Monday, January 23, 2006

Why live in America?

One of the primary reasons that many (otherwise observant / committed) Jews give for not living in Israel is that Israel needs Jews in the United States to help influence US foreign policy in a direction that would be favorable to Israel.

I wonder how that logic is affected by the following headline:

ADL chief: Franklin affair could pose threat to Jewish lobbyists

Now, let's put aside for a moment the question as to how effective Jewish lobbying efforts on behalf of Israel truly are, and how many Jews can truly say that they personally are needed in the US for those efforts to continue bearing fruit. (Personally speaking, I do not believe that the US has ever made a foreign policy decision relating to Israel that was not, first and foremost, in her own best interest - if it also happened to benefit Israel, mah tov.)

Two days after former Pentagon analyst Larry A. Franklin was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in jail for sharing classified information with pro-Israel lobbyists, several American Jewish community leaders echoed a single refrain: There's reason to worry...

Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman said the Franklin affair could potentially pose a threat to all Jewish lobbyists.

Some American Jewish leaders are concerned by the influence the trial could have on the relations between Jewish groups and the administration.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, said on Sunday that he found Franklin's sentence "disturbing."


With Jewish lobbying efforts having been seemingly neutralized by the current Bush administration ("the best friend in the White House Israel has ever had"), what reason is there for Jewish lobbyists to continue living in the US - there can be no doubt that they can now do significatly more for Israel from Israel than they can by remaining in the US?

Believe me, the US will continue to pressure Israel to capitulate to murderers and terrorists and retreat ("disengage") from even more of our ancient Homeland even without your lobbying efforts. So, why not come home, and enjoy the fruits of your labor first hand?



5 Comments:

what reason is there for Jews to choose to remain living in the US

Ze'ev,

Family, family and more family. Established roots and a comfortable lifestyle.

Currently there is no requirement for our children to serve in the armed forces.

And this comes from someone who is interested in making aliyah.

By Blogger Jack Steiner, at Mon Jan 23, 05:33:00 PM GMT+2  

Jack - all fair points, and they weren't the ones I was aiming to highlight in this post.

I have since edited the post, changing the section in question to:

what reason is there for Jewish lobbyists to continue living in the US - there can be no doubt that they can now do significatly more for Israel from Israel than they can by remaining in the US?

____

For those who say they are staying in the US to help Israel, well, I think it's time to come up with a new excuse.

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Mon Jan 23, 05:39:00 PM GMT+2  

I didn't know that was a reason people gave, but okay...

I think you underestimate the power of the Jewish lobbyists. They actually do seem to do quite a job at the Capitol, even if the WH itself works in their own interests first.

By Blogger Ezzie, at Mon Jan 23, 09:44:00 PM GMT+2  

I don't believe in the necessity fo look for excuses for living in the US.
I lived in Israel for almost 40 years, served in the IDF, have still my
own house there and some members of my family are there. Why do I need to
find excuses for living here ?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Jan 23, 10:41:00 PM GMT+2  

I've been on the missions. I've seen where the millions and millions of dollars goes. Believe me when I tell you .... without the several million of us here sending so much money there .... Israel would be unlivable. Take a little trip to the western Galilee and look into the many many programs for kids from broken and substance abusing homes. Kids whose immigrant parents can't find work and are outcast amongst most of israel because they are not the right color.

Just look at Israel. There's trash everywhere and open dumps visible from the roads with trash blowing everywhere. Walk the streets of Tel Aviv. The whole place except for the new hotels look like E. Germany in the seventies. Israel is in trouble and it's not all about terrorism. Don't run down American Jews too much. You need them desperately. You need massive investment capital so that you can build your high tech industry because that's the only way israel will ever achieve real economic stability. You need rich Jews from America who feel obligated to invest in Israel.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Tue Jan 24, 09:24:00 AM GMT+2  

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