I haven’t been writing much in this blog in recent weeks for a couple of reasons – first, I’ve been working on a writing project of my own, and second, and perhaps more relevant to readers of this blog, the news of the world – specifically in the United States vis a vis all things Trump and in Israel vis a vis all things this most extreme Israeli coalition government in the 75-year history of the Jewish state, is exhausting. Add to the troubles in America and Israel, the criminal war waged by Russia against Ukraine that has cost the lives of thousands is disheartening. Is it any wonder that so many of us are weary?

As I listen to podcasts and read the news, talk by zoom and skype with Israeli friends, I honestly can’t keep up with what’s happening every day in Israel with the radical revolution currently underway against Israel’s democratic system of government. The only light that has begun to peak through the clouds was posted on Haaretz last night. In a report three, and possibly four members of Netanyahu’s Likud party are calling for a freeze of all legislation being rammed through the Knesset. The fly on the camel’s back that hopefully is bringing it to its knees seems to be the reaction of Israel’s air force reservists who say they will not report for duty in an undemocratic government of Israel. Add to that the fact that the Israeli shekel has lost much of its value, international companies decided that investment in an un-democratic Israel is unwise, that for the past three months massive demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of Israeli protestors across political and religious lines have taken to the streets, and that the international Jewish community including leaders who never criticized Israeli government actions before are doing so now, and what we’re witnessing is evidence of the tearing of the fabric of what has kept the Jewish people together around Israel for the past 75 years.

There are many conclusions we might draw about what is happening in Israel; extremists from the nationalist ultra-religious segments of society are pushing their uncompromising agenda to transform Israel’s judicial system and create, in essence, a one party government and are annexing de facto on the way to de jure the West Bank into Israel, and Bibi is letting them because they hold the sword of Damocles over his head. If he denies any of them what they want, he risks losing his ruling coalition and either the government falls, he tries to create a new ruling coalition, or new elections are called. With new elections, Bibi could well lose the leadership of his party and the government, and the court cases against him could cost him his freedom. It seems as though Bibi is willing to sacrifice Israel’s democracy for his personal ends.

Which leads us to Trump. The slow pace of the judicial system in bringing indictments against him in Florida, Georgia, New York, and in the DOJ has allowed this despicable human being and twice impeached ex-president to pollute the media to an extent I haven’t seen in my lifetime. Trump’s attack on anyone involved in his prosecution as “animals” supported by George Soros, is on its face blatant racism and antisemitism. It’s no longer dog-whistles. It’s a fog-horn of hate. Watching him speak on his “Trust Social” is to watch an infuriated, deeply disturbed and terrified man who has taken the Roy Cohn rule-book to the extremes – deny – deflect – distract – divide – never back down – never apologize – never admit wrong – attack – self-justify – humiliate one’s enemies – stoke racism, antisemitism and hate – do whatever is necessary; common decency be damned; the rule of law be damned; the truth be damned; America’s democratic traditions be damned. The fact that few, if any Republicans are standing up to this anti-American and traitorous ex-President is a source of shame the likes of which America has never seen before in our 236 year history since the adoption of the US Constitution.

It’s all so exhausting. Are you feeling it as I am? Are you seeking comfort away from the news and tumult? What are you doing to distract yourself from the toxin in America and Israel?

It’s difficult to turn away not only because what we’re watching is so unprecedented in both countries, but because so much is at stake. That said, each of us, I would hope, has some means of finding relief from it all – exercise, sleep, healthy eating, being with our spouses, life-partners, friends, seeing children and grandchildren, reading fine literature, doing art, writing, etc. etc. etc.

I’m trying all these strategies, and they help me, to an extent, maintain perspective. That said, the next two weeks in Israel before Pesach will be determinative, and hopefully, indictments based on solid evidence will be brought against the former American President. We can only hope that in both countries, our leaders will step away from the brink, do what’s right for the common good, and allow both great nations to begin to heal from the distortions and aberrations.

Shavua tov!

Introductory Note: This op-ed written by one of Israel’s leading journalists expresses the sense of urgency and anxiety that a wide majority of Israelis and American Jews feel about the radical legislation being rushed through the Knesset by Israel’s extremist ruling coalition that would negate the Israeli High Court of its ability to act as a legitimate check against a combined executive and legislative branch in the Knesset and would open the way further to annexation of the West Bank. See my posting from a week ago by Dr. Debra Shushan, the Vice President for Policy of J Street, who analyzes why current Israeli government policy in the West Bank is actual “annexation.”

