American Jewish Leaders Quiet while Obama abandons Israel and serenades Iran and Qatar,

Where is Shumer, while Israel is bleeding? Where is the Agudath Israel? Where?
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By Isi Leibler

Isi Leibler

Is American Jewish leadership intimidated?‎ I would hesitate writing this column had I not served as a national Jewish leader who faced ‎similar dilemmas to those confronting the American Jewish leadership today, many of whom I ‎was engaged with in various battles against enemies of the Jewish people and Israel.‎ Yet, with considerable regret and notwithstanding notable exceptions, I believe that today the ‎major leaders within the American Jewish establishment are failing to stand up and be ‎counted, despite chilling signals that the U.S. administration is about to abandon ‎Israel, effectively revoking the U.S.-Israel alliance on which we are deeply dependent.  There ‎are even hints that U.S. President Barack Obama may forgo the U.S. veto at the United Nations ‎Security Council that protects Israel from censure and sanctions, which could have disastrous ‎repercussions. This is taking place at a time when much of the world regards Israel as it did ‎Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. ‎ Another serious issue is that Obama has again breached a solemn undertaking and appears ‎prepared to consummate a deal with the Iranians, enabling them to achieve nuclear status.‎ Tensions have escalated over the past 12 months and the vicious and humiliating manner in ‎which the Obama administration has treated Israel, its purported ally and the only democratic ‎state in the region, is unprecedented.  The administration's condemnation of Israel's ‎‎"disproportionate response" and directive to withhold replenishment of arms during the Gaza ‎war is hardly the behavior of a genuine ally.‎ In contrast, the Obama administration serenades Iran and Qatar, which promote global ‎terrorism; kowtows to Saudi Arabia despite its horrific abuse of human rights, and embraces ‎Turkey's anti-Semitic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.‎ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has failed to make a single concession, opting ‎to merge with the genocidal Hamas. He deliberately incites hatred of Israelis, and just last ‎week hailed the murderer of the 3-month-old Israeli baby as a shaheed (martyr) and extended ‎condolences to the family of Rabbi Yehuda Glick's attempted assassin, whom he described as ‎‎"rising to heaven while defending our people's rights and holy places."  Abbas adviser Sultan ‎Abu Al-Einen said that the "bullets were a beacon that will continue to shine for years to ‎come." Yet the Obama administration remains circumspect and respectful of Abbas while ‎Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is treated with contempt and derision.‎ What is especially galling is that in the midst of regional upheaval with millions of people being ‎displaced, hundreds of thousands butchered and the world confronted by a snowballing ‎threat of Islamic barbarism from Islamic State and other terrorist groups, Obama remains obsessed ‎with Israel's need to make concessions that would undermine its security and create long-term ‎existential threats. It is bizarre that he spends more time condemning Israel for building homes ‎in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem than on the carnage taking place in the region.‎ And yet, despite all of the above, the Jewish leadership seems to have hibernated.  The only ‎voices consistently protesting against the bias and condemnations directed against Israel are ‎the Zionist Organization of America and the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, ‎which was the first to respond with a well-deserved fusillade against the "chickenshit" ‎outburst, demanding an apology and repudiation.‎ The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in a rare criticism of ‎the White House, demanded that the anonymous official whose remarks were "inappropriate" ‎and "counterproductive" be "held to account." But Abe Foxman, the national director of the ‎Anti-Defamation League, effectively trivialized the incident, saying that "the White House ‎statement [which distanced itself from the comments without condemning them] should bring ‎closure to the issue." ‎ Amazingly, the National Jewish Democratic Council condemned the outburst in harsher terms ‎than the Jewish establishment, expressing "surprising disappointment at the profane and ‎inappropriate language" employed. ‎ The issues at stake here are far beyond the vulgar language and the hostile exchanges between ‎Obama and Netanyahu. They relate to the foundations of the U.S.-Israel alliance.