It’s time for American Jewry to come out en masse to pro-Israel rallies.
Yes, massive pro-Israel rallies, just like in the old days, during the Six-Day War in 1967, or the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In New York, and Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Chicago and Houston. All across America.
Even as vicious antisemitism is playing out in broad daylight on the streets of major US cities, it is also important that these rallies are seen as pro-Israel, not as rallies against antisemitism in America – as troubling an issue as that is.
It is important that these rallies are seen as support of Israel and its right to fight back against those trying to kill its citizens.
American Jews might love Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or loathe him, but for now that needs to be put aside, just as Defense Minister Benny Gantz was able to work well with Netanyahu during the recent Gaza operation despite no love lost in that relationship.
This is a time for Jews to rally in support and show empathy for their coreligionists who for 11 dreadful days were indiscriminately targeted by an organization that wants to destroy the Jewish state.
The attacks on Jews in Manhattan and Los Angeles should be addressed by speakers. But the rallies need to be first and foremost about Israel.
Why?
Because a narrative is gaining traction – one fed by people like Peter Beinart and his fellow travelers, and fostered by publications like The New York Times, The Guardian and Rolling Stone magazine – that American Jews, especially young American Jews, are horribly conflicted about Israel and no longer support it.
Those Jews who come out and publicly bash Israel get interviewed and bylines – Arielle Angel in The Guardian, and Marisa Kabas in Rolling Stone – and the perception this creates is that a critical mass of American Jews is turning on the state because of its “persecution” and “oppression” of the Palestinians.
Consider this headline last week to a news piece in The New York Times: “Gaza Conflict Stokes ‘Identity Crisis’ for Young American Jews”; or the headline to Angel’s op-ed in The Guardian, “Jewish Americans are at a turning point with Israel”; or Marisa Kabas’s piece in Rolling Stone: “Young American Jews Have Reached a Tipping Point With Israel.”
One paper runs a story on a theme, another follows up on the same theme, another does the same and suddenly the impression is created of a mass movement afoot.
Many of the stories are quoting the same Jewish voices coming from the same anti-Israel Jewish organizations, and are pointing to comments and tweets by the same anti-Israel congresspeople to demonstrate that the tide is shifting in the US on Israel, both in the general public and among Jews.
You read the same type of article over and over in a variety of publications, and you start to believe it.
AS BAD as it might be for an average reader in Davenport, Iowa, to read and believe that there is a mass movement of Jews turning on Israel, it is even worse if the congressman representing that reader believes it.
As Beinart tweeted last week: “The reason the American debate over Israel-Palestine could shift dramatically and quickly is that many Democratic politicians don’t need to be convinced that what Israel is doing is wrong. They just need to be convinced that they can say so without hurting their careers.”
And this is why rallies of support are critical now: to let US senators and representatives know that Jews still overwhelmingly support the Jewish state, expect that their representatives do the same, and that if they don’t, it will hurt their careers.
Beinart, in an NPR interview last week, pointed to three congresswomen – Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum – who all speak out vocally against Israel, and survived reelection.
But those three women represent overwhelmingly progressive districts. The litmus test is not whether anti-Israel candidates can win in heavily progressive districts, but whether they can win in a moderate Democratic district or a district where Republicans and Democrats are competitive.
It is precisely there where strong pro-Israel rallies could send a message to representatives that Israel still enjoys the overwhelming support of American Jews. It is important for US officials to get that message, because – if not emotionally invested somehow in Israel – their support is often based on a cost-benefit analysis.
Beinart wants to argue that there is no cost for not supporting Israel anymore; pro-Israel rallies will send a message that there is.
How overwhelmingly do American Jews support Israel?
The recent Pew report on American Jewry found that 56% of American Jews had heard something about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Of that number – likely those most engaged with Israel – 43% said they either somewhat or strongly oppose it, while only 10% said they strongly or somewhat support it. Another 3% had no answer.
That 10% of American Jews want to back the boycott of their own people is an issue that itself needs to be addressed, but that is an issue for another day. The number is still a small minority.
Yet if you tune into the mainstream media you could be excused for believing that the ratio was flipped, and that 90% support BDS, while only 10% do not.
Why? Because when a Jew calls Israel an apartheid state, or oppressive, or says, as one protester at a rally in New York did on a poster: “My grandpa didn’t survive Auschwitz to bomb Gaza,” that will get attention. That’s news. But when the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations comes out with a statement in support of Israel, that just elicits a yawn.
While large rallies of Jews showing support for Israel might not have been as necessary 30 years ago when Jewish support for Israel was widely perceived as a given, today – because of the amplification of anti-Israel Jewish voices – it is no longer perceived as guaranteed.
Large rallies right now can help balance out the public perception.