Here is David Horowitz’s op-ed from this past week.

 Posted March 15, 2023

“Your coalition will fracture if you abandon your judicial revolution? Wonderful. Tune out the extremists, assert your Zionism, and reverse the staggering damage you’re inflicting

Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this is a plea — a last, long-shot, desperate appeal to your patriotism, to your Zionism, to your concern for your place in history, to your conscience: Stop this madness.

We are now two weeks away from the deadline your government has set itself for the enactment of revolutionary legislation that you put in motion, that you appointed a justice minister and a committee chair to advance, that you built a coalition to vote into law and that you defend almost daily and absurdly as strengthening our democracy — legislation that will, in fact, shatter Israel’s foundational principles, proudly asserted in the Declaration of Independence, as a tolerant Jewish and democratic state committed to equality and personal freedoms.

If you don’t heed President Isaac Herzog’s call to scrap a package of laws that neuters the High Court, the only body capable of defending all and any basic rights from being trampled by your duly elected coalition, we will mark this year’s Passover festival of freedom as a nation with its fundamental freedoms no longer protected from the tyranny of your majority.

There is no acceptable explanation for the path you have chosen to follow since you were elected last November, your betrayal of your promise “to be a prime minister for everyone – for those who voted for me, and for those who did not vote for me.”

You know that this country cannot be sustained if it is not democratic. Some of its best brains will not stay here. The economy will tank. Many taxpayers will not tolerate an increasingly discriminatory burden in which, among other things, they are subsidizing a fast-growing ultra-Orthodox sector that, under your coalition agreements, will be exempted by law from performing military or national service and educated in large part without the core skills to contribute to the workforce, its young males financially incentivized to study Torah full-time.

And perhaps most alarming, you know many citizens will not send their children to serve in the army of an Israel that is not a Jewish democratic state.

The combination of the judicial revolution and the policies that are unfolding and will unfold once the court has been marginalized — the plans for legalized discrimination, for annexation of West Bank territory and widespread settlement expansion, for the assault on non-Orthodox Judaism, et al– are destroying your own stated prime ministerial goals. Ties with the United States, crucial if Israel is to face down the existential threat of a nuclear Iran, are fraying. The Jews of the Diaspora, whom you desire to represent and who want to look to Israel as a source of pride, as a potential home and in some cases an essential refuge, are in ferment — over the threat to democracy, the threat to change the Law of Return, the threat to religious pluralism. Investment in the tech-driven economy you helped nurture and know Israel must sustain is at risk, as overseas confidence in Israel’s rule of law and stability ebbs. Your own oft-declared plans to widen the circle of regional peace, notably to include Saudi Arabia, are evaporating as the Palestinian conflict escalates, and existing partnerships are eroding. President Biden won’t so much as invite you to visit; nor, either, will the leaders of the United Arab Emirates.

Some say you’ve unleashed this revolution to evade your trial. That makes no sense. You could drag it on for years or subvert it with less drastic legislative initiatives.

Others posit that you are intimidated by the extremists — those you have empowered politically, and the toxic commentators on TV, radio and social media, including some very close to home.

I hear that some people who know you well think you have convinced yourself that you are truly King Bibi, a great, historic national figure, wiser and more capable than all.

If so, your rule is manifestly far from absolute — your hands are not, as you promised in post-election US interviews, “on the wheel.”

You had no political alternative to the coalition of right, Jewish supremacist far-right, and non-Zionist ultra-Orthodox allies that you assembled. But neither did they.

And yet you chose to make Bezalel Smotrich the second most powerful figure in your government, emboldened from his joint Finance Ministry and Defense Ministry perch to call two weeks ago for the State of Israel to “wipe out” the Palestinian town of Huwara after two Israeli brothers were killed there in a terror attack. You knew the dangers posed by Smotrich’s theocratic agenda, his intolerant views on Arabs, his hostility to non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, and more. And predictably, all it took were some brief, considered remarks — three days after the terror attack, and subsequently walked back — to cause inestimable damage to fragile relationships in the region, to ties with Diaspora Jewry, to our standing with the US and other international allies, to Israel’s own sense of self, and, devastatingly, to the unity and cohesion of our people’s army.

