Don’t underplay the significance of Natalie Portman canceling her Genesis Prize trip to Israel. This is not about a wealthy actress who is turning down a $2 million prize that she doesn’t need, or about the BDS crowd sinking their claws into another naive celebrity 1/
Natalie Portman is not an Israel hater. She has proudly embraced not only her Jewish heritage, but her Israeli heritage. She speaks fluent Hebrew. She knows the country intimately. The sum total of her knowledge isn’t from Ha’aretz English 2/
There is this incorrect notion among many Israelis that American Jews who are turned off from Israel either are inveterate Israel haters, or are so disconnected from Israel and Judaism that it doesn’t really matter. 3/
In other words, it is ok to ignore them because in another generation, they will be gone, and the only American Jews who will be left will be the ones who truly care about Israel and support it through thick and thin 4/
The Natalie Portman saga is the ultimate cautionary tale, because it demonstrates just how wrong this is. I’d wager that she cares about Israel and feels connected to Israel as much as any American Jew out there, yet she clearly has a problem with trends in Israel 5/
There are critics of Israel who truly hate it. There are Jews who turn off Israel because they feel no connection to it. But many American Jews, as personified by Portman, deeply care about Israel, and do not like what they see 6/
If the Israeli govt thinks this will just go away, or it can just be waited out, and that there will be no longterm consequences for its relationship with American Jewry or for American support for Israel, then they are ostriches with their heads in the sand 7/7
