( CNN ) -- Pro-Israel advocates and politicians , breathe easy . Israel is safe once more from the threat of `` apartheid '' -- the word , that is . U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has clarified comments made in a closed-door meeting last week , and he stated clearly that Israel is not an apartheid state . But Kerry 's dire warning , and the future the secretary was predicting for Israel , lingers . That point seems lost amid this week 's onslaught against Kerry , as members of Congress and Israel advocates raced to prove their pro-Israel credentials with their outrage . The histrionics over the secretary 's remarks are yet one more sign of how fundamentally broken American politics are when it comes to Israel . Vast energy is poured into defending Israel from an inappropriate word . Yet nowhere near enough energy is devoted to promoting policies that will actually protect and save Israel 's Jewish democracy in the long run . Labels aside , Israel is maintaining the longest military occupation in the world . In the territory occupied in 1967 , Jewish residents enjoy all of the benefits of Israeli democracy , while Palestinian residents in the same territory lack basic rights of citizenship . Many predict the number of non-Jews in the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River soon will be greater than the number of Jews , and everyone from President Barack Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come to understand what this means . Without a two-state solution to this conflict , Israel draws ever closer to an unfathomable choice : Forsake its democracy by establishing rule of a Jewish minority over a non-Jewish majority , or forsake its Jewish character by granting equal rights to all residents under its control . That 's the future that former Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak warned about when they invoked the specter of apartheid , and it 's that future that Kerry has been working tirelessly to avert with his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative . It 's a choice that draws sadly closer , now that Kerry 's efforts have passed their initial nine-month deadline , and the parties have resumed the familiar cycle of provocation and retaliation . To question Kerry 's commitment to Israel over a word , after everything that he 's done to help Israel , is absurd . No U.S. leader has done more to help Israel gain acceptance in the international community and ensure its long-term peace and security . What friends of Israel should really be asking themselves is not whether they are doing everything they can to protect Israel from being called certain names , but whether they are doing everything possible to secure its future as the democratic home of the Jewish people by bringing about a two-state peace . Sadly , this question is conspicuously absent from our politics . Many politicians ' reflexive defense posture at times like this allows our friends and family in Israel to continue believing that the root of their problems is anti-Israel bias rather than the expansionist policies a right-wing minority is foisting on their country . They need to hear that the policies of that minority are out of sync with the values and the interests of the United States , and that staying the present course risks the foundations of the relationship between the two countries . Shooting the messenger does Israel no favors . Friends of Israel should start by thanking Kerry for his commitment to Israel and supporting him as he seeks to break the present impasse in negotiations . And if we can channel as much passion and energy into ending the conflict as we do into protecting Israel from painful words , Israel may yet stand a chance .
Jeremy Ben - Ari : John Kerry used the word apartheid about Israel , setting off a firestorm . He says we need that passion devoted to policies to protect Israel 's Jewish democracy . Ben - Ami : Non - Jews will outnumber Jews , which will leave Israel without two - state solution . He says the word apartheid has been used by Israeli ##s : Kerry is a friend to Israel .