ToC: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (May 2016): Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
May 2016
Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?

ON THE COVER: Haaretz columnist and keynote speaker Gideon Levy addresses the conference, “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?”

5 Introduction

6 Welcoming Remarks Dale Sprusansky

7 PANEL 1: Israel’s Influence on Congress and Government Agencies — Moderator Grant F. Smith

7 Ten Ways the Israel Lobby “Moves” America — Grant F. Smith

11 Did Israel Steal U.S. Weapons-Grade Uranium and Did It Have Help From U.S. Citizens? — Dr. Roger Mattson

15 How Congress Shapes Middle East Policy, and How the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Shapes Congress — Prof. Kirk J. Beattie

20 Questions & Answers

22 KEYNOTE ADDRESS: What I Would Tell a Visiting Congressional Delegation — Gideon Levy

27 Questions & Answers

30 PANEL 2: Israel’s Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy — Moderator Dale Sprusansky

30 A Diplomatic and Military Perspective — Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

35 American Neoconservatives: A History and Overview — Jim Lobe

39 Israel and Foreign Policy Issues in the Presidential Campaign — Justin Raimondo

42 Questions & Answers

44 PANEL 3: Responding to Israel’s Influence on Campus and in Court — Moderator Janet McMahon

44 The Birth of Palestine Solidarity Activism at George Mason University — Tareq Radi

49 Concerted Attempts to Silence Criticism of Israel in the U.S. — Maria LaHood

53 Why We’re Suing the U.S. Treasury Department — Susan Abulhawa

57 Holding Israel Accountable for the Gaza Flotilla Raid — Huwaida Arraf

62 KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Voices Prohibited by Mainstream Media and Its Role Spreading Islamophobia — Rula Jebreal

66 PANEL 4: Israel’s Influence on Mainstream Media — Moderator Delinda Hanley

66 Mainstream Media Coverage of Israel and Palestine — Philip Weiss

70 “Valentino’s Ghost: Why We Hate Arabs” — Catherine Jordan

72 Questions & Answers

74 CLOSING REMARKS

75 CONCLUSION

78 ELECTION WATCH: Party Loyalty, Party Schmoyalty — Israel Comes First — Janet McMahon

79 Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2016 Congressional Candidates — Compiled by Hugh Galford

New Book: Barnett, The Star and the Stripes

Barnett, Michael N. The Star and the Stripes. A History of the Foreign Policies of American Jews. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016.

 

 

How do American Jews envision their role in the world? Are they tribal—a people whose obligations extend solely to their own? Or are they prophetic—a light unto nations, working to repair the world? The Star and the Stripes is an original, provocative interpretation of the effects of these worldviews on the foreign policy beliefs of American Jews since the nineteenth century. Michael Barnett argues that it all begins with the political identity of American Jews. As Jews, they are committed to their people’s survival. As Americans, they identify with, and believe their survival depends on, the American principles of liberalism, religious freedom, and pluralism. This identity and search for inclusion form a political theology of prophetic Judaism that emphasizes the historic mission of Jews to help create a world of peace and justice.

The political theology of prophetic Judaism accounts for two enduring features of the foreign policy beliefs of American Jews. They exhibit a cosmopolitan sensibility, advocating on behalf of human rights, humanitarianism, and international law and organizations. They also are suspicious of nationalism—including their own. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that American Jews are natural-born Jewish nationalists, Barnett charts a long history of ambivalence; this ambivalence connects their early rejection of Zionism with the current debate regarding their attachment to Israel. And, Barnett contends, this growing ambivalence also explains the rising popularity of humanitarian and social justice movements among American Jews.

Rooted in the understanding of how history shapes a political community’s sense of the world, The Star and the Stripes is a bold reading of the past, present, and possible future foreign policies of American Jews.

 

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments vii
• Introduction 1
• Chapter One Heine’s Law and Jewish Foreign Policies 19
• Chapter Two The Making of a Prophetic People (pre-1914) 51
• Chapter Three Prophets Mugged by Reality (1914–1945) 87
• Chapter Four The Cosmopolitan and the National (1945–1967) 121
• Chapter Five The New Tribalism (1967–1990) 155
• Chapter Six Back to the Future? (1990–present) 195
• Chapter Seven The Foreign Policies of an Uncertain People 243
• Notes 275
• Bibliography 303
• Index 335

 

MICHAEL N. BARNETT is the University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at George Washington University. His many books include Empire of Humanity and Dialogues in Arab Politics.

 

 

 

New Article: Loeffler, The Invisibility of American Jewish Politics

Loeffler, James. “Nationalism without a Nation?: On the Invisibility of American Jewish Politics.” Jewish Quarterly Review 105.3 (2015): 367-98.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jqr.2015.0019

 

Abstract
In this article, I launch a wholesale reexamination of the under-studied subject of American Jewish nationalism. With the focus on the road to Israeli statehood, scholars have ignored the complex, contradictory patterns of nationalist identification that marked American Zionist politics in the first half of the twentieth century. I explore this thesis through a re-reading of two key historical episodes: the American Jewish Congress movement of 1914–1920 and the American Jewish Conference, 1943–1949. In the process, I discuss the relationship between liberalism and nationalism in American Jewish political thought; the political conflicts between Jewish nationalism and anti-nationalism; and the nomenclature of Jewish nationhood in the United States. Ultimately, I conclude that the consensus position of American Jewish support for Israel after 1948 emerged only after statist Zionism had been separated from a more capacious form of American Jewish nationalism that existed before 1948. This helps us understand the origins and rise to significance of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), with implications for the current moment of American Jewish politics.