By destroying the independence, credibility and capability of our own High Court to investigate alleged crimes by the IDF, your judicial overhaul already threatens to remove our soldiers’ vital protection from international prosecution. When a dominant minister in your government then publicly urges the state to wipe out an entire town, inevitably pilots who routinely risk their lives in the defense of this country are nauseated at the prospect of receiving such an instruction, understandably gather to remind the air force chief that they will not carry out patently illegal orders, and start to worry deeply about their roles in the military arm of such a government. As you heard the chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, publicly state last week: The army’s very capacity to function “depends on the preservation of the IDF as the people’s army in a democratic Jewish state.”

And so I plead with you, prime minister, stop with the disingenuous nonsense about strengthening democracy, stop denigrating opposition leaders and protesters as anarchists and worse, stop the incitement against those who express their mounting, heartfelt concerns for the country they love — the reservists, and the economists, and the jurists, and the academics, and, yes, the media. Tune out the extremists. Heed the voices of those you’ve hitherto trusted — your own bank chiefs and legal advisers present and past; your own appointees at the helm of our security services; international judicial experts and Zionists of the caliber of Irwin Cotler and Alan Dershowitz; Miriam Adelson, for goodness’ sake.

Stop this madness.

Don’t merely halt the current legislative onslaught. Heed the president and abandon it. And announce the initiation of a deadline-free consultative process for judicial reform. Hell, go for broke: Work for a constitution, with the Declaration of Independence as at least a partial blueprint.

Yes, your coalition will fracture. Speed the day.

Who knows? Benny Gantz and enough others might ride to your rescue. Or not.

But you’ll begin to reverse the staggering damage you’ve inflicted on Israel in the few short weeks of your appalling coalition, 50 (!) of whose ministers and lawmakers on Tuesday demanded that the defense minister release from administrative detention two settler extremists held for their suspected roles in the Huwara vigilante rampage.

You’ll have started to pull us back from the abyss, to safeguard this Israel that simply must continue to fulfill its core purpose as the Jews’ national homeland, as a democratic beacon fully capable of defending itself, and that can only do so in something close to internal harmony.

And we Israelites will still be a free people this Passover.”

Introductory Note: Dr. Debra Sushan is J Street’s Director of Policy. This piece is a persuasive look at what the current government of Israel is allowing to happen in the West Bank, annexation. While the Knesset gallops to radically take from the Department of Justice and the High Court the powers necessary for a democratic system of government to operate, in which the justice system acts as a check-and-balance against potential human rights abuses of minority groups by any ruling government coalition, the lack of democracy that has always characterized the military administration in the occupied territories is now spilling over into Israel itself. The half-million demonstrators that took to the streets in dozens of cities and towns this past Saturday night (and growing every week) recognize that Israel’s democracy now hangs in the balance and are demanding that the governing coalition slow down and meet to discuss reasonable judicial reform and, perhaps even, the writing of a constitution for the state (Israel is dependent on a system of quasi-constitutional laws called “Basic Laws”).

Surveys show that the government’s plans are favored by a minority of Israeli citizens, even a minority of those who voted for parties in the ruling coalition. Protest is being voiced by almost all elements of international Jewry. The value of the shekel has dropped. Reservists in Israel are threatening not to respond to a call to serve if these laws pass as presented and Israel’s democracy is diminished.

President Isaac Herzog may be the only leader in Israel who can persuade members of the Likud faction of the government to demand that PM Netanyahu put the brakes on a government that is ram-rodding legislation through the Knesset to change the way the Israeli government operates.

By Dr. Debra Shushan – March 13, 2023

“Less than a week before the interview in which Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated that Israel should “wipe out” the West Bank town of Huwara, which had been ransacked by a pogrom perpetrated by hundreds of Israeli settlers, Smotrich had released a different video on Facebook. In it, Smotrich beamed as he hailed an agreement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that will make him, for all intents and purposes, the first civilian governor of the occupied West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blessed the deal, and the three men celebrated with an exuberant three-way handshake.

The ramifications of this administrative maneuver are profound. While de facto annexation has been creeping for decades, the Netanyahu government’s transfer of responsibility for managing most aspects of civilian life in the occupied West Bank to an Israeli politician is a leap to extending Israeli sovereignty, de jure, into the West Bank.

Simply put: Smotrich’s West Bank takeover is tantamount to annexation.

