How will U.S. Jews react to a Herzog win?




WASHINGTON—Come early next year, there might be yet another world capital that opposes Israeli settlement expansion and sees Benjamin Netanyahu as principally responsible for Israel’s isolation: Jerusalem.

Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party leader, is faring well in the polls since Netanyahu called for new elections earlier this month and the Knesset dissolved itself.

The prospect of a left-leaning government means that U.S. mainstream Jewish groups, which since Netanyahu’s election in 2009 have pushed back against claims that his policies have been detrimental, will have to reassess messaging.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

A liberal U.S. Jewish community had to contend in 1977 with the election of Menachem Begin, then a Land of Israel maximalist whose pre-state career was as a Jewish paramilitary leader who ordered the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel. Fifteen years later, a pro-Israel community made hawkish through years of Likud-led governments suddenly contended with Yitzhak Rabin and his accelerated moves toward peace with the Palestinians.

This time around, Jewish community leaders say, it won’t be so difficult: Pro- Israel groups have long-established and friendly ties with Herzog and his political partner, Tzipi Livni, and in any case, American Jews are likelier to favor the policies of the political left.

“On the whole, the Jewish community respects the sovereignty of the Israeli public to decide who rules them,” said Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director. “What becomes difficult is you form relationships with one government and another one is in. We may lose some proximity, some access.”

Differences between the Netanyahu and Obama governments have sowed discomfiture for American Jews, particularly in the areas of Iran policy and settlement expansion. Frequently the differences have devolved into personal heated exchanges of insults.

Herzog has blamed Netanyahu for fomenting the tensions.

“You are the man who personally must take credit for the destruction of Israel’s relations with the United States,” Herzog said in an Oct. 27 Knesset speech that anticipated the dissolution of Netanyahu’s government. “You’ve repeatedly insulted President Obama and his administration.”

For the most part, organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have sided with Israel in the disputes, advancing Netanyahu’s stance that nuclear talks with Iran could lead to a bad deal and arguing that Palestinian recalcitrance is by far a more decisive factor in scuttling peace talks than is settlement policy in the West Bank.

Jack Moline, a leading Conservative movement rabbi known for his closeness to the Obama administration, said AIPAC would easily pivot toward a left-leaning Israeli government should it be elected in

March’s polling.

“The question for anyone who supports Israel is do you support the right of the government to make its policy or do you only support a government that agrees with the policy you endorse?” said Moline, who until last month directed the National Jewish Democratic Council.

“I have no doubt that an organization like AIPAC that presents itself as representing accurately the policies of the Israeli government will make the shift, and elegantly. Organizations whose agendas for American politics mirrors the current administration in Israel will find themselves in a more difficult circumstance.”

True enough, said Morton Klein, who heads exactly such an organization, the Zionist Organization of America—but that’s not exactly new.

One group with strong and established ties with both Herzog and Livni is J Street, a liberal U.S. Jewish Middle East policy group. Alan Elsner, its vice president for communications, predicted that U.S. Jewish groups would pivot toward the leftleaning governments in part because American Jewish grassroots favor accommodation.

“A lot of American Jews would welcome the prospect of a government that is sincere in seeking peace and that doesn’t put peace second to land and settlements,” he said. “Most Jewish organizations would go along; what choice do they have?” .



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