By Antony Lerman | 29/07/2010
I sense that one of the key things we who share this space on http://www.acheret.co.il/ have in common is a deep distaste for the glib manner in which so many Jewish Diaspora leaders and Israeli politicians use the phrase ‘Israel-Diaspora relations'.
They seem to be referring to something floating in the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere which has nothing in common with the reality of how Jews outside Israel and Israelis relate to each other here on messy earth. Sometimes a dreamy scenario of harmonious interaction driven by solidarity with Israel is painted. More frequently these days a degree of critical questioning of Israel's path is acknowledged, although the default assumption is that questioning can only be acceptable in the context of ‘hugging and wrestling' with the Jewish state.
So little that is said and written on this subject seems to be based on actual observation that when new, substantive information becomes available about the state of Jewish attachment to Israel today, sharing it on a site that in part exists to explore the issue is an obvious thing to do.
And yet when the data from a new survey of UK Jewish attitudes to Israel was released just under two weeks ago I was reluctant to rush into print here with instant interpretations. This was not because of something in the data that I didn't want to talk about. It was simply because I wanted to wait and see how the results were presented and what reaction they provoked in the upper reaches of the organized community.
Not surprisingly, Jewish establishment figures were quick to claim that the 95% of respondents who have visited Israel (78% in 1995), the 90% who see it as the “ancestral homeland” of the Jewish people, the 86% who feel that Jews have a special responsibility for its survival and the 72% who categorise themselves as Zionists prove that ties between UK Jews and Israel remain remarkably strong. Perhaps the classic image of Israel-Diaspora harmony remains true after all?
Like Israeli Jews' responses to surveys on peace with the Palestinians, however, an apparent strong tendency in one direction is more than matched by strong tendencies in another, revealing a complex, multi-faceted reality not without evidence of some contradiction. Not only was there a striking inclination towards dovishness, with 67% agreeing that Israel should yield territory for peace (69% in 1995, at the height of enthusiasm for the Oslo Accords), 78% favouring a 2-state solution and 74% opposing settlement expansion, but also a more radical strain in the 52% who agreed that Israel should negotiate with Hamas, the 55% who agreed that Israel is ‘an occupying power in the West Bank', the 47% who said ‘most Palestinians want peace' and the 40% who said Israeli control of the West Bank is not vital to Israel's security.
For such significant percentages of British Jews to hold this cluster of both dovish and radical views may not point to the imminent emergence of a UK JStreet, but it does provide clear evidence of a new realism about a relationship acknowledged by the vast majority of Jews to be undeniably important—where important can mean both enriching and entropic, welcoming and worrying, at the same time. How else can one explain the fact that less than one-third said Israel was central to their Jewish identity?
If some see this as nothing more than reason for a temporary pause for thought before moving swiftly on, the evidence of polarisation of views should make them think again. For example, highly educated and secular respondents were significantly more dovish and critical of Israeli policy than religious Jews with lower educational achievement.
One of the authors of the report on the results, Jonathan Boyd, Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, which carried out the survey, was admirably frank when he said that ‘there are signs of considerable disquiet in the findings'. And one can add that a tendency for strong Zionist sentiment to become the preserve of religious Jews is considerably disquieting.
Nevertheless, for those of us who believe that the old language of Israel-Diaspora relations hangs like a dead weight around Jewish necks and that a new discourse is urgently required, the results of this survey are extremely encouraging. They show that increasing numbers of Jews are asking probing questions which go to the heart of the connection between Israel and Jews living in the UK. The prospect for positive change now appears much more encouraging.
