Israel's bloody enforcement of its Gaza Strip blockade has exposed a growing division among American Jews. AIPAC, the traditional Jewish lobby, played up five Islamic "Radicals" aboard ship. A competing lobby group, J Street, focused on the blockade's impact on Palestinians. Even before Israel's defense of the blockade, a lengthy article in the New York Review of Books created a firestorm with an attack on mainstream Jewish organizations in the US, and a recent survey shows young, liberal American Jews are unwilling to support Israel right or wrong. Is Israel failing to hear an important message? What are the implications for the Obama Administration and US policy?
A Rift Grows in the American Jewish Community
Credits
Guests:
- Peter Beinart - editor-at-large of Jewish Currents, author of The Beinart Notebook Substack, professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York - @PeterBeinart
- J.J. Goldberg - Editor of Forward
- Philip Klein - Washington Examiner - @philipaklein
- Anshel Pfeffer - Ha'aretz - @AnshelPfeffer