Dividing US Jews

The tide against the influential wealthy American Jews is slowly rising in the United States, glaringly evident in the media and at some public conferences as the country prepares itself for a presidential election next year.

The New York Times noted in a front-page news story, titled “Debate on Iran fiercely splits American Jews”, that “in one small but influential segment of the electorate, Jewish voters, it [debate] has been brutal”.

It continues: “Differences of opinion among Jewish Americans may be nothing new, but the vitriol surrounding the accord between Iran and six world powers has become so intense that leaders now speak openly of long-term damage to Jewish organisations, and possibly to American-Israeli relations.”

A prominent American Jewish leader, Greg Rosenbaum, the chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council, declared: “We are on the verge of fratricide in the Jewish community and it has to stop.”

The focus in the US was on the draft deal that the so-called P5+1 nations (United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany) have negotiated with Iran over its nuclear arsenal.

At the same time, Egypt launched a diplomatic campaign that includes several Arab and Muslim states to subject Israel’s nuclear facilities to international supervision at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference in mid-September.

A projected resolution, titled “Israeli nuclear capabilities”, condemns Israel and demands that it open its reported nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Cairo is also urging an international conference that would set the basis for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, a position that the United States and Britain were initially against, in response to Israel’s urging.

In the wake of the Iranian deal, Israel may find it hard to defeat this Egyptian-led attempt.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia will be in Washington this Friday for his first meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House; it remains to be seen whether the issue will be on the agenda of the two leaders, since Saudi Arabia is in favour of the Egyptian-proposed resolution.

Moreover, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, has written a recent column in the London’s Guardian, titled “Iran has signed a historic deal — now it is Israel’s turn.”

On the other hand, it is very likely that during the visit, the Saudi monarch will also focus on the Palestinian-Israeli question, an issue that is gaining growing attention in the US.

For example, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, at their 74th National Convention last week, adopted a resolution calling for “Justice and peace for the peoples of Palestine and Israel”.

The resolution also endorsed the worldwide popular boycott, divestment and sanctions movement launched by the Palestinians “to pressure Israel to end its apartheid over the Palestinians just as similar tactics helped to end South African apartheid in the 1980s”.

Israel’s continued expansion into the occupied West Bank was the focus of clashes last Sunday as Palestinian Christians, led by their priests, marched in the Christian majority town of Beit Jala, close to Bethlehem, to protest the expansionist intentions of the Israeli separation wall that divides the Arab region from Israel, a step that has been considered illegal under international law.

A new book is worth reading, “The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza”, written by American author Max Blumenthal who was there when Israel attacked the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which remains virtually neglected a year after the war.

It is a “ripping, indispensable, and a first-hand account” of last year’s Israeli ferocious attack on Gaza that resulted in the death of 2,200 Palestinians, including over 500 children, and the destruction of 18,000 homes, an experience that Palestinians will not forget.

The writer is a Washington-based columnist.