Israel Matzav

No, J Street is not a Zionist organiztion

Dear Jeffrey,

I am writing to you in response to your recent column on J Street, seen here.

I would like to go through your article to explain where I believe you are deeply misguided.

But: J Street is still a Zionist organization. I believe it is fighting for Shimon Peres's vision of what Israel should be, and Yitzhak Rabin's, and more to the point, it is fighting for the vision espoused by Israel's George Washington, David Ben-Gurion. Commit this to memory: While many Israelis were ecstatic about the victory over the genocidal Arab armies of 1967, Ben-Gurion issued a warning: This will not work. Ben-Gurion said that Israel cannot be an occupier of Arabs. He was right then, and J Street is right now.

I am not sure what you are getting at. In 1967, the Israeli government also believed that it did not want to 'occupy' Arabs, even as Arabs were occupying Jewish land they confiscated in 1948 and 1929 from Jews who have lived in Jerusalem and Hebron (amongst other cities) for hundreds - if not thousands of years. In fact, the Israeli government offered to return this land, and the famous "Three Nos" were issued in Khartoum. However heart-wrenching the "occupation" may be, in fact this land has been historically Jewish, and it is all the more heart wrenching (and openly racist) to make it Judenrein (while of course not for a second considering expelling Arab Israelis from 1967 borders). And of course, doing such a thing and not getting peace means giving up the high ground (which is what Itamar, Ariel, and much of Judea/Samaria sits on consists of) to terrorists. This means that rockets can be sent to Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv, which would cripple the country. There are real security reasons to keep this territory, and I don't understand why you dismiss those concerns.

If Shimon Peres is to be considered a Zionist; if Rabin is considered to have been a Zionist; and if David Ben-Gurion is to have been considered a Zionist, well, then J Street is Zionist as well. It is not heroic in the manner of these men, but neither are most of Israel's current leaders, and nor are the leaders of American Jewry today.

Being a "Zionist" implies you have Israel's interests at heart. Even assuming that the settlements are a problem, it is not "pro-Israel" to gather the USA and "international community" against Israel (which J Street has done, by backing a UN security counsel resolution against Israel). It is not "pro-Israel" to have as your primary position one of using leverage to get the American president to threaten and attack Israel. It is not "pro-Israel" to refuse to even back Cast Lead, one of the most obviously moral wars in Israel's history, or to back the Goldstone Report. It is one thing to try to make change from within - i.e., for the Labor party in Israel to exist, which is emphatically anti-settlement, but would not go on international stages to denounce the country. That is arguably a pro-Israel, even as I disagree with it. That is not what J Street is doing, and it is astonishing that you don't see the distinction.

I would like to add that J Street is also linked up with the Iranian Regime lobby - the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). This lobby is a shill for the Iranian regime, and Mr. Trita Parsi regularly speaks at J Street events as a panelist. This is an organization that is Zionist?

The Knesset is debating whether or not J Street is Zionist. This is a farce. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to meet with J Street. This, too, is a farce. The Prime Minister, in fact, will meet with Sarah Palin (whose politics are favored by a tiny minority of American Jews) but he will not meet with J Street. He should argue with J Street, yell at J Street, grapple with J Street, but most of all meet with J Street. Those Israelis, and those American Jews, who believe that J Street, and the spirit it represents, are fleeting phenemona have absolutely no idea what is happening in the Jewish world.

Why is this a farce? Vast numbers of American Jews also are leaders in the anti-Israel movement. Medea Benjamin of Code Pink is Jewish. Jewish Voice for Peace (which is part of the BDS movement) is made of Jews. Norm Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky are Jewish. Should Bibi meet with them, simply because they are Jewish? But regardless of that, what would happen if Bibi met with J Street? At a certain point, meeting with groups such as J Street accomplish little other than providing a forum for the public excoriation of someone who is excoriated enough in public. I mean, for God's sake, Dennis Ross, not known as a conservative, spoke at J Street, and was excoriated for it by J Streeters. It is not clear that his words were listened to whatsoever. So what would Bibi's meeting with J Street do, other than legitimize this institution? It surely won't change minds.

One last point. It might well be that many American Jews have a nadir of love for Israel at the moment, and if anything, are more sympathetic with the Arab viewpoint. This is a black mark on these American Jews, many of whom sadly have passed into anti-Zionist territory, but hardly evidence that J Street is a Zionist organization.

Labels: J Street, Jeffrey Goldberg, Zionist

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:47 PM