Pompeo, AIPAC and Jewish-American priorities

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made two brief, basic points in his declaration last week on Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. He said that those communities are not illegal. And he said that far from facilitating peace, the delegitimization of those communities has harmed prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israelis were all but unanimous in their praise for Pompeo for speaking these simple truths. From Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to opposition leader Benny Gantz there was an immediate consensus supporting the Trump administration’s bold move to reject Barack Obama’s truth-impaired, hostile position on those communities and the European Union’s concomitant absurd and bigoted legal double standard for the Jewish state and its citizens.

Although the Palestinians responded with predictable fury to Pompeo’s statement, theirs wasn’t the angriest reaction. The angriest responses came from the two parties — the European Union and the Democrats — whose anti-Israel and factually baseless positions Pompeo’s statement repudiated.

They were angry because with his simple, brief statement, Pompeo took away their favorite fig leaf for hiding their hatred for Israel.

The American Jewish community, as represented by its major organizations, had three main responses to the U.S. policy shift.

The first came from the anti-Zionist or post-Zionist Jewish left. This group is led most notably J Street and the Union of Reform Judaism. Both viciously condemned Pompeo’s statement.

On the other side of the spectrum, groups with traditional Zionist positions were deeply supportive of Pompeo’s statement — imcluding the ZOA and the Orthodox Union.

Between the post-Zionists and the Zionists are the bulk of what are normally viewed as mainstream Jewish American groups. The reactions of these organizations were disappointing, to say the least. The Conference of Presidents refused to release any statement in response to Pompeo’s declaration. The Jewish Federations of North America were similarly silent.Statements by the AJC and the ADL ignored the substance of Pompeo’s declaration.

AIPAC’s only response to the most significant shift in U.S. Israel policy since the Six Day War was a post on its Twitter feed which read, “AIPAC does not take a position on settlements. We believe settlements should be an issue for direct negotiations between the parties, not something determined by international bodies. The Palestinians must stop their boycott of US and Israeli officials and return to direct talks.”

Aside from ignoring Pompeo’s statement, and so erasing the context of its remark, the most bizarre aspect of AIPAC’s tweet is the position it expressed.

The war against “settlements” is the means through which Israel’s detractors seek to delegitimize Israel’s very existence and demonize AIPAC and its members as disloyal to America for their “crime” of caring about Israel.

And AIPAC doesn’t have a position on the issue? Can it really not choose a side in the battle between the Israeli consensus and IfNotNow?

What purpose does no-position-on-settlements-AIPAC serve today? What is it there to do?

How are we to understand the tepid-to-non-existent responses of these major Jewish groups to the most supportive statement made by a sitting Secretary of State in history? What stands behind their refusal to respond positively to a statement that undermines the basis for the most politically powerful and fastest growing form of anti-Jewish bigotry in America?

It would seem that there is one explanation. It is called the Democratic Party, circa 2019.

Like most of their members, the leaders of these Jewish organizations groups lean Democratand they’ve decided to remain in a party that becomes more hostile to Israel and Jewish interests with every passing week.

Then there is the issue of the identity of the man who made the statement last week. Pompeo is not merely a Republican. He is President Trump’s Secretary of State. And President Trump happens to be the most pro-Israel president in U.S. history. But in today’s poisonous political climate, no Democrat can say anything positive about Trump and his administration. And so AIPAC’s statement never mentioned his name.

For Israel, the lesson from all of this is a sad one: Mainstream American Jewish groups and their leaders are no longer dependable allies and partners. Until 10 years ago, these groups and leaders recognized that their freedom and civil rights as Jewish Americans were tied to American support for Israel. Now, as that support for Israel in their political home is collapsing, they won’t stand up for their rights in opposition to their party and so they are unable to stand up for Israel or respect the consensus opinion of Israelis.

To date, regardless of the party in power, Israel’s governments have gone out of their way to support these major Jewish organizations. Prime ministers and cabinet ministers have made a point of flying to Washington to participate in the annual AIPAC conference, for instance.

The time has come to end this tradition.

Rather than support groups that are unwilling to stick their necks out to defend either Israel or their own community, the government should support the groups that are willing to do so. Israel should support the Jewish and non-Jewish groups that support Israel in meaningful ways. Those that are willing to stand up to the forces using the term “settlements” to demonize Israel and its American supporters are the ones who Israel should focus its energies on supporting.

Israel should help smaller Zionist groups grow and help larger organizations expand their reach.

Old habits die hard. But the cold responses these major Jewish groups issued in the face of the most significant pro-Israel position the Trump administration has adopted to date show they have already changed their old habits. Israel needs to recognize what they have done and act accordingly. 

Because of space constraints, this column was substantially abridged form its original, which appeared in Israel Hayom.