Juxtaposition

I happened to read two articles describing the same thing from very different perspectives earlier this week.

Item One:

Though few may doubt that Jewish life in America could be threatened, Gordis effectively explains why this luxury is precisely because of
the modern state of Israel. In the most powerful passages of the
lengthy piece, he describes the Israeli contribution to the strength of
the American Jewish psyche and standing. There was an era not long ago in which American Jews
tiptoed around America, nervously striving to stay beneath the radar.
They evoked that image of the spies who reported back to Moses after
surveying the Promised Land: “We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves,
and so we appeared to them.” The American Jews who believe they could
survive the loss of Israel do not remember that era. They take it as
entirely natural that thousands of American citizens confidently ascend
the steps of the Capitol Hill on the lobbying day at AIPAC’s annual
Policy Conference….

Jews today no longer think of themselves as a tiptoeing people. When
Soviet Jews awakened and wanted out of their national prison, American
Jews supported them, and the State of Israel made their rescue a
national project. When an Air France flight filled with Jews was
hijacked to Entebbe, the State of Israel rescued them, and American Jews
were filled with unprecedented pride. When Ethiopian Jews were caught
in the crosshairs of a deadly civil war, the State of Israel whisked
them out, and American philanthropists continue to make them a key
priority. Much of what fuels American Jewish pride is the existence and
the behavior of the State of Israel.  In ways we do not sufficiently recognize, Israel has changed the
existential condition of Jews everywhere, even in America. Without the
State of Israel, the self-confidence and sense of belonging that
American Jews now take for granted would quickly disappear.

 Item Two:

So what is all the fuss about? It’s a paper entitled “Preparing For A
Post Israel Middle East”, an 82-page analysis that concludes that the
American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist
Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest
threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent
normal US relations  with  Arab and  Muslim countries and, to a growing
degree, the wider international community….

Among the many findings:

• Gross Israeli interference in the internal affairs of the United
  States through spying and illegal US arms transfers. This includes
  supporting more than 60 ‘front organizations’ and  approximately 7,500
  US officials who do Israel’s bidding and seek to dominate and intimidate
  the media and agencies of  the US government which should no longer be
  condoned;
• That the United States government no longer has the financial
  resources, or public support to continue funding Israel. The billions of
  dollars in direct and indirect aid from US taxpayers to Israel since
  1967 is not affordable and is increasingly being objected to by US
  taxpayers who oppose continuing American military involvement in the
  Middle East. US public opinion no longer supports funding and executing
  widely perceived illegal US wars on Israel’s behalf. This view is
  increasingly being shared by Europe, Asia and the International public;