Beyond advocacy: Why the Jewish Diaspora must stand with Israel, not just for it - opinion

Here, I want to go deeper into the first and most foundational pillar of that roadmap: the existential necessity of a true strategic partnership between Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

From Israel’s founding through the late 20th century, the Jewish state served as the unifying center of American Jewish life. Over the last two decades, it has increasingly been recast as a divisive wedge issue. The October 7 massacre and the subsequent wave of antisemitism partially reversed that shift, but the dominant posture of American Jewish institutions has not fundamentally changed. It remains one of advocacy: defensive support of Israel or fierce criticism of the actions of its government.

For decades, we have treated our relationship with the Jewish state as a cause, a charity, or a political position, rather than as a bilateral strategic partnership essential to the survival of the entire Jewish people. Both those who rallied for Israel and those who used dissent to claim moral distance didn’t treat Israel as something they were personally, inseparably bound to. That model is broken.

For centuries, Jews were hated because they didn’t have a state. Today, Jews are hated because they do.

Violent anti-Zionism and antisemitism have become deeply embedded across the political spectrum. Jews in the Diaspora are targeted on campuses, in cultural institutions, and on the streets. Israel faces military, diplomatic, and ideological assaults unlike anything in recent memory. These are not separate challenges; they are localized manifestations of the same historic hatred.

The future of our people depends on recognizing a stark reality: Diaspora Jews and Israeli Jews are not merely distant relatives. We are brothers and sisters; we are strategic partners whose security, prosperity, and future are entirely inseparable. We are fighting on different fronts of the very same war.

A proactive strategic partnership requires discipline and shared goals. It also requires us to honestly recognize that those within our community who work against these goals are not engaging in healthy debate. Instead, they are undermining Israel’s security and, by extension, weakening the safety of Jews here at home.

This is why Israel’s Ambassador Yechiel Leiter recently leveled sharp criticism at J Street, arguing that efforts to condition Israel’s ability to defend itself are part of a broader attempt to weaken the Jewish state at a moment of existential threat. Organizations like J Street believe they can affirm Jewish values while separating themselves from the realities of Israeli survival. They cannot. When Jews lend legitimacy to campaigns that restrict Israel’s self-defense or make it a partisan wedge, they do real damage, weakening Israel abroad and leaving diaspora Jews more vulnerable at home.

Too many prominent Jews believe there is a path to mainstream acceptance that runs through public distancing from Israel. History and current events prove this to be a dangerous illusion.

Consider Nadav Lapid. The award-winning Israeli filmmaker has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government. Yet when a Marseille film festival invited him to serve on its jury, antisemitic activists demanded his removal, simply because his project received funding from Israel’s film fund. His criticism did not matter. His Jewishness was enough to mark him for exclusion.

These examples find tragic parallels in Weimar Germany. Between 1919 and 1933, educated, integrated Jews believed accommodation and distance from more visibly Zionist brethren would protect them. They signaled their patriotism and criticized Zionism, convinced that shedding objectionable parts of their identity would purchase safety.

It did not work. You cannot cleave enough of yourself to satisfy forces that reject the whole. There is no formulation of “I’m Jewish, but…” that has ever stopped a pogrom.

For nearly 2,000 years, the default Diaspora response was to petition rulers and appeal to the conscience of the majority. That was rational for a stateless people. But that era is over. We have a Jewish state and a proven model of Jewish strength. We must stop reaching for obsolete tools when the moment demands collective resilience and self-reliance.

We must stop treating Israel as a charitable cause and start treating it as a core institutional asset. Israel has spent 78 years building a genuine culture of survival. Its expertise in security, intelligence, innovation, civil defense, and crisis communication are Jewish assets the Diaspora must actively leverage.

A truly proactive strategic partnership must be built across four fronts:

We are one people navigating the same threat environment. When Israel is weakened, the Diaspora is weakened. The approval of others is a fragile foundation for survival; collective strength and mutual reliance are the only durable ones.