Audience members discuss the prospects for peace in Israel with Middle Eastern political expert Jonathan Mendilow, second from left, following his talk at the Highland Park Conservative Temple Congregation Anshe Emeth.
Photo by Debra Rubin
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May 12, 2009
Boldly wading into a debate that often divides supporters of Israel, a Rider University professor says he welcomes United States pressure on Israel, saying it may ultimately strengthen the Jewish state.
Such pressure, said Jonathan Mendilow, would force Israel to take a realistic stance in peace negotiations with the Palestinians and address its own looming demographic problems.
“The Obama regime is not an automatic supporter and will demand Israel be a partner,” said Mendilow, who spoke April 28 at the Highland Park Conservative Temple Congregation Anshe Emeth. “It will ask that Israel take into consideration America’s interest just as America takes into account Israel’s interest.”
Those interests are not much different, Mendilow said in his talk and in a phone conversation with the NJJN.
“America’s interest is to have the strongest Israel possible in the Middle East,” said the political science professor, who lived in Israel for 17 years and whose latest book is Ideology, Party Change and Electoral Campaigns in Israel. “Israel’s aim is the same.”
The question of U.S. pressure is hotly debated in the Jewish community. In an April poll of American Jews by the Anti-Defamation League, a small plurality (47 percent) believe Israel and the Palestinians need to solve their own problems, with America playing the role of “facilitator,” while 44 percent said peace depends on continuing U.S. leadership and involvement. ADL national director Abraham Foxman said the poll runs “contrary to certain reports that American-Jewish support for Israel is waning and that American Jews would welcome pressure by the U.S. on Israel.”
However, pro-Israel advocacy groups like J Street support a “consistent and concerted diplomatic engagement by the United States to achieve Israeli-Arab peace,” which, if not pressure per se, hints at a degree of arm-twisting for Israel’s own good.
Mendilow reflected on this assertion when he said Israel’s failure to negotiate a peaceful solution over the territories has weakened its position internationally and produced an endless cycle of violence.
“Israel had not been a very good occupier,” said Mendilow, adding that by allowing the territorial problem to fester for so many years, “Israel has brought upon itself Hamas and two Intifadas.”
It has also brought about one of Israel’s worst fears, that Jews will become a minority in their own country. Mendilow said if those under 18 are included, Arabs and Palestinians already form a majority of residents.
And although it may now be American pressure that helps resolve the territorial situation, it was also American “indulgence” during the eight years of the Bush administration that helped Israel to get into its current predicament.
While the Christian religious Right, supported by George Bush, staunchly supported Israel on religious grounds, Mendilow said, neither President Barack Obama nor his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, subscribe to such beliefs.
“For either McCain or Obama to support Israel regardless of world opinion and the world economy was simply untenable,” said Mendilow. “Israel will now have to play realistic politics rather than messianic politics.”
Mendilow, a British native who received his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees at The Hebrew University and previously taught there and at Tel Aviv University, believes previous U.S. policies came “at a great cost to Israel. It harmed Israel’s case tremendously because [Bush] deferred Israel from dealing with the Palestinians at a time when time plays against Israel,” said Mendilow. “Israel’s case is much weaker now than it was eight years ago.”
While McCain also strongly supported Israel, Mendilow said, Obama’s election is more to Israel’s advantage.
“The problem is [the Republicans] don’t owe the Jewish community anything,” he explained. “His election didn’t hinge on winning New York or California or New Jersey either for that matter. They knew he wasn’t going to get them and he didn’t need them. Obama’s campaign did hinge on winning them. Winning those states and the support of the Jewish community was a major source of his strength.”
The challenge facing Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel’s close recent general elections is putting together a coalition from among Israel’s many fragmented parties, including those on the extreme right and left. That leaves Netanyahu at a critical juncture as he finds a way to be inclusive — which could include launching peace negotiations with the Syrians — while not alienating the Americans.
However, Mendilow said, he believes Netanyahu will not turn his back completely on the peace process.
“To do that he would have to be one of the ideologues of the extreme right,” he added, “and this is not my reading of him at all.”
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