Christians United for Israel, with over 8 million members, is the largest pro-Israel group in the world. I encourage you to visit their site: https://cufi.org/
I was moved to tears when Pastor Hagee delivered a special prayer for Israel before a war briefing by IDF Lt Col J. Conricus.
I grew up in a household of paranoia, where we kept the shades drawn "so the goyim can't see in," and where we didn't leave the house on Easter "so when the goyim come out of church having been told that the Jews killed Jesus, they don't kill us." I didn't know until this year that piece of shtetl wisdom came from Kishinev. I was cast out at 23 for marrying a guy who wasn't Jewish, and spent my adult life trying to prove that I was just a normal person who was not surrounded by haters. I became a hardcore leftist and fought for the rights of women, people of color and LGBTs.
After Trump got elected in 2016, I noticed a distinct sea change in the culture. Of two close friends, people who had told me repeatedly they loved me, one told me that Israel was responsible for all the world's problems and cut me off because I refused to believe the Mossad had killed the Kennedys. The other told me that the Jews are responsible for all the evil on the face of the world. A relative on my husband's side asked me flat out "Why are Jews such terrible people?"
And then on October 7, right after the massacre and even before Israel retaliated, my social media feeds were so barraged with calls to literally kill all the Jews that I got off Threads and blocked a lot of people on my other feeds. These calls proved to me that when people say "you can criticize Israel or Zionism without being antisemitic," they're lying hypocritics. Israel may be a foreign country where we don't vote and have no say, but in the popular imagination, there is not a glint of daylight between Israel and Jews in the Diaspora.
A genocide is inflicted on Israel and so Israel is accused of genocide. The people who committed the genocide used their own people as shields to maximize harm, in order to get the world to fight their battle for them. These people have "destroy Israel" and "kill all the Jews" as the first line in their charter and they say they will do October 7 over and over until all the Jews are gone, and yet Israel is considered the perpetrator of genocide.
You can't make this shit up. You couldn't put it in a book of fiction because people would say it's not believable.
The thing that bothers me the most is that my parents were right. Their point of view was intolerable and yet they were right.
October 7 was our Dreyfus Affair, when we learned all over again that assimilation does not keep you safe. Fighting for other peoples does not keep you safe or get you allies.
In the Diaspora, the people on the left who hate us the most are the people for whose civil rights we fought. I don't expect gratitude but I do expect them not to howl for our blood. The sin of our people, like the sin of Asians and South Asians, was to pull ourselves up through hard study and hard work; in becoming successful, we have become the ultimate people of privilege, "white-adjacent," and within the simplistic system of oppressors/oppressed that is CRT, we are suddenly the most white of white people, responsible for all the misery of people of color. Lazy scholarship with crackpot conclusions that has become an article of faith on the left. I have spent my life defending the rights of people of color to have an even shot. I have spent my life defending the rights of women. I can't believe that blacks and feminists say that whatever bad things happen to Israel or to Jews, we deserve it. I can't believe that these people who were happy to receive our long and committed support now consider us not worthy of human rights because we're not human.
I can't believe I didn't know, all my life, that these people I fought for never thought I was human.
I still believe there is systemic discrimination that needs to be remedied. I still believe in the principles of feminism. The fact that leftist groups have betrayed us Jews does not mean that their causes are unjust. It means they have betrayed their own causes.
The right wing is not an alternative, because the right wing would label us as foreigners and deport us, no matter how long we've been in the country. If Trump were to come to power again, you can bet he would do the worst of anything you can imagine and then some. He is not an alternative, he is not a friend.
According to polls, we have friends in the center. It appears all journalism is either to the left or the right. I am reminded, not all non-Jews hate us. Many don't care. Some even like us. Somewhere, out there, in the center.
If there is a bright side to all this, for me it is that the hatred pulled me back in. I saw that assimilation doesn't work, it's time to know Jewish history, Israeli history, Torah, Kabbalah, everything Jewish. It's time to know this stuff so well we have certainty. I started out wondering if all the propaganda was true, did Israel really have any right to exist, all that, and my research has made me not just a passionate Zionist but one with absolute clarity about why radical Islam is bad for the Muslims as well as for the Jews, and why it has to be resisted. I know I am not alone in this. For most of my life, the Jewish community wrung its hands over the intermarriages and the kids who were leaving the fold, and with one massacre and one thrust of propagandizing bots, the Islamists have brought Jews back to the fold.
Because maybe there is safety among the nebulous center, but there is only affinity amongst ourselves. May we find each other, support each other, and fight together. The world has tried to kill us off with genocides large and small, pretty much every fifty years for the past 2500 years, and what really pisses them off is that no matter how many Jews they kill, a few always escape, rebuild, and become successful at whatever we choose to do. From the ashes, we become great scientists, writers, musicians, doctors, artists, historians, actors, comedians, you name it. We build things. We make the desert bloom. We turn a malaria-infested swamp into the Silicon Valley of the Middle East. Jews do the impossible, it's what we do, because we study and we work hard, and that really, really pisses off the people who didn't make the desert bloom, didn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. We may be the people chosen to be the world's scapegoat, but we are an amazing people. We will endure, and we will dance again.
