DO WE REALLY WANT TO GO THERE?

Redefining "Pro-Israel": American Jews who lobby for pressure on Israel are pushing the envelope (Jonathan Tobin, May 12, 2003, Jewish World Review)

Jews have a long history of disunity that has even persisted in the face of outside threats. So there is nothing unique or particularly remarkable about the fact that the "major" American Jewish groups ? or Israelis, for that matter ? don't all agree about the road map toward peace.

Over the course of the last 20 years, both sides of the left-right divide over Israel have done their best to shut up or marginalize their opponents. Most of these efforts have been disreputable. But that said, there have always been perceived limits on what should be considered legitimate "pro-Israel" activity.

Criticizing Israeli governments is certainly no longer taboo, be they of the left or right. Nor should it be. But if there was any "red line" that mainstream groups refused to cross, it was that no one ought to encourage foreign governments, even the United States, to place pressure on Israel to do things its democratically elected government was opposed to doing. [...]

But let's be honest. The language used by the supporters of the road map in their letter was a thinly veiled green light for pressure on Israel to do what its people have clearly voted not to do in the last two elections: go back to the policy of concessions.

No one should question their right as Americans to speak their minds. But those who question the propriety of Jews lobbying the president not to support Israel, but to force its government to accept someone else's idea of security, are not attacking democracy but defending it.

What is at stake here is not the right of free speech for American Jews or another round of left-right mutual delegitimization. Rather, it is a question of what gives a group of well-heeled Jewish philanthropists the chutzpah to tell an American president it is okay to twist the arm of an Israeli prime minister.

What's lacking in Mr. Tobin's analysis is any recognition of the fact that other Jewish (and Christian) groups are right now lobbying the (relatively) democratically-elected Bush administration to do what it does not want to do, abandon the idea of a Palestinian state. By Mr. Tobin's logic--if that's what we choose to call it---this legitimizes the vile suggestion, a perennial tool of anti-Semites, that such Jews are not "pro-American". Is that where this conversation should be headed at this point? Posted by Orrin Judd at May 12, 2003 10:32 AM