While it indirectly claims to be a "grass roots movement," or a movement started spontaneously by everyday people disconnected from politics looking to have an impact, it is rumored by some that it is a case of astroturfing, or a movement that was created to look like a spontaneous and independent grass roots movement, but in actuality was artificially created by the Obama campaign to create the appearance of Jewish support for President Obama's very unpopular political positions regarding Israel among a constituency, that is historically very supportive of Israel.
Much has been said about the JStreet movement, and in the past year or so, it has had a number of embarrassing gaffs. After staunchly denying it accepted money from the vocal opponent of Israel George Soros, it was later discovered that indeed they did accept donations from him. And additionally, they have a controversial policy of accepting donations from many people who would have a hard time calling themselves pro-Israel like Arab and Muslim donors.
JStreet calls itself "Pro Israel," yet really, this couldn't be true even if they thought they were practicing tough love. There is a long list of actions JStreet has taken that pretty much refute their claim of being "Pro Israel."
These include:
- Trying to aid the one-sided Goldstone report prepared by the now defunct UN Human Rights Council on whose board Libya sits, which makes Israel a criminal and Hamas a victim of Israel's aggression, and additionally refusing to support a US Congressional Resolution condemning this same report
- Criticizing Israel's actions during the Gaza Flotilla incident and calling on the US to pressure Israel to end the Gaza blockade, which is preventing weapons from being smuggled to Gaza
- Opposing an American Veto of an anti-Israel resolution in the UN on settlement construction, all the while the Palestinians refuse to even sit down and negotiate, and at a time when the Arab street is on fire as a result of their own abhorrent treatment of their citizens
- Holding a session on BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions – against Israel) at their 2011 conference. To put this in perspective, if there was such a thing as a "Pro America" movement, would you honestly think that discussing the benefits of boycotting the US would be an acceptable subject?
Now my exposure to JStreet is limited, but from what I can make of it from the press, twitter feeds, their website, etc. its clear that it isn't "Pro Israel."
Today I posted a link to an article about JStreet titled J Street needs another lane by David Suissa on my Facebook page, and a childhood friend from camp responded "Thank you for posting this. I've spent the last few years trying to explain to people why I'm not active in JStreet without sounding like a right-wing nut. Folks here aren't willing to hear it, and I'm hoping that this article will help me articulate it a bit better. So that means that among JStreeters, and in liberal Jewish circles in general, if you're not with JStreet, you're labelled a right-wing fanatic. Or in other words, if you're not Pro Israel in the JStreet sense of the term (meaning the only thing good for Israel is peace with the Palestinians, at any cost, and all other issues are irrelevant), then you're pro war.
Now what's particularly troubling to me is the fact it seems that today the only acceptable, valid avenue of publicly "supporting" Israel, is actually criticizing it. And what's even more troubling is that the Jewish community that I grew up seems to be for the most part silent on these issues. I grew up in the reform movement. In fact, I spent 13 years at one of its flagship summer camps and today know at least a dozen if not two reform rabbis, a number of active Jewish politicians, and even spent a summer with America's Ambassador elect to Israel, Dan Shapiro as part of his staff.
And from the little I see from their Facebook activity, checking their synagogue websites, etc., it doesn't seem they're very vocal or active participants in the national dialog.
And when we take into consideration that JStreet is, as we saw this week with a highly publicized annual conference, very vocal, and very aggressive at taking the public spotlight, and with the public spotlight being gratuitously given to them by the liberal media, it results in most people assuming that this is the voice of mainstream Judaism on Israel, and is giving them power to set the American political agenda regarding Israel. Indeed, the only "Pro Israel" party portrayed as a reasonable interlocutor in the mainstream press seems to be JStreet, while anybody that publicly supports Israel in any way, shape or form (besides encouraging it to "make peace" with the Palestinians) are portrayed as my friend said as "right wing nuts."
It's quite sad to hear that among the liberal Israel supporters I grew up with, anybody speaking in support of Israel is considered a "right-wing fanatic."
It seems that real Pro Israel supporters have cleared the stage for the JStreeters of the world, no longer willing to stand up and fight the rhetoric, to call out the misrepresentations, and to simply say that standing with Israel isn't right wing or fanatic. The fanatic left has convinced the world that if you don't stand by the Palestinians at all costs, you're a right winger. And that's simply not true, it’s a distortion, and its setting the world agenda on Israel.
And its sad that with all the revolutions taking place in the Arab world, populations that have been cowered by their dictators for decades with no rights and no real hope for a future, the only thing on the agenda of these people who claim to be left wing liberals fighting for human rights is forcing Israel, at any cost, to make peace with the Palestinians. I can't speak for you, but to me that's pretty messed up.
I mean, I get it. The Palestinians haven't been free from "occupation" since 1948 (even though in truth they never were a nation, for the past 600 hundred years being part of the Ottman empire, and since the beginning of the 20th century subjects of the British Empire, before Israel was created.
Another thing that really yanks my chain? Members of JStreet claim to be "Pro Peace," and subsequently insinuate that if I don't agree with them that I'm pro war, and that anybody that dares believe that Israel has legitimate demands of the Palestinians is also pro war. Funny thing is, its easy to be "Pro Peace" when all you have to do for peace is get all stirred up by self-righteous indignation on subjects that may be close to your heart, feel good about your desire for peace on earth, but in practice, it doesn't really't impact you or your children's lives. At least, not by way of missles or bullets.
