American Jews, for the most part, are worried and confused after the elections in the USA and after more than a year of war in Israel, the effects of which are very evident here as well. In Boston I met a couple of friends that I have known since the time when I served as Israeli consul in the city, over 15 years ago. Warm Jews who instilled the love of Israel from childhood, pillars of the Jewish community in the city. as “progressive” liberal Jews in American parlance. Over the years, they have had quite a bit of criticism of the policies of the Israeli governments, which have always stemmed from concern and love for the nation state of the Jewish people.
This time I met them more afraid and worried than ever. Not only from the future expected of them in the United States under the Trump administration, not only because of the ongoing war in Israel, the abductees who do not return and the difficult photos, but also for a much more personal reason – their daughter, a student at an elite university, recently joined the JVP movement – Jewish Voice for Peace. Despite the movement’s pleasant name, it is an anti-Zionist BDS organization, which turned the struggle for “peace” into a struggle against the very existence of the State of Israel.