The N.Y. Jewish Week is reporting that at long last progressive Zionists are forming an alternative lobby to AIPAC and will announce their plans next month. Under the working title, the "J Street" group (an inside reference to AIPAC as the "K Street" group), it will hold a fundraiser next Monday. An invitation reads:
"For too long, the loudest American voices in political and policy debates have been those on the far right — often Republican neoconservatives or extreme Christian Zionists… J Street aims to change that. We are the first and only lobby and PAC (political action committee) dedicated to ensuring Israel’s security, changing the direction of American policy in the Middle East and opening up American political debate about Israel and the Middle East.”
The group will be headed by Jeremy Ben-Ami, an Americans for Peace Now board member who worked for N.Y. politician Mark Green, and Daniel Levy, who is involved with the Century Foundation and Israel Policy Forum. I assume M.J. Rosenberg of IPF is a major player in the group, and that Dan Fleshler of realisticdove.org is in there, too. Marcia Freedman of Brit Tzedek is mentioned, who once said that the "organized [American] Jewish voice" was "directed" by the Israeli Foreign ministry.
This is historic. An alternative to the Israel lobby has been bruited about for years. Now it is happening. This shows that the Jewish community feels safe enough to speak in different voices before the American public, to express a diversity of opinion and trust the American people to help sort things out. Till now, the Jewish leadership has been fierce about a united front; and Americans for Peace Now fell into line–an anti-democratic process, for it said that Americans had to be instructed what to do, rather than let in on the discussion. It is also historic because it shows my community moving leftward. It is a demonstration of American Jewish independence from the state of Israel and of a shift in Jewish identity away from Zionism. The tide is ours. Before long the Jewish campaign for Nakba recognition will also be mainstreamed.
I have lots of questions about J Street. Like, are they too late? Will they be effective? The only thing to say this morning is God bless.
Related posts:
- American Jews on Jerusalem: We’ll Probably Never Go There, But Palestinians Can’t Share It!
- Two of five American Jews were touched by Madoff scandal
- Former Knesset Speaker: AIPAC Fosters ‘Near Treason’ In American Jews
- Dennis Ross Says American Jews Must Be Obedient to Israeli Politics
- J Street: ‘We’re Not Anti-AIPAC’
{ 26 comments }
Great news. Now if the rest of us can form a lobby to represent American interests we will be in great shape.
Vichy Congress Spends 5 Million For One More Holocaust Museum…In Poland?
http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/2008/03/vichy-congress-spends-5-million-for-one.html
Phil, you should be proud.
LWB, you can shorten those URLS by going to TinyURL.com
http://tinyurl.com/
Thanks Oarwell I'll look into it.
wake me up when soros calls.
.
The transition will be complete when the first publicly-funded Holocaust museum is reinvented as an Ikea superstore, featuring tasteful Swedish-minimalist memorahs with naturally-scented recycled paraffin candles.
I know it's "menorahs," but the mistype has a nice malapropic ring to it, don't you think?
It is a demonstration of American Jewish independence from the state of Israel
i was always under the impression that actual israelis aren't as doctrinaire as AIPAC. am i wrong?
Ok, gentlemen, assorted neo-nazi's, klan members, nation of Islam, and apostate Jews that seem to inhabit this swamp. WRITE A CHECK. I do it for a lot of Jewish causes. So do a lot of other people. If your do dedicated to the destruction of the lobby. I reiterate. WRITE A CHECK
>WRITE A CHECK<
Can we read that as your hesitant approval, Billy Boy???
I don't quite understand the sentence before your reiteration. But if I do, I don't think this about the destruction of the lobby but rather its diversification.
Comprendre??
Assimilation at work, a new and improved AIPAC? Speaking of assimilation, the NYTimes has an article about a 21 yo Miami arms dealer Ephraim Diveroli and his uncle Bar-Kochba Botach selling useless ammo to our Afghan allies. http://tinyurl.com/2h3vdt
We could write a cheque but no money to cover it, Gideon. Congress sent our money for another holocaust museum, coz we have so many our congress thought it would be nice to send this one to Poland. Does this mean what I think it means? Is the WJC going to demand money from Poland next? Don't tell me, $7 gazillion due, right.
My neighbour got laid off last week congress should send my community $5million.
Has your community no shame at all. Why, this anti gentilism is getting worse!
safety shield, your sensible point is probably lost here, what with the calls of "israeli fifth columnists!" on one side and "neo-nazis!" on t'other.
and philip, thank you for this blog. it must be a largely thankless task, but thanks.
progessive zionists?? no such creature. just another liar for israel.
progressive or knucle dragger, a zionist is a zionist is a racist is a warmonger is a liar is greedy for that which belongs to another – the Palestinians.
zionists,the "progressives" and the violent retards, are also greedy for american taxpayer dollars for israel and their pet projects in usa – some $20 billion to $30 billion per year.
here's a "pet project" for you — go fuck a chihuahua, if the fit isn't too loose.
