Courtesy Of: The Jerusalem Post
By Haviv Rettig
Jan. 22, 2007 23:45
Updated Jan. 23, 2007 2:36
JPost.com
In the coming years American Jewry will face the most significant delegitimization of Israel it has ever encountered, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
This will occur, he believes, as the blueprint developed at the Durban Conference on Racism in 2001 is implemented by anti-Israel activists in America.
Hoenlein is expected to deliver this message to the Herzliya Conference on Tuesday, in a speech titled "The Poisoning of America," along with recommendations for action on the part of American Jews and Israel to help fight what he sees as a growing threat to support for Israel in America.
"Right now we enjoy the broadest support for Israel than perhaps at any time since the creation of the state, about 70 percent of the American people," he asserted.
Nevertheless, he insisted, "at the next Herzliya Conference we're going to be discussing how this could happen, how this cancer was allowed to spread to the United States."
The process Hoenlein sees happening in America is similar to what occurred in Britain, he said, "where the elite in society were turned against Israel. The fact that [Harvard and University of Chicago professors] Walt and Mearsheimer couldn't publish [their study claiming overwhelming influence of the 'Israel lobby' in Washington] in the United States, but had to go to the London Review of Books," was telling, he believes.
Now however, Walt and Mearsheimer "have a major contract, and are anticipating sales of one million copies."
In addition, "sales of [former US President Jimmy] Carter's book [Peace Not Apartheid] have been topping best seller lists."
"What was once acceptable on the fringes is now acceptable in the mainstream," he said, concluding that "at times, the American Jewish community has to [exercise] greater assertiveness."
By Haviv Rettig
Jan. 22, 2007 23:45
Updated Jan. 23, 2007 2:36
JPost.com
In the coming years American Jewry will face the most significant delegitimization of Israel it has ever encountered, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
This will occur, he believes, as the blueprint developed at the Durban Conference on Racism in 2001 is implemented by anti-Israel activists in America.
Hoenlein is expected to deliver this message to the Herzliya Conference on Tuesday, in a speech titled "The Poisoning of America," along with recommendations for action on the part of American Jews and Israel to help fight what he sees as a growing threat to support for Israel in America.
"Right now we enjoy the broadest support for Israel than perhaps at any time since the creation of the state, about 70 percent of the American people," he asserted.
Nevertheless, he insisted, "at the next Herzliya Conference we're going to be discussing how this could happen, how this cancer was allowed to spread to the United States."
The process Hoenlein sees happening in America is similar to what occurred in Britain, he said, "where the elite in society were turned against Israel. The fact that [Harvard and University of Chicago professors] Walt and Mearsheimer couldn't publish [their study claiming overwhelming influence of the 'Israel lobby' in Washington] in the United States, but had to go to the London Review of Books," was telling, he believes.
Now however, Walt and Mearsheimer "have a major contract, and are anticipating sales of one million copies."
In addition, "sales of [former US President Jimmy] Carter's book [Peace Not Apartheid] have been topping best seller lists."
"What was once acceptable on the fringes is now acceptable in the mainstream," he said, concluding that "at times, the American Jewish community has to [exercise] greater assertiveness."
No comments:
Post a Comment