On Tuesday, Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, used the U.S. Congress to stage a most elaborate campaign commercial in the run-up to Israel’s elections in two weeks. He did so at the behest of GOP leaders, and damaged every conceivable metric he claims to be invested in save one: his own suddenly-rising poll numbers back home.
With his speech, Netanyahu damaged U.S.-Israel relations by turning Israel into a political football. He caused the collapse of Democratic support for the Iran bill in Congress he claimed to support. And he was abandoned as ‘dangerous’ by his own security establishment.
Additionally, by claiming to represent “the entire Jewish people” before Congress, Netanyahu fed into a dangerous anti-Semitic trope, conflating Israel and all Jews. It’s a conflation many American Jews rejected, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, who had this to say:
“He doesn’t speak for me on this. I think it’s a rather arrogant statement. I think the Jewish community is like any other community. There are different points of view. I think that arrogance does not befit Israel, candidly.”
Jon Stewart added his voice to the growing number of American Jews upset by Netanyahu’s proclamation by mocking the Prime Minister’s conflation:
Netanyahu’s solipsism as a politician is understandable, no matter how undignified. After all, his primary goal is to retain power, no different than most politicians. However, when such solipsism causes him to confuse his political appointment with some form of ethnic divinity, it’s not just offensive, but dangerous.
As an American Jew, I stand not with Netanyahu, but with Stewart, Feinstein, and countless others who have stood up to say, “No, Netanyahu, you do not speak for me.”
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, published recently by Oneworld Publications.
Follow him on Twitter @David_EHG.
It would be nice if, as an American Jew, you stood more often with Israel, its supporters, and the American Jewish community.
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I stand with those who understand the occupation and oppression of Palestinians to be the true existential threat to Israel’s future and long-term survival (something the editors at Haaretz understand quite well). And as a professional Jewish educator, I believe I know a thing or two about ‘standing with the American Jewish community.’
Thanks for your concern, though. I look forward to your next comment directed toward those Israeli editors of Haaretz who I’m sure you wish stood with Israel. Or something.
It would be nice if, as an American Jew (I presume), you stood against those policies which are the real existential threats to Israel’s existence.
Cheers.
I love Haaretz.
And since you asked, as an American Jew, I stand with the Jewish people, with the state of Israel, against the settlements, against the occupation, and against the hideous and dishonest BDS movement, and against using one’s Jewish identification as a propaganda tool to wage a relentless campaign of condemnation against Israel and its supporters.
So are you saying you stand *against* Bibi? Because that’s what matters. Standing “with the state of Israel” is a meaningless, vacuous phrase. The question is whether you are standing with or against the evil and dangerous man who is currently Prime Minister of Israel — a man who is creating and promoting existential threats to the existence of the state of Israel, and creating and promoting existential threats to the people of the state of Israel, and creating and promoting existential threats to democracy in the Holy Land, and creating and promoting existential threats to Jews around the world.
If you recognize that Bibi is currently the most dangerous threat to Israel present in the world, I think you’ll get along fine with Mr. Harris-Gershon. If you don’t recognize this… I advise doing your research.