Disputes between Jews in Israel and the United States are growing, complicating the voting process at the 38th World Zionist Congress, which kicked off on Tuesday via a global virtual platform in West Jerusalem.
A 2020 survey of Jews in the United States showed that the majority of Israelis (64 percent) support US President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential elections.
However, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s popularity is expanding among Jews in the US, with almost three out of four American Jews supporting him, according to a prominent source in the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
The most recent polls showed that the rate of Jews who support Biden jumped to 75 percent from 67 percent in mid-September, while Trump’s supporters fell from 30 percent during the same period to 22 percent.
Trump’s overwhelming support for the Israeli policy, his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem have all made him more popular in Israel.
Yet, American Jews believe that if elected, Biden would handle several key issues facing the US better than Trump, with 75 percent saying he would fight anti-Semitism better than the incumbent, who only received 22 percent of votes in this regard.
According to an American Jewish official in Tel Aviv, American Jews have taken this stance not only because they historically belong to the Democratic camp but also because they are convinced Trump would likely oppose Israel in the future, just as strongly as he supports it today.
But Trump’s supporters reject this argument and are convinced that the US President belongs to a clear ideological current in the American right-wing.
The US elections are one of several controversial issues being discussed by Jewish leaderships at the World Zionist Congress.
These differences were evident in the Preparatory Committee for the Congress.
A group of representatives of the American, British and French Jewish organizations threatened to boycott the congress if its organizers didn’t respond to their demands to “preserve political balances within the World Zionist Organization.”
The Congress was established in 1897 by Theodor Herzl as the supreme organ of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its legislative authority.
Its members meet about every five years, and the WZC has become the overall supreme ideological and policy-making body of the Zionist movement.
The delegates and the bodies they form at the WZC determine the leadership and influence the policies of Israel’s National Institutions: The World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemet LeIsrael (JNF) and Keren Hayesod – which together allocate nearly $1 billion annually in funding in support of Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
The new congress includes 750 delegates, 38 percent of whom will vote in Israel, 29 percent in the United States and the rest form the Jewish community across the world.
