Real world lessons. Reform Rabbi Eric Yoffie trashed J Street last January for having the temerity to criticize the Gaza slaughter. What did J Street do? It shut up about Gaza and gave Yoffie a podium for a major speech at its first policy conference this week.
And what does Yoffie do? He goes on NPR today, in a piece on J Street, and praises… AIPAC:
Mr. ERIC YOFFIE (President, Union for Reform Judaism): AIPAC does essential work. It has a huge organization. It maintains military support for Israel from the United States government. And, look, I don’t agree with AIPAC on everything, but AIPAC is a very valuable and important organization. If this becomes an anti-AIPAC effort, then the American Jewish community will turn against it. [emphasis mine]
Reporter MICHELE KELEMEN: One J Street supporter who overheard those remarks said J Street is not meant to counter what AIPAC is doing, but to let members of Congress and the White House know that they can be both pro-Israel and pro-peace.
Yoffie’s implacability reminds me of Dennis Ross. A guy who’s worked on the failed peace process forever through Republican and Democratic administrations and what happens? He turns up in the Obama administration. These people never go away because they represent a powerful conservative force in American political life: Jewish identity constructed around Zionism. Yoffie is surely right when he says the Jewish community is pro-AIPAC; if J Street is going to be effective it will have to build its tabernacle in a wider community.
Thanks to Hannah Schwarzschild.
