Israel Matzav

J Street: The demon sheep of 'pro-Israel' groups

StandWithUs International Director Roz Rothstein attended Thursday's J Street meeting at the University of Pennsylvania Hillel. She wrote the email below, which was forwarded to me by Jennifer K (StandWithUs also produced the cartoon below).

There were approximately 200 people at the U of Penn tonight when J Street launched their opening event. The presentations were all well articulated, spoke of everyone's dream of peace, and how there needs to be room for debate...room for "wrestling with Israel even as we hug Israel." A great analogy indeed. I think that everyone agrees that there is room for vibrant debate about Israel.

The presentations conveyed J Street positions, which include ending the Gaza "blockade," pressuring President Obama to exhibit leadership and press for a two state solution, with peace and justice for everyone.

But for me, there were several unanswered questions, including the following:

First, how does J Street justify pressuring the democratically elected government of another country (Israel) to change its policies, through lobbying elected officials in the United States?

Second, how can people living in the safety of the United States make policy decisions for another country, possibly endangering their citizens?

Finally, what is J Street asking of the Palestinians? We know that J Street has an agenda that asks Israel for a full variety of concessions. But what about the Palestinians?

I tried to find out what Ben Ami thought. I asked him the three questions that were on my mind, but did not get answers. The one thing he said, was that the situation in the current state is not working. On that we agree, each of us having different interpretations as to why the conflict continues, and the question of how to bring about peace still remains the challenge. It seems that J Street wants to "force" peace, even though Israel has no partner.

Also clearly missing from the presentation tonight was any reference to terrorism, incitement, or the Hamas charter. I am confused as to why J Street would ignore the present "elephant in the room" dangers. I suppose if they focus on the threats, they could not move forward with their dreamy, though dangerous agenda.

Indeed. I would add to J Street's 'pro-Israel' agenda in the cartoon their opposition to sanctions against Iran. J Street is the demon sheep when it comes to Israel (FINALLY an excuse to link that ad for those of you who haven't seen it yet!).

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:34 AM