Since Israel conquered the West Bank and additional territories during the 1967 war, the General in charge of Israel’s Central Command served as the governing authority of the West Bank. This is consistent with international law governing belligerent occupation, according to which occupied territory must be administered by the occupying army. In managing the occupied territory, the military commander is permitted under international law to consider only two things: security requirements and the needs of the local population (in this case, Palestinians). In 1983, Israel’s High Court ruled that the military commander was prohibited from considering Israel’s own national, economic, or social interests in administering the territory.

The extent of Smotrich’s massive new powers is not fully public, since the annex that details them (“Appendix B” to the Smotrich-Gallant agreement) has not been released. Here’s what we know from the agreement itself. As indicated in the agreement and enabled by Knesset’s passage in December of an amendment to Israel’s Basic Law on the Government, Smotrich will have authority over virtually all aspects of civilian life in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank. He will exercise this in his capacity as an additional minister in the Department of Defense, via oversight of the Civil Administration and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). In addition, a new Settlement Administration will be established under his authority. Among its functions will be leading and implementing “equal citizenship” reform – which will speed the process through which Israeli laws are “pipelined” to apply to Israeli settlers, while military law continues to apply to their Palestinian neighbors. This reform will also streamline the provision of government ministries’ provision of services to settlers. The Settlement Administration is also charged with “regularizing” illegal settlement outposts.

Reports specify additional broad powers allocated to Smotrich. These include: authority over the planning and construction bureaucracy that authorizes construction for settlements; land purchases, surveys, and registration of land as state land in Area C; declaration and development of nature reserves (which are often used as tools to expropriate Palestinian land); and enforcement against unauthorized construction in Area C, which will likely “lead to a situation in which illegal [Israeli] settlement outposts are not removed as they have been in the past, but illegal Palestinian construction is swiftly demolished.”

Defense Minister Gallant will retain overriding security control over the West Bank, though civilian matters (which can directly impact the security situation) are almost entirely under Smotrich’s authority. One exception to the latter is that Central Command of the IDF will have the authority to initiate enforcement against illegal settler structures when “required for security reasons”), but only after notifying Smotrich. Aside from that, the Smotrich-Gallant agreement contains clauses designed to make it appear that Smotrich will remain subordinate to the Minister of Defense, but in reality Gallant will only be able to overrule him in extreme cases.

As the Israeli Law Professors’ Forum for Democracy determined in a recent position paper, the transfer of the responsibility for managing the the civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank to Bezalel Smotrich in his capacity as an additional minister in the Ministry of Defense explicitly subordinates management of the territory to Israel’s own national considerations apart from security requirements. The authors note that this is “in complete contradiction to international law,” particularly the Hague Conventions of 1907, which Israel recognizes as applicable to the West Bank – and on which it relies as it exercises authority there. In the words of prominent Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, “Transferring powers to Israeli civilian hands is an act of de jure annexation because it entails removing power from the occupying military and placing it directly in the hands of the government – this is an expression of sovereignty.” Brig. Gen. (res.) Udi Dekel of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies agrees that this development indicates there “is no longer a slow process of annexation, but rather, accelerated annexation.” Further, Israel’s Military Advocate General warned Netanyahu that transferring authority to Smotrich could be viewed by the International Court of Justice and other international bodies as annexation.

The transfer of primary civil authority over the occupied West Bank to Smotrich is a clear indication of annexation, but it is not the only one. Others include the first guiding principle of the new government, which stipulates Jewish supremacy on both sides of the Green Line distinguishing Israel from the occupied West Bank. It states, “The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop the settlement of all parts of the Land of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan and Judea and Samaria.” The government’s steps to advance thousands of new settlement housing units, “legalize” wildcat outposts, and connect other still-illegal outposts to state-provided infrastructure put this guiding principle into effect.

Nonetheless, there are those who insist that it is wrong to speak of annexation given that “the Government of Israel is not currently considering any proposals to annex territory. In fact,” a right-leaning organization told lawmakers, “any contemplation of annexation [by Israel] was suspended when the UAE entered the Abraham Accords.”

Recent work by Israeli professors Tamar Megiddo, Ronit Levine-Schnur, and Yael Berda indicates how problematic such claims are. They note that because annexation is an “international crime” that “gives rise to international responsibility,” countries will “rarely volunteer to trigger the consequences of being classified as aggressors” by declaring annexation. Megiddo, Levine-Schnur, and Berda offer criteria for determining when annexation is taking place, and conclude that the transfer of West Bank authority to Smotrich and other measures “qualify as de jure annexation.” In their words, the Netanyahu government’s deferral of a formal declaration of annexation “is a simple attempt at gaslighting.”

