Posts tagged aipac

The recent leak of the Israel Project’s internal handbook on dealing with US public opinion regarding the settlements is a significant window into the rationale of certain American Jewish leaders regarding Israel advocacy. The document reflects the desire to protect and defend misguided Israeli policies that few in the United States properly understand. It is nothing new but the timing is interesting. Yesterday, Obama told a group of influential American Jewish leaders that Israel needs some serious self reflection. Perhaps it would have been more fitting to say that the American Jewish community needs some serious self reflection. Former AIPAC official, Douglas Bloomfield, comments on the TIP document:

“If you can’t convince ‘em, accuse ‘em. That’s the advice from The Israel Project (TIP) for pro-Israel activist. … Rather than try to defend Israeli settlements, change the subject. If that doesn’t work, try accusing those who advocate removing Jewish settlements of promoting “a kind of ethnic cleansing to move all Jews” from the West Bank. TIP calls that “the best settlement argument” in its 2009 Global Language Dictionary.”

We must view this document in the bigger picture of American Jewish involvement with the settlement project. Phil Weiss has been covering in detail the amount of money that follows directly to settlements from multiple American Jewish nonprofit organizations. Recently, I have been covering the nonprofit Nefesh B’Nefesh which is placing large groups of American immigrants into settlement blocs throughout the West Bank while enjoying full non-profit status in the United States as well as incredible monetary support from the American Jewish community. These organizations seem to gaining strength and traction in the US and Israel.

Yet, Akiva Eldar reports in today’s Haaretz that “the leadership of the Reform community in the U.S. and Canada, which encompasses more than one million Jews, decided last month to adopt U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for an end to construction in the settlements and for an immediate dismantling of the outposts.” So who is running the show in the American Jewish community? What will come of this internal confusion?

The American Jewish community has become a wild beast. Years of Shoah education and birthright trips are beginning to take full effect in so far as the American Jewish community is unsure of its own identity but sure that it must protect an entity that it does not fully understand. Obama, next time you have American Jewish leaders in your office make sure that you ask them to be self reflective as well.