how can we help them? by being bold and brave.

“I don’t accept the term “Jewish Lobby”,  tweeted William Daroff, Vice President for Public Policy at the United Jewish Communties. The American Jewish community is incredibly powerful, economically, and politically, but wisely doesn’t want that power to be categorized in easily pejorative terms.

At the heart of the mission of Jewish organizations that have a political presence in Washington is strengthening US-Israel relations, but as Mr. Daroff makes clear that mission remains limited for the most part to what happens Stateside. The American Jewish Community doesn’t have favorites between the left, center or right of Israeli politics. “It’s up to the Israeli electorate. It’s not my role in the Diaspora to tell them who their leaders should be”,  says Mr. Daroff.

There has always been a sharp cultural divide between Jews who live in Israel, and those who live in the rest of the world, (known as the “diaspora”), and Mr. Daroff makes clear that Diaspora Jews shouldn’t have a say in how Israel is run. “We don’t interfere in the elections of others, just as I don’t want them interfering in American elections.”

But in many respects American Jews already do have an undue influence. Home to more Jews than in Israel itself, about six and a half million, American Jews care deeply about defending the State of Israel and their votes, and financial contributions, in Presidential and Congressional elections increasingly reflect that concern. Nobody denies that representatives from the US Jewish community watch the White House and Congress very carefully and try to maintain firm US support for Israel. That support comes in the form of an aid package worth $2.5 billion in 2007, mostly in the form of a military grant, and cements the single most important strategic alliance in the Middle East.

Despite White House concerns over the years that Israel is not doing its part to push forward the Middle East peace process, the idea of removing or substantially reducing the aid package is a third rail. Doing so would unleash an uproar against the incumbent President and would never be sanctioned by Congress. Which is unfortunate, because it’s the only bargaining chip the US has that Israel really cares about.

The idea that American Jewish groups would support or not oppose a US move to remove aid from Israel seems laughable now, but there may be more to the idea than meets the eye. And here’s why.

Israel is at a historical crossroads. It has three choices.

Firstly, to maintain the status quo, occupying the West Bank, holding a hard line on peace negotiations while containing Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is the position that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes.

The second approach, “The Two State Solution”, calls for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian State alongside Israel, most probably to include East Jerusalem. Variations of this deal have been offered to and rejected by the Palestinians at various times in the last decade or so, usually because they did not include the “Right of Return” of Palestinian refugees to Israel proper.

The third trajectory is the “Single State Solution” whereby Jewish and Palestinian populations merge into a single state. This idea is starting to gather currency among Palestinians who believe they have a long-term demographic advantage (a thesis disputed by some Demographers in Israel who don’t see the Jewish population becoming the minority anytime soon). It is totally unacceptable to the Israelis. Over time Palestinians might move to a “long-game” continuing their rejectionism in the hope of forcing a single-state solution on what they hope will be a Jewish minority, with the support of the International community. Over time, as calls for a single-state approach among Palestinians increase, their appetite for a side-by-side arrangement may dwindle even further. This may happen in a matter of two decades or so.

By far the best approach for Israel and the United States is the two-state solution, and everything but the Right of Return should be on the table. For Israel, the two-state solution would achieve a number of goals. Firstly, after a period of fierce independence, the nascent Palestinian state would rapidly lose Arab state support and become reliant on Israel. Secondly, the new state would mean Arab populations would start looking inwards at injustices in their own non-democratic countries, destabiliizing Israel’s potential foes. Thirdly, a rejuvenated Palestinian population, supported by Israel and the International community may embrace peace. And fourthly, Israel would be able to take advantage of the new stability to build its economy, infrastructure, and society.

To suggest that Diaspora Jews should be mere spectators as this drama unfolds is naive. They are involved and should be involved.  It’s in the interests of American Jews to make their voices heard through their Community leaders in Washington, not with the same tired policies of retrenchment that lead to a continuation of an ultimately destructive status quo, but by proactively influencing the US Government to “go outside the box” and catalyse a desirable two-state solution before it’s too late.

It’s also in the interests of United States to listen to the newer, bolder entreaties of American Jews, to break the log-jam of a habitually frustrating Middle-East Peace process that, right now, it refuses to control.

Both the Palestinians and the Israelis must know that American interests demand peace in the Middle East, and that the US is prepared to apply meaningful financial and other diplomatic pressure to both sides (and in the case of the Palestinians to their allies too) in order to get it.

That pressure can come in the form of sticks, and carrots. The carrot could be more civilian aid to facilitate – for example – new homes and communities for current West Bank settlers moving back to Israel proper, ahead of the declaration of a new Palestinian state.

But the stick would have to come first. And although it may sound crazy, the best way for the American Jewish Community to support Israel is to make clear to the US Government that it would not oppose a threat to cut off Israel’s aid package if it doesn’t hold up its side of the bargain.

I can hear Mr. Daroff laughing now.

Will he still be laughing in twenty years?  We shall see.

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