It doesn't matter if my parents were right, that everyone hates us, everyone blames their personal disappointments on us, we give people the joy of having someone to blame, someone to hate, someone to relieve themselves of personal responsibility for their failings. Because we know the truth.
You seem to have been fighting the fight for all causes other than yours!! The Israelis are always first to send aid and personnel to all countries which are in a sudden crisis. And now, those same countries scream for Jews to be exterminated! So, what now?? Stop the nonsense, first!! Realize that whatever Jews try to ingratiate themselves to the world will not work as intended! Jews are smart people through natural selection, they know history, or should know world history, realize schooling is the best way toward a better life, and that a tight family is a way for long term survival. We need to help each other now more than at any time in this country, dismiss political views differences, and stay unified to combat this current wave of antisemitism!! We Jews now have a duty to concentrate and focus on ourselves to protect our own existence, and let others fight all the other “fights” for their own good. Nobody will fight for us, so in order to prevail, staying “one for all and all for one” is the ammunition required for success!!
Was Trump antisemitic during his first term? Why would that suddenly change? I don't understand hatred and fear of conservatism. (yes, I know Trump is not conservative but right now there is no other useful label)
I deeply appreciate Ambassador Oren's work. I have been fighting this fight since October 7th, calling out the Jew Hating Marxist sleaze that have infiltrated America's universities and cultural institutions. One recent (of many) interview I published is with Joshua Hoffman of Future of Jewish, on many of these same topics. https://youtu.be/TAurUvJL4K0
We must never concede an inch of public space to these Jew Hating scum. Period.
Several things are going on at the same time. First, to the evident and continuing frustration of Palestinian apologists, huge majorities of Americans support Israel against Hamas. The sheer barbarity of October 7 has pushed many who were on the fence into the pro-Israel camp because they now understand that Israel may be the first victim, the West is next. The often violent but always intimidating pro-Hamas demonstrations only reinforce that view.
To the extent the media takes an anti-Israel position, it seems to sway no one outside the bubble and might further fuel the lack of trust in the media reporting fairly.
As to Schumer, while the media focused on the “Netanyahu must go” angle, the bulk of his presentation reiterated the U.S. agreement with Israel’s war aim of dismantling Hamas. The conditions he set out for a future Palestinian State are anathema to both Hamas and the PA.
My concern from October 7 on was over the application of the “never let a crisis go to waste.” I suspect that is what lies behind the make Netanyahu the bogeyman idea - it strikes me as the revenge of the Obamanites, angry that the Prime Minister was more right about the region and its politics than their hero was. The more prescient, the bigger the target basically. That they have no problem with recycling Hamas propaganda in their anti-Netanyahu charge sheet only displays the depths of their derangement.
But that will change nothing, and Biden understands that. He’s simply mollifying his Progressive wing and the media. The tell, though, is always his actions not his words. He may as well take credit for what Israel is doing anyway. That’s politics. Even the supply pier signals a U.S. expectation for Israel to be in security control of Gaza for months if not longer.
My prediction is that Israel’s plan for Rafah, which will be executed militarily after Ramadan, will prove “acceptable” to the U.S. because the civilians will be moved to safer spaces before the holiday’s end. We will see, though.
Meanwhile, the Israeli public is united in Israel’s war aim, and everyone understands that Israel will be unfairly criticized and subjected to double standards regardless of who is sitting in the Prime Minister’s chair.
More fundamentally, in their pursuit of Netanyahu, what these policy makers ignore are the optics. The Sunni Arabs see a strong and confident Israel taking care of business on the one side and an increasingly confused and undependable U.S. on the other. Did they not consider the effects of such a public confrontation on our deterrence posture?
And, because deterrence requires you to get into your adversary’s head, it’s a toss-up over how Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, interpret this spat. If they see this public daylight as a green light to press their attack, obviously the war spreads, while Hamas toughens its negotiating posture as if it had the military upper hand.
If they see an Israel freed from US leverage, then maybe Iran and Hezbollah do nothing on the theory that Israel will have to make quick work of Hezbollah and that means Lebanon will suffer a completely disproportional attack - or, as we used to call it stateside, the Powell Doctrine. And look for Hamas propaganda to become ever more hysterical and unhinged as they appeal to the world community to save them from themselves.
You say about Biden "The tell though is always his actions and not his words"....but this is always what "shy" Trump supporters say yet your side refuses to acknowledge that and go crazy every time he says what I call "a Trumpism".....I usually laugh and wait to see what he does....how about giving the other half of the country the grace you are affording Biden supporters
Why do you assume I don’t (and didn’t). Everyone needs to put their broad brush away and start dealing with individuals and their views rather than assume some monolithic conformity on either side.
right before Oct. 7th a childhood friend who I knew was from an atheist family with no cultural Jewish content either....wrote me on FB. I answered him with a warm message mostly about his parents. Then I saw "Palestina, palestina" posted on his FB page. He had to go to my page with my many pro Israel posts. End of communication from him. A brief ancedote... I pray that you are right about solidarity.....I see too many publicized voices of anti Israel...and even pro hamas Jews......My closest ally for Israel is my gentile friend. My FB Jewish friends ignore my pro Israel posts.
