[WCUSP] Fw: New Jewish lobby: J Street arrives in Washington

[Ursula Bowring]

Ben-Ami's op ed in the Washington Post about 5 Myths about being pro-israel
is excellent. thanks for sending it out. ursula

On 5/9/08, Libby or Mort Frank <lmfrank1 at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
> : RayClose at aol.com
> Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 18:12:27 -0400
> Subject: J Street arrives in Washington
> To: rkeeley at gmail.com; dmiller at torchhill.com
>
>
> J Street is the name of a brand new Jewish lobbying group in Washington
> that intend to give American Jews an alternative to AIPAC ---  a way to
> support Israel by supporting peace with the Palestinians.  Today my friend
> Ilene Cohen here in Princeton sent me an advance copy of an op-ed that will
> appear in this coming Sunday's issue of the Washington Post, written by J
> Street's executive director, Jeffrey Ben-Ami.   Here is what she sent me
> today:
>
> May 8, 2008
>
> This new lobby will actually* promote peace* in the Middle East. Now
> that's a refreshing concept! Those of us in the peace camp, such as it is,
> need to take back the notion of "pro-Israel" from the "friends" of Israel
> who long ago mis-appropriated it in the service of Greater Israel,
> colonialism, and occupation. It's time to end AIPAC's monopoly as Israel's
> voice in America!
> Ilene
>
> *Washington Post op-ed
>
> *Five Myths About Being 'Pro-Israel'
>
> By Jeremy Ben-Ami
> Sunday, May 11, 2008; B03
>
> Six decades ago, my father fought alongside Menachem Begin for Israel's
> independence. If you'd have told him back then that politicians in the
> world's last superpower would be jockeying today to see who can be more
> "pro-Israel," he would have laughed at you. Grateful as I am for decades of
> U.S. friendship to Israel, I have to wonder, as the state my father helped
> found turns 60, just who is defining what it means to be pro-Israel in the
> United States these days.
>
> Some purported keepers of that flame claim that supporting Israel means
> reflexively supporting every Israeli action and implacably opposing every
> Israeli foe -- adopting the talking points of neoconservatives and the most
> right-wing elements of the American Jewish and Christian Zionist
> communities. Criticize or question Israeli behavior and you're labeled
> "anti-Israel," or worse. But unquestioning encouragement for short-sighted
> Israeli policies such as expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank isn't
> real friendship. (Would a true friend not only let you drive home drunk but
> offer you their Porsche and a shot of tequila for the road?) Israel needs
> real friends, not enablers. And forging a healthy friendship with Israel
> requires bursting some myths about what it means to be pro-Israel.
>
> *1. American Jews choose to back candidates largely on the basis of their
> stance on Israel.**
> *
> This urban legend has somehow become a tenet of American Politics 101,
> which is why politicians work so hard to earn the pro-Israel label in the
> first place. But it's a self-serving fable, cultivated by a tiny minority of
> politically conservative American Jews who actually* are* single-issue
> voters. Most Jewish voters make their political choices the way other
> Americans do: based on their views on the full spectrum of domestic and
> foreign policy issues.
>
> Moreover, the American Jewish community still has a markedly progressive
> bent. Exit polls suggest that nearly 80 percent of Jewish Americans voted
> for John F. Kerry over George W. Bush in 2004; some 70 percent of them were
> opposed to the Iraq war in 2005, according to the American Jewish Committee;
> and polls show that most American Jews say they favor a more balanced U.S.
> Middle East policy that's aimed at achieving peace.
>
> *2. To be strong on Israel, you have to be harsh to the Palestinians.**
> *
> Wrong, and counterproductive to boot. One popular way for members of
> Congress to earn their pro-Israel stripes is to come down as hard as
> possible on the Palestinians, by using economic and diplomatic pressure or
> giving the Israelis a freer hand for military strikes. That may satisfy some
> primal urge to lash out at Israel's foes, but it does Israel more harm than
> good.
>
> As Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has argued, Israel's survival
> depends on offering the Palestinians a more hopeful future built on
> political sovereignty and economic development. As long as Palestinians
> despair of a decent and dignified life, Israel will be at war. And as long
> as the only channel for the Palestinians' ingenuity is building better
> rockets, not even the Great Wall of China will protect Israel's cities from
> their wrath. Helping the Palestinians achieve a viable, prosperous state is
> one of the most pro-Israel things an American politician can do.
>
> *3. The Rev. John Hagee and his fellow Christian Zionists are good for the
> Jews.**
> *
> Hardly. Are Israel and American Jewry really so desperate that we must
> cozy up to people whose messianic dreams entail having us all killed or
> converted to Christianity? Hagee, the founder of Christians United for
> Israel, and his ilk believe that Israel dare not cede any territory in the
> quest for peace, claiming that the Bible promised all of the holy land to
> the Jews. In other words, Christian Zionists look at the trade-offs that
> Israel must make to achieve peace -- and hope to thwart them. Then again,
> peace is not what these folks have in mind; they hope that Israel will seek
> to permanently expand its borders, thereby goading the Arabs into a war that
> will become the catalyst for Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. Do
> your ambitions for Israel extend beyond turning it into the fuel for the
> fire of the "End of Days"? Then Hagee and company are not -- repeat, not --
> your friends.
>
> *4. Talking peace with your enemies demonstrates weakness.**
> *
> You don't need an advanced degree in international relations to recognize
> that pursuing peace only with people you like is pointless. Most Israelis
> know this; a recent poll in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that
> two-thirds of Israelis favor cease-fire negotiations between their
> government and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that controls the
> Gaza Strip, exactly because Hamas is such a bitter foe. But in Washington,
> we self-righteously refuse to engage -- even indirectly -- with Hamas, Iran
> or Syria.
>
> Hamas won the most recent Palestinian national elections in a landslide.
> Do we seriously think that it can be erased from the political landscape
> simply by assassinations and sanctions? Precisely because Hamas and Iran
> represent the most worrisome strategic challenges to Israel, responsible
> friends of Israel who'd like to see it live in security for its next 60
> years should be engaging with them to search for alternatives to war.
>
> *5. George W. Bush is the best friend Israel has ever had.**
> *
> Not even close. The president has acted as Israel's exclusive corner man
> when he should have been refereeing the fight. That choice weakened Israel's
> long-term security.
>
> Israel needs U.S. help to maintain its military edge over its foes, but it
> also needs the United States to contain Arab-Israeli crises and broker
> peace. Israel's existing peace pacts owe much to Washington's ability to
> bridge the mistrust among parties in the Middle East. So when the United
> States abandons the role of effective broker and acts only as Israel's amen
> choir, as it has throughout Bush's tenure, the United States dims Israel's
> prospects of winning security through diplomacy. The best gift that Israel's
> friends here could give this gallant, embattled democracy on its milestone
> birthday would be returning the United States to its leading role in active
> diplomacy to end the conflicts in the Middle East -- and help a secure,
> thriving Israel find a permanent, accepted home among the community of
> nations.
>
> jeremyb at jstreet.org
>
>
>
>
> **************
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