Israel is facing a number of major challenges from the outside – Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al Qaida, to name a few – and crisis from within, including leadership, education, the unresolved religious/secular dispute, and more. But instead of focusing on these basic problems, some Israelis are wasting resources obsessing over fringe causes and fighting minor battles with each other.
This problem applies equally to the right and left of the Israeli political spectrum, and the ardent supporters of both camps in the Diaspora. On the right, the desperate attempt to establish and hold on to one more outpost and caravan in the Judea and Samaria regions of the West Bank has become an end in itself, totally out of proportion to the wider picture. In Hebron, the attempt to use force to occupy a building which may or may not have been purchased legally, has mobilized hundreds of dedicated young Israelis into a misguided frenzy.
Instead of using their intelligence and energies on the wider threats to the Israeli and the Jewish people in these difficult times, they are battling the police, the army and the courts for a few hundred meters of property. Hebron is important in Jewish history, but it is not more important than the survival of the State of Israel, and the efforts put into this battle are entirely disproportionate.
Similarly, more than three years after the unilateral withdrawal of the Jewish settlements from Gaza, the activists and former residents are still fighting battles against this decision. In retrospect, the decision to evacuate the military bases was a mistake, as was the failure to respond forcefully when the first rockets were fired, and later when Hamas took control. But at this stage, it is useless to demand a reversal in history, and expect that these communities will be re-established under Israeli control in Gaza. The energies wasted to artificially maintain the fiction of a return to Gaza scenario are wasted.
On the left, leaders of self-selected groups like B’tselem, Machsom Watch and dozens of others are seeking to impose their personal views of a messianic peace by exploiting human rights claims. In this secular religion, the main goal is to force Israel to return to the 1949 armistice line (the so-called pre-1967 Green Line) and establish a Palestinian state in this territory. But peace with Palestinians engaged in their own civil war, while continuing to reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state regardless of borders, is far more complex than “ending the occupation.”
Having failed to sell this idealized vision in the Israeli democratic process, these organizations are now turning to lobbying against Israel from the outside. B’tselem has opened an office in Washington, in the effort to lobby Congress – one of the most important bastions of support for Israel in the important battles – to join the chorus of attackers.
The money for much of this destructive activity, which greatly amplifies the impact of a small number of individuals, comes in large part from Diaspora Jews who have bought into or, in some cases, are among the leaders of these diversionary causes. Wealthy individuals and foundations pay for many of the advertising campaigns and other activities for both left and right. Donors to the New Israel Fund give millions of dollars to promote groups like B’tselem, Adalah, Mossawa, New Profile (a member of the Coalition of Women for Peace, and are under investigation by the Israeli attorney general for encouraging refusal of military service). With this legitimization, outsiders with their own agendas, including the Ford Foundation, the European Union and anti-Israel church groups, provide additional funds for fringe groups.
As is often the case, the two ends of the political spectrum often meet at the extremes. In this case, both the left and right fringes are attacking and undermining the IDF – the main framework that insures Israeli survival. And they are spinning Israel into an increasingly dangerous orbit.