In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, Reform and Conservative synagogues across the U.S. have experienced a spike in attendance as rabbis long committed to identifying Judaism with “social justice” have explicitly or implicitly aligned themselves with the so-called anti-Trump resistance. Jonathan Tobin argues that, as much as this political engagement seems like a successful strategy for congregations faced with declining memberships, it brings no more than a Pyrrhic victory:

It is the general opinion of most governments, legal experts, Middle East specialists, and the editorial boards of major English-language newspapers that the construction of homes for Jews in the West Bank is, at least in some cases, a violation of international law. Yet it is not at all clear why this should be so. Two recent books on disputed territories in international law, both of which pay special attention to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, address this subject in detail, and in the end side against Israel. But, writes Eugene Kontorovich in his review, their authors fail to appreciate the problem that the law in question has never been applied to any country besides the Jewish state: