Published: 16 November 2017
Last updated: 4 March 2024
I was forced to spend 24 hours with a five-year-old who isn’t family. I explained the rules of the house several times during his stay, and every time I did, he’d sourly ask: “What will you do to me if I don’t?”
I get the same sense of insolence from Israeli officials when we discuss the effect of the cancellation of the cancellation of the Kotel (Western Wall) Agreement on World Jewry are discussed. “What will they do to us?”
Israelis, who are typically blunt, direct and proud, tend to consider funds to be the biggest issue here. It’s not. The rift between Israel and World Jewry, particularly Americans, is a strategic failure.
It’s a split that would influence their willingness to lobby with the administration on behalf of Israel. This is why AIPAC leaders arrived in Israel within 48 hours of the cancellation of the Kotel Agreement back in June.
FULL STORY World Jewry must rise above its own inhibitions about ‘interfering’ with Israeli politics (Forward)
AND SEE:
Israel's President Rivlin attempts to quell Israel-US Jewry tensions in major speech (Haaretz)
Addressing the scrapped Western Wall prayer space deal and Israel's controversial conversion bill, Rivlin tells the Jewish Federations' General Assembly: I feel your pain, but that's politics
Montage: Forward
