J Street Disappoints
January 1, 2009 Israel, Reform
J Street has really disappointed a lot of us. We were so enthusiastic that a new organization was challenging AIPAC’s dominance. We thought an organization had emerged to represent the mainstream Jewish community’s position on Israel.
But instead of counter-acting the Likud-style, Israel-Firstniks of AIPAC with a moderate organization that empathized with the Jewish state from a realist perspective that does not conflate American interests with Israeli interests, we instead are witnessing an organization that cannot seem to fathom the problem of a rogue Islamicist government that doesn’t want to negotiate with Israel, but rather, prefers to terrorize Israel’s civilian population.
But don’t take my word that J Street is out of touch and too far left to represent the mainstream Jewish community. Let’s take a look at what the leader of the Reform movement has to say.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie writes in the Forward,
A second J Street statement was worse by far. It could find no moral difference between the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militants, who have launched more than 5,000 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilians in the past three years, and the long-delayed response of Israel, which finally lost patience and responded to the pleas of its battered citizens in the south. “Neither Israelis nor Palestinians have a monopoly on right or wrong,” it said, and it suggested that there was no reason and no way to judge between them: “While there is nothing ‘right’ in raining rockets on Israeli families or dispatching suicide bombers, there is nothing ‘right’ in punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.”
These words are deeply distressing because they are morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve.
[…]
And as long as the thugs of Hamas can act with impunity, no Israeli government of the right or the left will agree to a two-state solution or any other kind of peace. Doves take note: To be a dove of influence, you must be a realist, firm in your principles but shorn of all illusions.
As a reality check for my views, I did what I normally do in these circumstances: I checked with my closest Israeli friends, who are all left of center, haters of war and ferocious opponents of the West Bank settlement movement. In virtually every case, they saw the action in Gaza as tragic but necessary and were astounded by the opposition of American doves. “What did they think,” one of them asked me in bewilderment, “that we would just sit there forever while Hamas fired rockets into our cities?” And they pointed out that most politicians on the left support the offensive, as do more than 80% of all Israelis, according to polling data.
12 comments
They care more about currying favor with their gentile friends than they do about the safety of the Jews. Old story. American Jews shut up and supported Roosevelt while he did nothing to stop or slow the Holocaust. Jewish Communists and fellow travelllers shut up and denied Stalin’s actions while the bodies piled up.
The main think is they should LIKE us. Then they’ll come for those other Jews first.
Palestinians don’t have any other options so they bomb, Israelis don’t have any options so they bomb – I don’t understand why either of them is any more right or wrong than the other.
If anything, Israel needs to be the ‘bigger’ side here and help them get their shit together so they can combat the terrorist elements in their society – and for heavens sake, give them back the west bank so they can have some dignity back.
If frum people need some help with this, imagine if someone came to your grandfathers home on 13th ave., kicked him out or made conditions so bad that he had to leave, resettled him for 30 years in a dump on staten island, and made him wait at a checkpoint for hours (sometimes days) each time he wanted to leave, humiliated your mother in front of her children when she tried to get medical attention – tell me you wouldn’t be lobbing rockets or anything else you can put your hands on their direction…
“imagine if someone came to your grandfathers home on 13th ave., kicked him out or made conditions so bad that he had to leave”
That is an apt analogy. I have a better one:
Imagine if a group of people legally bought the rights to pieces of land from the legal land owners. Then, they wanted to conglomerate their land into a state. So, they asked the whole world, and the whole world voted to allow them to do just that. Then, another group of people who were alloted their own land, got really pissed at having to share a slice of the pie, and got together with their friends, and tried to pummel the shit out of the first people the world thought was deserving of the slice, and lost. They lost, and it didn’t help that their own leaders told them to up and leave while the big boys swooped in for the slaughter. They lost the war they started.
“Palestinians don’t have any other options so they bomb”
They have their own land now. Their option is to develop it peacefully. The whole world is sending them aid. Maybe they should invest it infrastructure rather than war apparatus.
“give them back the west bank so they can have some dignity back.”
Yes we should give them back the West Bank. They are doing a marvelous job with Gaza thus far. The roadmap says they get the West Bank back when they start behaving themselves in Gaza. Palestinians are like children who tantrum over a piece of pie, when instead of eating, they just made a sloppy mess of their own dinner plate.
welwellovsky–”If anything, Israel needs to be the ‘bigger’ side here and help them get their shit together”
Yeah, right. we did that, and they called us colonialist occupiers. In fact, we still take care of a lot of their complex medical care as well as their infrastructure.
Why don’t their brothers in the holy Muslim ummah take care of them? They’ve got the fricking oil. And believe me, Mr. Bleeding Heart, I’ve done a lot more for Palestinian civilians than you, not that I don’t have mixed feelings about it.
