In case you have not heard, the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and much else that is bad in the Middle East, is the fault of the Jews.
Not so much the Jews of Israel, as the Jews of the United States.
It is the zealous among them who demand that American politicians "mouth hawkish pieties and never . . . indicate any sympathy for Palestinians."
Because of this, "Israel's travails continue. The very policies pushed . . . by supposedly pro-Israel advocacy groups have produced disaster for Israel. They ensured that U.S. assistance to Abu Mazen's Palestinian Authority would be so stingy that Hamas would beat Fatah in the Palestinian elections. . . . They pressured the Bush administration not to insist on the immediate dismantling of the illegal outposts and checkpoints . . . They encouraged neither prisoner exchanges nor cease-fires, nor a permanent settlements freeze . . ."
This comes from the keyboard of MJ Rosenberg, the Director of Israel Policy Forum's Washington Policy Center. (See
http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15)
Rather than mouthing pro-Israel platitudes and doing nothing to force peace, Rosenberg would have an American presidential candidate say, "I will do everything in my power to bring about negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians with the goal of achieving peace and security for Israel and a secure state for the Palestinians. As a supporter of Israel, I believe that Israel's surest route to security is by reaching an agreement with the Palestinians."
There is a kernel of truth to what Rosenberg writes. Right wing "Jewish junk" is part of the discourse, produced by individuals who fear anything less than total victory over Arab evil, very soon.
Every once in a while, an overseas activist urges that Israel grant voting rights to overseas Jews. Predictably, the response includes a loud "Oy gevalt."
The fear is for zealots of the left as well as the right. What Israel does not need is giving the vote to people without the understanding and stake in what happens. No matter how emotional they may be in behalf of one posture or another for the sake of Israel, Diaspora Jews do not pay income taxes that reach the 35 percent bracket on the equivalent of about $5,000 monthly income, and 47 percent on $9,000, as well as a 15.5 percent sales tax; and they do not send their children into the IDF for two or three years that are boring and unproductive at the best, and likely to be dangerous.
Overseas zealots perceive the Middle East in blacks and whites, rather than many shades of gray. While those of the left would believe everything said by Arab spokemen and give away the store in speedy negotiations, those of the right are unwilling to do anything other than exercise the maximum of fire power (and the cannon fodder of young Israelis) to protect what they see as Jewish interests.
Rosenberg's concern about right-wing zealots misses the essential point of the Middle East conflict. It is not overseas Jewish zealots who stand in the way of a settlement, but Palestinian zealots. Their control of Gaza is absolute, as is their rejection of Israel's right to exist. People like them may not control everything that occurs in the West Bank, but the mayhem they can produce if Mahmoud Abbas offers too much in negotiations gives them a veto in what optimists call the peace process.
Palestinian zealots do not need a formal right of veto. Abbas is closer to them than moderates in Israel or overseas would like to think. He does not simply mention the right of refugees, but continues to promote among his people the return to the world of 1947. Optimists say that he is just mouthing slogans that he will abandon as negotiations proceed. Maybe. But he expresses the rights of refugees often enough to suggests that he is serious.
If Abbas has paid attention to Israeli leaders of virtually all political factions, he should know that he is demanding a deal breaker. Despite his words in behalf of peace, his posture allies him to the Palestinians who fire rockets against Israel, or prepare themselves as suicide bombers. The rockets flew when he had nominal control over Gaza, and violent gangs (some of them part of his security services) continue to operate in the West Bank.
My conception of a zealot is a person who cherishes violence as the essence of politics, or demands that the clock go backwards by 60 years. In comparison, American Jews who want platitudes from candidates are harmless.