The consequences of annexation are likely to prove dire for the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank, and also for Israel’s democracy. The plans that Bezalel Smotrich, a self-proclaimed “fascist homophobe,” has long advocated call for the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority, “erasing the paradigm of the Palestinian state from public consciousness,” direct imposition of Israeli law in the West Bank, boosting Israeli settlement activity, and paying West Bank Palestinians to emigrate abroad.

As Justice Minister Yariv Levin – Smotrich’s partner in Knesset’s Land of Israel Caucus – noted nearly a decade ago, judicial overhaul is a prerequisite for their annexationist designs, as it would become “much easier for us to take tangible steps on the ground that strengthen the process of advancing sovereignty.” More recently, National Missions Minister Orit Strock of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party pointed to Israel’s Supreme Court as an “obstacle” to “legalizing” settlement outposts, and noted, “so long as we do not get it back down to its natural size, we will not be able to get anything done.”

How will the Biden administration respond? US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides stated in November that the US “will fight” any West Bank annexation efforts by Israel. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf reportedly told Israeli officials two weeks before the Smotrich-Gallant agreement was concluded that the Administration would strongly oppose any transfer of authority over the West Bank to Bezalel Smotrich – and would regard it as a step toward annexation.

With the far-right Netanyahu government attempting to eliminate the possibility of a two-state solution – tramping Israeli democracy, Palestinian human rights, and international law in the process – US national interests and credibility are on the line. It’s time for the Biden administration to act accordingly.”

Note #1: Purim is a holiday where we read a story rife with evil plots and bad actors, and are asked to turn it into a time of raucous celebration and frivolity. This kind of festivity and silliness in the face of real suffering is both a mitzvah and a challenge. We at J Street present the following satire-filled “Purim Torah” with acknowledgment of the tragedies of our time, and the hope that bringing some levity will help us face the challenges before us. 

Note #2: J Street published my piece for Purim this year with the following disclaimer (obviously also written in the spirit of Purim – none of what Emily Kaiman or I wrote is true).

WE DID IT! I know it seemed very dicey these past months with the threats of judicial reforms, and settlement expansions but we cannot be more excited at the miraculous turn of events. The vision for peace and equality, with two secure states side-by-side, is finally in sight with all the major progress of this past week!

I am writing what may be one of my last emails to you all. As you can see from our Two-Way Street Purim article below, J Street has been so successful in our mission to advocate for policies that are pro-Israel, pro-peace, and pro-democracy that in just a few short months there may be no need for our movement at all.

Please enjoy this Purim Torah, from one of our very own Rabbinic and Cantorial Cabinet Chairs, Rabbi John Rosove. Wishing you a Purim filled with fun, laughter, levity (and a bit of satire).

Purim Sameach,

Emily Kaiman
J Street Deputy Director of Jewish Communal Engagement

---

Good News This Purim

Rabbi John L. Rosove

Happy Purim! A holiday of fun, humor, and satire. We hope you enjoy this piece from Rabbi John Rosove and have a wonderful and joyous holiday.

You won’t believe this!

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir have just held a press conference announcing full equality for the Palestinian people, including recognition of their right to self-determination in a sovereign state alongside Israel. They have formally invited Palestinian leadership to negotiate a peace treaty that settles all issues between Israelis and the Palestinians.

In the meantime, the government announced support for rulings by the International Court of Justice; they will join the International Criminal Court, and will reverse economic incentives in a bid to reduce the population of Israelis living on occupied lands. This final agreement will be signed next week at a celebration and ice cream social with Ben and Jerry’s.

More good news!

The leaders of the Haredi parties decided after a long series of pilpulistic debates to support the Egalitarian Southern Kotel Agreement for Women of the Wall, and egalitarian prayer, as worked out by former Sochnut Executive Natan Sharansky at the request of then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2016. Moving forward, the ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Wall and all the Haredi political parties have committed to not interfere with Women of the Wall Monthly Worship services at the women’s side of the main Kotel plaza. Additionally, they will not disrupt egalitarian minyanim from the liberal streams of Judaism at the soon-to-be-built and expanded Southern Kotel Plaza beneath Robinson’s Arch.

