| |  | | | | | | | Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress Wednesday, a debate broke out within the American Jewish community about whether or not it was right to join protests against him.
Elliot Cosgrove, the rabbi of Manhattan's Park Avenue Synagogue, writes that although he protested Netanyahu last year in solidarity with Israel's pro-democracy movement, he urged against American Jews protesting him now, arguing they should think twice when weighing in on matters of Israel's security and leadership at wartime.
Hadar Susskind argues that American Jews have a right, and in fact a responsibility, to speak out against Netanyahu, and that they will be protesting because they care so deeply for Israel and know that Netanyahu is leading the country down the wrong path.
Nathan Hersh implores Democratic members of Congress to boycott the speech, saying that doing otherwise bestows legitimacy on an Israeli prime minister who is vulnerable politically at home and isolates their natural allies in Israel, further alienates progressives and helps bolster a political philosophy of death and destruction.
Etan Nechin argues that Netanyahu's Washington trip is a display of symbolic force – the only kind he knows – and an attempt to undermine Biden, against whom he has rallied his base. But any comparison with Biden only exposes Netanyahu's catastrophic failings.
Debra Shushan writes that a second Trump term, buttressed by J.D. Vance, his "America First" running mate, spells disaster for Israelis and Palestinians, for U.S. national security, for Jewish Americans and other minorities, and for democracy.
Anat Saragusti writes that the cancellation of a popular TV political talk show exposes how hard Netanyahu is working, with the aid of an American-British oligarch, to destroy independent journalism, intimidate journalists and suppress any criticism of his actions and policies at a critical time for reporting in Israel.
Werner Sonne warns that the German promise of the "Staatsräson" – steadfast solidarity with Israel no matter what, because of the Holocaust – is under tremendous pressure. Amid the Gaza war and West Bank settler violence, there's an intensifying, critical mood in Berlin, and the German government is now caught in a delicate balancing act. | | |
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