Palestina que cretina....what is that cretin in Spanish....thanks for your reply.....I still think about this guy contacting me then apparently not liking my pro Israel posts and ignoring my very kind response to him...(before I saw how anti Israel he was) so good riddance to him.
There's not really solidarity among US Jews. Most on the left while supporting Israel will not abandon the blue team even to save their landsmen. The blue team controls the media, illegally controls social media using censorship, the economy, academia. They love Iran and hate Israel. Go figure. They'll stick with Biden regardless...
Yes incredibly the left/progressives...including women ....LOVE the Islamic Republic and consider Hamas to be progressive values. Jews and Gentiles both....Sarandon is a good example of this. How do you argue with people with such a mindset?
I've given up. It's too demoralizing. These days I tend to stay in my lane meaning I refuse to expose myself to their dumbisms. I'm old so I can get away with it but feel sorry for people who will still be around 20 or 30 years on. Shabbat Shalom
As a Modern Orthodox American Zionist who opposed collective demonization on both the far right and the far left, I don’t understand why we can’t go on faithfully walking with God (modestly and proudly) in a nation that has granted us greater rights and opportunities with fewer encounters with physical or verbal oppression than any other place on our planet?
Does Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism exist in America? Is it becoming more vocal in the echo chambers of the far right and the far left (including the progressive elite on our college campuses).
Sure, but the virus that is Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism dates back to the very first Rashi in the Torah and its only cure awaits to coming of the Messiah.
Righteous resistance in the form of Nevalny’s return to Russia or Churchillian resistance against Nazi military aggression and social oppression is rightfully inspiring and virtuous.
Jews might convince themselves that their resistance to anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is equally virtuous. But would that influence Nazi sympathizer on the far right or Palestinian sympathizers on the far left? Don’t they both agree on only one thing — that Jewish power is represents the world’s ultimate oppression.
Using Jewish power to silence these antagonists will only confirm the conspiracy theories inflaming their echo chambers.
Indeed you are correct. This puts American Jews in between a rock and a hard place. Speak out or not? Use the judicial system to assert your rights? Unfortunately neither answer works. But I do know accepting antisemitism as something as old as the diaspora is not the answer. And I do know that antisemitism is the precursor of the fall of great nations. America is on the downside of a great nation and if I weren't 76 years old, I'd get out of here because the writings on the wall.
"They stand with us in Israel and alongside one another in combating antisemitism, countering anti-Zionism, and upholding Israel’s right to defend itself and exist as the Jewish state"
I hope that represents the majority of American and Diaspora Jews and that it includes a renewed commitment to defend themselves, as the Second Amendment makes possible in the United States.
And yet there are unfortunate examples where woke Jews prefer to ingratiate themselves with extreme leftists than to uphold Jewish values. This one from the Los Angeles synagogue Ha Makom (formerly Temple Aliyah), which rented its space to a Muslim group for Ramadan and helpfully covered up the images of the Israelis murdered and kidnapped on Oct 7 to mollify its renter:
There is probably some mid point between arming civilian Jews and being naive about being inclusive with Muslims. As Gandhi said, "an eye for an eye makes everyone blind."
Truah is an organization of anti-Israel rabbis actively seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza that will effectively allow Hamas to resume full control of the strip and rearm:
Appalling. And yes the evangelicals are our friends currently. But they are waiting for the rapture! Only those who understand that this is a civilizational war and that Israel is just step 1 are really Israel's friends. American Jews who are calling for ceasefire think they are immune. It's like the German Jews who thought Hitler was just that latest fad. No one ever learns from history.
I am an American who finds Biden's public criticism of Israel offensive. He is appeasing a largely anti-Semitic audience in hopes of getting votes. He should do it in private if he must.
The effrontery of Biden, with his limited intellectual capacity, telling Israel how to wage its war makes my blood boil. I would vote for nearly anyone else in the upcoming election if Trump was not the alternative.
Thank you for your observations and encouraging remarks about this adversity bringing Jews closer together. But, you mention the rift between the orthodox and liberal Jews even in the U.S. and certainly so in Israel. The Gaza conflict is drawing attention away from the elephant in the room which is the yawning gap between the two sects and how Israel can reconcile the two opposing versions of the core meaning of both Judaism and the nation. Israel is fighting two existential battles - one with the Arabs and another internally with intolerant myopic Orthodoxy. Netanyahu has been attempting to manipulate the right wing Orthodox like he attempted to do with Hamas to hold on to power. I, like Sen. Schumer, do not think this will end well.
Like it or not, Israel and the U.S. are tightly bound and any actions of one reflects on the other. Sen. Schumer is setting boundaries on Israeli actions that affect the U.S. There are almost as many Jews in the U.S. as there are in Israel so we have a huge influence (and stake) in what Israel does and how it affects world opinion.
