JERUSALEM (Press Release) –Newly installed Republican Jewish Coalition Chairman, Sen. Norm Coleman, Leader of the Zionist Union, Isaac Herzog and the leader of the Yesh Atid Party, Yair Lapid, today addressed the Jewish People Policy Institute conference on the Future of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.
Both Israeli political leaders discussed the need for Israel to forcefully deal with the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States.
MK Herzog noted, as a graduate of Ramaz, a Jewish high school in New York City, “I never imagined there would be so many acts of anti-Semitism in the US. These years were supposed to be the years inclusion, less anti-Semitism, more education, more traditionalism, and continuity. But now the anti-Semitism phenomenon rises.”
Herzog noted that everyone, Israeli and Jewish leaders, are walking on thin ice—not wanting to embarrass the administration but “the administration must deal with it. The JCC bombing threats are a red alert. The cemetery desecrations require understanding and we must discuss it.”
Herzog suggested that the anti-Semitism phenomenon will encourage Jews to move to Israel and “we should not feel guilty about it.”
Speaking to issues of pluralism in the country, he stated, “All Jewish streams have a place in Israel but the issue falls within the borders of the political battles within the Israeli political scene.” He call upon everyone to” speak quietly within closed rooms to resolve these problems,” including the Kotel issue. “The last things Jews need are clashes,” he said.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid stated, “At times it seems like the only unifying force of the Jewish people in these times, is our shared fear and rage from the revival of anti-Semitism. There we unite…The days in which the Jewish people hid from antisemitism are over. We will face it together. From here, from Jerusalem, we say “enough.” Jews won’t hide anymore, Jews won’t be scared anymore, and we expect the governments of the world to fight anti-Semitism decisively and with all their might. Jewish blood will not be cheap anymore. And yet, anti-Semitism cannot define the relationship between us. What defines us is not our enemies, but our bond as a family. And as a family We need an open dialogue, brave, incisive. It is the role of Israel to lead this dialogue.”
On issues dividing the Jewish community from Israel, Lapid said, “The State of Israel cannot afford to assume that it is immune from criticism from within the Jewish world and especially the American Jewish community. We have to face the fact we are the risk of losing a whole generation of young liberals in the United States and in Europe.
“You want every Jew to be able to pray at the Western Wall according to their tradition – which looks like a trivial goal – and it creates a crisis with the ultra-Orthodox parties. The job, by the way, is to solve this dilemma not to ignore it. If I’m elected Prime Minister I will pass the Western Wall framework and implement it within the first month in office,” he said.
Former Senator Norm Coleman, who was recently installed as the chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition told the more than 100 participants at JPPI annual event that “part of making America great again is standing foursquare with Israel. What we got with President Trump, he said, “was a very pro-Israel nationalism, for which we should be very thankful.”
Coleman lamented that in the US there are “constituencies that Israel needs as friends going forward that are not closely aligned with the Trump phenomenon. These constituencies have a somewhat negative opinion of Israel and it’s possible that President Trump’s embracing of Israel, or Israel’s embracing of Trump, may exacerbate that negativity. In addition, Israel’s politics that do not reflect sensitivity to Western values could also impact these constituencies. The concern is that this negativity could metastasize into a permanent feature of American politics. Coleman said, “How Israel is viewed in the United States and the West may be irrelevant to current American leadership-but it will be impactful with other segments of the American body politic. If bi-partisanship is gone in Congress—it’s not dead in America. Americans still identify with ‘the middle.’ So Israeli policies that reflect broadly accepted American values—such as freedom of religion; freedom of press; equal opportunity–can build public bipartisan support.”
The 2017 Conference on the Future of the Jewish People explored the social, political, economic, and ideological shifts taking place in the Western world that could shape the future of the Jewish people and seeks to identify key trends and gauge their possible ramifications. Emphasis was placed on developing recommendations for policy measures that can help mitigate negative trends and leverage new opportunities. The conference also examined how domestic developments in Israel and in the Diaspora, shape the West’s approach to Israel and the Jewish people.
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Preceding provided by the Jewish People Policy Institute