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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: paret who wrote (41039)	8/21/2005 7:49:57 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 93284

Analysis / Is right-wing influence fading among U.S. Jews? By Shlomo Shamir haaretz.com NEW YORK - Attempts by the Jewish and American press over the past few days to explain the silence of American Jews as the evacuation unfolds have been pathetic and also misleading. "It's painful for us to see on TV Jewish soldiers evacuating Jewish settlers by force, but the evacuation is a legitimate decision by the government of Israel," is the "official" explanation of rabbis and activists, particularly Orthodox ones. "We sympathize with the evacuees, but can't help them." Such explanations also come from well-known activist rabbis who led the unbridled smear campaign against Yitzhak Rabin a decade ago at the time of the first Oslo Accords. The real question is what the community's lack of response to the evacuation signifies. Is the business-as-usual atmosphere currently permeating local organizations a sign that right-wing influence over the community is evaporating, or does it signal an acceleration in the erosion of Israel's centrality to American Jewry? In recent months, prominent Orthodox rabbis on the right flank of the community failed to engender a substantial protest movement against the disengagement - either as a plan disinheriting Jews of their land or as a political maneuver they believe is dangerous for Israel's safety. This failure is even more significant if the widely accepted view is correct about there being a sense of understanding and sadness in the community for the evacuees' plight. Several years ago, such failure would have been headed off in advance; today it can be viewed as a waning of the activism impulse on the community's right wing. Even more striking is the lack of enthusiasm on the part of major Orthodox organizations affiliated with the right, which in recent months and weeks downright evaded taking even symbolic action against the disengagement. Veteran organizations such as the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Young Israel, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, which provide religious services to hundreds of synagogues and maintain close ties to more than 1,000 rabbis throughout North America did not even try to enlist members for an organized protest of the evacuation. "The UO and Young Israel could have easily recruited 50,000 Jews for a protest march on Washington, but these organizations prefered to do nothing," Rabbi Moshe Tendler said recently. Tendler, a Yeshiva University professor and scientist, was at the forefront of the criticism directed at Rabin a decade ago. The UO recently distributed a position paper explaining at length how heartbreaking the evacuation of Jews from their homes is, but stated that the evacuation was decided on by the democratically elected government of Israel. In a newspaper interview, a spokesman for Agudath Yisrael of America said many members are unhappy about the evacuation but recognize that it is being done legitimately. Even activist Rabbi Avi Weiss warned in an op-ed in The Forward that Ariel Sharon should not be called "fascist" because "words lead to deeds." Some observers argue that the passivity in the face of such a pivotal event in Israel is a positive sign of restraint on the part of rabbis who recognize their rising influence in the American Jewish community and are being careful not to inflame hotheads.