Bye-Bye, Bibi

Tuesday, March 3^rd, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress about US relations and negotiations with Iran regarding their nuclear deal. This presentation came under fire in the media after it was first announced due to the fact that House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to Congress without President Obama’s knowledge or approval. Foreign relations are formally passed through the executive before being confirmed and publicly announced. In this case, Boehner and Netanyahu breached major government protocol and received the appropriate backlash. Due to already strained relations between Obama and Netanyahu and Netanyahu’s impending election, the president refused to meet with the prime minister during the latter’s stay in the US. Correctly assuming that Netanyahu would use his allotted time to criticize Obama’s current negotiations with Iran over their nuclear program, some Democrats refused to even attend the joint session. Correctly assuming that Netanyahu would take a strong stance in favor of defending Israel, American Jews around the country tuned in to listen to his speech. Not a lot of them were pleased.

What is inherently tricky about having a sole nation-state committed to the safety, security, and prosperity of a single religion is that the greater global community often incorrectly assumes that the government of that state speaks for all of its related constituents: citizens or not. In less politically vague language, it is safe to say that the words and actions of the Israeli government do not speak for the opinions of all Jewish people. Hell, the Israeli government doesn’t even speak for all Israeli people. Netanyahu in particular, currently surfing around a 35-40% approval rating in Israel, is not the number one pick to represent the global Jewish community. Having been raised in a Jewish family for nearly 18 years, I can tell you that in my family alone we’d probably have some six or seven different representatives that we’d want to see speaking on a global platform. And there are only four of us.

US-Israeli relations are less tricky: the United States is an enormous ally of Israel, a democratic stronghold in the Middle East, and the pro-Israel lobby is one of the best-funded foreign relations industries in the US. JStreetPAC, a pro-Israel lobby, accumulated close to $2 million last year just from members, meaning people who signed up and donated money by their own free will. Then there’s the fight amongst politicians to out-love Israel, which is overtly evident during presidential campaigns. In 2007, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain all spoke at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Conference, and it was essentially a competition to see who had the strongest relations to the Jewish people and Israel. At this year’s AIPAC Conference, politicians whipped out prayers from a standard prayer service, butchering Hebrew all while intending to prove their own affiliation with the state and America’s Jewish community. Wherever you go in politics, there’s always someone promoting Judaism.

This is not a bad thing. In so many other nations around the world, politicians vie to prove themselves secular and often fail to recognize the importance of the religious in making a wholesome community. Anti-Semitism is on the rise globally, in part due to the fact that governments have failed to protect the small pockets of Jewish communities in their states as well as educate the public about the importance of tolerance. Luckily in the United States, tragedies such as the Paris grocery store massacre and the Copenhagen synagogue shooting are few and far between, but this is in large part due to the political and societal clout pro-Israel and pro-Jewish sentiments holds.

Okay, so why does this all matter?

Though there are organizations that unite synagogues, educators, and individuals, such as the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Orthodox Union (OU), we do not have a singular American representative for American Jews. The issue here is that because we do not have a unified voice, critics, reporters, and average citizens often assume that the opinion of Israel is the opinion of all Jews, American included. Asking for one would be a lot: not only can we rarely agree on anything, but just as in Netanyahu’s case, a single representative would not be able to encompass all of the opinions of the American Jewish community. Regardless, just as we cannot find this one voice, we cannot identify with the one given us. Netanyahu’s actions, in agreeing to speak to Congress and then actually following through, were irresponsible and inappropriate. They jeopardized already fragile relations with the leader of this country and debilitate relations on an international level, without providing a clear-cut alternative to the problem at hand. In a world where Judaism desperately needs protection, any action that pits governments against Israel is nerve-wracking. This is not a safe state of mind for Jews.

Yet, it is very difficult to support the government of one country that actively attempts to undermine the government of my own. It is also very difficult to not support the one nation that is home to over 40% of the world’s Jews as well as the roots of an entire religion and culture. As a young American Jew (and yes, I am an American Jew, not a Jewish American), it is difficult to make sense of this all. I have been involved with a Jewish youth organization, the North American Federation for Temple Youth (NFTY), for the entirety of high school. NFTY puts an enormous emphasis on support of Israel and sponsors countless trips to the Jewish homeland. I often see posts on social media by fellow NFTY-ites who have experienced these trips with the caption, “Wherever I stand, I stand with Israel,” reaffirming their faith in and support of the state. What if this is not the case? I do not stand with the Israeli government currently: I refuse to placate the actions that actively hurt what could be the only viable option to eliminate deadly weapons from a deadly foe. Who am I to wholly support a government whose actions I have never directly experienced, whose words are simply words? Then again, I do not stand with those in the American government that also choose to endanger a stronghold for millions by encouraging irresponsible behavior. Netanyahu is right in saying that Iran is strong and giving them the opportunity the produce nuclear weapons could be literally the worst thing that has ever happened for Israel. Nonetheless, putting governments between a rock and a hard place doesn’t make them crack, it makes them take drastic measures. People are the same.