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Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Is Israel Losing America's Jews? With Yossi Klein Halevi and Rabbi David Ingber

Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Ark Media

Society, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Israel, News Commentary, News, Politics, Elections, Palestine, Dan Senor, Government

4.82.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2024

⏱️ 77 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past several weeks, especially the Biden administration’s statements Thursday, Israel has been subjected to a fresh round of harsh criticisms. We’ll be turning to the elevating U.S.-Israel tensions in our Monday episode with Nadav Eyal. But today we have a conversation about the criticisms we have been hearing in intra-Jewish community debates here in the U.S. and other Diaspora communities. While there is a growing number of American Jewish leaders calling on Israel to change course and pursue a permanent ceasefire -- or at least wage a more “humane” war -- these voices are still a small minority (albeit a very loud minority). These voices get outsized attention, but they should not be ignored. They are people that many of us know. Some have large platforms. Many non-Jews hear them on those platforms and cite these Jewish figures as sources. What does all this tell us about trends in American Jewish life long before October 7? What is the impact now on Israel? These are some of the questions we try to unpack with: -Yossi Klein Halevi, who is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Yossi has written a number of books, including his latest, "Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor," which was a New York Times bestseller. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Times of Israel. He is co-host of "For Heaven's Sake" podcast. -Rabbi David A. Ingber is the new Senior Director for Jewish Life and Senior Director of the Bronfman Center at 92NY. He serves as the founding rabbi of Romemu, the largest Renewal synagogue in the United States. Items discussed in this episode: -Rabbi David Ingber's Shabbat sermon on Israel (03/22/24): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px5i9mIxd5E&t=3942s -Rabbi Angela Buchdahl's letter to her congregants on her position on the war in response to the "Times of Israel" article: https://centralsynagogue.cmail20.com/t/j-e-sulquk-dhkutlbli-r/ -Yossi Klein Halevi's books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001IXOA04

Transcript

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0:00.0

I see Israel as a laboratory, first of all in terms of democracy,

0:04.7

democracy under extremity.

0:06.6

What happens when you apply relentless security pressures

0:10.4

on a democracy?

0:11.7

What are the fault lines? Where does it start to crack? Where does it defend itself?

0:15.0

In other words, Israeli democracy is valuable not because we're a paragon of democracy, but because we're not.

0:22.0

We can't be a paragon of democracy, but we are a

0:25.8

paragon for the struggle for democratic values. It's 10 PM on Thursday, April 4th here in New York City. It's 5 AM on Friday, April 4th here in New York City, it's 5 a.m. on Friday, April 5th in Israel as

0:46.6

Israelis get ready to start their day.

0:50.0

Over the past several weeks, especially Thursday, when the Biden administration issued

0:55.2

some pretty harsh statements, Israel has been subjected to a fresh round of red-hot criticisms.

1:02.2

We'll be turning to the elevating U.S. Israel tensions in our next

1:06.7

episode, which will come out Monday with Nidal Yel, but today we want to have a conversation

1:11.8

about the overall criticisms we've been hearing, not just

1:15.3

from the U.S. administration. These criticisms that we hear all the time can be boiled down to in its response

1:22.0

to the war launched by Hamas on October 7th, Israel has gone, and I quote

1:26.7

here, too far. Its response is, quote, disproportionate. Some say it's a form of quote collective punishment

1:36.4

against innocent Palestinian civilians. Others have even accused Israel of

1:41.4

deliberately slowing the delivery of humanitarian assistance or even worse

1:46.8

that Israel has been targeting humanitarian aid workers like those with World Central Kitchen who were tragically killed

1:56.8

earlier this week.

1:58.5

These themes, they are criticisms and conversations that many of you have reached out to me about as you have been

...

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