Ha’aretz: “The Ultra-hawkish Right and anti-Zionist Left Have Drowned the American Jewish Majority”

Photo by Gili Getz

(Below is an excerpt, full piece published here)

By Joshua Leifer

American Jewish politics today is distorted by an absence. There is a void in the place where the active presence of a plurality, perhaps even a majority, of American Jews should be.

Call them the "conflictedly connected." The existence of this segment of American Jews is confirmed in countless surveys like one last month by The Washington Post. In that poll, 76 percent of American Jews said that "Israel's existence is vital for the long-term future of the Jewish people," while 61 percent said Israel has committed "war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza."

There is no contradiction in the overlap here. These "conflictedly connected" Jews despise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government he leads, and are ashamed by Israel's destruction of Gaza and horrified by the brutality of the spiraling settler violence in the West Bank. They feel this way not despite but because they describe Israel as important, even central, to their Jewish identities. They do not deny Israel's democratic deficit, but hold out hope that it can be repaired.

At a time of ever-increasing polarization, strident partisans on the ultra-hawkish Jewish right and anti-Zionist left have drowned out the voice of the broad American Jewish middle, distorting the public impression of what American Jews actually believe.

The algorithmic restructuring of U.S. politics puts the "conflictedly connected" at a significant disadvantage. Their very disposition makes these American Jews reluctant or even afraid to speak out or protest. Rather than stand against the currents, they find themselves dragged along against their will. But no successful movement has ever mobilized under the banner of intense ambivalence.