They agreed further that the Orthodox parties will share 50% of the funds they receive annually for their yeshivot and synagogues with the liberal religious Israeli streams, that they will include secular education in their yeshivot and enter into the Israeli workforce. Like all Israelis, they will now have the option between serving in the IDF or volunteering with humanitarian organizations.

They have said that the end to the militancy against non-ultra-Orthodox Jews will heal rifts in families and communities, better represent the Jewish values of respect and diversity, and deliver more freedom and support to women and LGBT+ individuals from all backgrounds. They will signal in a press conference after Purim their willingness to join together hand-in-hand with the leadership of the liberal religious movements to create a shared agenda that serves the best interests of the people and State of Israel.

And this!

The Iranian government and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have agreed to stop calling Israel “The Little Satan.” Iran’s leadership intends to send all weapons-grade nuclear material to trusted world powers, commits to ending its nuclear weapons program permanently, installing 24/7 monitoring equipment in facilities, and allowing IAEA inspections at all sites with short notice (that’s not actually much of a joke, it was all in Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement!). Iran also agreed to cease sending military arms to Hezbollah and Hamas and work together with all nations in the Middle East in the establishment of regional peace agreements.

The Supreme Leader has decreed an end to all restrictions on women and the persecution of minority religious and ethnic groups. The Iranian leadership intends to invite Israelis to enter into cultural exchanges with the Iranian people.

And!

Hamas has announced that it will formally recognize the State of Israel, end the use of terror tactics and enter into peace negotiations for the benefit of all Israelis and Gaza residents. It will turn over all hidden missiles to the US and EU and demolish its tunnel system under the supervision of international observers.

In addition!

Hearing all these plans, the Arab League signaled its readiness to establish a regional peace agreement with Israel including economic, cultural, educational, and political exchanges. It announced the intention of all the nations of the Middle East to move rapidly to institute democratic forms of government.

In the United States:

The Republican Party turned its back on all election deniers and agreed to defeat in the next election all those extremist election deniers who remain in federal, state, and local government from ever running for political office again. These leaders have joined with the Congressional Democrats in overturning Citizens United, setting term limits on Supreme Court Justices, and increasing the size of the Supreme Court. In an unexpected turn of events, they have also come to an agreement to codify Roe v Wade, pass compassionate and comprehensive immigration reform and criminal justice reform, eliminate fossil fuels in industry and automobiles by 2035, pass an anti-Gerrymandering law and institute reasonable electoral reform. This session of Congress closed with a bipartisan vote to accept the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico into statehood by 2024.

Imshallah uv’ezrat Hashem — Happy Purim!

Introductory notes: The vicious Jewish pogrom against the Arab village of Hawara following the murder of two Israel brothers by Palestinian terrorists has to break the heart of any decent human being, most especially Jews who have been raised with the value that we are rachmanim b’nai rachmanim – compassionate children of compassionate parents.

Sadly and shockingly, too many of our people have ceased to be compassionate. They include some of the leadership of the current Israeli government and some of the commanders of the IDF in the West Bank, and the extremist and violent Israeli settlers who perpetrated this shameful action resulting in the torching of 200 Arab homes, the murder an Palestinian Arab and the injury of dozens of Palestinians as retribution for the deaths of the two Israeli brothers near the Arab village of Hawara this week.

What makes matters even worse is that IDF soldiers stood around all night long and allowed the rampage, that can only be called a “Jewish pogrom,” to continue throughout the night. At the time of this writing (Friday, March 3) not one Jew has been arrested for this despicable crime and no one is yet sitting in an Israeli jail. Why not? What is going on?

As disturbing as this pogrom is, and as much of a stain on Israeli honor that it has caused, it should not come as a surprise, though it is certainly shocking. For years – nay, decades – Palestinians living under occupation have been characterized as terrorist “others,” dehumanized by the Israeli military administration that rules over the West Bank, and whose human rights have been violated.

I am well aware of the complexity of the occupation, of the many reasons for the failure of numerous peace efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a two-state solution, of Palestinian leadership’s culpability and refusal to compromise with Israeli negotiators especially concerning their so-called right of return to their former homes and property rather than to a Palestinian state in part of Israel-Palestine, as well as in recent years, especially under the premiership of Benjamin Netanyahu of his failure to negotiate in good faith with Palestinian leadership for a resolution to the conflict. No one has a good answer to what can reasonably and realistically be done. If they did, it would have been done already. I understand the problems and obstacles.

