Beinart writes in The New York Times today of “The Great Rupture in American Jewish Life.” He explains, “The emerging rupture between American liberalism and American Zionism constitutes the greatest transformation in American Jewish politics in half a century. It will redefine American Jewish life for decades to come.” This growing divide in recent decades has recently been exacerbated by the ongoing Gaza war that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is waging against Hamas—the militant, radical Muslim organization that governs the Gaza Strip. This war was initiated by Hamas attacking Israel on October 7th last year and brutally killing 1,200 people in about one day.

Whenever Arab and/or Islamic groups have attacked Israel in the past, the mostly Jewish nation has vigorously retaliated by often killing as many as ten times more of its opponents that they did of Israeli Jews. We now see that happening again, only much worse. The Gaza Health Ministry claims IDF has killed over 32,000 Gaza Palestinians.

U.S. President Joe Biden has in the past been a very strong advocate of Israel. But his relationship with its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden’s longtime friend, is now being severely strained. Biden has been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Plus, the U.S. did not oppose a UN Security Council resolution that passed last week, calling for a ceasefire. In the past, it has been very rare for the U.S. to side with UN resolutions that are in opposition to the Israeli government. Biden also has said Netanyahu “is hurting Israel” more than helping it by all this killing of civilians in Gaza.

Strained Relations Between Biden & Netanyahu

Israel’s parliamentary form of democracy consists of many political parties instead of only two such as in the U.S. This often requires it to form a coalition government out of its elections which represents a majority. Since its parliament, called the Knesset, consists of 120 members, an Israeli government coalition must consist of at least 61 Knesset members. In recent years, the party victor in elections has found it difficult to form a coalition and could only do so by accepting into its coalition Knesset members of parties that are not so compatible with the winning party.

Thus, Netanyahu and his Likud Party have been forming coalition governments that have included increasingly right-wing and religious Knesset members. The result is that Netanyahu now has cabinet members calling for things such as Israel unilaterally annexing all of the West Bank. And such members advocate harsh measures in the IDF’s conduct of the Gaza war, such as attacking Palestinians who left homes and have gathered in Rafah, at the south end of the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has announced that the IDF is indeed about to attack Rafah to destroy Hamas militants there who are mostly hiding in tunnels. President Biden is calling for Israel not to do that.

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer’s Critical Speech

The highest ranking Jewish politician in the U.S. Congress is Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Although he is a strong supporter of Israel, last week he delivered an important speech in the Senate, heavily criticizing the Netanyahu administration’s conduct of this war in Gaza and calling for elections in Israel. Polls in Israel do show that long time Prime Minister Netanyahu has drastically lost the support of voters. Schumer’s speech indicated the widening divide among American Jews regarding the Israeli government, with American Zionists still strongly supporting Netanyahu.

President Biden asked that Israel send its ambassador to the U.S. last week for talks, which was planned. But when the U.S. allowed the UN resolution calling for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza to pass, thus not opposing it, Netanyahu snubbed Biden by canceling the ambassador’s trip.

Should the U.S. Restrict Its Armaments to Israel?

There is a growing call in the U.S. and around the world for the Biden administration to take action against Israel because of its conduct of this war, such as withholding armaments delivered to Israel which it uses in this war, something the U.S. has never done. Israel, with the U.S. as its foremost ally, has always by far been the most prominent beneficiary of U.S. foreign aid, which has amounted to $3 billion or more per year for several decades. Much of it has consisted of armaments.

What About After the War?

Another issue has been, “what about after this war”? President Biden declared several days ago that Netanyahu needs to break his silence about this. Biden announced for the first time that the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to solved after this war and that it can only be solved with a two-state solution, it being a Palestinian state in the two separated territories of the West Bank, or much of it, and the Gaza Strip. That apparently irritated Netanyahu, causing him to announce that on his watch there will be no initiative toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Most people in the world who care about this conflict believe it cannot be settled except with two states. The proposal that it be solved with one state is quite naive and misguided as history as shown, and Jews most certainly will never agree to it.

The IDF has been so destroying Gaza, and Netanyahu had not been saying anything about his intentions for Gaza when this war ends. Some of Netanyahu’s cabinet have called for removing all of the Palestinian population in Gaza and annexing it to Israel. Both Jewish and Christian Zionists often have claimed ancient Israel, Eretz Yisrael, existed in all of The Levant “between the seas,” referring to the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River/Dead Sea.

An Alternative Two-State Solution

But I show in Chapter 2 of my book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia (1990), that this is quite wrong. That is, during the centuries before and during Israel’s monarchy, the Philistines occupied most or all of the coastal plain south of Joppa, presently Tel Aviv. So, Zionists often wrongly claim according to history that they are entitled to their ancestral land that includes the coastal plain. I say no way hosea! Check the history books! Partly for this reason, I propose in my book an alternative two-state solution, with a Palestinian state being created solely in the coastal plain as both a very expanded Gaza Strip and a revival of ancient Philistia.