PrintSeptember 26, 2010
The Complacency and Complicity of America's Jews
Recently, I had a conversation with an Israeli cousin who asserted that all the world's Jews should live in Israel. Recognizing that there is no other place in the world in which Jews are truly welcome, he argued that if all the Jews of the Diaspora actually lived in Israel, it would be much easier to contain the threat of annihilation through a larger population of people willing and able to fight for that country's survival.
I disagreed. I argued that now more than ever, it is extremely important to have outspoken Jews living in the United States. Israel needs allies willing to support her, not only in military conflicts, but also in the public relations war that she faces on a daily basis as vicious anti-Semites continually demonize her and try to destroy her.
However, another Jewish New Year passed with hundreds of liberal rabbis across America participating in Obama's sales pitch known as his High Holiday conference call. Many of these rabbis heeded the president's orders and took his message to their congregations on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. I have to wonder if American Jews offer any practical support to Israel's future survival.
Last year, Obama hosted a conference call with nine hundred American rabbis during which he stated, "We are God's partners in matters of life and death," and then gave them marching orders to sell Obamacare to their congregants. After my rabbi followed the president's orders and pronounced in his Yom Kippur sermon that it was God's commandment to support universal health care, I contacted him to discuss his sermon and its rationale. My rabbi suggested that perhaps I should find another shul -- so I did. But the very disturbing aspect of this incident is that the reformed Jewish movement is supposed to be the most welcoming -- the sect of the Jewish faith passing the least amount of judgment and having the widest open arms.
So, it was somewhat comforting to hear that this year, Obama only had six hundred rabbis who participated in his High Holiday call. I was hopeful that this decrease of 33% was due to his abysmal record with regard to Israel and that the majority of the participating rabbis were simply showing respect and would not act the part of the sheeple they had in the previous year. Apparently I was wrong.
At a conservative shul in Baltimore, the same rabbi that earlier in the year used his sermon as an occasion to call Israel an "occupying entity" and later question Israel's biblical right to the land of Canaan used his Yom Kippur sermon to explain to the congregants why they should support the Ground Zero Mosque -- just as Obama instructed. And if one political issue were not enough, this rabbi also told the thousand or so seated in the audience that they must support the administration's opposition to the Arizona immigration law.
Liberal American Jews have blurred the line between complacency and complicity, which will have devastating consequences on Israel's future. They are complacent because they blindly voted for the most anti-Israel president in history, ignoring the very clear warning signs prior to his election [i].
These same people are becoming complicit with Obama's Mideast policies. These policies have been harmful to Israel and its Jewish population since Obama's first day in office, when he phoned Mahmoud Abbas. Obama attempted to force a peace process when one is not possible. America's Jews quietly sit by when Time Magazine publishes a cover story entitled "Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace" that follows the same old "blame Israel" mantra. Jews continue to read The New York Times and The Washington Post despite the anti-Israel bias so clearly evident in the reporting. American Jews sit in shuls with sheeple rabbis who obey the marching orders of an anti-Israeli president -- all without uttering a word.
In one very popular synagogue in Manhattan, I'm told the rabbi received a standing ovation after his sermon in support of the Ground Zero Mosque. How many of those congregants are aware of the statements and views of the imam who is the proponent of the Ground Zero Mosque (as well as a representative of the U.S. State Department)? Are they aware that Imam Rauf, the man who refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization and who has direct ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, also rues the day Israel was created, or that he supports a one-state solution in the Mideast that would lead to the eventual destruction of the Jewish State? Do they know that he stated, "In a true peace it is impossible that a purely Jewish state of Palestine can endure ... In a true peace, Israel will, in our lifetimes, become one more Arab country, with a Jewish minority"?
Many are familiar with Rauf's claims that America was an accessory to 9/11 and that Osama bin Laden was made in the U.S., not to mention his statement that the U.S. has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda. Yet I wonder how many American Jews are aware that as a principal trustee (and son of the founder) of the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, Rauf employed an imam who, just days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, preached that only the Jews could have been responsible for such atrocities and that if Americans were aware of this, "they would have done to Jews what Hitler did." Will a like-minded imam be given a bully pulpit if the Ground Zero Mosque moves forward?
Furthermore, a rabbi taking one of the only days of the year at which he has a full congregation in attendance, the holiest day of the year, on which any number of meaningful topics could be discussed, and using that opportunity to rile up opposition to the Arizona immigration law is abhorrent. I ask again, are the same Jews who sat there and listened to this man preach the words of Obama rather than the words of God aware that Hezb'allah has not only built up its presence across Latin America, but is on our southern border, posing a threat to our national security? Are they aware that while all infidels are generally targets of terrorist attacks, Jews happen to be a particular favorite of this Iranian proxy that is obsessed with Israel's destruction?
Just as German Jews became so integrated into German society pre-WWII that they did not see the impending danger, American Jews have become so integrated into American society that they care little for the survival of their Jewish homeland. They have been complacent about the growing danger confronting Israel, but now they are becoming complicit. By remaining silent while their rabbis conduct the government's bidding, by refusing to walk out of their shuls or cancel their newspaper subscriptions, and by remaining ignorant on the issues of the day that impact the very survival of the Jewish people, American Jews are aiding and abetting the enemy.
And there is simply no excuse for this. This is not 1938. We live in a day and age where information is at our fingertips, the news cycle goes on 24/7, and our responsibility is huge. Our children are indoctrinated in liberal classrooms, but that does not mean that we must allow our liberal rabbis to indoctrinate us as well. American Jews have a choice to make -- each and every one of them. Perhaps in the coming months, they will realize that Israel's very survival is at stake and that Israel needs their support.
There is a war being waged -- a war for the hearts and minds of the American Jewish people. Will the Sharia-supporting rabbis and Obama government win, or will the Jewish people survive the onslaught of liberal indoctrination that may lead to their demise? I fear we will soon find out.
[i] Prior to his election, it was clear that an Obama administration would be hostile to Israel. Details came to light concerning Obama's intimate associations with Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and Rashid Khalidi. He surrounded himself with pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel advisors including Robert Malley, Samantha Power, Daniel Kurtzer, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Tony McPeak. And while Obama proved his political acumen when he spoke before an AIPAC conference promising an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and completely reversing his position before a Muslim audience the very next day, he also gave a glimpse into the meaningless nature of his lofty rhetoric and empty promises.
