Let me give an example of why this station matters.
I offered a Jewish publication an article based on commentary I delivered to this WAMC audience before the fund drive, that Netanyahu was endangering the future of Israel, doing harm to American Jewry, and we, Americans, should object. John Walbridge calls it The Slow Suicide of the State of Israel. I think Trump’s latest threats make the situation worse but I want to focus on the inadequacy of the coverage by the Jewish press because its misrepresentation of the views of American Jews has poisoned our politics and fueled nonsensical violence.
The editor to whom I offered my commentary wrote back, “Much I agree with here, especially how Israel has squandered the moral patrimony of its birth….”
But, he added, that “ignores the fact that IDF attacks schools, hospitals, etc. because that is often where Hamas fighters are. Israel knows this is a PR disaster--as does Hamas--but can't afford to let these be free zones that function as safe houses for Hamas militants.” For him, that meant that the danger of Israel’s tactics for Israel’s survival couldn’t be made in his publication because the cruelty of Hamas, toward both the Gazan and Israeli populations, superseded everything.
Three American presidents agreed with my warning. Prime Minister Begin relayed Carter’s warning to the Israeli Knesset that he couldn’t tell Congress to “‘Continue providing Israel with assistance’ when I am not sure that you really want peace." Begin couldn’t refuse Carter without blowing up the Camp David summit. So he continued: “I knew … Israel would[n’t] be able to withstand it…not in the U.S., not in Europe, not before the Jews of the United States…Israel could not have stood…facing the entire world.”
Netanyahu acceded to the recent truce when both Biden and Trump made clear the US and much of the world wouldn’t support Israel’s attacks.
Trump’s subsequent proposals substitute America for Israel. His offer to take over the ethnic cleansing of Gaza invites Gazans and Palestinians to renew attacks here. No one wins that conflict. We’re not immune to terrorism, as Timothy McVeigh’s 1995 attack on the Oklahoma City federal building, and the 1993 and 2001 foreign attacks on the World Trade Center, proved. As a Jew, I don’t want the blame. Use of force by Trump will lead to damage in both Israel and the US.
I and others have been trying to explain those realities to this audience, and to explain that much of the American Jewish audience does not support Israeli behavior, that major national organizations of American Jews have spoken out in opposition to Netanyahu’s [quote] “oppressive treatment” of the peoples of the region and have [quote] “demand[ed that] the rights, well-being, and national aspirations of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank are upheld” [close quote].
Without coming out of the Jewish press, it will falsely appear to many as if Jews are solidly behind what Israel has been doing. This station helps counteract our misimpressions about each other much as it counteracts other nonsense wherever it comes from.
The editor, nevertheless, ended his rejection of my commentary by saying: “alas, criticism of Netanyahu only gets you so far...”
Perhaps, but it matters. Telling Israel that American support is unconditional invites behavior that America cannot and will not support. It’s a disaster for Israel and the US as well as reviving antisemitism.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.