Two unstated, troubling premises bubble just beneath the surface of Solomon Stevens’ essay, in which he posits that American Jews will face a “heartbreaking dilemma” in the November election — first, that Jews should put Israel’s interests ahead of America’s; and second, that Israel’s interests require unstinting acceptance of whatever Israel’s right-wing leaders do, no matter how antithetical their conduct is to American values and no matter how short-sighted they are in terms of Israel’s long-term survival as a democratic state.
With respect to the first premise, no matter how much American Jews want our country to support Israel, that support won’t have much value or meaning if American democracy implodes, and America no longer stands for something other than bluster, vindictiveness and grievance. And with respect to the second premise, uncritical acquiescence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fealty to Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and in Netanyahu’s goal of “total victory” in Gaza, regardless of the human cost, is most definitely not in Israel’s long-term interest.
Stevens describes President Joe Biden’s support for Israel as “lukewarm,” apparently because Biden’s policies don’t follow in total lockstep with Netanyahu’s. Stevens suggests that Biden’s support for Israel can shift “in the blink of an eye,” apparently because Biden has slowly, but consistently, increased the pressure on Netanyahu to think strategically rather than vengefully. For me, I’ll put my money on Biden over Trump 10 times out of 10 when it comes to genuine, heartfelt support for the Jewish people and for a Jewish, democratic state.
Richie Feder, Mount Airy
Mr. Feder hates Benjamin Netanyahu more than he cares about the fate of Israels. Which world leader, including Mr, Feder’s loving hero, Joe Biden, would do nothing in their power to protect their citizens from the savage barbarity of the Oct, 7th mini-holocaust. As usual, the left in the form of Mr. Feder, uses fear, fear of the far-right, which from Mr. Feder;s irrational radicalism, is the real threat to Israel and Jews.
Mr. Feder, it was the fascist Hamas barbarians who cooked babies alive in a stove, raped Jewish women to death, beheaded and burned children, women and men alive and performed the most heinous tortures since the Middle ages. And yet your hate is aimed not at Hamas but rather Netanyahu because of your petty politics.
Love to hear your justification for permitting these barbarians to survive and repeat their heinous acts over and over.