I applaud Shmuley’s call for more muscular pro-Israel activism in Europe, but can’t help but think Rabbi Shmuley is here in America while Rabbi Sacks is in Europe — a continent under siege by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic forces. So his criticism seems facile. Not unlike American Jews — from the comfort of their armchairs — disparaging Israeli Jews for their politics.

OBSERVER
by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
June 10, 2015

This week England’s Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks gave a speech described by the media as doom and gloom at a conference in Herzliya. He admitted a belief that the BDS movement had succeeded in making the State of Israel a “divisive factor” in Jewish life and claimed that, as a result, supporting Israel was “almost impossible” for European Jews. It was an astonishingly defeatist speech, which is troubling enough. But most disturbing was the false dichotomy he presented to European Jews. In his own troubling words he said, “Jews have been faced with a choice: live in Europe and criticize Israel or be silent, or leave Europe…” In other words, the only solutions left for Europe’s Jewish community is to embrace and succumb to BDS or get out. What he shockingly neglected to mention is the obvious third option: to stay in Europe, embrace Israel, and fight for the Jewish State. READ MORE