Violence in Mideast Galvanizes U.S. Jews

They were packed into the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria, 1,400 cheering Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces. When Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert vowed to destroy Palestinian terrorism, he got an ovation.

But one businessman, whose family donated $88,000 to the cause, was wringing his hands over Olmert’s vow that the army would conduct itself honorably. “I believe we should not hold back,” said Ronald Edelstein, belittling “this nonsense of morals, when our Arab colleagues have none.”

Across town, at a progressive synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Rabbi Rolando Matalo was torn between his longtime support for Palestinian human rights and his support for an Israel under siege.

“There is a definite void on the left,” said Matalo, who recently disavowed a controversial newspaper ad that praised dissident Israeli soldiers in the West Bank for not “following orders” and enforcing a “brutal occupation.”

These are tumultuous and difficult times for American Jews, who long have been divided over the proper path to peace in the Middle East. Although many have put aside their sharp ideological differences in recent weeks and joined publicly to support Israel, they continue to be ambivalent about a long-term solution.

Many American Jewish leaders say Israel’s current state of emergency--and growing signs of anti-Semitism around the world--have unified the faithful here in a way not seen since the 1967 and 1973 wars. Yet they concede that deep-seated disagreements on the left and right cannot be suppressed forever, making it unclear where the Jewish community goes from here.

This is a watershed moment, said Samuel G. Freedman, a journalist and author of “Jew Vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry.” But he cautioned that the U.S. philosophical conflict over Israel and its future reflects an age-old tension. “On the one hand, there’s been a universalist feeling among Jews that they need to respect human rights and work toward peace,” Freedman said. “Yet there’s also an embrace of tribalism--a feeling that we’re now under siege, that nobody in the world likes us, so it’s time to circle the wagons.”

Currently a Tilt Toward Tribalism

These feelings shift back and forth, but right now they’re tilting toward tribalism. A pro-Israel rally this month in Washington drew more than 150,000 people and grabbed national headlines. Thousands also have shown up at rallies in Chicago, New York, Detroit and other cities. A gathering April 21 in Encino attracted more than 40,000 people.

“I don’t recall a time in modern history when Jews have felt so vulnerable,” said Rabbi Martin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. “Let me tell you how bad the tension is: At wedding ceremonies, under the canopy, announcements are being made about events unfolding in the Middle East.”

This week, the center will be mailing out 600,000 “call to action” brochures that say “Israel is fighting for her life” and urge American Jews to contact government leaders and media organizations worldwide.

So far, the lobbying has generated results. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is sponsoring a resolution with Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) declaring that lawmakers are “gravely concerned that [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat’s actions are not those of a viable partner for peace.” Lawmakers have proposed other measures--some calling for sanctions against Palestinians or Syrians who support terrorism, others demanding a resumption of the peace process.

Rabbi Mark Diamond, executive vice president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, said debate over the West Bank invasion and the attack on the Palestinian Jenin refugee camp is overshadowed by “a strong sense that Israel needs us, that the world Jewry needs us, that this is our wake-up call.”

He said he has been overwhelmed in recent weeks by numerous calls from members of synagogues asking what they can do to help or where they can send a check.

“Clearly Israel is at war, and innocents suffer, and that is lamentable,” said Diamond, who recently returned from a trip to Israel with 12 other Los Angeles-area Jewish leaders. “But there is a profound moral difference here: Israeli people do not intentionally target innocents and civilians. That cannot be said of Palestinian bombers.”

As many Jews momentarily drop long-standing disputes and rally together, however, some voice doubts about the overall message being sent. Many who attended the Washington rally were stunned when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, one of the administration’s more hawkish Middle East advisors, was booed for endorsing a Palestinian state and saying innocent Palestinians were suffering.

Mainstream Jewish leaders sought to play down the crowd’s reaction, saying Wolfowitz’s comments were either misconstrued or clumsily phrased. But the fact remains that, for some American Jews, the current mobilization to support the state of Israel does not translate into a long-term endorsement of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s military tactics.

Indeed, doubts about long-held views abound on all sides.

“I have American friends who might have been moderate before on the issue of negotiating peace, but now they think: ‘Our whole survival is at stake, so let’s just destroy them all,’ ” said Victor Nye, a Brooklyn, N.Y., businessman who describes himself as a passionate supporter of Israel.

“I also know people who scratch their heads and say, ‘If you keep bombing Arabs, how can you expect to make a lasting peace with them?’ ”

As many Jewish leaders call for unity, some fear that U.S. voices critical of Sharon have been silenced and intimidated. Rabbi Michael Lerner, a Bay Area activist who helped establish the progressive Tikkun magazine, drew flak last month for sponsoring the controversial New York Times advertisement.

‘Those Who Question Are Seen as Traitors’

He says his core beliefs--including support for Israel and criticism of Palestinian terrorism--have been distorted by critics. But more important, Lerner rattles off recent e-mails he has received that reflect anxiety among some Jews that they will be ostracized for criticizing Sharon’s actions.

Some Jewish leaders, he charges, have created a “neo-McCarthyite sensibility,” where “those who question are seen as traitors.”

For others, the problem is more philosophical. Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance in Southern California, said 400 people recently crowded into a town meeting sponsored by his group. The topic: how to support Israel without condoning its military attacks.

At the same time, there has been an evolution among many progressive critics of Israel, a belief that they have been betrayed by Palestinian Authority President Arafat.

“I’ll confess, I was one of the most vocal who said we had to make peace with the Palestinians,” said Arthur Hertzberg, a longtime Jewish leader and prolific New York author. “But it’s become ever clearer to us on the left that he [Arafat] has no interest in ending this bloody quarrel.”

His political support for Israel is absolute, Hertzberg said, “but I won’t be euchred by Sharon. I do not support the long-term occupation of Palestinian lands, because this would be morally indefensible.”

Leaders on the right raise different moral issues, saying there is no equivalency between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian suicide bombers in Tel Aviv.

“We’ve seen planes crash into the [World Trade Center] twin towers and kill thousands, and it’s just a short step to people wrapping themselves in explosives and coming into American cities,” said Rabbi Avi Weiss, a prominent New York activist. “Israel must defend itself, just as America surely would.”

As the U.S. debate rages, many observers say it is similar to the political crosscurrents in Israel. There, activists on the left and the right continue to disagree, even though they have been united by a sense of emergency.

But there is one telling difference: A broad majority of Israelis now endorse a middle ground between peace at any cost and war, according to J.J. Goldberg, editor of the Forward, a New York-based populist newspaper that dates to 1897. Strength through compromise, as the policy is known, calls for Israeli forces to withdraw to a defensible line--and for Israel to fortify itself against future attacks with barbed wire, massive troop deployments and other buffers.

“You don’t hear many Americans talking about the idea of separation, even though it’s a widely held view in the Israeli establishment,” Goldberg said. “And I think this omission has left the U.S. debate impoverished. You could argue that many Jews in this country aren’t getting the full story.”

Or maybe they’ve seen too much. Numbed by images of horror and drowning once again in a debate about the Middle East, American Jews like Nye are torn, even as they support the state of Israel.

“If a suicide bomber came into Brooklyn and killed children here, I would be terrified, I would be outraged, like anyone else,” he said.

“But as a Jew, I wonder why this problem can’t be solved. If Arafat and Sharon sat down and had to show each other pictures of their grandchildren, how could they possibly want to kill them? We’re all human beings.”

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Times staff writers Stephanie Chavez in Los Angeles and Nick Anderson in Washington contributed to this report.