Naftali Bennett has some nerve to attack the Jewish diaspora's divergence from Israel

“There is a problem of serious assimilation, and a growing apathy among Jews in the diaspora, both about their Jewish identity, and their connection to Israel. That's the key story and it's a national challenge.”

Comforting, isn’t it? Here is Israel’s Minister for the Diaspora, utterly dismissing the notion that he and others like him may have played any role in damaging the important relationship between the Jewish State and Jews living outside that State.

One key argument made by many Israelis is that diaspora Jews are quick to criticise Israel's actions, often without a full understanding of the circumstances that triggered them.

To me, that's a fair argument. I know from personal experience that writing in such circumstances can be unwise.

But the Israeli government is guilty of exactly the same attitude towards Jews in the diaspora.

Just a few weeks ago, a far-right terrorist murdered Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Naftali Bennett, as Minister for the Diaspora, flew to America to, as he put it, “be with our sisters and brothers on their darkest hour.”

The problem is, of course, that Mr Bennett and others on the Israeli right have fallen over themselves to cosy up to Donald Trump, whose foul rhetoric has undoubtedly inflamed tensions in the US and encouraged a huge upsurge in far right activity.

“Some people are using this horrific antisemitic act to attack @realdonaldtrump,” Mr Bennett tweeted, three days after the shooting. 

“This is unfair and wrong. President Trump is a true friend of the State of Israel and to the Jewish people.”

Just a few days later, at an event in New York, Israel’s Diaspora Minister was asked about data from the Anti Defamation League, the antisemitism watchdog, which showed a 57 per cent increase in antisemitic attacks in 2017, the first year of Mr Trump's presidency and the largest rise since records began.

Mr Bennett’s response? He said he was “not sure there’s a surge in antisemitism in the United States… I’m not convinced those are the facts.”

It’s not just Mr Bennett, of course.

Mr Netanyahu’s cosy relationship with Viktor Orban, the increasingly autocratic Prime Minister of Hungary, shows just how much he cares about Jews in the diaspora.

It should not take a genius to understand that an image of a smiling Hungarian Jewish billionaire on government election posters that urge voters not to let him "have the last laugh" has the potential to have a knock-on effect on Hungarian Jews as a whole.

They have said as much — as did the Israeli ambassador, Yossi Amrani, who acknowledged the posters evoked "sad memories, but also sow[ing] hatred and fear”.

But what the Israeli government did next was nothing short of astonishing.

The Foreign Ministry — run by Mr Netanyahu — released a statement saying  “in no way was the statement [by the ambassador] meant to delegitimise criticism of George Soros, who continuously undermines Israel's democratically elected governments by funding organisations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself.”

Traditionally, there has been a feeling in Israel that diaspora Jews care less about Israelis and more about looking good in front of their non-Jewish friends and acquaintances.

Increasingly, it seems the Israeli government is doing the same: caring less about diaspora Jews and more about looking good in front of their non-Jewish friends in foreign governments.

In the diaspora, “assimilation and a growing apathy” towards Judaism in general and Israel in particular are indeed issues of concern (although even that statement is remarkably US-centric).

But there is relatively little Mr Bennett can do about that.

What he and others most certainly can do, however, is avoid dismissing the concerns of Jews in chutz la’aretz about antisemitism just because the leaders of said countries profess to be friendly towards Israel.

The relationship between the Jewish State and the Jewish diaspora, is, thankfully, still a strong one.

The damage that comments like Mr Bennett’s can cause, however, is incalculable.