Giving the Diaspora a say

Article's topics: Diaspora, Peace Process

One of the most intractable issues facing Israel, its government and general public is the real nature of the relationship with the Diaspora. Is this a relationship of reciprocal, mutually benefitting and interdependent interests? Is it a vital relationship without which neither could realize their respective and most basic endeavors? Or alternatively, could each exist independently and follow its own narrow interests? These questions are challenging and touch upon the very nature of the linkage between State of Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

One delicate yet vital component of this relationship that repeatedly threatens to cast a schism between the two, is the ongoing peace-negotiating process on issues of central concern to Judaism - specifically concerning the fate of Jerusalem and withdrawal from territory.

During the few instances in which the negotiating process has shown some hope of progress, these heavily emotive issues inevitably arise. In 2005 in the context of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the Orthodox Union of America went as far as to announce that it would no longer desist from expressing positions opposed to those of Israel's government when it believed this was called for.

Later, prior to the Annapolis peace talks on November 27, 2007, Agudath Israel of America, at its national convention, passed a resolution stating that Israel should not surrender any part of Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty and that America's government should not pressure it into doing so. It even dispatched officials to meet with high-ranking members of the Bush administration to press the case, claiming that "the issue of Jerusalem is one that is sui generis: It stands on its own. It is the heart of Eretz Yisrael."

At the same time, a grouping of representatives from Orthodox Jewish and Christian organizations, including Agudath Israel, the National Council of Young Israel, Christians United for Israel, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Coordinating Council for Jerusalem, met with president George W. Bush's national security adviser and other senior White House officials and voiced their movements' opposition to future Israeli concessions in Jerusalem, demanding that American Jews should have a say in any discussion about dividing Jerusalem. The Orthodox Union issued an unequivocal statement that all the Jews in the world had a share in "the holy city of Jerusalem" and that its partition was a move the Israeli government should not agree to.

The powerful Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations also reaffirmed its support for "a united Jerusalem as Israel's eternal, sovereign capital" - a statement that was later criticized by the leader of the US Reform movement, who stated that "The Jewish community in the US... mustn't tell the Israeli government not to compromise on the issue of Jerusalem."

These statements were countered in no less an unequivocal manner by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert claiming that "the government of Israel has a sovereign right to negotiate anything on behalf of Israel."

The president of the World Jewish Congress even published an open letter to Prime Minister Olmert on January 3, 2008 stating that "Jerusalem has been both the capital of Israel and the capital of the entire Jewish people for 3,000 years. While recognizing Israel's inherent prerogatives as a sovereign state, it is inconceivable that any changes in the status of our Holy City will be implemented without giving the Jewish people, as a whole, a voice in the decision."