Eleven years later

Not quite 11 years ago, what was then called The Jewish Voice published my column titled “How to Talk About the Iran Deal.” Before going back to what I wrote in that previous column, let me point out that criticism of J Street, which considers itself to be a pro-Israel/pro-peace lobbying organization,is still strong and angry among right-wing American Jews. What is new is that this past May the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yehiel Leiter, condemned J Street as a “cancer within the Jewish community.”

I am repeating word for word the final 10 paragraphs of my Aug. 21, 2015, piece to affirm the truth of that time-worn adage, “The more things change, the more they remain the same:”

Ever since President Obama announced the historic nuclear agreement between Iran and the United States – along with China, Russia, Great Britain, France, and Germany – we American Jews have been engaged in a profoundly difficult and emotionally charged debate as to whether to support the deal, despite its obvious shortcomings. The question boils down to this: Do the risks of supporting the deal outweigh the risks of opposing it? For those who oppose the deal, what do they consider a better, safer alternative?

We Jews in the United States are deeply divided on this issue. I, like many of my fellow Rhode Islanders, have called the Washington offices of Senator Jack Reed, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and Representative David Cicilline to urge them to support the agreement. On the other hand, I am aware that many of my fellow Jews are urging our congressional delegation to join an effort to nix the deal.

Of course, nobody possesses a monopoly on the truth. Because I believe that kol Yisrael arayvim zeh bazeh, that all Jews are responsible for each other, I feel the need to make known my views on issues that affect my fellow Jews in Israel; but as a non-Israeli, I affirm that only Israelis should decide what is best for them. By the same token, no Israeli – and that includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – should claim to know what is best for the United States in general or for Jewish Americans in particular.

It seems to me that our local Community Relations Council (CRC), under the able leadership of Marty Cooper [z’’l], continues to be acutely sensitive to the diversity of opinion within our Jewish community. While the CRC’s widely distributed email of this past July 14 expressed its concern “that today’s deal may not achieve the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring and developing nuclear weapons,” it has not – in contrast to some other CRCs – taken a stand either in support or opposition.

I am proud to be part of a local Jewish community that, for the most part, celebrates our diversity; and there are many other Jewish voices of tolerance and mutual respect throughout our land. However, some prominent Jewish supporters of Israel have chosen to adopt a far more strident stance. Towards the end of July, for example, I received in my inbox a column by Charles Jacobs and Elliot Hamilton (jns.org news service) with the inflammatory title, “It’s time to evict J Street from the Jewish communal tent.”

The opening paragraph reads as follows: “The recent announcement of the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran has sparked deep concern and even outrage in the Jewish community. In an almost unprecedented moment for American Jewry, the majority of prominent Jewish organizations have lined up to combat the deal. This includes AIPAC, the ADL, and various Jewish Federation chapters, including those in Boston and Miami. This historic display of Jewish unity comes because of a clear belief that Israel and the Jewish people have been placed in a life-threatening situation.”

What the authors of this misleading paragraph fail to say is that the majority of American Jews support the deal, that hundreds of American rabbis support the deal, and that most Jewish organizations – including the majority of Jewish Federation chapters – have withheld either a Yes or a No on the deal; they prefer to study the intricacies of this complex agreement rather than rushing to judgment. Since Jacobs and Hamilton posted their column on July 24, five U.S ambassadors to Israel have lent their support to the deal. Most significantly, on August 4 the on-line Jewish “Forward” wrote that “nearly 70 former Israeli top security officials urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to treat the Iran nuclear agreement as a done deal and to repair relations with the United States.”

The names of these security officials appear in an ad they placed in the August 4 issue of the Jerusalem Post. Perhaps they know something that Netanyahu doesn’t know...or doesn’t want to know.

Clearly Jacobs and Hamilton are less interested in the facts than in delegitimizing J Street. They conclude their screed with: “Pro-Iran J Street – which is spending millions of dollars to promote a deal that threatens Jewish life, receives considerable sums of cash from anti-Israel and antisemitic sources to promote pro-Iran causes, and dangerously undermining the collective Jewish unity needed to block the deadly Iranian threat – should be drummed out of organized Jewish life. It is time for J Street to go.”

Orwellian irony of ironies: Charles Jacobs is president and Elliot Hamilton is research associate of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

Tolerance?? Those of us who have the good fortune to live in the Jewish community of greater Rhode Island still know how to demonstrate the meaning of the word.

JAMES B. ROSENBERG is a rabbi emeritus of Temple Habonim in Barrington. Contact him at rabbiemeritus@templehabonim.org.