As of this writing, there is no outcome to the maneuverings at the United Nations over whether the Palestinian Authority will request a vote on statehood and, if so, how that vote will proceed. But there is already one outcome of this troubled period in America’s relationship with Israel that we fear could prove dangerous for Israel and disastrous for American Jews. And that is the way the Republican Party has turned support for Israel into an uncompromising, highly partisan issue.
Actually, we’ll amend that: It’s not support for Israel that the GOP is promoting so fiercely, without regard to history, facts or consequence. It is support for the current Israeli government, its approach to Palestinians and, we might add, its own Jewish and Arab citizens that has become the new litmus test of American politics. Lost in all the belligerent rhetoric is some connection to the hopes and needs of ordinary Israelis, to the voices in Israel’s military and intelligence establishments who have urged a different path, and to the pleas of nearly half a million people who have taken to the streets, protesting for social justice.
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