Israel will lose the support of the United States and American Jewry if the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continues, the deputy director of a prestigious Israeli think tank warned Wednesday.
Joseph Alpher of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said that what American Jewry did in its public outcry over the recent “Who Is a Jew” controversy was “pour (out) all of their reaction to the intifada, on which they didn’t feel able to speak out.”
Alpher, who directed the recent Jaffee Center study on options for peace, made these comments to reporters after he addressed the Washington Institute of the National Council of Jewish Women, a four-day meeting attended by some 700 women from across the country.
Lenore Feldman, NCJW president, told reporters that Jewish leaders expressed their concerns about the uprising to the Israelis privately.
“We’ve been telling them privately the status quo is not going to be appreciated by anybody,” Feldman said. “It doesn’t serve Israel well, it doesn’t serve Jewry well.”
But she said they were told that “American support of Israel is so firm and entrenched that it didn’t matter whether American Jewish support was very strong or not.”
During NCJW’s four-day advocacy training program, which ended Wednesday, the delegates presented Congress with a petition signed by 10,000 persons advocating freedom of choice for abortions.
The NCJW also presented its Social Action Award to Gov. Madeleine Kunin of Vermont. Kunin, who is Jewish, was honored for her leadership in child care, education and the environment, all major concerns of NCJW.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
