Why are American Jews silent?

The less one knows about the Gaza disengagement plan, the more he or she is inclined to favor it, at least among American Jews. That’s one reason why the large majority here are supportive of the Sharon plan, which until now has not been discussed or debated widely.

With younger American Jews less emotionally attached to Israel than their parents and grandparents, it’s not surprising that they are either unaware of the internal trauma Israel is going through over giving up Gaza and part of the West Bank or that they subscribe to the basic logic of ceding territory that is overwhelmingly Arab in population and which they have no first-hand knowledge of.

Move towards peace

On the surface, disengagement is about advancing the prospect of peace with the Palestinians, and American Jews certainly favor that.

Most don’t know that Israel’s top military officials expect the immediate results of the evacuation to be more rocket and terror attacks from the West Bank, the launching of a third intifada, or that politicians on the left and right seem to agree that Abu Mazen’s prospects for strengthening his moderate position and moving ahead in negotiations with Israel will not be enhanced by the move.

By contrast, those American Jews who are most committed to and involved with Israel tend to oppose the disengagement.

Support for Gush Katif

That’s why in New York, home of the world’s largest Jewish population, the relatively little activity there has been regarding the disengagement in recent months has been passionately and vocally in support of the Jews in Gush Katif and opposed to the government plan.

The activists mostly come from the Orthodox community, have strong ties to Israel, and are upset with the government’s strong-armed tactics in arresting hundreds of teenage demonstrators and jailing about 200 young Orthodox men accused of planning anti-disengagement activities.

Vibrant democracy?

Such government intimidation goes virtually unreported here. When I wrote about a 26-year-old rabbinical student from Bat Yam who had been held in jail for several weeks for “interrogation,” noting that there are many more in the same predicament, I was hoping in part to be proved wrong by government officials.

After all, like most American Jews, I want to believe that Israel’s vibrant democracy places civil rights and fair treatment as the highest priority.

But official response to my article has been muted, and reports go on about unjust treatment, like the three girls under the age of 15 who have been held in jail for weeks, deemed a threat to society.

One reason American Jews aren’t more upset is that they aren’t paying much attention. They believe Israel has no future in Gaza, though they may not realize the pullout will jeopardize rather than improve Israeli security, at least for the short term.

So the Sharon government will continue to enjoy widespread support from Jews in the U.S., as did all previous Israeli governments.

But along the way, that support has become more shallow, and it will take a concerted effort on Israel’s part to make the Jewish State more relevant to the lives of American Jews.

Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of The Jewish Week of New York (www.thejewishweek.com), the largest Jewish newspaper in the U.S.