Sen. Schumer is an experienced and wise politician. His intentions are to protect both U.S. and Israeli interests. Ignore him at your peril...
"Netanyahu has been attempting to manipulate the right wing Orthodox like he attempted to do with Hamas to hold on to power"
The sole and only reason why Netanyahu allied with the right-wing Orthodox is because many right-wing and centrist groups, including those led by Avigdor Lieberman, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Gideon Sa'ar, have a personal boycott of Benjamin Netanyahu. They agree broadly with many of his policies and would serve in any Likud government that implemented them, as long as it is not led by Netanyahu. All of them have served under him in the past and approved of his policies to a great extent.
Netanyahu teamed up with the Religious Zionism far right to form a government at the same time he was using Hamas to keep the PLO in check. He has made pacts with two devils and there will be hell to pay. Zionist zealots play right into the hands of Islamists like Hamas.
"The Religious Zionist Party is opposed to any territorial concessions to Palestinian or Syrian claims for land. Some members support the annexation of the entire West Bank, though the official policy of the Jewish Home parliamentary faction, of which the party was aligned between 2013 and 2019, only supports annexation of Area C of the West Bank, which makes up the 63% of land in the West Bank allocated to Israel in the Oslo Accords. The party is opposed to recognition of same-sex marriage on a religious basis. The party advocates for increased funding for Torah study and religious education. Jewish-American columnist David E. Rosenberg has stated that the Religious Zionist Party's "platform includes things like annexation of West Bank settlements, the expulsion of asylum-seekers, and political control of the judicial system". He further described the Religious Zionist Party as a political party "driven by Jewish supremacy and anti-Arab racism". The party has been assessed by The Middle East Journal as "militantly anti-Arab" and far-right."
"Netanyahu teamed up with the Religious Zionism far right to form a government"
Nope, he teamed up with them only when more secular right wing and centrist parties, his first choice always since becoming Prime Minister, turned him down.
Wikipedia, as you may know, is solidly woke and would not allow a positive comment about Netanyahu. Try it, you'll see it gets edited out within 30 minutes.
You lost me. So Netanyahu did team up with the Religious Zionists after the moderate secular right and centralist parties turned him down. So, what other choice did he have to form a coalition?
The Wikipedia link was about the Religious Zionist Party not Netanyahu who few have positive comments about recently. Yes, he did team with the religious right and he did use Hamas to control the PLO and thwart any plans for a Palestinian state. What is your point?
The point is the religious right was Netanyahu's last choice, not his first and that all his previous governments were based on right-wing non-religious parties. Religious zealotry was never part of Netanyahu's political ideas.
Splitting Gaza from Hamas was Ariel Sharon's idea in the Gaza disengagement of 2005. It effectively ended any negotiations on two states because the Palestinians were divided. So far, so good.
The problem is Netanyahu lost sight of Hamas' growing power. A more sensible approach would have kept it in Gaza but destroyed its offensive power. And would certainly have left more than 600 soldiers on the border on Oct 7.
Splitting the Palestinians between PA and Hamas worked; not keeping an eye on the Hamas part of the split failed. Divide and conquer only works when the divided pieces are kept small.
It seems we are saying the same thing. Netanyahu prostituted himself to the religious right and underestimated Hamas. This is a lethal combination of errors and the consequences are dire not only for Israel but the entire world.
Long time leftist/progressive hostility to Israel...including Israeli Jews ....at Israeli and at American universities....in "Jewish Studies" programs. From a liberal Democrat.... though sorely tried.
Agree wholeheartedly that the Golden Age of American Jewry is destine to end in tragedy just as our ancestors experienced in Spain and Eastern Europe and even in Western Europe.
Israel offers meaning and purpose to our lives and our deaths but it doesn’t offer more safety and stability at least in the near term.
Where else in the world can we find Israel’s meaning and purpose or America’s relative safety and equality of opportunity?
In my mind, moving to Israel is heroic, remaining in America and hiding one’s religious identity is shameful while using our power to silence voices that offend us is as shortsighted as publishing a sequel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Remaining in America as proud and faithful Jews and pursuing equal safety and security in the courthouses and the statehouses at all levels of government may not be heroic but it is nothing to be ashamed of
One person who doesn't put his support of Israel above the partisan fray is the traitor Charles Schumer.
He is a traitor to his people.
Perhaps take some comfort in knowing that many Christians fully support Israel and pray for its peoples' safety.
Christians United for Israel, with over 8 million members, is the largest pro-Israel group in the world. I encourage you to visit their site: https://cufi.org/
I was moved to tears when Pastor Hagee delivered a special prayer for Israel before a war briefing by IDF Lt Col J. Conricus.
I grew up in a household of paranoia, where we kept the shades drawn "so the goyim can't see in," and where we didn't leave the house on Easter "so when the goyim come out of church having been told that the Jews killed Jesus, they don't kill us." I didn't know until this year that piece of shtetl wisdom came from Kishinev. I was cast out at 23 for marrying a guy who wasn't Jewish, and spent my adult life trying to prove that I was just a normal person who was not surrounded by haters. I became a hardcore leftist and fought for the rights of women, people of color and LGBTs.
