"The destruction of the historical unity of the American Jewish community"

Dana Beyer, retired physician, human rights activist, and Jewish American,  wrote an article for Huffington Post Blog on the division in the Jewish Community over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and over the negotiated nuclear deal with Iran.   This split is exemplified in the American Jewish community, on one side, by the well-financed, powerful AIPAC (American-Israel Political Action Committee) that supports Netanyahu and is spending tens of millions of dollars to oppose the Iran deal -- and, on the other side, by the more liberal J Street Group that is critical of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, supports President Obama's Iran nuclear deal, and is concerned that Israel is losing its moral high ground and its dedication to democratic principles.   

Beyer writes:  ". . . . I believe this Accord is . . . the best nuclear weapons control deal ever negotiated. Others are not even close, in terms of inspection and verification. . . .  Former Israeli security experts and leaders, free to speak on the subject, are also in support.

"The only people opposed are the Israeli government (with a parliamentary majority of one), the Republican Party and, basically, wealthy and right-wing Jewish Republicans. Their opposition boils down to . . . an 'existential threat.'  No evidence has been offered of this existential threat, other than the hyperbole of those who took America into its worst foreign policy debacle in Iraq a little over ten years ago . . . [and] the absurd statements of former Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . . . . 

"And once you have that undivided Republican support . . . salivating at another opportunity to hurt the President, it's an easy lateral step to get wealthy American Jewish support and the support of organizations that are run by wealth, such as AIPAC [that] do not represent the American Jewish community, . . .  They did not poll their members, and in some cases make Executive Committee decisions influenced by major donors. That they evince no insight into the potentially permanent damage they're doing to the community is absolutely stunning.

"Jewish Democrats will not forget. Jewish millennials . . .  will continue to drift away. What will be left in its place? Is this fake existential threat to a state that has never been stronger and has a deterrence force of nuclear-armed missiles submerged within striking distance of Iran worth the destruction of the remarkable historical unity of the American Jewish community? . . . 

"As I've observed the widening chasm [in this community] . . .  I've come to believe there is a more fundamental issue driving this debate. . . .

"The opponents [of the Iran nuclear deal] clearly don't care about the specifics of the deal , . . . .  [They fear a U.S. rapproachment with the theocracy in Tehran.]  They don't trust Muslims - any Muslims - and, therefore, believe that the only response to any such regime is either crushing sanctions or invasion. . . .

"They have become more belligerent as the world has become more supportive of diplomacy. . . .  The world is united for this Agreement today, with the exception of neo-cons at home who managed the Iraq War and right-wingers in Israel who supported it. That says a great deal about their motives. . . .

'That 'something' . . .  is the nearly half century of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and the growing realization . . .  that Israel has played, and is continuing to play, a major role in the deadlock. I'm not the first Jewish American to worry about the threat to Israeli democracy and its Jewish character and the growing divide between American and Israeli Jews, nor am I the only one to recognize the corrosive effect occupying another people has on a nation, and particularly on its youth . . . . 

"Netanyahu and his coalition know they're losing the American Jewish community . . . . Young American Jews will no longer tolerate this . . . .  The unity of the Jewish community is a thing of the past, and the deliberate fracturing of that unity by Likud and the extremists to their right was apparently worth a few more years of diversion and distraction from the underlying problem. The Iran situation has only delayed the inevitable. . . ."

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Beyer represents one point of view, but I sense that it is a growing one.   It is not just a matter of liberal vs right wing politics but a concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and the very state of democracy in Israel -- one might even say the very character and soul of Israel is at risk.

Ralph