What Can Diaspora Jews Do To Support Israel’s Protest Movement? Plenty.

Three prominent writers and advocates for Israel insist support for the Jewish State today means resisting the government. And they offer practical advice on how.

A weekly ritual: An estimated 7 million people have attended the 35 weeks of protests throughout Israel against proposed changes in the judicial system.

If diaspora Jews do not sufficiently support the current protest movement in Israel today, "we can no longer call ourselves one people,” according to prominent American-Israeli author Daniel Gordis, known for his loyal defense of the Jewish State.

“I am begging diaspora Jews to be on the right side of history” and not remain silent at this perilous moment, he asserted during a webinar with fellow authors and lecturers Yossi Klein Halevi and Matti Friedman on Monday.

The event was sponsored by The Times of Israel and the advocacy group SOS (Save Our Shared Home).  It attracted a large number of viewers from Western countries around the world and was moderated by Amanda Borschel Dan, who hosts Times of Israel podcasts. 

There are those who say American Jews should stay out of Israel’s internal conflicts, and that the huge, unprecedented protest movement against the Netanyahu government is damaging the image of the Jewish State around the world. But Gordis, Friedman and Halevi, three of Israel’s most respected and best-read writers among American Jews, offered a passionate plea for diaspora Jews to take action now against a government in Jerusalem they described in near-apocalyptic terms as a threat to the very existence of the state as we know it and to the future of diaspora Jewry. 

Not only is it appropriate for diaspora Jews to speak out now, they asserted, but not to do so would be immoral, given the stakes. 

Time to take a stand: webinar participants Yossi Klein Halevi, Amanda Borschel Dan, Matti Friedman and Daniel Gordis.

Gordis, a fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem, has long cautioned American Jews about speaking out against a range of controversial Israeli policies, noting that Jerusalem’s form of democracy, based on its unique circumstances in dealing with hostile neighbors, is not the same as that of the U.S. political system.  

But this crisis is different, he stressed. He is speaking out now, he explained, because “this [protest movement] is not about a change in policy on a specific issue. It’s about a fundamental change in the rules of the game” that would, if the current government has its way, result in an Israel no longer a democracy.

He said the weekly rallies around the country are “an extraordinary demonstration of the deep love people have for this country, and we want to feel we are not alone,” adding: The demonstrations are “as much for diaspora Jews as for us.”

If diaspora Jews do not respond to the challenge, Gordis said, “we can no longer call ourselves one people.” He urged his audience to ask themselves how they will respond ‘when your children and grandchildren years from now ask ‘how could you remain silent?’”

Lebanon’s Fate Could Be Israel’s

Friedman, who made aliyah from Canada and joined the IDF while still a teenager, spoke about how his military experience as a young soldier in Lebanon in the late 1980s, almost a decade into Israel’s presence there, affected his political views. Spending much of his time at a remote outpost in Lebanon, he said he witnessed how a once-thriving country “fell apart” as militia groups controlled much of the land and political leaders gave in to corruption. 

“I didn’t realize then that this could happen to Israel, but it is happening now,” he said. “It’s not a theoretical threat. The power of the state has been parceled out” to radicals and messianists. “We have to stop this now.”

He said the issue is not the judicial overhaul. Rather, “it’s the rise of power in ways that would have been unthinkable in even the recent past; the overhaul is the tool to remove any obstacles” from the coalition’s agenda by weakening the High Court, the only body that could block the prime minister and the Knesset he controls.

“Everyone who loves and supports Israel has to stand up and say which Israel they support,” Friedman said.

When Corruption Meets Zealotry

Klein Halevi, whose award-winning books and prolific writings on Israel have sought to present both sides of the conflict “in the search for the essential truth,” he said, has concluded there is only one side to support in the current struggle for Jewish ethics and unity. He compared the crisis today to the destruction of the Temple in ancient times, attributed by the rabbis to sinat chinam, hatred for one’s fellow Jew. The government in Israel has become the “meeting point of corruption and zealotry,” Klein Halevi charged, and may well lead to “the end of Start-Up Nation … and the mass emigration of despair by those who are precisely the backbone of Israeli society.”

A fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and advocate of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, Klein Halevi said that Jews today “need to learn to speak two languages simultaneously.” One is the language of “unequivocal support for democratic Israel and push back on those who criminalize Israel.” The other is the language of “moral credibility,”  to oppose those coalition leaders in the government who espouse racist, homophobic views and “who would turn us into the state our enemies say we are.”

Why Speak Out Again?

The three writers first spoke out seven months ago at what they called “a moment of acute crisis" in Israeli history via a jointly written, widely distributed “Open Letter to Israel's Friends in North America.” It noted that each had made aliyah from North America, raised children in Israel and defended the Jewish State against its enemies. They wrote that they were not alarmists “but this is a moment for alarm, and one in which the voices of Israel’s friends must be heard.”

They chose to join forces again on Monday’s webinar, seven months later, when polls indicate Israelis feel increasingly concerned about the future of the state as the political deadlock remains. An estimated seven million people from the Israeli left, center and “soft right” have participated in non-violent weekly protests over the last 35 weeks – an astounding number – but the standoff is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

As a number of prominent national Jewish organizations continue to stay out of the political battle, Klein Halevi acknowledged his deep disappointment at the “lack of response to a threat” he compared to the first days of the Yom Kippur War, when Israel’s very survival was precarious. 

He cautioned against those who would withhold donations to vital Jewish institutions, though, citing the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, as examples of the essential communal infrastructure. “There is only one Federation [network] and one AIPAC and we need them,” he said, implying his reluctance to criticize them publicly. Neither has spoken out in direct criticism of the Netanyahu government to date. 

Questioned about this neutral position in a recent interview, Eric Fingerhut, the CEO of JFNA, told Yehuda Kurtzer, co-president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, that all Jewish federations are mandated to offer “unconditional and unbreakable support for Israel, no matter what,” as an essential component of their efforts to serve Jewish life. He skirted Kurtzer’s question of whether that policy would hold if Israel moved from a liberal democracy to another form of government, saying that would be “an existential moment.”

In the meantime, Gordis, Klein Halevi and Friedman sought to give diaspora Jews not only the political and moral rationales for opposing the current Israeli government, but practical suggestions for getting involved.

Among those cited:

. the need for charitable funds to support the work of the grassroots protest movement in Israel.

. participation in protest rallies on Sundays in many diaspora communities, often organized by Israelis living abroad.

. organizing study groups, informally or through synagogues, JCCs, etc. to become more aware of the complex issues at play in Israel, legally and politically.

. inviting organizers of the Israel protest movement to speak at local community programs in North America.

. for those planning to visit Israel, attending a protest to see for oneself how inclusive they are in attracting so many strands of Israeli society, all waving the Israeli flag and speaking out passionately for what Zionism means to them.

Matti Friedman said that when he is feeling down about the political chaos, he attends a protest for inspiration. “Though we Israelis disagree a lot,” he said, “we want to preserve the Israel envisioned in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, rooted in Jewish history and proclaiming rights for minorities. That’s the state we want. Not the state being proposed by this government.”