J Street Tees Up ‘Disturbing’ Jewish Role in Iraq War

Salon has a good piece on the new Israel lobby, J Street, whose founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami, says that part of the motivation for the organization was the special Jewish role in the Iraq war. Well let’s not put words in his mouth: 

[Ben-Ami] pointed out that the "very visible" right- wing Jewish support for
the Iraq war and for a possible future war against Iran was a powerful
motivation for liberal American Jews to speak out.


"Some of the loudest voices that are beating the war drums are those
of either neocons who happen to be Jewish, or established Jewish
community leaders who happen to be neocons. This is very disturbing,"
Ben-Ami said. "And it applies not only to Israel but to the whole
Middle East — whether it’s American policy towards Iran, or maybe it
had some role in the leadup to the war in Iraq. And I think this has
made people say, ‘Wait a minute, I may never have been interested in
Israel, I may never have been interested in the Jewish community, but
these folks are speaking in my name and driving us towards wars and
policies that I don’t want to be responsible for.’"

OK, Ben-Ami doesn’t go as far as I do. But he’s political. This is yet another sign that some day soon, or not so soon, the Jewish community will search its soul on the responsibility of Jewish neocons for the greatest foreign-policy debacle of the new century, the responsibility of non-neocon Jewish intellectuals and journalists in giving the neocons cover, and the role of Zionism in Jewish ideas about American power.

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