I was in an exchange recently with a left-leaning, pro-Israel, Jewish Obama supporter who postulated that Obama's vision for Israel is that of a "Jewish" state but... "It is just not the version of the State that you, or the Republican Party, or Conservative Americans, or the Israeli Right might support..."Really?
This is the kind of vaguely unusual, semi-condescending sentiment that one often finds among pro-Israel Obama supporters but, for the life of me, I have no idea what it means.
What is at the heart of this Right-Wing, Conservative, Republican evil that wants some sort-of alternative version of Israel? Is it the desire among people such as Caroline Glick, or her colleague Martin Sherman, to annex Judea and Samaria? Is it, thus, the fear that the Jews of Israel will be demographically overrun by Arabs in the event of such an annexation?
Excuse me, aside from the fact that such demographic fears are rather questionable on the numbers, but is this not a fear of democracy, itself, and therefore a non-left-leaning view?
{Of course, this presumes that the western Left truly does embody democratic values; a proposition worthy of at least some skepticism.}
There is more going on here, though. When my interlocutor suggested that my vision for Israel - like that of conservatives or Republicans or Likudniks and other such bad people - is different from Obama's he meant more than just the question of One State versus Two States.
It goes to this "values" thing that Obama, that most Jewish of American presidents, likes to bring up vis-a-vis Israel. It actually postulates a deeply manichean view of western politics in which the Right is inhabited by loathsome and immoral cave-dwelling type creatures and the Left, while not perfect, nonetheless seeks the light of social justice and the succor of universal human rights.
We are to believe that the Right is comprised of heinous Sméagols, hunting prey in the night, while the Left is filled with well-meaning, but flawed, Galadriels (or, at least, Frodos) seeking to bring light and understanding into an otherwise ugly and greed-filled and war-like world.
Whatever the degree of hostility between the American Right or the American Left (or hostility between the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party), it is nothing in comparison to the hostility that seems to exist between the Jewish Left and the Jewish Right, both in Israel and in the diaspora.
Each largely regards the other with a strong measure of contempt and they do, at least in part, because the stakes are so high. We are speaking, ultimately, about nothing less weighty than the future survival of the Jewish people.
I am hoping, however, that there is one thing that the pro-Israel Right and the pro-Israel Left can agree upon: the demise of Oslo. The Oslo "peace process" is kaput and it is better that Israelis, and people who care about Israel, admit it. If we fail to do so then the EU and the Obama administration will drag Israel back into yet another counterproductive round of "peace processing" and it will likely have similar results from the last go-around.
I call it the Non-Peace Process and it looks something like this:
Let us hope that I am wrong.1) The US and the EU demand negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
2) The parties agree to talk and then the PA, the US, and the EU demand various concessions from Israel for the great privilege of sitting down with the PA's foremost undertaker.
3) Israel fails to meet all the concessions, thus causing the PA to flee negotiations, which they never had any intention of concluding to begin with.
4) The PA and the EU and the Obama administration place the blame for failure at Jewish feet.
5) The EU and various European countries announce additional sanctions, thereby essentially joining the anti-Semitic anti-Zionist BDS movement.
6) Jihadis seek to murder Jews.
Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.