Itamar Ben-Gvir and Ismael Haniyeh, Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu were all implicated together in the speech of Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer as thwarting the two-state solution and with it the only chance for calm and peace.
Netanyahu, of course, rushed as usual to attack Schumer’s call for elections in Israel and called on the Jewish senator to “respect the government and not undermine it.” But the truth is that it was the Netanyahu government that crushed the trust and respect of the absolute majority of American Jewry and Democratic Party supporters.
The binding together of Hamas and a minister in the Israeli government is not easy for the Israeli ear, but when it comes from a person like Schumer, it obliges all of us to take it seriously.
The process began on the day of the establishment of the most extreme government in the history of the State of Israel, with the participation of a Kahanist party that Netanyahu normalized, along with other messianic extremists. The sequel was very quick with the announcement of the “regime coup” – which, in the eyes of many of Israel’s friends in the United States, was a serious blow to the alliance between the countries based on their shared democratic values.
The horrors of October 7 brought unprecedented support from the American administration to Israel, but Netanyahu and his government proved that there are those who do not respect another administration and instead subvert it. Instead of working together with the Biden administration, the prime minister chose to fight, ignore all the requests and demands, and start a media campaign against a president who defines himself as a Zionist, and who chose to stand by Israel and its citizens.
SCHUMER IS not one of the progressives that the Netanyahu government likes to attack, and he is not alone in his disappointment with the prime minister and his policies. More and more senior American officials who for years supported all Israeli governments and their policies, regardless of their party and political identity, are changing their attitude and intensifying their criticism of the Netanyahu government.
These include President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who insist on separating the Israeli government from its citizens; senior members of Congress such as Schumer; and Rep. Jerry Nadler, “the senior Jew in the House of Representatives”, who recently deepened his criticism of Netanyahu, attacking him for his unwillingness to promote political processes and called for a ceasefire.
Current Israeli government is to blame, not anti-Zionist left
The various “hasbaristas” (PR people) have explained to us until now that the problem is with the anti-Zionist Left, but it turns out that the current government has managed to tire itself even of the people who for recent decades have almost automatically stood by the State of Israel and who were the most enthusiastic partners of AIPAC.
Netanyahu’s conduct, even before October 7 in regards to the “regime coup” and then in avoiding any political engagement of one kind or another in relation to the future of the Gaza Strip and the region, led to the deepening of alienation towards his government among the greatest lovers of the State of Israel. This includes Jews like Schumer and Nadler, who see that the country they love and support is changing its face and turning into a dictatorship in the making on the inside and a country indifferent to human life on the outside.
Precisely at such a difficult time, in the face of the horrors of Hamas that have strengthened the identification of Jews all over the world with Israel, the nation-state of their people, Netanyahu and his partners are doing everything they can to keep our loved ones away from us. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6); it is our duty as citizens and as a country to listen to the words of our real friends, and to do what is necessary to restore our country’s dignity and with it the trust of our friends and allies in the world.
The writer is J Street Israel’s executive director. He has served as an Israeli diplomat in Washington and Boston and as a political adviser to the president of Israel.