American Jews will 'divorce' Israel if it is at peace

Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss

Abe Foxman said something very smart the other day. There is a "continuous crisis" between American Jews and Israeli Jews over fundamental value differences, from occupation to freedom of worship, he said. Does that mean there is a "divorce" between the communities? No, said the former head of the Anti Defamation League said.

No I don't think there's a divorce. As long as Israel is under threat, as long as Israel is not secure, there's not a divorce. Halevai [would that it were so] we come to the day when there is peace - and if there is peace - that's when you are going to deal with the issue of divorce.

The idea that Israel needs conflict in order to bind American Jews to it ties in with something the Israeli centrist politician Yair Lapid said at the same security conference at which Foxman spoke: Israel is now in a permanent war. "In this new world, in which we live, there is no longer any separation between days of peace and days of war." 

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