American Protesters' Cause Isn't Clear to Israel

Israel’s left-leaning daily newspaper, Haaretz, sent an email alert last week with the tantalizing headline, “Why U.S. Jews will never be the same after mass AIPAC protests.” The reference was to a protest organized by a relatively new organization of mostly young American Jews called If Not Now, at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s recent policy conference.

If Not Now, which calls itself a “movement,” took its name from the Talmudic sage Hillel, who said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me; and if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Several hundred protesters (which If Not Now described as “more than a thousand”) marched, danced and sang outside the convention center in Washington where Aipac had gathered; a few chained themselves to the pavilion’s doors.