 

 

New Article: Ben Aharon, Israel’s Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide

Ben Aharon, Eldad. “A Unique Denial: Israel’s Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 42.4 (2015): 638-54.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2015.1043514

 

Abstract

This article focuses on the Israeli politicization of the Armenian genocide from the perspective of foreign policy. Since the early 1980s Israel’s official position has been to not recognize the Armenian genocide. The issue of recognition came to the surface in 1982 after Turkey put pressure on Israel to cancel a Holocaust and genocide conference. This article shows that Israel agreed to pressure the conference organizers to cancel the conference in order to secure protection for Jews fleeing Iran and Syria through the Turkish border. This article also explores the role of informal ambassadors in shaping Israel’s position on this issue. Using recently declassified archival documents and oral interviews with key Israeli stakeholders, this is the first investigation into the role of informal ambassadors, specifically the Jewish minority in Turkey, and the American Jewish pro-Israeli lobby. The article also addresses a secondary incentive for Israel’s refusal to recognize the genocide: ethnic competition between Jews and Armenians as victims of genocide.

New Book: Ben-Rafael et al, eds. Reconsidering Israel-Diaspora Relations

Ben-Rafael, Eliezer, Judit Bokser Liwerant, and Yosef Gorny, eds. Reconsidering Israel-Diaspora Relations, Jewish Identities in a Changing World, 22. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Introduction
PART I. JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD: CHANGING PATTERNS OF ISRAEL-DIASPORA RELATIONS

1. Sergio Della Pergola: Jewish Peoplehood: Hard, Soft, and Interactive Markers
2. Jonathan D. Sarna: From World-Wide People to First-World People: The Consolidation (fn. concentration) of World Jewry
3. Shulamit Reinharz: The “Jewish Peoplehood” Concept: Complications and Suggestions
4. Yosef Gorny: Ethnicity and State Policy: The State of Israel in the Intellectual and Political Discourse of the US Jewish Press
5. Ephraim Yuchtman-Ya’ar and Steven M. Cohen: Close and Distant: The Relations between Israel and the Diaspora

PART II. RELIGIOSITY AND ETHNICITY

6. Yael Israel-Cohen: The Reform and Conservative Movements in Israel: Strategies of Peripheral Movements in a Monopolized Religious Market
7. Shlomo Fischer: Two Orthodox Cultures: “Centrist” Orthodoxy and Religious Zionism
8. Margalit Bejarano: Ethnicity and Transnationalism: Latino Jews in Miami
9. Nissim Leon: Strong Ethnicity: The Case of US-born Jews in Israel

PART III. GENDER AND GENERATION

10. Judith Tydor Baumel-Schwartz: Orthodox Jewish Women as a Bridge Between Israel and the Diaspora
11. Florinda Goldberg: Gender, Religion, and the Search for a Modern Jewish Identity in “La Rabina” by Silvia Plager
12. Erik H. Cohen: Global Jewish Youth Studies – Towards a Theory
13. Sylvia Barack Fishman: Generational and Cultural Constructions of Jewish Peoplehood

PART IV. ISRAELOPHOBIA, ANTI-ZIONISM AND “NEO”-ANTISEMITISM

14. Shmuel Trigano: Debasing Praise: Hatred of the Jews in a Global Age
15. Chantal Bordes-Benayoun: Integration and Antisemitism: The Case of French Jewry
16. Julius H. Schoeps: How Antisemitism, Obsessive Criticism of Israel, and Do-Gooders Complicate Jewish Life in Germany
17. Leonardo Senkman: Anti-Zionist Discourse of the Left in Latin America: An Assessment.
18. Uzi Rebhun, Chaim I. Waxman, Nadia Beider: American Jews and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: A Study of Diaspora in International Affairs

PART V. CONFIGURATIONS OF WORLD JEWRY AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL

19. Judit Bokser-Liwerant: Jewish Diaspora and Transnationalism: Awkward (Dance) Partners?
20. Lars Dencik: The Dialectics of Diaspora in Contemporary Modernity
21. Gabi Sheffer: Reflections on Israel and Jerusalem as the Centers of World Jewry
22. Eliezer Ben-Rafael: Israel-Diaspora Relations: “Transmission Driving-belts” of Transnationalism

Epilogue: One – After All….for the time being

 

ToC: Israel Studies 15,3 (2010)

Israel Studies 15,3 (2010)

Table of Contents

Special Issue: The Making of Israeli Foreign Policy

Guest Editors: Gabriel Sheffer and Natan Aridan

View Cover Art

Introduction

Natan Aridan
Gabriel Sheffer

pp. v-xi

HTML Version | PDF Version (62k) | Summary

Articles

Moshe Sharett and the Origins of Israel’s Diplomacy

Moshe Yegar

pp. 1-26

HTML Version | PDF Version (590k) | Summary

Subject Headings:

• Sharett, Moshe, 1894-1965.
• Israel. Miśrad ha-ḥuts.
• Israel — Foreign relations.

