Reform Leader Confirms Steve Bannon’s Worst Taunt of US Jews

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr; CCAR Press website

Reform clergy Jonah Dov Pesner (R) vs. Steve Bannon.

Allison Kaplan Sommer described in Haaretz on Tuesday how “former Trump aide and MAGA godfather Steve Bannon took the Trump campaign message to Jews and Israel one inflammatory step further.”

“The number one enemy to the people in Israel are American Jews that do not support Israel and do not support MAGA,” Bannon said in a video that has gone viral faster than a fire taking down a synagogue on Kristallnacht. “MAGA and the evangelical Christians and the traditional Catholics in this country have Israel’s back. They have the Jews’ back. The biggest single enemy of the Jewish people is not the Islamic supremacists. The biggest enemy you have is inside the wire, progressive Jewish billionaires.”

Bannon suggested that Israelis “set that right,” and realize their friends in the US are the Christians and American Jews are “an enemy inside the wire.”

I’m not crazy about Steve Bannon, even though I believe he is the most intelligent ally the Trump administration has ever had, without whom Hillary Clinton would have concluded two presidential terms last January.

I dislike Bannon because of the way he treated his Jewish second wife, Mary Louise Piccard. During their divorce proceedings, Piccard claimed that Bannon had made antisemitic comments regarding her choice of schools. She said he expressed reluctance to send their children to the Archer School for Girls, citing that there were too many Jews at the school and that Jews raise their children to be “whiny brats.” Bannon denied her accusations. I trust the wife.

So, imagine my surprise when a Reform clergy named Jonah Dov Pesner a week ago issued a proclamation insisting that everything Bannon had to say about American Jews and their contempt for Israel was true.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

Jonah Dov Pesner has served as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism since 2015, and Senior Vice President of the Union for Reform Judaism since 2011. He was named one of the most influential Jewish clergy in America by Newsweek magazine.

On February 21, Pesner sent a letter to every US Senator, ahead of the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Here are the faults this Reform high official found in Gov. Huckabee, who might be the greatest lover of Israel in America today, bar none.

According to Pesner, “The essential goal of any ambassador is… the recognition and advancement through peaceful means of Palestinian national aspirations.” In that context, he says, “Gov. Huckabee’s record raises serious questions about his commitment to these values and interests that have persisted across Republican and Democratic administrations alike.”

So, for one thing, the fact that past administrations mindlessly regurgitated the trite verses about “Palestinian aspirations” does not lend them permanence. I doubt that Pesner’s letter would be received favorably by as many as five Republican Senators.

Pesner continues, “As a presidential candidate in 2008, Gov. Huckabee declared that ‘There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,’” and “In 2017, Gov. Huckabee denied the reality of Israel’s decades-long occupation of the West Bank.”

A diaspora Jew who is not a member of Neturei Karta would probably rejoice in the fact that the future American Ambassador to Jerusalem believes Israel has the right of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. But in Pesner’s eyes, this constitutes an indictment of Huckabee.

Pesner complained that “in an interview with Israeli radio that took place after his recent nomination, Gov. Huckabee welcomed the possibility of broader Israeli annexation of the West Bank. Each of these views runs counter to US interests in advancing the causes of peace and regional security.”

When was the last time the “Palestinians,” either in Gaza or Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarm, Shechem, and Hebron were mentioned as harboring a potential for “peace and regional security?” Is it any wonder Steve Bannon is saying American Jews are “an enemy inside the wire?” (by which he means inside the compound, either in the military or prison. It’s a less humorous version of LBJ’s note about having your friends relieve themselves outside the tent – DI).

THE JESUS THING

Pesner makes a stronger point, one Bannon didn’t bother with, regarding the Evangelicals’ motive for supporting Israel. He writes:

“Gov. Huckabee’s views may be shaped in significant part by his deeply held evangelical faith, including what is known as ‘Christian Zionism.’ This ideology professes a love of Israel rooted in the belief that Jewish sovereignty over the biblical land of Israel will hasten the return of Jesus Christ. Let us be clear: we celebrate the American commitment to religious freedom, which must never be a barrier to participation in public life. Gov. Huckabee can hold whatever faith views he believes. At the same time, as Jews and Zionists, we are gravely concerned by a teaching in which the well-being of Jews, of Israel, and of America are not ends in themselves but means to the fulfillment of Christian eschatology.”

Two points:

One: the Reform movement’s prayer omits the part about wishing for God to return to Jerusalem and usher in salvation. They didn’t ask for it in Germany in the 1840s, and they don’t want it today. As a Reform clergy, ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1997, Pesner simply doesn’t hold the credentials to count himself among “Jews and Zionists” – he is barely the former and certainly not the latter. He has more in common with the NAACP of which he is a board member, than he does with the Jewish nation in Israel which is fighting for its very life today.

Two: My strong belief is that when we, Jews, meet a gentile who professes his or her love to us, we should give thanks to Hashem and not bother with the dark and clandestine reasons that may or may not motivate them. Because they could profess their hate instead, as so many other gentiles are doing these days. But instead, they collect money for us and buy us ambulances. How calloused must Jonah Dov Pesner be to reject Gov. Huckabee’s declaration of love on theological grounds?

Believe me, the day the Reform establishment expresses its love to the Jews of Efrat, Beit El, and Kiryat Arba, I will stop pointing out that as a result of their patrilineal descent doctrine, half of them can’t go near my wine.