Regarding the need for checkpoints, Sheisskopf, three Molotov cocktails were thrown at the rear entrance of Hadassah Mt. Scopus last Monday night. It’s a rough guess, but I think Hadassah takes care of about as many Arabs as Jews.
We sympathize with our Palestinian patients about the difficulty and inconvenience of waiting at checkpoints to get to the hospital. We even write notes to allow parents to get through. (Again, not that I don’t have mixed feelings about this). But let’s be clear about who’s threatening whom, which side targets civilians exclusively, and hides behind them.
“and for heavens sake, give them back the west bank so they can have some dignity back.”
They had a lot more dignity before they started the Intifada. Certainly they have blown their economy to smithereens, and even you can guess who suffers the most when there’s no work. HINT–It’s not the Palestinian Authority apparatchiks and it’s not the Hamas inquisitors.
My sources are better than your sources, you armchair would-be humanitarian.
“My sources are better than your sources, you armchair would-be humanitarian.”
Be my new best friend?
C. Seigel,
Your writing is super hot.
I’d like to throw in a couple of things. Before I do, I want to make it clear that I’m not disagreeing with anyone here; you all, particularly CS, know more about the situation than I do.
Last spring, I saw a documentary, made by an Israeli, about couples enduring separation enforced by the Israeli government. Apparently (again, you would know more about this than I), there’s a Family Reunification Act, which allows naturalized Israeli citizens to bring their spouses into the country. I understand the Ethiopians have been using this to their advantage for some time. It’s been suspended indefinitely in the case of the Palestinians. There are Israelis of Palestinian ancestry, who’ve been citizens for many years, who remain separated from husbands and wives. One woman, who was highlighted, has served in government capacities; she married within the past few years, and has to travel abroad periodically to see her husband (I think he was living in Germany). Others smuggle their spouses back and forth across the border, dodging Israeli patrols for clandestine conjugal visits. There was a shameful scene in which the former woman, who’s been making some noise about this, was at a public function with a prominent member of the government; he’d known her for years, but pretended not to. According to the film, the Israeli government refuses either to change the policy or to discuss its reasons for not doing so.
Around the same time, I also saw an exhibit entitled “Breaking the Silence”, a photographic display put together by former Israeli soldiers who are troubled by the way in which they’re forced to treat Palestinian civilians. They feel it brutalizes both the Palestinians and themselves. The soldiers spoke about their experiences, and I’m convinced they aren’t doing this for purposes of self-aggrandizement. They’ve endured a lot of criticism, and I was impressed by their bravery and sincerity. They feel especially badly about the ways in which their officers sometimes order them to treat children, and the fact that the kids are growing up in fear of them.
There’s a website: http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/index_e.asp, with photos and testimonials. I think they’re trying to be objective,and to see both sides; I looked just now, and there’s a new story about rabbis not being allowed to enter the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a policy of which they don’t approve.
“It’s been suspended indefinitely in the case of the Palestinians.”
Israel’s right of return policy (and spouses by extension) extends to Jews only. Is that racist? Maybe. It’s a Jewish state, and our policies are set in place democratically. ‘Racist’ policies are set so we don’t get outbred and outvoted out of our own country eventually. The Israelis can’t afford to succumb to politically correct immigration policies whilst also trying to create a viable refuge and homeland for world Jewry. Ireland, Romania, and several Nordic countries, also have right of return policies extended to ethnic Irish, ethnic Romanians, etc.
“he’d known her for years, but pretended not to.”
Rude, mean? Yes. Also tactical. A politician will always pull dirty tricks to protect themselves, and — if their constituency is lucky — to protect them as well.
Re: Breaking the Silence
I’m familiar with the organization, but not their material. They are doing a noble thing by reaching out to try and prevent needless human suffering. I am sure that the IDFs bedside manner, so to speak, could use some work. Every time we imprint a frightening memory in a Palestinian child’s mind we are creating a potential terrorist. The answer, therefore isn’t to acquiesce and stop fighting back all together. The answer is to do the best you can to treat people well, and with respect, while doing you job as best you can. Check point soldiers need impeccable judgement, quick reactions, and sensitivity.
I have friends who worked check points; they hated it. It took a toll on their heart and soul. But they recognized how important the work they did saved lives.
It isn’t the right of return; it’s family reunification – a different policy. I’m given to understand the Palestinians are the only ones being denied.
The name of the documentary is Just Married, produced by Ayelet Bechar. I found this article: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1040848.html
I understand that they are different issues, but the principle of self preservation remains.
Well, as I said – you kids know more about the political situation than I do. I haven’t even been to Israel. And I’m not questioning the principle of self preservation. It just seems to me that if a basic human right is being denied to civilians, with no hope of relief being offered, and if members of the military are decrying the way in which they’re being forced to act toward civilians, and are claiming that the military’s policies are exacerbating the situation – then there needs to be something of an adjustment in attitude.
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