America's progressive Zionist Jews: Pro-Israel, against Netanyahu and Trump - opinion

• Published date: 24 April 2024
• Author: NADAV TAMIR
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The current disagreements, unlike past ones, are not just between Right and Left, but more between those who would stand behind any decision made by the Israeli government and those who would allow its decisions to be criticized. The actions and policies of Benjamin Netanyahu's "fully right-wing" government, and its ingratitude toward US President Joe Biden, the most Zionist American president in the history of the Israel-US relationship, have garnered criticism even among those who used to believe that any such criticism endangers Israel

There is now a dispute even over the US commitment to supporting Israel, and over Zionism itself, which used to be the basis of most American liberal Jews' self-identity and has now become a point of contention.

In the wake of the extreme right-wing government in Israel, of its attempted anti-democratic judicial overhaul, and now of the images emerging from Gaza of destruction, killings, and hunger, many among the young generation of American Jewry are losing hope and getting lured by dangerous conceptions that no longer regard Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, but rather, as an oppressive colonial power.

When Peter Beinart, a writer, publicist, and prominent Jewish thinker in the US, says that Zionism and liberalism are incompatible, that American Jews must choose between supporting the right of the Jewish people to a national homeland and the liberal values that constitute the core of their self-identity, that is just one example of the crisis facing the largest Jewish community outside Israel. But Beinart is mistaken and misleading.

The need for progressive Zionism in the US

Against simplistic worldviews that see the world and Israel in black and white, the mission of liberal Jewish organizations such as J Street becomes more important and more challenging than ever. Against criticism from the left of J Street's backing for US support of Israel, it is more important than ever to present a position that combines resistance to the current Israeli government and unequivocal support for Israel's security.

Members of J Street contend daily with the need to create and sustain a space for progressive Zionism, in an environment in which Zionism, or Zionist, has become a negative term, a slur. The challenge, and mission, is to continue to support Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas's terrorism and the need to remove that organization from its position of power and control in Gaza, while at the same time...