Do members of JStreet have to worry about if Hamas is going to win the next election in the West Bank, like they did the last one, and do to the West Bank what they did in Gaza (transform it into a launchpad for attacks against Israel)? Do the children of JStreet members live within reach of missles from Gaza? And do members of JStreet have to live with the consequences if the international community reneges on their security guarantees like they did at the Rafiah Crossing, with Israel's evacuation of Gaza, or with Lebanon which has now led to 30,000 missles pointing at our cities? No, and they don't care.
And then of course there's the condemnation of Israel's skepticism of Egypt's revolution. But guess what, just because we're skeptical, doesn't mean we don't want a democratic Egypt. Just because we're concerned that the Egyptian revolution might be hijacked by religious fanatics doesn't mean we want the Egyptian people to be enslaved. Just because we had a peace agreement with a dictator doesn't mean that as Thomas Friedman so horrendously put it, we supported the last Pharaoh. And just because we believe that Israel, under the circumstances, in the region in which it lives, and in consideration of the massive military buildup taking place on its borders has the right to decide for itself whether a certain set of concessions matches its security needs and interests, doesn't mean that we're pro war.
But those at JStreet, they'd like you to believe it does. Just like they label anybody that isn't one of them "right wing fanatics." Why? Because they really do want peace, but at any cost. And they think that if Israel gives into Arab demands and provides concession after one-sided concession, the Palestinians will finally be free of what they call "the tyranny of Israeli occupation." And they want to believe, boy do they want to believe, that the Palestinians have the same values for life, peace and equality that they do. And they want to believe, with all their hearts, that if only the Jews didn't oppress the Palestinians, JStreeter souls would be set free from the burden of being connected with such a terrible entity as Israel and that maybe, just maybe they wouldn't feel the pressure of being a Jew in a world where Israel is constantly criticized by everybody. If only they knew: no matter what Israel does, it'll always be wrong, and they'll always be guilty by association.
I wonder if they've compared the quality of lives of those same West Bank Palestinians to the Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisian, and even Gazans. Though I'm pretty sure they haven't, because the Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisians, and yes, Gazans, don't matter a bit to them, not if they're being tortured, being starved to death, or dying. For that my friends, has been going on for years. Yet the world has stood in hypocritical silence. Because they are not being occupied by the Israelis, as the result of an unresolved conflict that, which they like to ignore, starts and ends with the Arab rejection of Israel.
So the question is, who's going to dominate the debate on Israel, and who is going to determine what is Pro Israel? A group that claims they're "Pro Israel Pro Peace," but are really "Don’t care about Israel, Peace at any Cost?" Those of the likes at JStreet that hold discussions about the advantages of Boycotting, Divestment, and Sanctions to get Israel to succumb to their demands? An organization funded by people like George Soros who claim that both Jews and Israelis are responsible for anti-Semitism? The organization that accepts donations from people and organizations that are clearly Pro-Palestinian and Anti-Israel?
Is that really Pro Israel? I'm mean, come on. How do they get away with calling themselves that? They should be called out for it, not by Israelis, but by the media, and by the real everyday supporters of Israel in the US.
Or is it going to be the real Pro Israel Pro Peace crowd. Those that I grew up with. Those I went to summer camp with. Those who were taught to be leaders, to speak up. Those that were trained to be critical and think for themselves. Those that know that Israel isn't out to conquer the world, and who know that if real peace is to be had, Israel will jump, and make the required sacrifices.
To quote Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’ And as the other expression goes, the road to hell is paved by good intentions. That is the road that JStreet is leading us all down, and to use a word I don't like using, it's evil. And it's not because they're willfully vicious, it's because while at the same time they are so sure in they're ways, they are blinded by their all too admirable objective to be able to see that forcing Israel to make one-sided concessions won't free the Palestinian people, and it won't bring peace to the Middle East. The only thing that will do that, is the desire of both peoples to do so, and the willingness of both sides, not only one, to make concessions.
And if those who really are Pro Israel and Pro Peace, and are aware not only of the sacrifices, but the cold hard truth that peace can only be the result of mutual agreement, remain silent and do nothing; then things are going to get bad, as we've already seen start to happen. Whether it be Louis Farrakhan claming the Jews are pushing the US into war, Christian Dior designer John Galliano praising Hitler, Charlie Sheen referring to his Hollywood boss by his Jewish name, and not because he was trying to make him feel good, Julian Assange accusing the Guardian of a Jewish Conspiracy or any of the other dozens of growing public anti-Jewish sentiment that is becoming acceptable dialog in across the nation, and around the world.
And not only for the Israelis, but for Jews around the world. At this most volatile time in the history of the world, with the American nation in financial crisis, European Union countries on the verge of default, revolutions sweeping across the Middle East, inflation running rampant, that evil little expression, the default attitude of the world's masses (((it’s the Jews))), is being heard more and more every day.
And JStreet joining in international criticism of Israel while ignoring, as they have been for decades, the real evil lurking behind the dictators sitting on the UN Human Rights Council, reinforces the proxy status of Israel as the Jew of the world. And while Israel has been drawing absurd, disproportionate criticism for decades while being attacked by dictators and terrorists, enlightened Western nations and mainstream media, slowly the hateful rhetoric, by transference, is moving from Israel, to the Jews.
Will the real Pro Israel please stand up? For JStreet is right about one thing, the events in Israel, for better or for worse effect Jews around the world. Indeed, in the eyes of so many in the world, they are guilty by association. And when the world demonizes Israel, it eventually trickles down to the them. Stand up for what is right. Want peace, but realize that it won't come at "any price." Demand reciprocation from the Palestinians. And stand up to the JStreeters of the world, when they call you a right wing nutjob just because you stand up for Israel. Tell them they are wrong, before your voice is completely lost.
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