The right to criticize Israel is beside the point - by Jonathan S. Tobin

The issue isn’t whether it’s OK to criticize the government of a democracy, but whether that democracy has a right to exist and to defend itself.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
23 October '18..

In an election season in which we are awash in polls, we’ve now been given one more telling us something that everybody already knew. A new group founded by Jewish Democrats called the Jewish Electorate Institute has commissioned and published a poll that says Jewish voters back Democrats over Republicans by a 74-26 margin in the upcoming midterm elections. For good measure, it also informs us that Jews disapprove of U.S. President Donald Trump’s performance in office by a 75-25 margin.

This is what the news business calls a “dog bites man” story. But there was one question the survey raised that is worthy of comment: whether or not American Jews thought they had a right to criticize Israel’s government. A majority of them believe they do, with 59 percent saying that you could be both pro-Israel and still disagree with some or many of the Israeli government’s policies.

This result is being trumpeted by groups critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as proof that they are more representative of American Jewish opinion than those U.S. Jews who are supportive of the government. It is also put forward as a vindication of sorts for a liberal Zionist perspective on the Middle East conflict that argues that American Jews not only have a right to oppose Netanyahu’s policies, but a duty to push for pressure on the Jewish state to change its ways while still being able to claim the label of pro-Israel.

But those heralding its results are missing the point. The issue isn’t whether it’s OK to criticize the government of a democracy, but whether that democracy has a right to exist and to defend itself. Even more to the point, the key question is whether Israel’s voters have a right to have their judgment respected by those who would like to push foreign governments to put intolerable pressure on their government to do things its people have clearly said they oppose.

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