After Trump got elected in 2016, I noticed a distinct sea change in the culture. Of two close friends, people who had told me repeatedly they loved me, one told me that Israel was responsible for all the world's problems and cut me off because I refused to believe the Mossad had killed the Kennedys. The other told me that the Jews are responsible for all the evil on the face of the world. A relative on my husband's side asked me flat out "Why are Jews such terrible people?"
And then on October 7, right after the massacre and even before Israel retaliated, my social media feeds were so barraged with calls to literally kill all the Jews that I got off Threads and blocked a lot of people on my other feeds. These calls proved to me that when people say "you can criticize Israel or Zionism without being antisemitic," they're lying hypocritics. Israel may be a foreign country where we don't vote and have no say, but in the popular imagination, there is not a glint of daylight between Israel and Jews in the Diaspora.
A genocide is inflicted on Israel and so Israel is accused of genocide. The people who committed the genocide used their own people as shields to maximize harm, in order to get the world to fight their battle for them. These people have "destroy Israel" and "kill all the Jews" as the first line in their charter and they say they will do October 7 over and over until all the Jews are gone, and yet Israel is considered the perpetrator of genocide.
You can't make this shit up. You couldn't put it in a book of fiction because people would say it's not believable.
The thing that bothers me the most is that my parents were right. Their point of view was intolerable and yet they were right.
October 7 was our Dreyfus Affair, when we learned all over again that assimilation does not keep you safe. Fighting for other peoples does not keep you safe or get you allies.
In the Diaspora, the people on the left who hate us the most are the people for whose civil rights we fought. I don't expect gratitude but I do expect them not to howl for our blood. The sin of our people, like the sin of Asians and South Asians, was to pull ourselves up through hard study and hard work; in becoming successful, we have become the ultimate people of privilege, "white-adjacent," and within the simplistic system of oppressors/oppressed that is CRT, we are suddenly the most white of white people, responsible for all the misery of people of color. Lazy scholarship with crackpot conclusions that has become an article of faith on the left. I have spent my life defending the rights of people of color to have an even shot. I have spent my life defending the rights of women. I can't believe that blacks and feminists say that whatever bad things happen to Israel or to Jews, we deserve it. I can't believe that these people who were happy to receive our long and committed support now consider us not worthy of human rights because we're not human.
I can't believe I didn't know, all my life, that these people I fought for never thought I was human.
I still believe there is systemic discrimination that needs to be remedied. I still believe in the principles of feminism. The fact that leftist groups have betrayed us Jews does not mean that their causes are unjust. It means they have betrayed their own causes.
The right wing is not an alternative, because the right wing would label us as foreigners and deport us, no matter how long we've been in the country. If Trump were to come to power again, you can bet he would do the worst of anything you can imagine and then some. He is not an alternative, he is not a friend.
According to polls, we have friends in the center. It appears all journalism is either to the left or the right. I am reminded, not all non-Jews hate us. Many don't care. Some even like us. Somewhere, out there, in the center.
If there is a bright side to all this, for me it is that the hatred pulled me back in. I saw that assimilation doesn't work, it's time to know Jewish history, Israeli history, Torah, Kabbalah, everything Jewish. It's time to know this stuff so well we have certainty. I started out wondering if all the propaganda was true, did Israel really have any right to exist, all that, and my research has made me not just a passionate Zionist but one with absolute clarity about why radical Islam is bad for the Muslims as well as for the Jews, and why it has to be resisted. I know I am not alone in this. For most of my life, the Jewish community wrung its hands over the intermarriages and the kids who were leaving the fold, and with one massacre and one thrust of propagandizing bots, the Islamists have brought Jews back to the fold.
Because maybe there is safety among the nebulous center, but there is only affinity amongst ourselves. May we find each other, support each other, and fight together. The world has tried to kill us off with genocides large and small, pretty much every fifty years for the past 2500 years, and what really pisses them off is that no matter how many Jews they kill, a few always escape, rebuild, and become successful at whatever we choose to do. From the ashes, we become great scientists, writers, musicians, doctors, artists, historians, actors, comedians, you name it. We build things. We make the desert bloom. We turn a malaria-infested swamp into the Silicon Valley of the Middle East. Jews do the impossible, it's what we do, because we study and we work hard, and that really, really pisses off the people who didn't make the desert bloom, didn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. We may be the people chosen to be the world's scapegoat, but we are an amazing people. We will endure, and we will dance again.
It doesn't matter if my parents were right, that everyone hates us, everyone blames their personal disappointments on us, we give people the joy of having someone to blame, someone to hate, someone to relieve themselves of personal responsibility for their failings. Because we know the truth.
Am Israel chai.
