Friday, December 23, 2022
Elder of Ziyon
More than 330 American rabbis, including some who occupy prominent roles in major cities, are pledging to block members of the Religious Zionist bloc in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government from speaking at their synagogues and will lobby to keep them from speaking in their communities.An open letter now circulating says they will not invite members of the bloc “to speak at our congregations and organizations. We will speak out against their participation in other fora across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organizations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.”Its signatories come from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements. There were no Orthodox signatories.
This is prominent US Jewish leaders embracing BDS.
Every synagogue is free to invite whomever they want to speak, and not to invite people they don't want. But when they say that they will protest other synagogues' choice of speakers, and encourage their congregations to protest those other congregations, that is not a commitment to "Jewish and democratic values."
That is shutting down free speech.
That is identical to BDS.
Imagine these same rabbis' reaction if Orthodox synagogues encouraged their members to picket their choice to allow Arab or Leftist MKs to speak at their synagogues. Yet they are encouraging the same kind of activities from their own members - in the name of democracy!
I have not dug deeply into the new Israeli government, mostly because every article about it is speculation. Likud is still by far the majority of the government, not the far right, and they will be the ones setting the agenda, just as they have for most of the past decade.
The cabinet members have not even been finalized.
With every political party, including in the US, there is a huge gap between what they say when campaigning and what they actually do when governing. Often, their party platforms include things to make the extremists of their parties happy while the leaders have no desire to actually implement them.
Moreover, the hysterical headlines coming out of Haaretz, US media other outlets are rarely correct. For example, reporting about the proposed change to the Law of Return is riddled with major errors.
In short, the reporting so far about Israel's future government has been high on hysteria and nearly nonexistent on what the government will actually do.
Israeli's policies can and should be criticized when appropriate. But the criticism should be based on actions, on real legislation, not rumors or even falsehoods written by partisan reporters and columnists.
The thought of of Reform Jews coming out to protest and disrupt a member of Israel's cabinet speaking at an Orthodox synagogue in the US is far worse than anything that Ben Gvir has done - and is likely to do. That is not "Jewish and democratic values." That is hate.
And it shows that, ideologically, these rabbis are more on the side of BDS - spreading false rumors, looking for publicity rather than waiting for the truth to come out, trying to shut down free speech - than on Israel's side.
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