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Zionist Ideology, American Reality 1 Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagei || Irreconcilable Differences? || Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pageiiblank Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pageiii || Irreconcilable Differences? || The Waning of the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel Steven T. Rosenthal Brandeis University Press Published by University Press of New England Hanover and London Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pageiv Brandeis University Press Published by University Press of New England, Hanover, NH 03755 © 2001 Brandeis University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 54321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rosenthal, Steven T. Irreconcilable differences?: the waning of the American Jewish love affair with Israel / Steven T. Rosenthal. p.cm.—(Brandeis series in American Jewish history, culture, and life) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0 –87451–897–0 1. Jews—United States—Attitudes toward Israel. 2. Jews—United States— Identity. 3. Jews—United States—Politics and government—20th century. 4. Zionism—United States. 5. Israel and the diaspora. I. Title. II. Series E184.355.R67 2001 973'.04924—dc21 00 –011567 Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagev Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life Jonathan D. Sarna, Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor Leon A. Jick, 1992 Jack Wertheimer, 1997 The Americanization of the Synagogue, A People Divided: Judaism in 1820 –1870 Contemporary America Sylvia Barack Fishman, editor, 1992 Beth S. Wenger and Follow My Footprints: Changing Images of Jeffrey Shandler, editors, 1998 Women in American Jewish Fiction Encounters with the “Holy Land”: Place, Past and Future in American Gerald Tulchinsky, 1993 Jewish Culture Taking Root: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community David Kaufman, 1998 Shul with a Pool: The “Synagogue- Shalom Goldman, editor, 1993 Center” in American Jewish History Hebrew and the Bible in America: The First Two Centuries Roberta Rosenberg Farber and Chaim I. Waxman, 1999 Marshall Sklare, 1993 Jews in America: Observing America’s Jews A Contemporary Reader Reena Sigman Friedman, 1994 Murray Friedman and These Are Our Children: Jewish Albert D. Chernin, 1999 Orphanages in the United States, A Second Exodus: The American 1880 –1925 Movement to Free Soviet Jews Alan Silverstein, 1994 Stephen J. Whitfield, 1999 Alternatives to Assimilation: The Response In Search of American Jewish of Reform Judaism to American Culture, Culture 1840 –1930 Naomi W. Cohen, 1999 Jack Wertheimer, editor, 1995 Jacob H. Schiff: A Study in American The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Jewish Leadership Transformed Barbara Kessel, 2000 Sylvia Barack Fishman, 1995 Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised as Gentiles A Breath of Life: Feminism in the Jonathan N. Barron and Eric American Jewish Community Murphy Selinger, editors, 2000 Diane Matza, editor, 1996 Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Sephardic-American Voices: Two Hundred Commentary, and Reflections Years of a Literary Legacy Steven T. Rosenthal, 2001 Joyce Antler, editor, 1997 Irreconcilable Differences?: Talking Back: Images of Jewish Women in The Waning of the American Jewish Love American Popular Culture Affair with Israel Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pageviblank Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagevii To Mary and Claudia, the lights of my life Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pageviiiblank Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pageix Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii Chapter 1 || Zionist Ideology, American Reality 1 Chapter 2 || The Making of the American Jewish Consensus 22 Chapter 3 || The World Turned Upside Down 42 Chapter 4 || The Invasion of Lebanon 61 Chapter 5 || The Pollard Affair 76 Chapter 6 || The Intifada 93 Chapter 7 || The Perils of Peace 116 Chapter 8 || Who Is a Jew? 134 Chapter 9 || An Ambivalent Anniversary 156 Chapter 10 || The Hidden Crisis 170 Epilogue 195 Notes 199 Selected Sources 213 Index 219 DES: Tightened to fit. Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagexblank Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagexi Acknowledgments This book and its author greatly benefited from the material, intellec- tual, and emotional contributions of many people. I would like to thank the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Hartford and Arts and Sciences dean Edward T. Gray Jr. for making possible a sabbatical that enabled me to complete the manuscript. Jonathan Rieder, Warren Goldstein, Peter Breit, and Jonathan Kan- tor read the manuscript at various stages of preparation, and their often detailed critiques vastly improved its style and content. The comments of Jonathan Sarna, the series editor, were also extremely incisive and helpful. The reference staff of the Scarsdale Public Library responded to my inordinate demands for periodicals with great professionalism and efficiency. At Yale, Gerald Acquarulo time and again was instru- mental in finding books “lost” in the controlled chaos of the Sterling Memorial Library stacks. The contributions of Phyllis Deutsch transcend the tasks of editor. Her encouragement, structural suggestions, and immense good sense were instrumental in shaping the book. All writers should be fortunate enough to have such an editor. Susan Gottlieb prepared the manuscript with great technical skill and, more important, with a fine sense of humor and immense tolerance. It was a pleasure to work with her. Besides being an inspiration for all I do, I could always count on my daughter Claudia to come to my rescue when I became lost in cyber- space. She also took the photograph on the jacket of this book. This book would not have been possible without the love and sup- port of my wife, Mary. For two decades, while successfully pursuing an extremely demanding career, her laser-sharp intellect has provided me with a full-time colleague upon whom I constantly try out ideas and phraseology. She has contributed to this book in innumerable large and small ways. S. T. R. one line long Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagexiiblank Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagexiii Introduction “Never in the past was the great Jewish community of the United States so united around Israel, standing together.”1 On June 18, 1982, Prime Minister Menachem Begin addressed those words to a gala din- ner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Attended by Jewish notables, representatives of major Jewish organizations, and wealthy donors, the dinner’s purpose was to provide financial support for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, which had begun twelve days earlier. The fact that the affair raised a record $27 million was impressive but not unexpected. American Jews had long been extremely responsive to Israel’s needs, especially in times of crisis. Equally predictable, not one of the assembled guests gave the slightest public expression to Ameri- can Jews’ growing anxiety about Israel’s decision to extend the invasion beyond her self-imposed twenty-five-mile limit. Critical silence con- cerning Israel’s policies had become as much a characteristic of Ameri- can Jews as their generosity. The unification of American Jews around Israel, the creation of hugely successful mechanisms for financial and political support, and the nearly absolute prohibition of public Jewish criticism of Israel were among the most noteworthy achievements of organized American Jewry during the 1960s and 1970s. Whatever the issue, Israel could count on the enthusiastic, unified support of Ameri- can Jews almost without exception. Fifteen years later, in November 1997, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States. At his principal speech in India- napolis many in the audience protested, by wearing buttons that read “Don’t write off four million Jews,”2 Israel’s failure to fully recognize the religious legitimacy of America’s Conservative and Reform move- ments. Others passed out leaflets admonishing the assembly not to ap- plaud too loudly lest the prime minister confuse respect for his office with support for his religious and political policies. In contrast to the Steven T. Rosenthal: Irreconcilable Differences? pagexiv xiv || Introduction usual rapturous reception given by American Jews to an Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu was accorded a polite but distinctly chilly hearing. Especially noteworthy was that he was speaking to the General Assem- bly of the Council of Jewish Federations, an organization distinguished both by its pivotal role in the Jewish community and by its long tradi- tion of largely unquestioning support for the Jewish state. Indeed, local federations had done much over the years to enforce the ban on public Jewish criticism of Israel. But to Netanyahu’s consternation, sharp dis- agreements over religious legitimacy, the Palestinians’ political aspira- tions, and the peace process had reached the center of the Jewish Estab- lishment—which now felt little inhibition in airing its dissatisfactions publicly. The division at the center reflects the centrifugal forces that have di- vided the rest of American Jewry from one another and from the State of Israel. Jewish unity has fragmented, the vaunted Israel lobby has often been paralyzed for lack of community consensus, and the disci- plined public statements regarding Israel have given way to very public disagreements over politics and religion. Remarkably, some American Jewish organizations don’t
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