You seem to have been fighting the fight for all causes other than yours!! The Israelis are always first to send aid and personnel to all countries which are in a sudden crisis. And now, those same countries scream for Jews to be exterminated! So, what now?? Stop the nonsense, first!! Realize that whatever Jews try to ingratiate themselves to the world will not work as intended! Jews are smart people through natural selection, they know history, or should know world history, realize schooling is the best way toward a better life, and that a tight family is a way for long term survival. We need to help each other now more than at any time in this country, dismiss political views differences, and stay unified to combat this current wave of antisemitism!! We Jews now have a duty to concentrate and focus on ourselves to protect our own existence, and let others fight all the other “fights” for their own good. Nobody will fight for us, so in order to prevail, staying “one for all and all for one” is the ammunition required for success!!
Wow!
Was Trump antisemitic during his first term? Why would that suddenly change? I don't understand hatred and fear of conservatism. (yes, I know Trump is not conservative but right now there is no other useful label)
I deeply appreciate Ambassador Oren's work. I have been fighting this fight since October 7th, calling out the Jew Hating Marxist sleaze that have infiltrated America's universities and cultural institutions. One recent (of many) interview I published is with Joshua Hoffman of Future of Jewish, on many of these same topics. https://youtu.be/TAurUvJL4K0
We must never concede an inch of public space to these Jew Hating scum. Period.
So tired of wokeness as an excuse for simpleminded thinking.
Several things are going on at the same time. First, to the evident and continuing frustration of Palestinian apologists, huge majorities of Americans support Israel against Hamas. The sheer barbarity of October 7 has pushed many who were on the fence into the pro-Israel camp because they now understand that Israel may be the first victim, the West is next. The often violent but always intimidating pro-Hamas demonstrations only reinforce that view.
To the extent the media takes an anti-Israel position, it seems to sway no one outside the bubble and might further fuel the lack of trust in the media reporting fairly.
As to Schumer, while the media focused on the “Netanyahu must go” angle, the bulk of his presentation reiterated the U.S. agreement with Israel’s war aim of dismantling Hamas. The conditions he set out for a future Palestinian State are anathema to both Hamas and the PA.
My concern from October 7 on was over the application of the “never let a crisis go to waste.” I suspect that is what lies behind the make Netanyahu the bogeyman idea - it strikes me as the revenge of the Obamanites, angry that the Prime Minister was more right about the region and its politics than their hero was. The more prescient, the bigger the target basically. That they have no problem with recycling Hamas propaganda in their anti-Netanyahu charge sheet only displays the depths of their derangement.
But that will change nothing, and Biden understands that. He’s simply mollifying his Progressive wing and the media. The tell, though, is always his actions not his words. He may as well take credit for what Israel is doing anyway. That’s politics. Even the supply pier signals a U.S. expectation for Israel to be in security control of Gaza for months if not longer.
My prediction is that Israel’s plan for Rafah, which will be executed militarily after Ramadan, will prove “acceptable” to the U.S. because the civilians will be moved to safer spaces before the holiday’s end. We will see, though.
Meanwhile, the Israeli public is united in Israel’s war aim, and everyone understands that Israel will be unfairly criticized and subjected to double standards regardless of who is sitting in the Prime Minister’s chair.
More fundamentally, in their pursuit of Netanyahu, what these policy makers ignore are the optics. The Sunni Arabs see a strong and confident Israel taking care of business on the one side and an increasingly confused and undependable U.S. on the other. Did they not consider the effects of such a public confrontation on our deterrence posture?
And, because deterrence requires you to get into your adversary’s head, it’s a toss-up over how Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, interpret this spat. If they see this public daylight as a green light to press their attack, obviously the war spreads, while Hamas toughens its negotiating posture as if it had the military upper hand.
If they see an Israel freed from US leverage, then maybe Iran and Hezbollah do nothing on the theory that Israel will have to make quick work of Hezbollah and that means Lebanon will suffer a completely disproportional attack - or, as we used to call it stateside, the Powell Doctrine. And look for Hamas propaganda to become ever more hysterical and unhinged as they appeal to the world community to save them from themselves.
"New elections" and "ceasefire now" are code for "Israel must die." The administration policy is not a secure future for Israel.
You say about Biden "The tell though is always his actions and not his words"....but this is always what "shy" Trump supporters say yet your side refuses to acknowledge that and go crazy every time he says what I call "a Trumpism".....I usually laugh and wait to see what he does....how about giving the other half of the country the grace you are affording Biden supporters
Why do you assume I don’t (and didn’t). Everyone needs to put their broad brush away and start dealing with individuals and their views rather than assume some monolithic conformity on either side.
right before Oct. 7th a childhood friend who I knew was from an atheist family with no cultural Jewish content either....wrote me on FB. I answered him with a warm message mostly about his parents. Then I saw "Palestina, palestina" posted on his FB page. He had to go to my page with my many pro Israel posts. End of communication from him. A brief ancedote... I pray that you are right about solidarity.....I see too many publicized voices of anti Israel...and even pro hamas Jews......My closest ally for Israel is my gentile friend. My FB Jewish friends ignore my pro Israel posts.
Very true: Jewish Voice for Peace is fanatically pro-Hamas, not just anti-Israel.
