You Fool. You Can’t Claim To Be Pro-Israel While Supporting Israel!

by Jeremy Ben-Ami, Director, J-Street

Washington, November 18 – I cannot believe I have to explain this again. You seem never to learn. So once more: protestations that you favor the Jewish State mean nothing while you also, clearly, support the continued security, prosperity, and sovereignty of the Jewish state. That you fail to grasp this simple principle defies comprehension.

This serves as a perfect, once might say textbook, case, of the simple, common understanding of a matter failing to capture the necessary nuanced truth. To the uninitiated, perhaps uneducated, observer, “pro-Israel” status correlates with support for Israeli defense systems, such as the Iron Dome and related anti-missile technology. Or with shielding Israel from unfair, disproportionate treatment in international fora such as the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council.

That view betrays the observer as uninitiated and uneducated. Those who have studied the matter in depth, and have conducted deep discussions across a broader spectrum, have formed a more nuanced position that insists on replacing some, or perhaps all, of the support for Israeli security and sovereignty, with support for limits on Israeli security and sovereignty. Too much Israeli security and sovereignty will prejudice the outcome of the conflict in favor of Israeli security and sovereignty, and that would be bad for nuance!

My European colleagues taught me that. So sophisticated. I love getting invited to their cocktail parties. That’s how you know you’ve found truth.

I urge my fellow American Jews to adopt the same type of nuance, and to understand that being pro-Israel doesn’t require being pro-Israel in the literal or commonly-understood sense. That would be so… common. Who wants to be common? Common people do not get to enjoy prestige among the Democratic Party elite, which is where all thinking people aspire to be. Imagine rubbing shoulders with Barack Obama! What more could a Jew wish to achieve?

Some disingenuous or simple-minded people argue that the nuance I call for will be used to endanger Jews, since one can, ostensibly, claim not to be antisemitic while espousing antisemitism. Nuance. To that, I have two rebuttals: one, antisemitism only comes from the right – more accurately antisemitism worth opposing only comes from the right – and the right would not know nuance if it bit them; and two, maybe Jews deserve such antisemitism for failing to adopt the nuance necessary to oppose too much Israeli security and sovereignty!

It’s all about sophistication. Nuance.

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