We Are Not One

September 19, 2022
Historian Alterman (Lying in State) delivers a thought-provoking and thorough study of America’s political relationship with the modern state of Israel. Contending that since the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence, U.S. presidential administrations have deferred to the wishes of Israel’s leaders, Alterman explores the reasons for that consistent support, including guilt over America’s failure to save a significant number of Jews from the Holocaust, the rising political influence of Christian evangelicals who believe that saving Israel is a divine mandate, determined efforts by pro-Israel lobbyists and Jewish organizations, and cultural touchstones including the novel and movie Exodus, which popularized a mythic narrative about Israeli independence. He also highlights Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “relentless propaganda campaign” against President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and the growing generational divide within the American Jewish community over support for Israel as “stateless and oppressed” Palestinians increasingly “occupy the underdog role that history had previously assigned to the Jews.” Evenhanded yet incisive, this is an accessible history of a complex geopolitical matter and a persuasive call for more open-minded debate on an issue tearing at the fabric of the American Jewish community.

October 15, 2022
The long, complicated history of the U.S. government's official "indulgence" of Israel, featuring dissenting voices left and right. "America's generosity to Israel is literally unparalleled, not only in U.S. history, but in the history of any nation," writes Alterman, a contributor to the Nation and author of Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie--And Why Trump Is Worse, among other titles. Despite legendary recalcitrance by Israeli leaders regarding conceding to Palestinian or U.S. demands, Israel "has always been able to count on the unswerving support of the U.S. government." Yet the author systematically reveals how that support is not "monochromatic." The seemingly limitless emotional support for Israel galvanized after the Six-Day War has dwindled since, as Israeli politics moved rightward and instigated increasingly harsh treatment of Palestinians in occupied areas. "The image of the Israeli David fighting off the Arab Goliath--memorialized in the enormously popular 1958 book and 1960 movie Exodus--was more misleading than illuminating," writes the author, "but it lived on as a tool for Israel's supporters in the debates they faced." Alterman explores the early internal struggles of the Zionist movement and founding of Israel and the leaders' relationships with different American presidents. Since the 1960s, each has tried to fashion his own Middle East success story, culminating in Donald Trump's ambitious, misguided attempts to curry favor with fellow right-wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The author employs rich contextual social and media history to reveal the lively intellectual discussions over the decades among the various factions, pro- or anti-Israel--e.g., the furor that burst forth when then-U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Patrick Moynihan denounced the "Zionism is Racism" resolution in the U.N. in 1975. In the final chapter, Alterman delves into the deep disaffection that now exists among American Jews, especially young people, regarding policy involving Israel and the U.S. Illuminating history and a convincing case that Israel's drift toward illiberalism has led to further divisiveness.

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