Christians United for Israel is the largest pro-Israel group in the world, with over 8 million members: https://cufi.org/
PS from a fluent Spanish speaker, the correct punctuation is "Palestina que cretina"
Palestina que cretina....what is that cretin in Spanish....thanks for your reply.....I still think about this guy contacting me then apparently not liking my pro Israel posts and ignoring my very kind response to him...(before I saw how anti Israel he was) so good riddance to him.
There's not really solidarity among US Jews. Most on the left while supporting Israel will not abandon the blue team even to save their landsmen. The blue team controls the media, illegally controls social media using censorship, the economy, academia. They love Iran and hate Israel. Go figure. They'll stick with Biden regardless...
Yes incredibly the left/progressives...including women ....LOVE the Islamic Republic and consider Hamas to be progressive values. Jews and Gentiles both....Sarandon is a good example of this. How do you argue with people with such a mindset?
I've given up. It's too demoralizing. These days I tend to stay in my lane meaning I refuse to expose myself to their dumbisms. I'm old so I can get away with it but feel sorry for people who will still be around 20 or 30 years on. Shabbat Shalom
Yes....I'm holding on for the next 20 plus years.....I'm senior too.
Give HAMAS No Quarter.
Bibi is right. They will regroup and rebuild. Only hate is in their heart.
Yes it's brutal. Oct 7th was brutal. End HAMAS NOW!
Dark Brandon, his Communist Administration and Communist Democrats have no Love for Israel or it's people.
As a Modern Orthodox American Zionist who opposed collective demonization on both the far right and the far left, I don’t understand why we can’t go on faithfully walking with God (modestly and proudly) in a nation that has granted us greater rights and opportunities with fewer encounters with physical or verbal oppression than any other place on our planet?
Does Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism exist in America? Is it becoming more vocal in the echo chambers of the far right and the far left (including the progressive elite on our college campuses).
Sure, but the virus that is Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism dates back to the very first Rashi in the Torah and its only cure awaits to coming of the Messiah.
Righteous resistance in the form of Nevalny’s return to Russia or Churchillian resistance against Nazi military aggression and social oppression is rightfully inspiring and virtuous.
Jews might convince themselves that their resistance to anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is equally virtuous. But would that influence Nazi sympathizer on the far right or Palestinian sympathizers on the far left? Don’t they both agree on only one thing — that Jewish power is represents the world’s ultimate oppression.
Using Jewish power to silence these antagonists will only confirm the conspiracy theories inflaming their echo chambers.
Indeed you are correct. This puts American Jews in between a rock and a hard place. Speak out or not? Use the judicial system to assert your rights? Unfortunately neither answer works. But I do know accepting antisemitism as something as old as the diaspora is not the answer. And I do know that antisemitism is the precursor of the fall of great nations. America is on the downside of a great nation and if I weren't 76 years old, I'd get out of here because the writings on the wall.
"They stand with us in Israel and alongside one another in combating antisemitism, countering anti-Zionism, and upholding Israel’s right to defend itself and exist as the Jewish state"
I hope that represents the majority of American and Diaspora Jews and that it includes a renewed commitment to defend themselves, as the Second Amendment makes possible in the United States.
And yet there are unfortunate examples where woke Jews prefer to ingratiate themselves with extreme leftists than to uphold Jewish values. This one from the Los Angeles synagogue Ha Makom (formerly Temple Aliyah), which rented its space to a Muslim group for Ramadan and helpfully covered up the images of the Israelis murdered and kidnapped on Oct 7 to mollify its renter:
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hk79hacta
There is probably some mid point between arming civilian Jews and being naive about being inclusive with Muslims. As Gandhi said, "an eye for an eye makes everyone blind."
Gandhi said, "an eye for an eye makes everyone blind."
Had Ghandi been more proficient in combinatorial analysis, he would have realized that an eye for an eye makes all but one blind.
Whatever...
Correct! These are being portrayed by the teacher's unions as the 'good' Jews. Watch what Randi Weingarten is up to!
Truah is an organization of anti-Israel rabbis actively seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza that will effectively allow Hamas to resume full control of the strip and rearm:
https://truah.org/about/
The rot starting in the teacher's unions has spread to these organizations,which allow Hamas supporters to point out that Jews oppose Israel too.
I've been deeply touched instead by the support for Israel by Evangelicals, for example Christians United for Israel: https://cufi.org/
Sometimes those you would depend on let you down but others that you never knew rush to your aid.
Appalling. And yes the evangelicals are our friends currently. But they are waiting for the rapture! Only those who understand that this is a civilizational war and that Israel is just step 1 are really Israel's friends. American Jews who are calling for ceasefire think they are immune. It's like the German Jews who thought Hitler was just that latest fad. No one ever learns from history.
I am an American who finds Biden's public criticism of Israel offensive. He is appeasing a largely anti-Semitic audience in hopes of getting votes. He should do it in private if he must.
The effrontery of Biden, with his limited intellectual capacity, telling Israel how to wage its war makes my blood boil. I would vote for nearly anyone else in the upcoming election if Trump was not the alternative.
