Can Jewish Liberals change Netanyahu’s policies toward Palestinians?

The Times of Israel reports that Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, a prominent American Jewish leader in New York City, said that Jewish support for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani was unsurprising, while calling for a more expansive view of Zionism in the general Jewish community.

Rabbi Cosgrove, the rabbi of Park Avenue Synagogue, is a leading voice in the US religious Conservative Judaism community and a firm supporter of Israel. Speaking at the biennial national assembly of the American Zionist Movement in Manhattan, he said that Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, the rightward drift of the Israeli government, and intolerance in the American Jewish community toward differing political views have contributed to disaffection among liberal Jews.

For Jews who grew up after the Holocaust, Israel’s claim to the land in the interest of survival was obvious, and Arab ongoing attacks on Israel sidelined concerns about Palestinian rights, Cosgrove said, adding that this has changed due to Orthodox settlement expansion and the military rule of the West Bank.

Rabbi Cosgrove added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the only prime minister many young American Jews are familiar with due to his long tenure, is “beholden to extremist parties” whose policies go against the values of liberal US Jews.

“In the eyes of American Jews, the West Bank’s settlements and illiberal policies they represent pose a threat to Israel’s founding promise of democracy,” he said.

“You may not like the fact that 30 percent of New York Jews voted for Mamdani, but you shouldn’t be surprised by it. For liberal Zionist disillusioned by the Netanyahu led Israeli government, Mamdani’s anti-Zionism is a difference of degree, not of kind. “The argument that it’s somehow treasonous to criticize this or that Netanyahu policy simply doesn’t hold, as long as that criticism comes from a place of love, loyalty, and investment in the well-being of the State of Israel,” Rabbi Cosgrove said.

If Hamas actually gives up its weapons, and its commitment to destroy Israel, almost all liberal Jews will support a Gaza state.

Meanwhile, in Israel a plurality of 46% of Israelis opposed far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to spend NIS 2.7 billion ($841 million) to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to a new survey conducted for Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site.

The survey also polled respondents about their vote in the upcoming elections, which are due to be held by the fall of 2026. Overall, the survey found that the current governing coalition would win 52 seats, considerably short of a 61-seat majority and far lower than its current 64.

The parties generally seen as comprising the anti-Netanyahu bloc, meanwhile, would win 55 seats. One party has not ruled out joining either a pro- or anti-Netanyahu coalition, making it a potential kingmaker. Arab parties would win nine seats and could help overcome Netanyahu if they joined together.

And Amnesty International finally accused Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups of crimes against humanity, including extermination, during and after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. “Palestinian armed groups committed violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and crimes against humanity during their attacks in southern Israel that started on 7 October 2023,” the human rights watchdog said in a 173-page report.

The Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or a nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” (16:120) If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah; then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided. Prior to the 20th century Arabs and Jews never did make war with each other. “Lo yisa goy el goy kherev velo yilmedu od milkhama” “Nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)

There will be no peace until both Palestinians and Israelis declare the chant ‘From the river to the sea’ becomes an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, and not death, destruction, or hate. We can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both peoples first, and the land second. “From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘a two state for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully solution.’”

If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel  will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5)