Emperor has no clothes
Mainstream Jewish groups driven by need to placate leftist donors
Michael Fenenbock
Published: 05.07.10, 00:03 / Israel Opinion
AIPAC is a parody of itself. AIPAC's donor base is left-wing Democrats. Its chairman is a dyed in the wool supporter of President Obama.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is an antic joke. Their chairman has raised millions for various Obama campaigns and projects. In a moment of prideful boast he publicly assured those of us with doubts that President Obama would be "the first Jewish president."
The emperor has no clothes.
Of course, the actions of mainstream Jewish organizations and their leadership are not necessarily intended to benefit the Jewish state. They are most often driven by the need to placate a left-wing donor base and by a fear of losing their insider status.
It must also be noted that when it comes to mainstream Jewish leadership there is no recall mechanism. These are more or less elitist appointments. Although they make decisions that affect the entire Jewish world, we “hoi polloi” are never part of the process.
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It’s certainly no over-exaggeration to say President Obama and his administration have played the mainstream Jewish leaders like a violin.
The scion of a wealthy cosmetics manufacturing Jewish family recently published a full-page open letter of complaint to President Obama about the recent Biden brouhaha. He paid to have his letter appear in several major American newspapers.
In this letter he called for understanding... but also took time to reaffirm Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution and concluded by congratulating the president for his sincerity on issues concerning Israel and peace.
I think the two-state solution will have disastrous consequences and I believe that President Obama’s hostility is deep seated and ideological.
The emperor has no clothes.
Equally demoralizing, the Israeli prime minister is guilty of listening to these voices. Fearing to antagonize the Obama administration and offering bits and pieces of appeasement he has allowed himself to become a caricature… insisting on a recent American Sunday news broadcast that there had been no disagreement between the Obama Administration and Israel.
It is common knowledge in Washington DC that, at the bidding of the president and pressure from mainstream Jewish leadership, the prime minister quietly agreed to halt building in east Jerusalem.
He does this even as the Obama Administration makes no bones about desiring a more malleable government in Israel, encouraging his domestic political opponents to all but overthrow his government.
The emperor has no clothes.
Imposing a two-state solution is at the heart of the Obama foreign policy; for the president, there has been no downside to his assault on the Jewish State. Jewish voters have not abandoned him to any significant degree and the Administration has suffered no meaningful political damage as a consequence of their policy.
Voter revolt
President Obama’s hostility toward the Jewish State far from causing him political angst has actually advanced his cause domestically by reinforcing his pro-Islam, anti-Israel bonafides with his core political base on the American Left. And the American Left controls the Democratic Party.
He can, however, be caused political pain. If we have the will and the strategic intelligence to align ourselves with his opposition.
There is afoot in America a red-hot, boiling opposition to President Obama, his domestic and foreign policies and the direction he and the political establishment have taken the country. It is revolt engined by a tsunami-like wave of populist sentiment. And it has a big, and very influential, megaphone. Talk radio, Fox News and a maze of popular of blogs. Including one influential blog that emanates from Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem.
It is a voter revolt that is overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Jewish State.
Mainstream American Jewish leadership fears this voter revolt because they have closed off any mechanism for understanding it. They are addicted to insider politics. They cannot conceptualize an “outsider” voter revolt. Even when faced with polling that tells us nearly half of all Americans identify with the voter revolt; the mainstream Jewish leadership remains in denial.
AIPAC is a case study in denial. Oblivious to American public opinion, AIPAC in the wake of recent events gathered Congressional signatures on a meaningless boilerplate letter to Secretary Clinton.
The political reality in America is that every opinion poll tells us the American public holds members of Congress in utter contempt. This obvious fact never even entered AIPAC’s judgment.
The comedic coup de gras to AIPAC’s Congressional effort came a few days later when ABC News produced this headline about AIPAC letter signer John Kerry, “Kerry says Syria is committed to Mideast Peace.” You cannot make this stuff up.
The emperor has no clothes.
An enthusiastic friend asks, what if the AIPAC staff resigned in a massive show of solidarity. What if the number two guy at Conference of Presidents resigned in protest and declared his intention to lead a real opposition to the Obama Administration hostility toward Israel.
It won’t happen. But here’s what will happen.
Encouraged by the US president, the world - beginning with the UN, followed by Europe, the Muslim countries, Latin America and Canada - will soon unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem.
Unless we thrown a spanner in the spokes.
The 2010 American elections are ahead. We have friends. They are part of the voter revolt. We need to join with their cause. Bring our cause to the forefront of their revolt. And recognize their leaders as genuine and real.
Because their fight is our fight.
Michael Fenenbock is a veteran American political consultant. He and his wife Daphne Weisbart live in New York, but spend a great deal of time in Jerusalem
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