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Kabbalists have long compared Purim to Yom (Ha)Kippurim, the Day of Atonement. Note the Hebrew pun: Yom Ki-purim, "a day like Purim."

This year, American Jewish leadership should apply this idea literally. They should use the occasion to declare mea culpa and apologize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli electorate.

What is our sin? It is having stood complacently — if not joining in actively — as the media and the world launched an orgy of delegitimization, mockery and accusations that Netanyahu was undermining the peace process.

Clearly, American Jewry has not yet learned the lesson of Purim as regards its own proper behavior.

The turning point in the Purim story comes when Esther finally recognizes her true, appropriate role. As Mordechai helps her see, the queenship must not become Esther's ticket to assimilation. If she forgets her people through identifying with the power structure, she will turn her back on the Jews she left behind and who are now endangered.

On the other hand, Esther is no longer the powerless, clinging young girl who followed her uncle's every instruction. If she continues to think of herself as a passive, dependent woman, she will not be able to undertake the dangerous court intrigue that alone could save her people from certain destruction.

Esther suddenly understands that she has a mission. She cannot pass the buck to her elders; she dare not save only herself. She must use her every wile and talent to duel Haman for the king's loyalty. The risk involved is enormous, for the rivalry can only end in one duelist's death.

Yet Esther faces a second test along the way. Having overthrown Haman, having received the highest honors and protestations of love that the king could offer, she still cannot let herself be lulled into complacency.

Had Esther simply relaxed, she would be saved and Haman would be dead. But the Jews would still be vulnerable and marked for destruction. Esther must stay focused. She must resist premature victory parties and the rush of recognition that is coming her way.

Armed by memory and empathy, Esther walks away from the heady atmosphere of social climbing and universal acclaim. She forces herself back into the supplicant's role.

Esther again invades the king's court, again risks being killed for arriving uninvited, again puts herself on the line as inseparable from her people.

Only then does she win an unequivocal decree from the king outlawing those who wish to kill the Jews. Thus are the Jews empowered, winning a victory that puts them beyond all threats.

American Jewry has to relearn the lessons of Purim.

Providence placed U.S. Jews in a remarkable situation: We are able to influence the foreign policy of the world's greatest power, the United States. With no exaggeration, the American-Israeli partnership — of which American Jewish activism was an indispensable part — effectively broke down the cordon of Arab exclusion and would-be genocide that once surrounded Israel.

This same partnership — and the uprising of Soviet Jews — helped undermine communism, the Jewish people's greatest enemy after Hitler.

Netanyahu was elected by a substantial majority of Jewish Israelis who feared that Israel was not getting sufficient security assurances. But when the Netanyahu government came to power, American Jewry dropped the ball.

Instead of standing behind the new government and sympathetically interpreting its new demands as a tightening of security to meet the concerns of the Israeli majority, American Jewry split.

A minority demanded a more radical and uncompromising rejection of the peace process. Another minority, mostly on the left, snubbed the Netanyahu administration with attitudes ranging from dismissive and patronizing all the way to venomous. The majority in the middle seemed to fall silent or resort to half-hearted speech.

It was almost as if many were embarrassed by Israel's "backsliding" and feared it would lose the nachas (joy) of universal approval and blessings from the establishment. Instead of seeing their mission as safeguarding Israel, American Jews identified with the complacent world.

Admittedly, the Netanyahu administration was inexperienced and did not signal its true goals in clear manner. Still, American Jews' silence — not to mention those virulent denunciations — was inexcusable. For months, the process of legitimizing the Jewish state was reversed: Israel was portrayed again as the imperialist conqueror and international outlaw.

Perhaps it is unfair to highlight a single attack — but Leonard Fein's denunciation of Netanyahu as both evil and stupid stands out as a classic example of the unbridled and unjustified abandonment of judgment. It was almost as if Esther forgot that Haman was overthrown but that the Jews were not yet out of danger.

Hamas continued to fight the Jewish state with terror; Egypt spread the poison of isolating Israel; Syria threatened war; Yasser Arafat continued to threaten violence even as he held up the Hebron agreement and, inexcusably and outrageously, the Palestinian police turned their guns on Israeli troops. Yet the overall public media message was that Israeli intransigence and Likud irredentism were the problem.

Now that the Netanyahu government has signed the Hebron accord, the balance has somewhat recovered. But American Jewry should be deeply ashamed that it allowed itself to be dragged along as fellow travelers in a one-sided campaign to put Israel in the dock again.

Until Israel is safely at peace, Mordechai's words should burn in our minds. We were placed here by Providence and given all its blessings — to enable us to use our leverage to assure the safety and peace of our fellow Jews.

The lesson of Purim is that a new day will be achieved only when we practice full solidarity with our fellow Jews around the world. And only when we feel full empathy for their concerns can we find the right moral balance and the right policy.