Amid growing tensions between the US and Iran, leaders of the US Jewish community are expressing concern over President Bush’s recent statements that his main concern in any possible military action would be protecting Israel.

While persuaded that a nuclear Iran would indeed present an “existential threat” to Israel, they fear that any negative consequences arising from a US attack could promote anti-Semitic backlash that would damage US support for the Jewish state. In addition, citing Israel as justification for confronting Iran will make it far more difficult to rally other countries behind US moves against Tehran, they say.

Those concerns surfaced dramatically last week at the centennial convention of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) when an AJC board member received an ovation for asking Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlm-an to “take a message” to Bush to stop linking US actions against Iran with Israel’s security.

The US Jews were less supportive of going to war in Iraq than the general population, according to opinion polls, which have since found Jews to have been quicker than other groups to conclude that the invasion was a major mistake.

At the same time, however, top officials in Israel’s Likud-led government clearly encouraged the administration on its course, while prominent neo-conservatives, for whom concern about Israel’s security and a right-wing Zionist worldview have long been defining characteristics, took the lead in promoting the war, both inside and outside the administration. While most neo-conservatives are Jewish, most US Jews, while very sympathetic to Israel, are not neo-conservatives.

Bush’s increasingly frequent statements linking possible US actions against Iran with Israel’s security are compounding the discomfort. As pointed out by New York’s Jewish Week last month, his most startling assertion to date came in answer to a question about the influence of apocalyptic Christian theology on his policies during an Ohio community meeting in March. “The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to destroy our strong ally, Israel,” he said. “I made it clear, and I’ll make it clear again, that we will use military might to protect our ally.”

“It’s a horrible thing to do,” Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Jewish member of Congress, said. “If something goes wrong, it’s a set-up to say we did it for Israel and not for America, and to blame the Jews.”

Instead of passing such remarks, analysts want President Bush to concentrate on dialogue with Tehran. Just last week, Dennis Ross, a former top US Middle East negotiator who now works for Washington Institute for Near Policy and chairs the Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning, a new organisation created by the Jewish Agency to help coordinate the interests of Israel and Diaspora Jews, called for Washington to join with its European partners in direct talks with Iran, including offers of new incentives to persuade it to freeze its nuclear programme. — IPS