From the looks of things, there will be quite a few Jews in US President-elect Joe Biden's incoming White House. But although they may share the same religion, these Jews will be nothing like US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a vocal support of the settlement movement, or his US President Donald Trump's Orthodox son-in-law Jared Kushner. No, they will be left-wing Jews, whose religion, like that of the majority of US Jews, over the last four years has been "anyone but Trump."
Of the US's 5.7 million Jews, a majority are progressive. They are mostly Reform or Conservative Jews and supporters of the Democratic party. In recent years, as Israel's government has moved rightward, a chasm has opened up between them and Israel. US Jews want a Palestinian state, while Israel prefers annexation. US Jews want recognition for non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, while Israel bolsters the monopoly of the Chief Rabbinate. A generation of Holocaust survivors has been replaced by a younger and more Americanized generation whose commitment to Israel and its survival is no longer a given, and an even younger generation that at best, is losing interest in the Jewish State, and at worst, is acting against it.
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To all this, one can add the last four years of a Trump presidency. While Israel was officially on the same page as the White House, and most Israelis supported him, a majority of US Jews despised him. Hatred for Trump among members of the US Jewish community has become something of a religious obsession, pushing quite a few for Trump has made it even less deserving of their support.
Israel's decision-makers are all too familiar with this reality, yet some have knowingly given up on this important Jewish community. Instead of making an effort to bridge the abyss, there is now a certain school of thought in Jerusalem that believes that there is an alternative: Orthodox Jews, who lean farther to the right and are gaining in influence, as well as the tens of millions of evangelical Christians who support a strong, right-wing Israel.
Israel faces significant diplomatic challenges, but with far less Jewish support. The Democratic party has undergone a radicalization in recent years, and members of the radical Left who support the Palestinians and the delegitimization of Israel have become far more central in its affairs. Calls for Washington to halt military aid to or end automatic support for Israel are no longer rare. Like the White House under former President Barack Obama, the incoming administration may also abstain on a UN resolution condemning Israel. It is not at all for certain that Jews who find themselves in the White House will be willing to go the extra mile for the Jewish state.
US-Israel ties are built on shared strategic interests, but also on a longstanding positive sentiment toward Israel, the latter of which is now eroding. While this is true of Americans in general, it is unfortunately for many of its Jews as well. As we look ahead to the next four years, Israel must, for practical but also ethical reasons, bridge the widening gap between it and America's liberal US Jews. Israel won't change overnight, neither will America's Jews. But if they do not sense that there is an interest and a willingness on the part of the Israeli government to engage, there may be no turning back from our current dismal situation.
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