Will U.S. Jewish groups pivot left if Herzog wins?

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Come early next year, there might be yet another world capital that opposes Israeli settlement expansion and sees Benjamin Netanyahu as principally responsible for Israel’s isolation: Jerusalem.
Isaac Herzog, the Labor Party leader, is faring well in the polls since Netanyahu called for new elections earlier this month and the Knesset dissolved itself.
The prospect of a left-leaning government means that U.S. mainstream Jewish groups, which since Netanyahu’s election in 2009 have pushed back against claims that his policies have been detrimental, will have to reassess messaging.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
A liberal U.S. Jewish community had to contend in 1977 with the election of Menachem Begin, then a Land of Israel maximalist whose prestate career was as a Jewish paramilitary leader who ordered the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel. Fifteen years later, a pro-Israel community made hawkish through years of Likud-led governments suddenly contended with Yitzhak Rabin and his accelerated moves toward peace with the Palestinians.
This time around, Jewish community leaders say, it won’t be so difficult: Pro-Israel groups have long-established and friendly ties with Herzog and his political partner, Tzipi Livni, and in any case, American Jews are likelier to favor the policies of the political left.
“On the whole, the Jewish community respects the sovereignty of the Israeli public to decide who rules them,” said Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director. “What becomes difficult is you form relationships with one government and another one is in. We may lose some proximity, some access.”
Differences between the Netanyahu and Obama governments have sowed discomfiture for American Jews, particularly in the areas of Iran policy and settlement expansion. Frequently the differences have devolved into personal heated exchanges of insults.
Herzog has blamed Netanyahu for fomenting the tensions.
“You are the man who personally must take credit for the destruction of Israel’s relations with the United States,” Herzog said in an Oct. 27 Knesset speech that anticipated the dissolution of Netanyahu’s government. “You’ve repeatedly insulted President Obama and his administration.”


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