New York Times: Why are American Jews no longer united?

A New York Times posted an article argues that the consensus among American Jews is crumbling, as they are divided over whether Israel’s interests align with those of the Jewish people.

Not all believe that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism, and that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will bridge the gap between pro-Zionists and liberals.

The Article’s author Ezra Klein notes that the rift within the Jewish consensus on these principles became evident against the backdrop of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip and the victory of Zahran Mamdani in the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor of New York, the city with the second-largest Jewish population after Tel Aviv, as these developments exacerbated the division within Jewish circles.

Mamdani stated that if he became mayor of New York City, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested for war crimes if he set foot in the city.

He didn’t deny though Israel’s right to exist, but rather “as a state built on equal rights”.

According to the article, many elderly Jews are shocked and terrified by Mamdani’s victory, because for them, Israel is the only safe haven for the world’s Jews, and if the United States abandons it, it will disappear sooner or later, and if Mamdani becomes mayor of New York, they will have no safe place.

In contrast, the article says he knows many young Jews who voted for Mamdani and whose sole fear is that Israel will become an apartheid state controlling a devastated Gaza Strip and the Bantustans of the West Bank.

They fear the repercussions this will have on Jewish identity, and they assert that their commitment to the core ideals of liberalism is stronger than their commitment to the state of Israel.

Mamdani’s stance on Israel reflects his liberal background, especially when he says that he doesn’t support any state that values citizenship based on religion or any other basis, the same idea that has been behind the success of American Jews.

In this regard, the article cites journalist Daniel May, publisher of the left-leaning newspaper Jewish Currents, who says that American Jews tend to believe that their success in the United States lies in the fact that belonging to the country isn’t based on race or religion, whereas Israel is based on the idea of a state representing a particular ethnic-religious group.

The same applies to diaspora Jews, who view a multi-ethnic democracy that guarantees the rights of political minorities as the foundation upon which their security is built, while Israeli Jews view a Jewish majority as the foundation upon which their state is built.

According to the article, reconciliation between the two visions was possible within the framework of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but this vision has practically evaporated due to the escalation of Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank, the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, and the expansionist ambitions of the right-wing Israeli government.

Rabbi Rachel Timoner summarizes the Jewish divide by saying that there is a segment of the Jewish community that is deeply saddened by the situation in Gaza and the behavior of the Israeli government, while there is another segment of American Jews who are unaware of the extent of the fears that Israelis feel as they live in a hostile environment.

The current Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has deepened divisions among American Jews, with many young Jews viewing Israel’s current actions in Gaza as a war of destruction and the indiscriminate and criminal killing of civilians.

Faced with this situation, these young people are torn: Do they defend war crimes?

Do they defend or even accept the use of mass starvation as a tool of war?

Do they believe in equality everywhere except in Israel, which is supposed to be their spiritual home?

The article concludes that many were upset by the use of the term “genocide” a year ago, but now they have come to accept it.

In this context, the article questioned the rights of the approximately two million Palestinians living inside Israel as second-class citizens after the rejection of a bill submitted by three Palestinian members of the Knesset to establish the “principle of equal citizenship” and criminalize “discrimination on the basis of nationality, race, religion, gender, language, color, political orientation, or social status”.

This refusal reveals the weakness of Israel’s current moral position and its inability to embrace the principle of political equality.

In this regard, Daniel May believes that the Israeli soldiers’ shooting of Palestinians in Gaza as they waited in long lines for food represents a catastrophe for Jews, causing a “spiritual, moral, and political crisis, and I believe it has tangible implications for Jewish security”.

Daniel May: Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinians in Gaza as they waited in long lines for food is a disaster for Jews, causing a “spiritual, moral, and political crisis, and I believe it has tangible implications for Jewish security”.

Compared to Palestinians inside the Green Line, Ezra Klein argues that the situation is much worse for the five million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, as Israel decides their movement, who enters and leaves the West Bank and Gaza, and what the Palestinian Authority can and cannot do.

Regarding the situation of Jews in New York, the article’s author quotes Brad Lander, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the city government and a supporter of Mamdani, as saying that Mamdani “doesn’t harbor the slightest hint of anti-Semitism” and that Israel, as a right-wing ethnostate, isn’t a good place for Jews, no matter how powerful its military might.

In contrast, New York, in Brad Lander’s view, has continued to mean much to Jews for more than a century after two thousand years of marginalization around the world, as they have been able to flourish in a diverse environment and within the framework of an inclusive, multiethnic democracy.

The articled concluded by saying that anti-Semitism is used as a cover to undermine the ideals and institutions that have made America a place where Jews thrive, and that if Israel becomes a right-wing ethnostate, and opposition to that state is viewed as anti-Semitic, Jews will become a mere front for policies that don’t serve the interests of the Jewish diaspora.