When Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the 2010 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., next week, he will be received with great enthusiasm.
The audience will stand up and applaud. The youngsters will cheer. The venue will settle down only once the chairman repeatedly appeals for quiet. The Israeli prime minister will feel like a rock star; like a conqueror.
The loudest cheering of all will be from the boys in the knitted skullcaps; the descendant of Orthodox families. Meanwhile, the wealthy individuals on stage will grace Netanyahu with the warmest embraces; most of them are major Republican Party donors. The clash between Netanyahu and the Obama administration is their finest hour. Israel’s confrontation with Obama is their entry ticket to the non-Jewish world of Republican America.
The occasion will be intoxicating, but possibly deceptive, as well. For a moment, the prime minister of Israel will forget where he came from and whose interests he represents. The sobering-up process shall come later.
Israel is gradually losing the support of the liberal camp within America’s Jewish community. This is a process that did not start with Netanyahu, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman or Shas Party leader and Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, whose department released the news of the 1,600 planned units in east Jerusalem.
This is a process that has many reasons — and not all of them have to do with the policy of Israeli governments or with the occupation. Many members of this camp stay away not only from commitment to Israel but also from commitment to Judaism.
Liberals, who could be characterized as moderate leftists in Israeli terms, constitute an overwhelming majority of America’s Jewish community. They have decisive influence on the Democratic Party.
Netanyahu can take as much pleasure as he wants to in the support of the Jewish Right, yet he cannot change the political facts: Obama will be in the White House for at least three more years, with a group of liberals surrounding him, some of them Jewish.
The loud applause that will welcome Netanyahu at the AIPAC conference will not help him with his future contacts vis-à-vis the White House. They may even cause damage. This is precisely what happened to Netanyahu in his previous term in office, vis-à-vis Bill Clinton and his liberals.
Hence, Netanyahu would do well to come up with a good excuse and stay at home. Even worn-out statements that are taken for granted in respect to Jerusalem’s unity will be received as a provocative act by Washington’s liberal camp; stabbing the president in the back at a trying time.
American Jews, who invested years of their lives in working on behalf of Israel, seem to be talking of fatigue with Israel and with the whole Middle East. At times this weariness comes from their children: The children find it difficult to comprehend why their parents devote so much effort for the sake of a remote Middle Eastern state that after 62 years is still unable to resolve its own problems.
For 90 percent of Israelis, the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo is no different than Tel Aviv.
For the rest of the world, it is no different than Ramallah.
Few have the energy to examine the details in depth and understand the differences between Sheikh Jarrah (a predominantly Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem) and Gilo (a residential district on the outskirts of Jerusalem), or between Silwan (a mostly Arab neighborhood near the Old City) and Pisgat Ze’ev (a residential neighborhood in northeastern Jerusalem).
The result is a rift.
If a columnist like the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, whose love and attachment to Israel requires no verification, portrays the Israeli prime minister as a drunken driver in need of rehabilitation, we have a problem. Friedman is the most authentic spokesman of Israel friends within America’s liberal camp.
Netanyahu is not a drunk driver. It would be more appropriate to liken him to one of those elderly drivers who take up two lanes for fear of making a mistake, while driving the motorists behind them crazy and prompting them to get into accidents. When he signals left, he turns right. When he signals right, he just drives on.
Instead of receiving applause in Washington, perhaps he would do well to take up a defensive driving course in Jerusalem.
Nahum Barnea writes for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth and for the media-critic Web site Ha’Ayin HaShevi’it. This piece appeared on Ynetnews.com.