By Ted Belman
The New Republic just published a controversial article titled American Jewry Is Doomed If It Can’t Embrace J Street, The author, a Harvard Professor contends “If organized American Jewry cannot find a place for J Street’s form of young, liberal, humanistic Judaism, it is dooming itself to shrinking through attrition and retreating to the self-destructive corner that Israel’s conservatives have been pushing it toward for two generations.” In fact it is J Street that is dooming itself by existing outside the pale. Liberal Jews are dying out, through assimilation and intermarriage while conservative nationalist and orthodox Jews are thriving in both Israel and America. The future is with them.
In addition , J Street with its anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian policies do not represent the majority of liberal Jews and cannot speak for them. It is a fringe movement.
The author Yochai Benkler, a former Israeli and now Harvard professor, in making his case trots out the erroneous population data that the left so embraces. This data has been proven wrong so many times, that one must conclude that the professor is exhibiting willful blindness. He keeps pushing the idea that Israel must choose between being democratic or Jewish. The true demographics say otherwise.
The number of Arabs in Judea and Samaria is 1.66 million, in Gaza about 1.8 million and in Israel, 1.7 million totally 5.26 rather than 6.1 million claimed by the author. Israel has no interest in annexing Gaza. If Israel annexed Judea and Samaria the Jews would constitute a 2/3 majority in the combined territories. Therefore there would be no need to “either stop being Jewish or stop being democratic” as claimed by the author.
Furthermore he laments the fact that the orthodox and the nationalists are growing stronger in Israel. He prefers the American model where the liberal Jews are dying out through intermarriage and assimilation. Why should Israel emulate them.
He claims “an American Jewish community that will support Israel even if it chooses to lose its democratic character rather than its Jewish character will ultimately lose the next generations of American Jews, who will simply turn away in disgust from a state that represents a Judaism that cannot be squared with the rest of their identity.” To my mind, they have already been lost and Israel would be too if it follwed their path and policies.
For the majority of “American Jews” who happened to be democrats, it is the American way or the highway. They believe that Il is an unacceptable challenge to their American superiority complex. If the PEW research is correct, the American Jews will disappear in one or two generation unless they wake-up.
Note the timing. A disinformation campaign spread by the Obama admin because Israel is not towing the Obama line on the failure of the Obama Iran program. These are bloodlibels with the same intent as those of past Jewish history. It is a threat to put Israel in line by inciting anti semitism towards US Jews. obamas scandals and failures are so many that he must have appearance of victory of success in Iran negotiations and the ludicrous Pal peace talks at any cost. Also he needs fig leafs to cover his Irs scandal, fast and furious, benghazi arms smuggling to AQ, Syrian failure, Iran failure, NSA scandal, Ukraine/Crimea failure, etc Many of these are impeachable and criminal offenses.
@ yamit82:
@ BethesdaDog:
“Begin gave away Yamit; Sharon gave away Gaza; Netanyahu gave away 80% of Hebron, Rabin signed on to Oslo.
Each ran on platforms opposing the very actions they took.
All released hundreds even over a 1000 terrorists on 2 different occasions though all polls showed a super majority of Israelis against.
The only democratic feature of our democracy is when once every few years we are allowed to vote for party’s and in most cases handpicked lists for the Knesset. There are no open primaries in Israel and we common Israelis have no say on who comprises individual party lists. It’s an all or nothing voter choice. Once elected we are totally disenfranchised in our weird political system which is unlike any other in the world. The courts seldom find for plaintiffs who challenge the government and their constituent agencies. What countries monopolies are allowed to charge retroactively after a rate hike like the electric company a government monopoly? Israel does.
BB is the worst of the group where he sold off government assets for a fraction of their worth to a small group of Oligarchs who call the political shots.. Many of those profitable assets were stripped and went belly up with no adverse consequences to BB or the crooks who were allowed to purchase some without a tender. The Knesset remained passive
What I have described are only a few undemocratic elements of our system and country, and they are the tip of the iceberg.
