Like with previous Diaspora experiences, the Jews of the United States have carefully struggled to fit in with their host society.
This wasn’t the first time. We’ve seen these efforts used by Jews in many parts of the world throughout our exile, seeking to minimize any possible contradictions in order to blend in with – and gain acceptance from – the local population in the countries they found themselves in.
But what’s been different about the Jewish experience in the United States is the simultaneous existence of a Jewish nation-state – something that may grant a deep yet abstract sense of security but also casts a constant specter of “dual loyalty” on the US Jewish community.
American Zionist thinkers, such as Louis Brandeis, have attempted to mitigate these contradictions, claiming that US and Israeli interests align. To support Israel in the US has essentially meant buying into the liberal narrative of American exceptionalism. As such, Israel must be presented as the “good guy” according to an Americentric ideological paradigm.
This, in turn, has impacted the behavior of the State of Israel.
Since as far back as the 1970s, Jerusalem has been careful to draw its national policies inside the lines of Washington’s regional agenda for West Asia – even when this has caused Israeli leaders to engage in obvious mental acrobatics when defining Jewish national interests.
So long as Jerusalem cooperated, American Jews could claim Israeli and US interests to be near identical and dismiss accusations of “dual loyalty” as ungrounded anti-Semitic canards.
The only problem with this arrangement is that the interests of a global hegemon (especially one that’s begun its historic decline) and a small Jewish nation-state surrounded by hostile forces cannot be in sync. And any responsible political leadership in Jerusalem will ultimately need to undermine Washington’s regional interests in order to protect Israel.
Enter Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud).
One can point to several reasons why Netanyahu’s popularity amongst US Jews has steadily decreased in recent years. But it should be clear that the core reason is that he threatens the American Jewish arrangement by constantly working to thwart American plans that endanger Israel.
In fact, every US president who has served alongside Netanyahu has schemed to remove him from office (only Bill Clinton has thus far succeeded).
The contradictions between Jewish and American interests are no longer concealable and US Jews will ultimately need to make hard choices.
On a recent episode of 60 Minutes, two prominent US Jews — Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — clarified where their loyalties lie. They proudly boasted of their role in pressuring Jerusalem to accept a deal against its own interests, lamenting that Netanyahu had made their work difficult.
These two court Jews were quick to call out Israel’s strike against Hamas on Qatari soil during US-brokered negotiations, deeming it “a betrayal.” A revealing choice of words.
Kushner, who’s married to US President Donald Trump‘s daughter, went a step further.
“I think he [Trump] felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing, and that it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
Kushner attempted to put forward the position that Trump is the ultimate defender of Israeli interests and that Netanyahu’s behavior risks endangering the prospects of a better future under a regional Pax Americana.
The message was clear. The more Israel subordinates itself to US interests, the safer and more prosperous it (and American Jews) will be. The more Jerusalem tries to assert its independence, the more it risks angering the emperor. In the Trump era, Jews are tolerated and protected – so long as they know their place.
The reaction of US Jews (and even many Israelis) to this deal has been telling.
Netanyahu is [perhaps unwittingly] forcing US Jews to make a choice.
The Jewish experience in the United States as we’ve known it might be coming to an end. The contradictions between Jewish interests and US imperial interests can no longer be smoothed over. Even Donald Trump, seen by the Diaspora Jews who are ostensibly strongest in their Jewish identities and national commitments as the most pro-Israel president in American history, is overtly forcing Israel into positions that threaten the Jewish future.
The good news is that Jews today have our own nation-state in the land of our ancestors, and can choose to drop the project of succeeding in American society in exchange for the far more rewarding project of rebuilding Hebrew civilization in the 21st Century – after nearly 2,000 years of exile and dispersion.
This choice is of course best expressed through aliya – returning home to the land of Israel.
And this choice has real material influence on the process of Israel’s liberation and redemption, because the more Jews decide that their loyalties lie with Israel and not with the US empire, the faster Israel’s strength and independence will increase and the weaker Washington’s chokehold on Jerusalem will become.
Agreed. And one of the first things we need to do is stop taking handouts because they never come without strings attached. We should buy when we can’t produce ourselves and make our own decisions as to what countries to deal with.