In Israel, disengagement preparations and protests are heating up as the August target date for the withdrawal from Gaza nears.
Adding to the volatile mix is a renewed terror campaign by Hamas aimed at undermining a weak, vacillating Palestinian Authority, and the continuing specter of violence by Jewish extremists determined to stop what they call the “expulsion.”
But in this country, American Jews are mostly tuned out.
Jews generally support the withdrawal, community leaders say; but the ambivalence of the left, the growing radicalism of the right, burgeoning domestic concerns and a general weariness with the Middle East’s woes have kept it a peripheral issue, at best.
That doesn’t mean the disengagement won’t have an effect. Already, the fight in Israel is adding to the deep divisions in the community over the best route to peace in the Middle East.
And depending on how disengagement plays out, it could accelerate another trend: the gradual erosion of direct pro-Israel advocacy by many Jews, a shift that threatens the foundation of the pro-Israel movement in this country.
Noise from the right
The most noise in the Gaza debate is coming from the right, where several groups, led by the Zionist Organization of America and Americans for a Safe Israel, have waged a fierce campaign against the pullout plan.
They have been encouraged by many in the Orthodox community, and — at least tacitly — by some mainstream Jewish groups that haven’t formally criticized the disengagement, but want to preemptively apply the brakes to any administration effort to crank up its road map for Palestinian statehood after the Gaza withdrawal.
But the ZOA and AFSI campaigns have gained little traction with Jews in the center. Most of them simply aren’t willing to believe that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a hawk’s hawk, is imperiling Israel’s security.
Fewer still are swayed by the overheated rhetoric of groups that liken Sharon’s actions to the Nazis, or by the growing prominence of far-right evangelical Christians in the anti-disengagement effort.
Traditionally, sympathy for the settlers’ movement has been limited in the broader Jewish community. The religious edicts against the Gaza pullout, the death threats against Sharon and the spasms of settler violence against Palestinians have only widened that gap.
Confusion on the left
The situation is more confused on the Jewish left, where most groups nominally support the plan; but their enthusiasm is blunted by fear that once completed, any new peace efforts will be put in “formaldehyde,” as a Sharon aide once stated.
Many Israeli peace activists and their supporters here hope the Gaza plan will create a precedent for further withdrawals. But they are deeply suspicious of Sharon’s intentions and a fear new terrorism will make it easy for him to shut the door on new negotiations after the last settler has been removed.
That ambivalence has kept Jewish peace groups from waging an aggressive campaign on behalf of the disengagement among the Jewish public. Instead, most peace activists are focusing on what comes next — the Bush administration’s road map — or on old issues such as Israeli settlement activity.
Most polls show that a solid majority of American Jews supports the plan. But those numbers may belie a more important reality, that most Jews, officials of major Jewish organizations believe, aren’t paying close attention.
In Israel, where the positive consequences of a successful pullout could be huge but also where the results of a botched one could be devastating, there’s hardly a soul who doesn’t have a strong opinion. In this country, only the committed activists are following the Gaza drama closely.
That reflects a worrisome trend for Jewish leaders: the growing detachment of many Jews from active involvement in the pro-Israel effort, as the generation that witnessed Israel’s dramatic birth and early fight for survival passes from the scene.
That pulling away has also been fueled by collective exhaustion with the seemingly endless cycles of Middle East strife punctuated occasionally by brief flickers of hope that are too quickly snuffed out.
The radicalism of some on the Jewish right and their Christian allies as the Gaza fight plays out, the inability of the left to articulate a clear position on the pullout and the wishy-washy approach to Gaza by centrist pro-Israel groups have been turn-offs for many, just one more excuse to move on to closer-to-home issues.
Better to just change the channel when Jewish ultra-nationalists are rioting or beating Palestinian teenagers senseless, or when Israeli peaceniks are recycling old accusations about settlements. Better to tune out when infuriated pastors call down the wrath of God on America for supporting the plan.
American Jews nominally support the Gaza pullout, with a vocal minority strongly opposed, but the reality is that many are tuning out as Israel faces one of its most wrenching moments in its short, traumatic history.
And that could turn out to be one of the most dangerous consequences of this summer of discontent.
Former Madisonian James Besser is Washington correspondent for the New York Jewish Week, the Baltimore Jewish Times and other leading Anglo-Jewish newspapers.
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