Knesset panel debates American antisemitism without US Jews
In the wake of the deadly shooting October 27 at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Israeli lawmakers gathered for a special meeting for a discussion of antisemitism in America.
The dialogue at times grew heated. Politicians yelled at each other and argued over the definition of antisemitism, the occupation and the movement to boycott Israel, or BDS. Although, they didn’t hear from American Jews at the hearing.
Last week’s murder of 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue prompted not just anguish here and in the US, but a series of debates between and over Israel and the Diaspora. Some accused senior Israeli officials who attended commemorations in Pittsburgh of using the occasion to support US President Donald Trump. The officials suggested in response that American Jews were being unfair in holding Trump, a close ally of Israel, responsible for the climate in which the shooter became radicalized.
American and Israeli Jews also disagreed over what represents the biggest threat to American Jews: antisemitism on the far Right or virulent anti-Israeli behavior on the far Left.
This was the backdrop with which the Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee met on Monday. At one point, Mossi Raz of the left wing Meretz party angrily asked Committee Chair Avraham Neguise, who had spoken about antisemitism in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, if he thought that Raz was an antisemite since he supports a boycott of the settlements.
WHILE REPRESENTATIVES of the Jewish Federations of North America, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League attended the session, none of them addressed Israeli lawmakers. Instead, the committee heard from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which largely raises funds for Israel among evangelical Christians, and the Israeli Jewish Congress, or IJC.
“I don’t have any answers and moreover, if I did, do not think it is appropriate for me, for us, as Israelis, to dictate or offer solutions,” IJC Executive Director Arsen Ostrovsky told the lawmakers. “We need to be here first and foremost to show our unity and solidarity. When I spoke with colleagues, partners and other Jewish leaders in America, asking what message can we convey to you here today, the response was a resounding ‘Listen, listen, listen. Please listen to us.’”
While lawmakers did not hear from their American counterparts, several including Nachman Shai of Labor issued calls for Israeli action against antisemitism, stating that “the state must act and protect Jewish communities around the world.”
However, few if any concrete proposals were put forward. Several attendees, including government and civil society representatives, described the meeting as a waste of time, noting a few issues that did not come up: Trump’s failure to appoint a White House Jewish liaison and the long-promised and still delayed appointment of a US special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the government has been “very shy of criticizing the administration,” opposition Knesset member Ksenia Svetlova complained. She called on Netanyahu to be more outspoken on the tenor of the discourse in the US and other countries, especially in Eastern Europe.
“We have to be more firm in our statements regarding what is happening, what we expect,” Svetlova said. “Our government is just shutting up.”
While Israel cannot be expected to provide physical security for Jews abroad, it can use its good relations with counterparts to “pressure the relevant governments to provide more security, the sense of security, not only by putting armed guards and more weapons in these places, but by providing the sense that we are not going to let these maniacs continue what they are doing,” she said.
AMBASSADOR to Israel David Friedman who was unable to attend, sent the committee a letter calling the Trump administration “fully committed to combating antisemitism wherever it exists.” The FBI, he wrote, was cooperating with Israel to “identify and stop those who would terrorize or threaten Jewish people in the United States, whether those threats come from within the United States, from here in Israel, or elsewhere in the world.”
Former Knesset member Dov Lipman said he was taken aback by the lack of American speakers. He said that Israel should become involved and ask how it can help the US, rather than project and suggests what it needs instead. He added, “There needs to be a dialogue.”
Former US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro did not attend the meeting, but agreed saying,“The events of Pittsburgh and the aftermath underscore the importance of a dialogue between Israel and American Jews that is respectful and characterized by listening in which Israelis don’t insert themselves into American politics.”
Israelis, Shapiro said, should not get involved in criticizing specific policies, like the White House’s decision last year to remove the scrutiny of white supremacist groups from a government program designed to counter violent extremism. “These are issues Americans have to work out for themselves,” Shapiro said. “What is most helpful after Pittsburgh is solidarity, support and sympathy.”
Avital Leibovich, director of the American Jewish Committee in Israel, said that she and other Americans were not stifled in the Knesset. “In my experience, if they had wanted to say something, they would have,” she said of her colleagues.
Asked why his committee did not hear from the American Jewish community, Neguise replied that “whoever requested to speak” was given a platform, noting that at the end of the hearing an ADL representative had declined to make any remarks.
Lipman, however, thinks that the silence of the Americans may just be a sign that “they prefer not to be having this discussion with us right now, and that is also fair. I just think it’s critical that we be sensitive to be following their lead and not imposing ourselves on them in any manner.”
Asked about the Israeli response to the Pittsburgh attack, Rebecca Dinar, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Federations of North America, said that American Jews had “just experienced the worst attack in our history and cannot be distracted by the very real issues we are dealing with. Our elected officials and good people everywhere must work together towards the day when no community is vulnerable to such attacks,” she said. “Antisemitism, racism and xenophobia are contagions that infect societies and end in tragedy, not only for Jews, but for all humanity. No one in America should rest until the last remnant of such hatred is eradicated,” she said. (JTA)