Read the many articles by prof Paul Eidelberg. Israel democracy
Prof. Paul Eidelberg’s Articles
Prof. Paul Eidelberg on Arutz Sheva
@ Not Ovenready:
Sounds chewy. 🙂
I love the name that you use. Another Canook that is not oven ready. I like that! 🙂
Sorry about the post above. I tried to simply insert the website for WRC radio which streams Gaffney’s show, and instead of putting the link in hypertext, it created the whole next paragraph as a link.
I guess you can click on the whole paragraph and it will take you to the WRC website.
I looked up Dorothy Fosdick and her father, Harry Emerson Fosdick. She broke with the religious beliefs of her father, found her inspiration in Reinhold Niebuhr. Her father, Harry Emerson Fosdick, was also anti-Zionist. She ended up working closely as an adviser for many years to perhaps the most pro-Israel gentile I’ve ever known of.
Ted, maybe you can fix the prior post, and put in the proper URL to http://www.1260wrc.com. I’ve had this problem before, maybe I don’t understand how to use the feature properly.
@ monostor:
Gaffney is a stronger critic of JStreet than most Jews. He is also one of the most powerful voices bringing attention to the danger of Islam and its effort to subvert American society. In the past, I have suggested that people might want to listen to his radio program on WRC in Washington. You can pick it up on a stream at
It’s on at 9 PM EST M-F, with some repeats on the weekends. i believe you can also pick up podcasts of the show for free from his website at the Center for Security Policy. Gaffney is an old Scoop Jackson hand, having worked for a while on the staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. I think Dorothy Fosdick, daughter of the famous pacifist minister, Harry Emerson Fosdick, was the most senior person on arms control and national security policy. Richard Perle was also on that staff. I don’t know if Wolfowitz was, he might have been.
@ yamit82:
How does this make your point contending that Israel is not a democracy?
@ yamit82:
You have properly and publicly chastised me.
The ‘professor’ is confusing Jew with ‘Jewy’ or ‘kind of Jewy’.
honeybee Said:
https://www.israpundit.org/archives/63596326/comment-page-1#comment-63356000128611
yamit82 Said:
splain me??
BethesdaDog Said:
There is no democracy in Israel thriving or otherwise.
From Frank Gaffney’s organization:
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2014/05/01/lets-all-repudiate-j-street/
Democracy in Israel is alive and thriving. Democracy in Israel is booming. It is American Jewry that is undemocratic. These institutions like the Conference of Presidents are collections of diverse caucuses and interest groups, each with their own special interest and usually an ideology. You have unelected hacks like Abe Foxman purporting to speak for all of us when nobody but his own National Commissioners and donors elected him, or rather, merely ratified, his own predetermined self selection. Union of Reform Judaism just represents a bunch of empty temples that cannot fill a closet on Shabbat. For those for whom their definition of their Judaism is based on religious observance, going to the temple twice a year in the fall means little. Yes, it is the American Jewish community that is undemocratic, and dying except for the religiously traditional and Orthodox. As one who is not observant, I am still shocked when I see the extent of intermarriage among those who are not the traditionally religious. The liberal and reform, and those who define their Judaism as just ethnic, are slowly vanishing. Even if the purported data showing that children of mixed marriages stay Jewish, that will not last for more than another generation or so. American Reform Jewry, Bye-Bye.
If this author is an Israeli why is he here, anyway? Does he intend eventually to go back? If he’s good enough for a position at Harvard, TAU or Hebrew University might be happy to take someone with those kind of credentials. Or maybe that university in the south that is so hospitable to leftists and Israel haters.
The above was written by a former New Republic reader…from the Peretz days, though.
Its pointless for Israel to commit suicide to win them over.
Israel has been following their preferred path for over twenty years with nothing to show for it. Its time to try something new.
Regardless of whether or not liberal American Jews approve.