ANTI-AIPAC JEWS?: I like Dana's post analogizing the fact that AIPAC doesn't represent the views of American Jews on Iran to how Bill Donahue's Catholic League is far to the right of most American Catholics on social issues. However, I take mild issue with the idea also expressed by Ezra that AIPAC, or its views on Israel, are "aligned with conservatives." As has been mentioned ad nauseum in the media recently, major liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama have spoken before AIPAC and been warmly received. Strong support for Israel is a position that crosses party lines in this country. I think that Dana's and Ezra's and Ari Berman's view that AIPAC is totally out of step with the majority of American Jews on Israel proper, not just Iran, reflects a generational divide. Our parents generation of Jews, who are overwhelmingly liberal Democrats as well, came of age at a time when strong support for Israel--a social democracy in the Middle East and the homeland for refugees from the Holocaust--was viewed as entirely consistent with staunchly liberal politics. To a younger generation of liberal secular Jews, who came of age during the era of occupation, anti-Israel activism on campus, and settlements being built by religious extremists seeking to restore biblical Israel and being egged on by creepy Christianists, taking a more nuanced view has become the norm. So my cohort seems to view AIPAC's line as out of step with most Jews because it is out of step with the cadre of highly informed and mostly secular young liberal Jews that they talk to about politics. But if you talk to Jews over the age of 50, or younger Jews who were raised to be pro-choice, pro-welfare and pro-Israel but don't follow politics for a living, you will find much less of a gap.
--Ben Adler
