Dualities of the J Street Conference

This week’s JStreet conference led to proponents and opponents of the new group to claim victory. Supporters of the conference applauded the high levels of publicity and attendance at the event, while opponents used the speakers list and comments heard at the conference to reinforce their criticisms of the self proclaimed “pro peace, pro Israel” lobby. This Haaretz article sums up the event quite nicely.

For additional background, this oped in Ynet accuses J Street of putting Israel in harms way by its support for engagement with Iran and a two-state solution. The author writes:

“It makes little difference whether J Street’s intentions are sinister or sincere, or whether it is motivated by malice or myopia. For it is the substance of its proposals – not their motivation – that makes J Street such a grim threat to the Jews and the Jewish nation-state.”

The conference included some notable speakers that are indicative of the type engagement J Street supports. The closing line of the following paragraph summarizes the J Street constituency.

“Finally, we heard from the proprietor of the blog GazaMom.com, a hijab clad Palestinian woman who said she doesn’t consider Mahmoud Abbas to be the legitimate president of the Palestinian Authority. Does she support Hamas? Who knows. “Whenever I hear two-state solution, I shake my head,” she said, “I’m a one-stater.” Again the room erupted with applause. Philip Weiss, another blogger participating in the panel, looked around and said “there are many Zionists in this room, there are also some non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.” I would say that’s a pretty good description of the J Street conference as a whole.”

David Weinberg, director of public affairs at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, also accuses J Street of spouting “nonsense” and pushing the false notion that U.S. engagement in the peace process would ensure its success. He writes:

“J Street is a new form of Jewish apostasy. Its adherents hasten to embrace their Jewishness (even if they don’t really know much about authentic Jewish tradition and morality) in order to besmirch Israel and the mainstream Jewish community. They earnestly declare how “profoundly” Jewish they are, in order to engender a distancing in US-Israel relations.

I guess that’s why J Street has spent most of its resources bashing long-standing supporters of Israel – calling them extremists and right-wingers and accusing them of a “silencing” – and listing things that Israel must be made to do. All this, instead of calling out the dangers of Iranian nuclear weapons or Palestinian genocidal anti-Semitism. That’s why they fret over the Jewish soul instead of working to save and protect the physical Jewish State of Israel.

The only people clearly not fooled by all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo are Salam al-Mayarati, Ziad Asali, Trita Parsi and other leaders of the American Muslim Public Affairs Council, American Task Force on Palestine and the National Iranian American Council – all of whom are speaking – surprise, surprise – at the J Street Jewish soul jamboree this week. They undoubtedly see past the pious claptrap, and know – and appreciate – exactly what J Street is up to.”