There is so much wrong with Joseph Blumenthal’s guest column of May 29 [“The impossible position of American Jews“] that it is hard to know where to start. The lead off is his presumption that he speaks for American Jews. No, he doesn’t; not even close. He opines only for himself and those of his fellow travelers who subscribe to the progressive left.
Those of us who think very differently do not feel at all that American Jews are in any moral quandary in supporting the state of Israel. Jews have been continuously in Israel for 4,000 years. Modern immigration by Jews back to Israel started in the 1880s, and of course accelerated with the rise and defeat of the Nazis and the Holocaust. Many Jews bought their property from local owners. The history is that with the founding of Israel, the surrounding Arab nations urged local non-Jewish residents to flee so their armies could crush the fledgling state, and then those residents could return and reclaim everything. That didn’t quite work out.
A wall went up between Israel and the West Bank when suicide bombers from the Arab side launched a campaign of blowing up markets, cafes, and buses in Israel. Even so, there were attempts to set up two states side by side, agreeable to Israel but then refused several times by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Subsequent to Arafat’s reign, Palestinian leadership fragmented and there has been no unified leadership capable of or willing to negotiate.
At the time of the brutal attack on October 7, 2023 by Hamas and the rape, murder, and kidnapping of 1,200 Jews, dual citizens and foreign nationals, both Gaza and the West Bank were autonomous, and were not governed by Israel, though Israel maintained significant control over borders, movement, airspace, and security matters affecting both territories. Arabs and other minorities that live in Israel are fully integrated and enjoy full civil rights. They are included in all professions including positions as judges and legislators. There is no “apartheid,” as the left chooses to claim.
At the time of the Oct. 7 attack, it was estimated that Hamas had 10,000 armed soldiers. It is the prime responsibility of a sovereign government to protect its population and its nation’s existence, as well as to deter further atrocities against its people. Israel was confronted by Hamas’ strategy to hide among its own civilian population, and store its armaments in hospitals, schools, and under U.N. facilities. Hamas knowingly exposed Gazan civilians to danger. They dared Israelis to launch a counterattack, recognizing that if Israel did launch attacks into civilian territories, then the political left in Western countries would erupt in international condemnation and serve Hamas propaganda purposes. If Israel shrank from an assault on Hamas, it then invited future Hamas violence by demonstrating weakness. No, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies certainly are defensible; this is not genocide, and responsibility for Gazan civilian losses reside on the doorstep of Hamas.
Of course Mr. Blumenthal can’t resist weaving his loathing of Donald Trump into how he believes he represents Jewish thinking in America. Blumenthal wants us to think that Trump “is a friend to the government of Israel, not the Jewish people. His hateful rhetoric opened the door to antisemitism all over the U.S….It is shocking that American Jews who support Trump….can’t see that his actions mimic those of antisemitic people throughout history.” The antisemitism in the U.S. comes from the progressive left, not the right. The vilification of Israel and support of violence by Palestinians against Jews and Israel is the spawn of the left and its adoration of this favored victim group. No, it’s not Donald Trump.
Trump’s son-in-law and most trusted Middle East envoy Jared Kushner is an orthodox Jew. Trump’s daughter Ivanka has converted to Judaism and Trump’s grandchildren by Ivanka are Jewish. It was gratifying to have the Trump administration take American universities to task after they stood by and watched Jewish students assaulted and have their civil rights abrogated by left wing apologists for Hamas. There was no one else protecting campus Jews.
I will agree with Blumenthal about one thing: Trump did use the college unrest with an additional purpose: that was to take on the one-sided inculcation of anti-Western values by universities in America. Kudos.
Jewish thought in the U.S. is for sure not monolithic. Left wing harangues cannot claim to represent it. What I actually don’t fully understand is why some Jews continue to reside on the left, when to be Jewish these days is clearly on the wrong side of identity politics.
Jay Fleitman lives in Florence.