Israel and the American Jewish Leadership Elite: The Sycophantic Relationship

American Jewish elite’s sycophantic relationship with
Israel’s Right Wing (credit: NYT)

We stand with Israel Now and Forever!

The North American Jewish community offers a warm welcome to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.  We salute his strong leadership and vision for Israel’s future.

My post title above alludes ironically to the so-called "special relationship" American Jews have enjoyed with Israel since 1948 if not before.  But I would argue that we no longer have a special relationship with Israel; we have a sycophantic relationship.  By we, I don’t mean the average American Jew.  The views of American Jews, as proven in poll after poll, are moderate, centrist and even perhaps ever so slightly left of center.  They support the creation of a Palestinian state.  They support a peace agreement with the Palestinians.  They support the Gaza disengagement.  They support a complete cessation of settlement activity in the Territories.

But you wouldn’t know any of this by reading puerile ads like the one I’ve displayed here from today’s New York Times (a portion of whose ad copy I’ve quoted above).

Our leadership’s attitude can best be summed up by "Israel right or wrong; Israel now & forever."  Unquestioning loyalty to whatever regime is in power (but much stronger support when a right-wing regime is in power).  Slavish adherence to the Israeli "propaganda line" about whatever issue is at hand.  And a toadying fervor for taking Israeli interests (for example, in Congress) even farther than Israel itself would take them.

You’ll note that this ad appears on the same day as the Aipac national conference at which the Bush Administration will once again be hobnobbing with Aipac operatives–this despite the fact that two of them are accused of conspiring with a Pentagon official to pass classified U.S. secrets to Israel.  Power (the Bush folks and Congress) gravitates to power (Aipac) even when that power is corrupt and has proven itself untrustworthy and possibly traitorous.

What is laughable about this ad is that those who paid the enormous fee to run it believe that through their sycophantic embrace of both Israel and Aipac they can paper over the corrupt nature of Aipac’s operations and operatives.  Word has gotten out that if you attack Aipac, you attack Israel and all Jews.  Fear is what these American Jewish leaders are counting on to keep Aipac’s supporters and all American Jews in line.  How much longer can it work?  How many more spy scandals will it take?