‎ These are times when one would expect the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (whose ‎raison d'etre is surely to respond to such situations) and the American Jewish leadership to ‎publicly protest at the manner in which Israel is being treated. ‎ Remaining silent and relying on the ZOA and other small groups to defend Israel, conveys the ‎false impression that the committed American Jewish community is alienated from Israel and ‎prefers to remain aloof while the Obama administration bashes the Jewish state. ‎ Most Jewish leaders with whom I communicate admit that they consider Obama's behavior ‎toward Israel as reprehensible. ‎ Many seek to rationalize their behavior by stressing that they are lobbying vigorously behind ‎the scenes and maintain that public criticism of Obama would encourage him to become even ‎more extreme.‎ This is the classic Diaspora approach of the "trembling Israelites." It has been proved wrong in ‎the past and American Jewish leaders, to their credit, were always robust and outgoing in ‎exercising their democratic right to promote the Jewish standpoint. We have learned over the ‎years that while shtadlanut (silent diplomacy) is indeed necessary, it can only be effective ‎when backed up by a public campaign.‎ At this crucial turning point in the relationship with Israel, my real concern is that American ‎Jewish leaders are simply fearful of directly confronting the president and that the allegedly ‎powerful Jewish lobby lacks the backbone to stand up and be counted. ‎ The absence of direction and leadership has already resulted in further erosion as displayed by ‎Gary Rosenblatt, the respected editor of The New York Jewish Week, who produced an ‎editorial titled "Bibi takes on the world," blasting Netanyahu for confronting the "leader of the ‎free world" and "jeopardizing Israel's relationship with its most important allies" for electoral ‎reasons.  Rosenblatt is a Zionist and a courageous and outspoken journalist. Only two weeks ‎earlier, he had penned an editorial, "Blaming Israel isn't the answer," castigating the global ‎anti-Israeli tsunami. ‎ But his latest editorial was unfair and extremely damaging. The Jewish Week was founded by ‎the Jewish Federations, and Rosenblatt conceded to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic (who ‎exposed the "chickenshit" comment) that in the past there would have been "hell to pay in the ‎community" for such an editorial on Israel, but now "that is no longer the case." ‎ Goldberg cited the editorial as evidence that Jewish leaders were "uneasy" about Israel's ‎direction. He referred to discussions by unnamed Jewish officials questioning Netanyahu's ‎policies. He went on to state that Israel should be trying to "negotiate in good faith" with the ‎duplicitous Abbas and impose a settlement freeze on Jerusalem and the settlement blocs until ‎such time as negotiations with the Palestinians have clarified which territory will remain within ‎Israel. Needless to say, pigs will fly before the Palestinians agree to such an accommodation.‎ This is the approach that the Obama administration will adopt in its forthcoming effort to ‎renew negotiations after the midterm elections. Whereas most Israelis feel that the prime ‎minister would be well advised to cease making public announcements about construction, the ‎vast consensus would never agree to a construction freeze in the settlement blocs and ‎especially not in the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.‎ Certain myths and falsehoods need to be dispelled. Israel is not creating new settlements. To ‎the contrary, the only real change on the ground in the last decade has been the dismantling of ‎settlements in Gaza which were transformed to launch rockets. Nor are any Arabs being ‎displaced or Palestinian land being appropriated. The entire area engaged in current ‎settlement is about 3 percent of the former Jordanian occupied territories. The Oslo accords never ‎required limits to settlement growth and certainly not natural growth of existing communities.‎ That is the message that AIPAC and Jewish leaders must urgently promote. They must also ‎firmly and publicly condemn the biased policies adopted against Israel by the administration ‎and lobby Congress to prevent Obama from abandoning Israel during his remaining two years ‎in office.‎ Failure by the Jewish leadership to act now will massively undermine the entire Jewish ‎community as a political force in America, sending a message to the American people and ‎Congress that American Jews are distancing themselves from Israel. This would invariably ‎impact on the very high levels of support that Israel currently enjoys.‎ It will also weaken the will of Jewish students to stand up and fight for themselves at the ‎campuses, many of which have been transformed into anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic cesspools.‎ The Jewish leadership has an enormous responsibility to provide direction. Hopefully they will ‎move in this direction, preventing analogies between today's American Jewish establishment ‎and the disastrous era of Rabbi Stephen Wise and his colleagues, who failed to stand up to ‎President Franklin Roosevelt's indifference to the plight of Jews during the Holocaust.‎ Isi Leibler's website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ‎ileibler@leibler.com.‎