Thank you for your observations and encouraging remarks about this adversity bringing Jews closer together. But, you mention the rift between the orthodox and liberal Jews even in the U.S. and certainly so in Israel. The Gaza conflict is drawing attention away from the elephant in the room which is the yawning gap between the two sects and how Israel can reconcile the two opposing versions of the core meaning of both Judaism and the nation. Israel is fighting two existential battles - one with the Arabs and another internally with intolerant myopic Orthodoxy. Netanyahu has been attempting to manipulate the right wing Orthodox like he attempted to do with Hamas to hold on to power. I, like Sen. Schumer, do not think this will end well.
Schumer is scum!!
Like it or not, Israel and the U.S. are tightly bound and any actions of one reflects on the other. Sen. Schumer is setting boundaries on Israeli actions that affect the U.S. There are almost as many Jews in the U.S. as there are in Israel so we have a huge influence (and stake) in what Israel does and how it affects world opinion.
Sen. Schumer is an experienced and wise politician. His intentions are to protect both U.S. and Israeli interests. Ignore him at your peril...
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/israel-protests
"Netanyahu has been attempting to manipulate the right wing Orthodox like he attempted to do with Hamas to hold on to power"
The sole and only reason why Netanyahu allied with the right-wing Orthodox is because many right-wing and centrist groups, including those led by Avigdor Lieberman, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid and Gideon Sa'ar, have a personal boycott of Benjamin Netanyahu. They agree broadly with many of his policies and would serve in any Likud government that implemented them, as long as it is not led by Netanyahu. All of them have served under him in the past and approved of his policies to a great extent.
Netanyahu teamed up with the Religious Zionism far right to form a government at the same time he was using Hamas to keep the PLO in check. He has made pacts with two devils and there will be hell to pay. Zionist zealots play right into the hands of Islamists like Hamas.
"The Religious Zionist Party is opposed to any territorial concessions to Palestinian or Syrian claims for land. Some members support the annexation of the entire West Bank, though the official policy of the Jewish Home parliamentary faction, of which the party was aligned between 2013 and 2019, only supports annexation of Area C of the West Bank, which makes up the 63% of land in the West Bank allocated to Israel in the Oslo Accords. The party is opposed to recognition of same-sex marriage on a religious basis. The party advocates for increased funding for Torah study and religious education. Jewish-American columnist David E. Rosenberg has stated that the Religious Zionist Party's "platform includes things like annexation of West Bank settlements, the expulsion of asylum-seekers, and political control of the judicial system". He further described the Religious Zionist Party as a political party "driven by Jewish supremacy and anti-Arab racism". The party has been assessed by The Middle East Journal as "militantly anti-Arab" and far-right."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Zionist_Party
"Netanyahu teamed up with the Religious Zionism far right to form a government"
Nope, he teamed up with them only when more secular right wing and centrist parties, his first choice always since becoming Prime Minister, turned him down.
Wikipedia, as you may know, is solidly woke and would not allow a positive comment about Netanyahu. Try it, you'll see it gets edited out within 30 minutes.
You lost me. So Netanyahu did team up with the Religious Zionists after the moderate secular right and centralist parties turned him down. So, what other choice did he have to form a coalition?
The Wikipedia link was about the Religious Zionist Party not Netanyahu who few have positive comments about recently. Yes, he did team with the religious right and he did use Hamas to control the PLO and thwart any plans for a Palestinian state. What is your point?
The point is the religious right was Netanyahu's last choice, not his first and that all his previous governments were based on right-wing non-religious parties. Religious zealotry was never part of Netanyahu's political ideas.
Splitting Gaza from Hamas was Ariel Sharon's idea in the Gaza disengagement of 2005. It effectively ended any negotiations on two states because the Palestinians were divided. So far, so good.
The problem is Netanyahu lost sight of Hamas' growing power. A more sensible approach would have kept it in Gaza but destroyed its offensive power. And would certainly have left more than 600 soldiers on the border on Oct 7.
Splitting the Palestinians between PA and Hamas worked; not keeping an eye on the Hamas part of the split failed. Divide and conquer only works when the divided pieces are kept small.
It seems we are saying the same thing. Netanyahu prostituted himself to the religious right and underestimated Hamas. This is a lethal combination of errors and the consequences are dire not only for Israel but the entire world.
Long time leftist/progressive hostility to Israel...including Israeli Jews ....at Israeli and at American universities....in "Jewish Studies" programs. From a liberal Democrat.... though sorely tried.
Agree wholeheartedly that the Golden Age of American Jewry is destine to end in tragedy just as our ancestors experienced in Spain and Eastern Europe and even in Western Europe.
Israel offers meaning and purpose to our lives and our deaths but it doesn’t offer more safety and stability at least in the near term.
Where else in the world can we find Israel’s meaning and purpose or America’s relative safety and equality of opportunity?
In my mind, moving to Israel is heroic, remaining in America and hiding one’s religious identity is shameful while using our power to silence voices that offend us is as shortsighted as publishing a sequel to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Remaining in America as proud and faithful Jews and pursuing equal safety and security in the courthouses and the statehouses at all levels of government may not be heroic but it is nothing to be ashamed of
Thank you Ambassador Oren for your clear statement.
Wasn’t he a Palestinian?