"Israel from Cairo to Damascus"

Section from an interview of Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations on the Nachum segal show last Friday morning (clip here, at about the 12:50 mark):

Nachum Segal: Are you capable of stepping up and going against the organizations you represent, Mr. Hoenlein, and by the way, my question is a follow-up to that. If you would have, would it have stopped that disengagement? Would Jews still be living in Gaza, if Malcolm Hoenlein would have gotten up from 6,000 miles away and said "this is outrageous" and by the way, on this program you've said many times how you, personally, are against all types of disengagement. You've made that comment-
Hoenlein: I want Israel from Cairo to Damascus. It's that simple.
Segal: You're like the enemy. You're the only guy brave enough to be like the enemy.

Where do I even begin. First of all, the idea that had Hoenlein gotten up, from 6,000 miles away, as Segal puts it, and opposed the disengagement, that his opposition to the pullout would have somehow stopped it in its tracks is laughable.

Second, the comment itself. The elephant in the room. The statement, that he wants "Israel from Cairo to Damascus. It's that simple.", and that having been his reason for his not speaking up in opposition of the Gaza disengagement. This is just crazy, on so many levels. The fact that he even said what he said is just shocking. In the current tense political climate that exists in the Middle East, for a leader that stands in representation of 52 Jewish Organizations and is ostensibly the spokesman for American Jewry to say this?? Does anyone think that any of the organizations that Hoenlein represents would ever put themselves behind his statement? A public statement that is completely beyond the pale from even most right-wing American Jewish Organizations?

Third, Mr. Segal's assertion that somehow, by saying, almost a full year after the disengagement has come and gone, that somehow Mr. Hoenlein is "brave" for speaking up now? Because he speaks "like the enemy", he is brave? Last I checked, the rhetoric of wanting to throw all Jews out of Israel is precisiely the kind of rhetoric "the enemy" is constantly being excoriated for using.

Publicly, Hoenlein purports to be supportive of the Israel government in their actions, but when pandering to a right-wing American Orthodox Jewish audience, he shows his real politics. He's absolutely entitled to his views, however, they seem to be well outside the mainstream. Is this the man who should represent US Jewry?

Hattip: Canonist