Moshe Sharett, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jewish Diaspora

Gabriel Sheffer

pp. 27-46

HTML Version | PDF Version (598k) | Summary

Subject Headings:

• Israel and the diaspora.
• Sharett, Moshe, 1894-1965.
• Israel. Miśrad ha-ḥuts.
• Israel — Foreign relations.

Jewish Issues in Israeli Foreign Policy: Israeli-Austrian Relations in the 1950s

Ronald W. Zweig

pp. 47-60

HTML Version | PDF Version (492k) | Summary

Subject Headings:

• Israel — Foreign relations — Austria.
• Austria — Foreign relations — Israel.
• Committee for Jewish Claims on Austria.
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) — Reparations.
• Israel and the diaspora.

A Small Nation Goes to War: Israel’s Cabinet Authorization of the 1956 War

Pnina Lahav

pp. 61-86

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Subject Headings:

• Sinai Campaign, 1956 — Diplomatic history.
• Israel — Politics and government — 1948-1967.
• Cabinet system — Israel — History.

On Two Parallel Tracks—The Secret Jordanian-Israeli Talks (July 1967–September 1973)

Moshe Shemesh

pp. 87-120

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Subject Headings:

• Israel — Foreign relations — Jordan.
• Jordan — Foreign relations — Israel.
• Arab-Israeli conflict — 1967-1973 — Diplomatic history.
• Arab-Israeli conflict — 1967-1973 — Peace.

Africa in Israeli Foreign Policy—Expectations and Disenchantment: Historical and Diplomatic Aspects

Arye Oded

pp. 121-142

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Subject Headings:

• Israel — Foreign relations — Africa.
• Africa — Foreign relations — Israel.

Incoherent Narrator: Israeli Public Diplomacy During the Disengagement and the Elections in the Palestinian Authority

Shaul R. Shenhav
Tamir Sheafer
Itay Gabay

pp. 143-162

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Subject Headings:

• Communication in international relations — Israel.
• Mass media and international relations — Israel.
• Israel — Foreign public opinion.

Ambiguity and Conflict in Israeli-Lebanese Relations

Oren Barak

pp. 163-188

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Subject Headings:

• Israel — Foreign relations — Lebanon.
• Lebanon — Foreign relations — Israel.
• Lebanon — History — Israeli intervention, 1982-1984.
• Lebanon — History — Israeli intervention, 1996.
• Sovereignty.

Document

Israel’s Refusal to Endorse the American Friends of Israel (1956)

Natan Aridan

pp. 189-201

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Subject Headings:

• American Friends of Israel.
• Montor, Henry.
• Israel and the diaspora.
• Jews — United States — Politics and government — 20th century.
• Israel — Foreign relations — United States.
• United States — Foreign relations — Israel.

Contributors

Contributors

pp. 202-204

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Cite: Sasson, American Jews’ Changing Relationship to Israel

Sasson, Theodore. "Mass Mobilization to Direct Engagement: American Jews’ Changing Relationship to Israel." Israel Studies 15,2 (2010): 173-195.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/summary/v015/15.2.sasson.html

 

Abstract

The practices of American Jews relative to Israel seem increasingly to break with patterns established during the second half of the 20th century. Lobbying by American Jewish organizations on the political left and right increasingly competes with the consensus-oriented efforts of organizations such as AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CPMAJO). Direct giving to Israeli civil society organizations has replaced the federations’ annual campaigns as the primary vehicle for diaspora philanthropy. The number of American Jewish teens and young adults visiting Israel has surged, but most are going with private tour companies under the auspices of Birthright Israel rather than programs of the North American denominations. Aliyah is up, but managed by Nefesh b’Nefesh, a private not-for-profit organization, rather than the Jewish Agency for Israel. In short, how American Jews relate to Israel is very much in flux.

This study argues that the mass mobilization model that organized American Jewish practices relative to Israel since the founding of state has declined, and a new direct engagement model has emerged alongside it. Increasingly American Jews relate to Israel directly, by advocating their own political views, funding favored causes, visiting frequently or living there part time, consuming Israeli news and entertainment, and expressing a distinctively "realistic" rather than idealistic orientation toward the Jewish state. Their new homeland practices have given rise to (and been encouraged by) a new set of organizations that operate privately, beyond the orbit of the semi-public agencies of the established American Jewish polity.

Lecture: Mead, "Does Israel Need a Lobby in America?"

[RSVP required]

The Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University presents:
Israel and America: The Special Relationship

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Thursday – April 8, 2010
6:30pm
Walter Russell Mead, Council for Foreign Relations
"Does Israel Need a Lobby in America?"

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All Lectures will take place at:
19 University Place – Lecture Hall 102
New York City, NY
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This series is free and open to the public, but space is limited. RSVP required.
Please RSVP to: fas.taubcenter@nyu.edu or call (212) 998-8981