Published: 6 December 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
“I never thought that I would reach that point where I would say that my support of Israel is conditional”: Abe Foxman.
Israel’s most stalwart supporters within the US Jewish establishment have joined the chorus of concern about Benjamin Netanyahu’s emerging far-Right government.
Alan Dershowitz and Abraham Foxman, in the top tier of the most ardent and vocal defenders of Israel’s status as a Jewish and democratic state, each warned how the emerging threats to Israel’s democracy would be a bridge too far, even for them.
Foxman, the former director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Jerusalem Post that “If Israel ceases to be an open democracy, I won’t be able to support it.”
He warned that impending changes to Israel’s judiciary and Law of Return would make it significantly difficult for him to garner support among Diaspora Jews for Israel, while being personally alienating.
Nearly three million people with Jewish roots – the overwhelming majority of them from the United States – could lose their right to immigrate to Israel.
The new coalition has committed to passing legislation stipulating that any conversion performed outside the existing Rabbinate-controlled, state-run program would not be recognised for citizenship purposes. At this stage, the legislation is only focused on Israeli conversions but that could change.
“I never thought that I would reach that point where I would say that my support of Israel is conditional. I’ve always said that [my support of Israel] is unconditional, but it’s conditional. I don’t think that it’s a horrific condition to say: ‘I love Israel and I want to love Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that respects pluralism,’” he added.