What I do know is this, as a lover of the State of Israel and its people, as a progressive Zionist who cares deeply about the sustainability and well-being of the democratic and liberal nation-state of the entirety of the Jewish people (yes, it’s necessary to say this given the narrow-minded extremist current government of Israel), that the current situation is unsustainable.

My friend, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the former President of the Reform movement’s synagogue organization, the Union for Reform Judaism in North America representing 2 million North American Jews, and a life-long Zionist and keen observer of all things Israel, has written an important op-ed that appeared in Haaretz yesterday that is must-reading for every American Jew and Jewish organizational leader, rabbi, cantor, teacher, member of Congress, and the Biden Administration.

Please pass this blog along to your friends and especially to the leadership of your synagogue and American Jewish organizations.

What is especially necessary now (as Rabbi Yoffie advocates with eloquence and sadness at the current state of affairs) is for the American liberal Jewish community not to give up on Israel, but rather to enter the conversation and exert as much pressure on the Biden administration and the Congress to take action to prevent this extremist Israeli government from irrevocably damaging Israeli democracy and the good name of the Jewish people.

Here is Rabbi Yoffie’s column:

I have never once lobbied against an Israeli government. But Netanyahu’s judicial coup, his offensive against democracy, must be stopped. That means U.S. Jews must do the unthinkable, and urge a strong American hand with Israel.

It is time for a new set of rules. The United States government needs to pressure the Israeli government to halt its overhaul of the judiciary and its retroactive authorization of illegal outposts in the West Bank. And mainstream American Jewish organizations need to encourage U.S. President Joe Biden to act before it is too late.

If the judicial “reforms” promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu become law Israel could be a very different country within a matter of months. Israelis could wake up one day in a state that is no longer democratic, no longer willing to guarantee fundamental liberties and minority rights, no longer secure economically or militarily, no longer welcoming to Jews of the world and no longer supported by substantial segments of the American public.

Israel is facing an existential crisis of its own making, as serious as any threat posed by terrorists within or enemies on its borders. And the attempted judicial coup is especially serious, rooted as it is in zealotry and intolerance and debasing as it does the whole process of democratic governance.

We should not assume that what Netanyahu is doing has broad support from the Israeli public. Fewer than half the electorate voted last November for the parties in the coalition. And recent polls indicate that while most Israelis back judicial reform of some kind, about 65 percent oppose the particular package that the government is pushing.

And then there are the demonstrations, an inspiring and heroic example of the strength of Israel’s civil society. A mass movement has come into being, drawing young and old, secular and religious, left and right, into the streets. Never before in Israel’s history has the civilian sector participated in such large numbers, week after week, in a movement of protest. If an American demonstration drew the same crowd size relative to its population, it would be equivalent to about 4 million American protestors.

So how, then, has Netanyahu come so close to achieving his judicial “revolution?” The answer is that the prime minister, hoping to escape the legal charges against him, has permitted an unhinged minority to take over a democratic government and use its power to push through a radical constitutional change.

If this seems incredible, in some ways it is. The political world’s small Religious Zionist and Haredi fringe has insinuated itself into the Israeli mainstream, with the backing of a prime minister who is a criminal defendant. And now that it controls the Israeli government, it has declared its intention to put an end to freedom and democracy as these values are generally understood. In all likelihood, Bibi is indulging in the fantasy that he is controlling the fanatics in his coalition. In actuality, it is the other way around.

This is why the judicial coup must be stopped. And if it can be halted in no other way, then American Jews must not hesitate to call upon their government to pressure Israel. This means asking the Biden administration to intervene, and reaching out to pro-Israel members of Congress, particularly in the Democratic Party, as well.

Pressure could be applied in a variety of ways, some of which were presented in a courageous column by Michael Koplow of the Israel Policy Forum. One is to pause discussions on Israel’s entry into the visa waver program until Israeli policies change. Another is to announce that Netanyahu will not be invited to the White House until meaningful progress is made on the differences between the two countries. A third is to indicate that, if authorizing illegal outposts continues, America would be willing to present its own resolution to the UN Security Council on the subject, going beyond the statement expressing it issued last week expressing its concern.

Will it work? It is a long shot, to be sure. But it is not impossible. As noted, Netanyahu’s popular support for his reforms is weak, and if forced to choose between Bibi’s judicial coup and undiminished American backing for Israel, the great majority of Israelis, including his own voters, will choose the latter.

