Viewpoint: Edwin Black

Israel parade rhubarb puts focus on Jewish groups that oppose Israel

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More than 100 shofar-carrying protestors are expected to assemble on April 29 in front of the 59th Street headquarters of the UJA-Federation of NY. On cue, they will raise their curved rams’ horns and wail to the heavens in visceral unison.

They are protesting their communal leadership.

Federation’s beneficiary, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), is the chief organizer of the Celebrate Israel Parade on June 1. The upbeat procession of floats, runners, and marchers is normally a public show of unity in support of Israel; but this year, the parade has become a maelstrom of disunity over the participation of the controversial New Israel Fund and other groups which recent revelations now link to the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement and the campaign to delegitimize Israel internationally.

The outrage in some American, Jewish, and Israeli circles over the NIF’s inclusion may be more than just a passing horn blast. Just what constitutes the Jewish mainstream? Is American Jewry about to set limits on its open tent of inclusion, a precept the community wears as a badge of honor?

More than a few American Jews feel that their community has been hijacked from within by groups such as the J Street lobby, the New Israel Fund and others that constitute a powerful, well-funded minority able to wage war against Israel seemingly in the name of the Jewish people.

“These groups are anti-Jewish,” says Judith Freedman Kadish, special project director of Americans for a Safe Israel, “and they are funding groups that are anti-Semitic. They just veil their actions by saying they are trying to influence public policy and (end) occupation.” The accused organizations and their defenders in the Jewish media and within the Jewish activist community vigorously insist their activities are simply democratic dissent aimed at solving Israel’s problems.

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