Netanyahu's 'Disastrous' Appeal and 'Obsession with Jewish Identity'

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz just published the piece "Netanyahu's Anti-Iran Campaign Doesn't Consider Disastrous Effects on U.S. Jews." The paper reports: "Netanyahu will be reaching out to the American Jewish community in a live webcast... Tuesday, reports said, addressing the [recent U.S.-Iran] agreement and its implications for Israel, the Middle East and the world. ... The webcast is hosted by American Friends of Likud, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations together with Jewish Federations across the nation."

REBECCA VILKOMERSON, rebecca at jewishvoiceforpeace.org, @jvplive Vilkomerson is the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, a leading national organization "inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just peace for all the people of Israel and Palestine. Jewish Voice for Peace has over 200,000 online supporters, over 60 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists."

ABBA SOLOMON, abbasolomon at gmail.com, @Abba_A_Solomon
Solomon is author of The Speech, and Its Context: Jacob Blaustein's Speech 'The Meaning of Palestine Partition to American Jews'. He said today: "As with valorizing American naval intelligence spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard, this decision shows the Israeli government's chronic confusion about the status of Jewish Americans. It's the end result of Zionism's 100-plus year assertion of Jews as a nationality.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu's reckless plan for an address to American Jews highlights the Israeli government's obsession with Jewish identity that has proved historically dangerous to gentile residents of Palestine, and is alien to the American ideal of shared citizenship regardless of race or creed.

"Together with his March address to the U.S. Congress on an unprecedented mission to destroy President Obama's Iran negotiations, Netanyahu is forcing re-examination by American Jews of the sympathy they've maintained for Israel because Israeli Jews are co-religionists.

"Netanyahu's behavior, the 48-year military occupation ruling over non-Israelis, and increasingly reported instances of Jewish extremist violence, are bringing the majority of American Jews -- if not major Jewish institutions yet -- to a wary relationship with the volatile, nuclear-armed State of Israel."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently wrote the piece "Iran has signed a historic nuclear deal -- now it's Israel's turn." See Institute for Public Accuracy news release: "Israel Silently Lapping Field in 'Mideast Nuclear Arms Race'."