“We must establish boldly and forcefully that nothing is more pro-Israel than pressing for immediate, sustained and meaningful American action to end the conflict between Israel and its neighbors.This requires a dramatic change in the dynamic of discussion about Israel in the American Jewish community and in the American body politic. It demands an end to simplistic slogans and name-calling that effectively shuts down debate and discussion in a community not known as shy and retiring in expressing its opinions.
My history demands that I say this. Our future and Israel’s future demands that we act on it.”
– “For Israel’s Sake, Moderate American Jews Must Find Their Voice“, by Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street and of JStreetPAC.
More information on JStreet at their website:
J Street is the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.
J Street was founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israel conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region.
J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own – two states living side-by-side in peace and security. We believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole.
sign me up!
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Too bad Hamas doesn’t, unless of course one means ending the conflict by exterminating the Jews.
One can negotiate with a mugger. The only thing you can negotiate with a murderer is your manner of death.
Of course, I’m not Jewish nor have I been confronted by a murderer, so I’m not credible. Although I have been mugged.
Arab terrorists stop attacking Israel = peace in the Middle East.
Call it a slogan if you must but the day Palestinians lay down their arms is the day they get their own state.
You, Aziz, and this Jeremy Ben-Ami are dangerously naive. So dangerous in fact that your line of thinking will get people killed. And, therefore, should and must be fought with all diligence.
There’s only one roadblock to peace, and it isn’t the state of Israel.
Wait… a liberal Jew demanding America force Israel to surrender to the Arabs and calling himself pro Israel! Amazing!! Who would have thunk it? Thanks Aziz. You have come up with a truly new thing.
Me,
Executive Director of Jews That Love War and Death and Aren’t Pro Peace And Won’t Comprimise Ever And Are Exteremist Not Like Your Guy Who Is Pro Peace
From the true premise that Hamas is an obstacle to peace, it does not follow that there exist no other obstacles to peace. That not only sounds like a good organization, Aziz, but it has a rather clever name (Washington has I and K streets, but no J Street).
One irony of the current situation is that while Hamas IS an obstacle to peace, it is apparently not an obstacle to Palestinian independence: Israel withdrew from Palestinian lands dominated by its enemies in Hamas, but continues to occupy lands (i.e., the West Bank) politically controlled by its Fatah allies.
One irony of the current situation is that while Hamas IS an obstacle to peace, it is apparently not an obstacle to Palestinian independence
I thought the purpose of JStreet was to sell the idea that:
peace = Palestinian independence.
You seem to imply that
land occupied by Israel’s enemies = Palestinian independence
Of course the Palestinians already have an indpendent state – Jordan. Don’t know why no one seems to be talking about that. The same plan that carved out a state specifically for the Jews also provided one for Arab Palestinians.
There’s only a “state for Palestinians” problem if you fail to reconize the existance of Israel. The moment you reconize Israel you must reconize the existance of a Palestinian state existing along side her that came into being the same day and the same way she did.
I suspect that it’s this lack of reconignition of the state of Israel that leads some to believe there is no Palestinian state. If you don’t reconize Israel, of course you cannot see the independent Palestinian state next door to her.
It seems to me that actual peace with the Fatah-led government is now possible, what with Arafat dead and all.
Yes, there are plenty of Jews who think like this Ben Ami guy–and, it should be noted, there are a lot *more* of them in Israel than there are here in the U.S. A great irony is that the most truculent people on the issue of Israel are usually Americans (Jewish and non-) who don’t actually have to live in Israel and look at the faces of the people that some think they should just exterminate.
Unlike some, I’m actually optimistic peace will be had, in the next decade or two, for a wide variety of reasons most of which have little to do with what people think is most important here.
It seems to me that actual peace with the Fatah-led government is now possible, what with Arafat dead and all.
Well, if you ignore all of the recent Fatah led murders of Israeli non-combatants, sure, peace with enemies would appear to be possible.
Of course Israel wants peace. They’re living in the worst neighborhood in the world.
They’re a small country surrounded by enemies, and they have to depend on the kindness of the US government and our state department. Our government and our state department are willing to tolerate American deaths in order to maintain their all-important friendship with the Gulf states. I’m sure the Israelis know where they stand in that pecking order. So, it’s not surprising that they’re willing to tolerate this latest peace process, despite the fact that it will cause Israeli deaths, in an effort to get our government to do something about Iran & its nukes.
Under our current power structure, I don’t think there is a real possibility for peace. We’re relying on our Gulf allies, who have always stabbed us in the back, to deal with the threat of nukes in Iran. The fact that we (and Israel) are so frightened of just the threat of nukes in the area makes us all look weak and vulnerable. Our gulf allies are hated by the Muslim world, and their influence is not as strong as we think. All of our misguided efforts will probably cause Iran to become more powerful, even if we do take some misguided ‘action’ against them.
However, the recent food riots show that the power structure may be changing. They already dumped their prime minister in Haiti. They were rioting against Mubarak in Egypt. If the unrest spreads to the economically vulnerable Gulf, the oil ticks will have some hard choices to make – should they increase their production of oil to relieve economic stress, generating lower profits and perhaps incurring debt that could affect their overvalued market?
The question of whether the Gulf states will fail isn’t really an “if”, it’s more of a “when”. And when our gulf allies go down the drain, they’ll take us down with them. Which is bad news for us, but it might not be bad news for Israel. We’ve been using our alliance with gulf terrorism to threaten the Russians and the Chinese (and their terrorist allies). The modern tendency to use terrorists as weapons of diplomacy and war has had a bad effect on Israel, since they’re in the middle of the mess. They’re like an indian tribe that had the bad luck to have a reservation over a uranium mine.
When the gulf economies fail, the whole terrorist infrastructure will fall apart – which might bring a chance of some peace in the area.
actually, Mary, it seems like the purpose of J Street is to convince people that:
peace = good.
palestininan independence = step 1 of N.
Everybody thinks peace is good, and everyone wants peace, they just define it differently.
Osama bin Laden thinks peace = worldwide Caliphate. Hitler thought that peace=worldwide Axis domination.
The majority of Palestinians and many Arabs and Muslims in the area think peace = no Israel.
More about JStreet from Noah Pollak -
J Street places near the top of its list of supporters someone named Avram Burg, who may not ring a bell to many Americans, but who is notorious in Israel. Burg advocates, among other things, the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state; recommends that Israeli parents secure foreign passports for their children; and compares Israel today to late 1930’s Germany. When asked during the call why someone like Burg is affiliated with J Street, the group’s proprietors downplayed and misrepresented the man’s radicalism. It is difficult to imagine how the J Streeters believe their organization will be taken seriously as a pro-Israel lobby at the same time they advertise the endorsement of a figure like Avram Burg.
One of the more interesting aspects of the J Street phenomenon is the belief that there are great battalions of American Jewish doves languishing in voicelessness, awaiting mobilization by leaders whose answer to Islamist terrorism is interminable dialogue. One of the salutary benefits of J Street might be a demonstration that the absence of a peace lobby is not the reason why diplomatic fetishism retains little currency among policymakers.
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