Write a cheque?
Let's see…
To supplement H.R.2643's generous $200,000 for necessary expenses of the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance? A whole MOMENT set aside, to spend honoring our vets who's family already got a flag and who's bones got a patch of dirt in Arlington Cemetery?
To supplement the 44 Million for the US Holocaust™ Museum?
Or to supplement the 5 MILLION to Poland for their Holocaust™ museum (H. R. 3320), a Museum for the History of Polish Jews?
Easy choice. Ask anyone in the 110th CONGRESS 1st Session
I like how anyone not falling in line with the Zionist playbook is thought of as a useful idiot for those bent on the destruction of Israel/Jews. In fact, I have found as a gentile that there is much to learn from them on all sorts of things and that the dialogue is quite constructive. It gives me a great deal of optimism and I am looking forward to how this all will eventually turn out. I have always had a soft spot for truth-tellers, no matter where they hail from.
My point is that you guys think that aipac is akin to the gestopo and the kgb, well actually worse. And the Palestinians are the most aggrieved, put upon, persecuted people that there ever were and there ever will be. Well here's your chance to break the dreaded Jewish lobby. write a fucking check, volunteer, do shit. Don't just sit in a dark room beating off to your Arafat posters. This is it,put up or shut up. Actually I think Phil Weiss should kick in the first ten grand
Hey Phil, thank you for the link to the petition "remember the Nakba." I blogged it. Good work. I really appreciate how you document the turning of the tide here.
This is it,put up or shut up. Actually I think Phil Weiss should kick in the first ten grand
Posted by: sword of gideon | March 27, 2008 at 07:57 PM
>>>>>>>>>>>>
We are writting checks. I helped pay for the NYT ads about the bad influence of AIPAC last year. I sent checks to Jim Moran and Betty McCollum and told them I was donating because of their standing up to the Jewish Lobby. I sent my own congressman several checks because he has never voted for an Israeli foreign aid bill and because he was the one who waved a copy of Bamford's book in Richard Perle's face in a congressional hearing and called him a liar.
Every time I see anyone stand up for America I send a check. And in this day and time being against Israel is American.
That's also why I donate monthly to Obama. Why I gave 3 copies of both W&M's "Israel Lobby" and 3 of Jimmy Carter's book to my local library and a dozen more to friends.
I never miss an opportunity to send checks to Americans standing up for American principles and against the slime that AIPAC has smeared on our American name.
And we will win, there are more of us than there are of you. You are a monkey beating your chest pretending to be a silverback.
It does seem that the so-called "International Crisis group", widely regarded as a Soros vehicle, is demanding talks with Hamas.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5341&l=1
"McCain offered to build new pillars for that system — a League of Democracies, a new nuclear nonproliferation regime and a successor to the Kyoto treaty. In stabilizing Asia and the Middle East, he would rely more on democracies like Turkey, India, Israel and Iraq, and less on Mubarak and Musharraf." David Brooks NYT March 28
It means exactly what it says. And David Brooks has the exclusive. Under the new international system that John McCain is proposing, Israel would be required to DISARM itself of NUCLEAR WEAPONS, thus taking the first step in ending the dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation the Middle East is currently engaged in and which Israel initiated back in the early sixties.
That International Crisis Group document is really rather good. For instance I have never seen this spelled out anywhere else:
“We know that some of the rockets launched against Israel are launched by Fatah militants. The objective is to push Israel to punish Hamas in Gaza” – Crisis Group interview, Hamas official in exile, November 2007, found at page 23 of:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/middle_east___north_africa/arab_israeli_conflict/73_ruling_palestine_gaza_under_hamas.pdf
you guys think that aipac is akin to the gestopo and the kgb, well actually worse.
now, there's a guy who almost knows how to read.
aha, I just spotted this, which everyhere will have been aware of anyway but I was not:
"…the board of directors of J Street seems to have the Jewish “gravitas” and fundraising clout to make it a success. It includes leaders of the three main liberal Jewish peace groups (APN, Brit Tzedek and IPF), major Democratic fundraisers, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, and perhaps most importantly, Mort Halperin, George Soros’ major domo. I’m hoping that Halperin’s participation implies at least Soros’ tacit support for the group."
(R Silverstein)
I want to put in a project application to the Soros Foundation, "To give a detailed account of Israeli Jewish youth culture, using Hebrew-language sources."
I need three referees – you, you and you, starting with Phil.
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