It is also clearly an American interest for Israel both to reach a broad consensus on judicial reform and to avoid a new wave of annexations in the territories. Failure on the judicial front could result in political chaos or collapse in Israel. Failure to stop annexation will lead to instability in the region, weaken the Abraham Accords, distance the Saudis from Israel and America, and make it that much more difficult to restore security ties between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Americans will not, of course, in any way excuse increased terrorist murders of Israelis in the territories, as just happened in Hawara; but neither will they accept Israeli settlers rampaging through Palestinian villages, burning homes and killing innocents in retaliation. More Palestinian terror and marauding Israeli vigilantes are yet additional reasons why the Americans might agree to enter the picture.

All of these factors add to the urgency of the moment. Surely, avoiding another Intifada and promoting calm are as vital to Israel as they are to the United States, and undermining Israeli democracy hurts rather than helps Israel’s struggle against terror.

But bizarrely, Netanyahu, desperate and deranged by his legal troubles, is less likely to see this than is Biden. What is needed, then, is a strong American hand with Israel, taking, at the very least, some or all of the steps noted above.

Still, Biden has other things on his mind, and may be reluctant. And for the United States to take such action would be a dramatic departure from its usual way of doing business with Israel.

It is also true that American Jewish groups will be resistant to push him. Lobbying the American government against an Israeli government — even when the American one is pro-Israel and the Israeli one is anti-democratic — is rightly problematic for American Jews. In my half-century of Zionist activism, I have never once lobbied against an Israeli government in Washington. Interventions of this sort, once begun, can set a dangerous precedent with uncertain outcomes.

Nonetheless now is the time when those risks must be taken.

Statements alone, as we have seen, have had virtually no impact. American officials and Jewish organizations have spoken out emphatically and repeatedly on the planned judicial measures, but Israel’s government affirms that the overhaul will be passed without delay.

U.S. statements on illegal outposts, joined by some Jewish groups, have not prevented Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from receiving sweeping powers to expand settlements throughout the territories. It is time for action.

The Biden administration is as friendly to Israel as any of its predecessors. It has frequently said that America has a commitment to Israel, and that commitment must remain as fixed and permanent as the sky. It has also said that American obligations to Israel rest not on the shifting sands of geopolitical strategy, but on the hard rock of moral obligation.

To whom, then, should American Jews turn? To an American administration committed to the Jewish state and democratic values, or to an Israeli government, democratically elected but now leading an obscene offensive against judicial review, human rights, democracy and freedom?

Israel’s democracy has always been imperfect, of course, but it was once a beacon in a world darkened by tyranny nonetheless.

But now, for the first time in Israel’s history, its government is leading its citizens methodically toward the abyss. It has bestowed authority on the Smotriches and Ben-Gvirs, barbarians who pander to the basest instincts of Israeli society.

It has disillusioned Israel’s own citizens, and given Israel haters everywhere cause to rejoice. And it has left American Jewry and Jews of the world alienated and confused.

This, then, is a critical moment in the history of the Third Jewish Commonwealth. History will judge us all. What did we do when the Jewish supremacists attempted to destroy the Jewish state from within?

Were we willing to permit the undoing of democracy to which the Jewish people and the Zionist movement were always committed? Were we prepared to bow the knee to Kahanism, which distorts Zionism and mocks the ideals of Judaism? Were we ready to give in to the race-baiters and provocateurs who sit in Israel’s cabinet and exploit ethnic hatred for their own purposes?

Millions of Israelis say they refuse, reminding us daily that Israel was created to achieve democracy and freedom in Zion reborn. And perhaps the heroic protestors and the determined opposition, with their mighty passion for democracy, will win their battle.

But if they do not, American Jews must not be bullied out of their beliefs. They must not give up on Israel as home and a gate to holiness to Jews everywhere. They must not permit a distorted view of Judaism, advocated by the radical forces of the far-right, to become an instrument of repression in the hands of Israel’s leaders.

If the sole way to accomplish this is to turn to the American government for support and intervention, then so be it.

If this is the only option, we must call autocracy by name and preserve the democratic destiny of Zionism.”

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2023-03-02/ty-article-opinion/.premium/american-jews-lobby-the-biden-administration-to-act-against-israels-obscene-government/00000186-98a6-dffd-ab9f-9ba630d60000