Who should count as Jewish in America?

What should be the relationship of American Jews to Israel?

These are the questions my dear friend Bob Mnookin addresses in his new book, The Jewish American Paradox.

I have known Bob since we were both 18 ( don’t even ask when that was) as I was his future wife Dale’s roommate as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan.

Before I continue, I should introduce myself to you. I'm Aviva Meyer, Vice Chair of the Americans for Peace Now Board of Directors.

In addition to my role on the Board, I have been volunteering as APN's interim CEO while we complete a strategic planning process, after which we will hire a permanent CEO to replace Debra DeLee, who retired recently.

I never thought I would find myself doing this after retiring from The New Israel Fund, but it’s a natural place for me to be. Like about 70% of American Jews, I am emotionally attached to Israel. Like many of the Jews that Bob describes, I am troubled by Israel’s continued military occupation of the West Bank and its discriminatory treatment of Palestinians. As an activist with Americans for Peace Now, I stand with the majority of Israelis, Palestinians, and American Jews described by Bob who favor a two-state solution as the best way to preserve Israel as both a democracy and a Jewish state.

Washington, DC – Following the Senate’s passage today of Senate Bill 1 (S.1), including the so-called Combating BDS Act, the bill will be transmitted to the House of Representatives.

APN strongly urges the House not to follow in the footsteps of the Senate. By blocking this legislation, the House will reject attempts to turn Israel into a partisan wedge issue, protect free speech, and highlight the distinction between sovereign Israel and West Bank settlements.  

APN rejects BDS against Israel. APN believes that as a tactic to challenge Israeli policies that are inconsistent with Israeli-Palestinian peace, BDS is the wrong approach. We view it as misguided, ineffective, and counterproductive. APN advocates boycotting settlement products and recognizes the legitimacy and potential value of other activism directly and narrowly targeted at settlements and the occupation. APN’s policy on BDS is here.

Despite our opposition to BDS, APN has opposed S.1 since it was introduced, and called on our activists to ask their senators to reject it. 

As we have stated previously, this legislation was designed to be a political trap. By bundling security aid for Israel with controversial legislation that violates civil liberties, the bill sets up senators to be labeled as “insufficiently pro-Israel” if they refuse to endorse the latter. In order to score political points, this bill will further erode the historic bipartisan consensus around a strong US-Israel relationship.

APN’s opposition to the Combating BDS Act is two-fold. First, this legislation erases the distinction between sovereign Israel and its settlements in the occupied West Bank by treating boycotts of the two as if these entities were one and the same. Second, it tramples on First Amendment rights by encouraging states to punish Americans who engage in boycotts. 

Federal district courts have issued injunctions in cases brought by the ACLU, ruling that laws in Kansas and Arizona violate the constitutionally protected right to boycott.

APN calls on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to advance legislation authorizing security assistance for Israel, without tethering it to legislation that is both anti-peace and anti-democratic.

This article is translated from the Israel Ma'ariv newspaper and appeared in the Israel News Today service on February 4, 2019. 

  The excitement surrounding the meeting between Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi that was supposed to have been held yesterday evening is superfluous. The two of them have met on several occasions beneath the radar, and have spoken with one another even more often. They don’t need to be introduced to one another. The 19^th chief of staff and the 20^th chief of staff don’t need mediators. Gantz wants Ashkenazi almost desperately. Ashkenazi, for the time being, isn’t willing to come on his own. Out of the entire group of generals and potential leaders in the center-left bloc, Ashkenazi is the only who isn’t motivated by his own ego or future status. He is willing to “come under the stretcher in the most difficult place,” in the best of the Golani Brigade’s tradition, but only if that is worth the effort. In other words: a large merger with Yair Lapid will be worth making that effort.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.