For the past couple of years, the line pushed hard by the American Jewish anti-Zionist Left — the ones that love Israel so much they want to destroy it in order to save it, Peter Beinart, J Street, Thomas L. Friedman, Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Reform Movement, the New Israel Fund, etc. — has been that American Jews have become distanced from Israel because it has moved sharply to the right, abandoning democracy and liberal values, becoming a racist theocracy.

For example, here’s Friedman in December:

Israel’s friends need to understand that the center-left in Israel is dying. The Israeli election in January will bring to power Israeli rightists who never spoke at your local Israel Bonds dinner. These are people who want to annex the West Bank. Bibi Netanyahu is a dove in this crowd. The only thing standing between Israel and national suicide any more is America and its willingness to tell Israel the truth. [emphasis in original]

And here is Daniel Sokatch of the New Israel fund just a week ago:

If the polls are correct, on January 22, Israelis will elect the most right-wing government in Israeli history. It is likely to be even more hardline than the current coalition, on whose watch Israel’s relations with the Obama administration soured over disagreements over Iran, Israel’s expanding settlement enterprise, and the moribund peace process.

Oops.

How many times do I have to say it? These idiots do not have a clue about what Israelis think, what their priorities are, and of course how they vote.

This election was anything but a victory for the right wing. The Likud, perhaps in part because of the replacement of some relatively moderate members of its list with those farther to the right, ended up with far fewer seats than predicted. Although the new Bayit Hayehudi party — among those, in Friedman’s words, “who want to annex [parts of] the West Bank” — did remarkably well, it too did less well than expected.

The big surprise was the second-place finish of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party. Centrist, concerned with social issues — including Haredi draft-avoidance — and the cost of apartments and food. So much for theocracy.

Interestingly — at least, it should be interesting to Sokatch, Friedman, Beinart, et al — there was little discussion during the campaign of “the peace process,” “the occupation” and the “two-state solution” with which they are obsessed. Everybody in Israel, with the exception of the European- and NIF-funded Left, knows that the “peace process” is dead because there is simply no common ground between the Israeli need for security and the Arab desire to destroy Israel.

No, the issues uppermost in their minds are Iran — and here, most Israelis have confidence in Netanyahu — and questions of social and economic policy.

In other words, after survival, Israelis are concerned with how best to improve the functioning of their democracy, how to share the burdens and distribute the benefits of their free society — exactly the areas in which the patronizing liberal American Jews think that they know better than the ‘primitive’ Israelis!

Now that they have been proven wrong, will they shut up? Of course not. But they should. As a person who has lived in Israel and the U.S., who today is close to children and grandchildren living in Israel and therefore can compare the two systems, I can say that I am far more worried about the future of democracy in the USA than in Israel.

Yes, Israel lives in constant threat of war, but most of its people have better access to good health care than Americans do. Yes, the cost of apartments is astronomical, but I am confident that this will shortly change, while the goal of home ownership is moving farther away for many Americans. And our political process…

Letter to Daniel Sokatch, Rachel Liel, and board members New Israel Fund

February 8, 2012

Dear Daniel, Rachel and other members of the NIF Board,

As the NIF board meets in Israel, I am writing to you regarding NIF grantee Adalah’s participation in an Israeli Apartheid Week event next Tuesday, February 14, in Switzerland (http://www.urgencepalestine.ch/doc/BDS_conference_14fevrier2012.pdf ).

Suhad Bishara, Director of Adalah’s Land and Planning Rights Unit, is scheduled to speak on “The policy of Apartheid in Israel: The new racist laws.” The event is being hosted by a Swiss group named “BDS Geneva.”

Simultaneously, Adalah’s submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which is meeting in Geneva next week to discuss Israel, demonizes Israel for laws and policies that allegedly “permit and even actively promote racial discrimination.”

I bring the event and submission to your attention because they constitute a direct violation of NIF funding guidelines and other principles. They are also central components of Adalah’s ongoing campaign, rooted in its 2007 “Democratic Constitution,” to eliminate the Jewish character of Israel and undermine Jewish sovereignty.

I call upon you and the board to immediately and publicly condemn and disassociate NIF from Adalah’s campaign. I reiterate the longstanding call that the NIF act responsibly and end all support for anti-Israel and anti-Zionist projects and organizations.

I look forward to your response and to discussing these issues with you in a constructive, in-depth manner.

Sincerely,

Gerald Steinberg

President

NGO Monitor

Contradicting an earlier denial of involvement in last summer’s tent protests, the New Israel Fund posted a message hailing its deep structural role in facilitating the protests.

“The social protest, which erupted in unprecedented public dimensions, was largely the result of painstaking work of organizations, activists, academics, organizations and communities, over the years,” the statement read. “During the summer months, tens of thousands of citizens organized themselves in new and existing organizations, virtual and community initiatives, local and national groups. Mapping the initiatives, which were initiated by Shatil and the New Israel Fund, outlines the role of this ‘big bang’.”

The New Israel Fund has routinely been accused of supporting of groups and non-governmental organizations that have anti-Zionist agendas and records.

Of course, we all know what happens to any Arab women who date Jewish men, but their “honor killings” and mutilations do not count as “racist” either in the minds of the caring left.

   Steven Plaut, a frequent contributor to The Jewish Press, is a professor at the University of Haifa. His book “The Scout” is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at steveneplaut@yahoo.com.

          That so many of Israel’s leftists have stooped to such nonsense shows only one thing: They are in a high state of panic over the appearance of possibly the most important authentically Zionist grassroots movement in Israel in decades.

Steven Plaut is a professor at Haifa University. His book “The Scout” is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at steveneplaut@yahoo.com.