Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
( JNS) During a speech at the American Zionist Movement’s biennial this month, Elliot Cosgrove, a prominent Conservative rabbi in New York City, called for “a new chapter of American Zionism” that welcomed diverse viewpoints. At the same time, he condemned “intolerance in the American Jewish community toward differing political views” and said all views in the broad Zionist tent should be taken seriously.
However, the only “diverse viewpoints” that the Park Avenue Synagogue rabbi appears to tolerate are those on the left.
In that same Dec. 8 speech, Cosgrove revealed his bias, including by condemning so-called “settlement expansion” (Jews living in the historic homelands of Judea and Samaria, and parts of Jerusalem), an Israeli drift to the right and supposed “extremist parties” within the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the bizarre logic in the speech, Israel’s “rightward drift” (i.e., the Israeli people’s overwhelming opposition to giving a state to the Palestinian Arabs who continue to murder and maim Jews) is somehow responsible for the misguided 30% of left-wing Jews who voted to elect Zohran Mamdani to be mayor of New York City.
My own recent personal experience with Cosgrove further reveals the hypocrisy of his claim to welcome diverse viewpoints.
Briefly:
Several prominent members of his synagogue attended a recent speech I gave in Florida. Afterward, those synagogue members went to Cosgrove and told him I was an informative speaker who received a standing ovation, asking him to invite me to speak at the synagogue, with no honorarium requested.
Cosgrove responded that he knew of me and wanted an interview before granting a speaking engagement. He and I met at the New York City offices of the Zionist Organization of America. After a pleasant enough conversation, Cosgrove said I could address the synagogue if I first wrote an op-ed supporting the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
“It will be great for you,” he said. “You’ll get publicity and acclaim. The New York Times may even cover it. Imagine how that will enhance your reputation.”
I told him I couldn’t possibly write about something I don’t believe in, saying I vehemently oppose a Palestinian Arab state because it would gravely endanger Israel. I added that “I do not seek acclaim, but only to fight for and defend Israel and the Jewish people.”
I told him that not only is Judea and Samaria Jewish land-biblically, legally, religiously, politically and morally. I explained that a Palestinian Arab state in Judea and Samaria (more commonly and misleadingly known as the 'West Bank') would place Israel’s major cities within easy striking distance of rudimentary rockets and ground invasions, endangering the nation’s entire population, and would be an existential threat to Israel.
Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen has explained it (and I reiterated when testifying last week before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress):
Israel’s coastal plain (where its major cities, population centers and sole international airport are located) “is dominated by the Judean Hills and by the Samarian slopes that overlook it from the east along its entire length. Those hills provide a direct view of the plain-and a convenient base for attacking it, whether by short-range rocket fire or by a ground incursion. Thus, whoever controls the hills of Samaria and Judea [where the Palestinian Arabs demand a state] is, for practical purposes, in control of the entire coastal plain. … [A]ll the territory of Area C [in Judea and Samaria] is vital to security and must remain in Israel’s hands forever.”
I then offered to Cosgrove that, as an alternative, he could moderate a panel discussion with me and someone on the left. That way, there would be two people to potentially counter my views. The rabbi refused this offer as well, insisting that the requirement was a column opposed to everything I know and believe in.
I wondered afterwards why he bothered to come to ZOA’s office to meet if he was going to set such a condition. Did he think that I would change the 128-year-old position of ZOA-of assuring a safe and sovereign Jewish homeland-for the privilege of a talk at his synagogue?
Or was it a ruse to tell congregants: “I met with Morton Klein, but he rejected my offer of supporting a Palestinian Arab state.”
This rejection, however, is the position of Israel’s prime minister and the Knesset, which voted overwhelmingly to oppose a Palestinian Arab state, with only the nine Arab Knesset members voting otherwise. Moreover, more than 70% of Israelis oppose a Palestinian Arab state, and more and more former leftists have joined those numbers in the wake of brutal Palestinian Arab terror attacks on innocent Jews.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar urged at a meeting in Israel that every president of a major Jewish organization in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations must publicly oppose a Palestinian Arab state.
During his speech, Cosgrove also stated that making “unconditional support for the Israeli government a litmus test for Jewish identity … has inflicted harm on the Jewish future.” I’ve never heard of anyone making that demand. Rather, Cosgrove has made unconditional support for a Palestinian Arab terror state into the litmus test for speaking at his synagogue.
He also referred to cheshbon hanefesh, “an accounting of the soul,” the Jewish practice of self-reflection, involving an honest assessment of one’s actions. I hope that starts with the rabbi himself.