More pushback against Netanyahu from Jewish Democrats
In ‘The Nation,’ Birnbaum says Netanyahu has exposed Jews to dual loyalty charge (and Dennis Ross is an Israeli agent)
There has been more pushback against Netanyahu from Jewish Democrats. Barney Frank and Henry Waxman are appalled by his intervention in our political process. – http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/251031-jewish-dems-warn-netanyahu-to-butt-out-of-us-election
Netanyahu’s error was exposing American Jews to a dual loyalty charge. American Jews don’t want that suspicion; but Netanyahu’s appeals to Jewish voters created it.
There is a fascinating piece up at The Nation in which Norman Birnbaum, sociologist and Georgetown University prof emeritus, accuses Netanyahu of recklessness in exposing American Jews to such charges. Birnbaum lays out the basis for the concern: Zionism is a transnational ideology, dependent on a foreign power, and therefore on Diaspora Jews. And though Birnbaum is obviously troubled by the Israel lobby’s role in U.S. politics, he chooses his words carefully, as if people are about to be accused. He says the lobby is hardly representative of American Jewry; it calls on the most “ethnocentric” of Jews. He says that Protestants are a “pillar” of the lobby, but also that Protestants are about to walk away.
False Prophecy and Real History in the Mideast –http://www.thenation.com/article/170117/false-prophecy-and-real-history-mideast
That debate has moved from the margins to near the center of American Jewish consciousness. The fervid supporters of Israel continue to embarrass the rest of us, as in the attempt to ban criticism of Israel in our colleges and universities as ipso facto “anti-Semitic.” Opinion polling, and every other sort of inquiry, suggest that a majority of American Jews are so rooted in this country that Israel’s fate does not determine or dominate their entire being, including their politics….
