This from the Nation is striking:
Ben Gurion ( The first Prime Minster of Israel) said:
“The Jews of the United States,” he said, “as a community and as individuals, have only one political attachment and that is to the United States of America. They owe no political allegiance to Israel…. The State of Israel represents and speaks only on behalf of its own citizens and in no way presumes to represent or speak in the name of Jews who are citizens of any other country.”
Netanyahu is coming to the US to challenge that statement, and tell Members of Congress that he speaks for American Jews, they do not!
This is the greatest step he can take to break the "relationship" between Israel from the US...
In a recent CNN poll, also referred to in the article, 75% of those Americans under 50 want to see the US neutral in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict.
What is keeping the US strongly behind Israel in the face of International condemnation, calls for sanctions, and a growing BDS (boycott, Divestment Sanctions) movement, is that in Congress most democrats are terrified of being seen as hostile to the Israel lobby, known as AIPAC.
Yet Jews in America will not be put in a position of being traitors, i.e. putting the needs of a foreign government and its wishes above the interests of their own country.
Our President is trying to negotiate a deal to prevent another war in the Middle East, and most of the country supports him on this. For Netanyahu to imply that you cannot be an American Jew and still support these negotiations with Iran is a call for Jews to abandon America.
It is in the same vein as his calls for European Jews to leave Denmark or France in the face of anti-semitism.
It is a desperate world view that wants the entire Jewish people to think of themselves as a Masada like remnant, holed up in fortress Israel, while the rest of the world is hostile or indifferent.
Such a desperate fantasy is only possible with virtually unlimited American weapons and support. Absent that, compromise is necessary for survival.
The irony is that claiming this religious mandate of never-ending violent persecution is the most dangerous thing that Netanyahu could do - because he will force American Jews to choose between America and Israel.
This is not a choice. American Jews love America. They are not defined by the Israeli Prime Minister any more than black Americans are defined by pronouncements from leaders in Africa.
Israel has become a violent, anti-democratic (no equal rights for palestinians) and vastly corrupt and racist country.
If Americans are forced to choose, the outcome will not be pretty. Sheldon Adelson may be able to buy his way into the Republican party, or into Macao for a casino, but he will not be able to buy his way into a new war.
If Americans want to oppose Obama, that is politics. But to have a foreign leader try and rally American Jews by claiming he speaks for them in a domestic matter poisons the debate. He simply should not come, especially to lobby for a new war before both Houses of Congress.
We are way too fed up for that.