J Street and Peace Now organize opposition to BDS

by on March 20, 2012 15
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The new front, in a continuing ideological and historical conflict inside the Jewish community. At a  time when progressives are trying to organize boycott at the Park Slope Food Coop, Progressive Voices Against BDS, organized by liberal Zionists in Brooklyn, will stage an event at Rabbi Andy Bachman's Park Slope synagogue, Temple Elohim. "Say yes to a Jewish state. Say yes to a Palestinian state..." says the website. Dinner. I guess that means Sabra humus! See Austin Branion's related post.

Voices Against BDS
Voices Against BDS

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Activism, BDS

{ 15 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Woody Tanaka says:
    March 20, 2012 at 10:27 am

    If JStreet and Peace Now are opposed to non-violent tactics like BDS to cause change, what do they recommend, wishful thinking? Should we be looking for the “change the morality of the Zionist” fairy??

  2. Bill in Maryland says:
    March 20, 2012 at 10:27 am

    Against the non-violence of BDS, must be pro status quo. Quick, let’s get the settler government and the imprisoned back to the negotiating table! Oops, too late, no Palestine left (sorry).

  3. Kathleen says:
    March 20, 2012 at 10:54 am

    Divide, divert.
    Anyone else having a hard time getting on Race for Iran. Heard Congressman Markey blame Iran for the saber rattling and oil prices going up last night on Chris Matthews. Talk about flip the script

  4. hophmi says:
    March 20, 2012 at 11:35 am

    “At a time when progressives are trying to organize boycott at the Park Slope Food Coop”

    The people who are trying to organize a boycott are not progressives. They are extremists. And they do not have anything approaching mainstream support, even in Park Slope.

    What do you have against the two-state solution?

    • Cliff says:
      March 20, 2012 at 12:08 pm

      hophmi said:

      The people who are trying to organize a boycott are not progressives. They are extremists. And they do not have anything approaching mainstream support, even in Park Slope.

      What do you have against the two-state solution?

      You mean, what do you – hophmi – have against the 2SS?

      When have you EVER once criticized Israel on this forum?

      In fact, instead of criticizing the on-going settlement activity and supporting a boycott of products made in the OT – you are anti-BDS and pro-status quo.

      It’s people like you who are against ANY peaceful and meaningful resolution to this conflict. People like you know that Israel can run out the clock on any solution to the conflict.

      BDS is not extremist at all. It is the logical response to 45 years of colonialism and the sham of the piece process.

      In fact, when an extremist and racist nutjob like you, insults BDS, then it only affirms why it’s a just tactic.

      Go back to issuing your stupid false dichotomies/equivocations you cultist.

    • Woody Tanaka says:
      March 20, 2012 at 4:11 pm

      “What do you have against the two-state solution?”

      The thing that I have against it is the fact that the only people who have the power to bring it about — the Jews in Palestine — have steadfastly refused to do it for 45 years. Instead, they have, in that time, supported a regime of settler colonialism in which the most vile and crazed of their people infest the West Bank. This has had the practical effect of destroying the viability of the so-called solution. The only purpose it has had is to try to fool the world into thinking that the Jews in Palestine are willing to make peace, when, in fact, they are not. (Hence the fact that they ignore the Arab Peace Plan, a remarkably fair plan to everyone involved.) The only question is whether the Israeli’s ultimate resolution to the Palestinian question is ethnic cleansing, perpetual stateless peonage or something far sinister.

    • Dex says:
      March 21, 2012 at 9:59 pm

      I’ll tell you what I have against the “two-state solution:”

      It gives YOUR racist, colonialist European brethren, who have absolutely zero — yes, ZERO — connection to that particular land (spare me your biblical crazy-talk; there is no God, get over it), the overwhelming majority of MY peoples’ land.

      You can use all the smoke and mirrors you want, but there is just no way around that simple little fact: Palestinians Arabs have been living there since the 7th century as the majority population, and European Jews, most of which were converted to Judaism, have had NO physical connection to that land.

      I’m tired of pretending like they have some equal connection or entitlement to that land. They don’t!

      I support one democratic state for ALL people living there. It’s not only possible, it’s inevitable…

  5. CigarGod says:
    March 20, 2012 at 11:56 am

    Sometimes an organizations positions are dictated by trying to keep their funding…so they can keep their jobs.
    I joined J-Street because I thought they were sincere….I have been less sure of that for awhile.

  6. Danaa says:
    March 20, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    J Street ought to just fold up their tent and go get absorbed in AIPAC. They have accomplished nothing that I can can see. It’s basically a schmoozing shop where Jews can come together and beat thee campaign drums to re-elect Obama. A cohort of the “nice” pretend progressives – unlike those other Jews who are friends of Hagee and cavort with awful Republicans.

    J Street and that other Peace something group (Jews for Peace someday?) have not been useful in saving a single Palestinian from the clutches of the Storm troopers and settler militias enforcing the settlement regime. Now that their Sheikh Jarrah Friday events (“protests”) died down to a trickle, they need some new happenings to justify their existence. Wonder what that might be. Too bad that Ben Ami turned out to be just a good zionist agent, his claim to fame being that he doesn’t like Lieberman or Yahoo. Oh yes, he is also polite and knows how to equivocate better on Iran.

    Can anyone point to a single success by J Street? have they been instrumental in turning a single vote in the US congress? have they succeeded in staying a single pro-settlement veto by the US ?

    There was a really good take-down of J Street by Richard Silverstein from 3-4 days ago on his blog. It’s well worth reading.

    • Danaa says:
      March 20, 2012 at 1:04 pm

      Here is the link for the Tikkun Olam article. Richard pretty much nails the points down as well as anyone I’ve seen,

      link to richardsilverstein.com

      I’d suggest that people who contributed to this charade called “J Street” in the past would direct their contributions to blogs like MW and Tikkun Olam, and spare a little for the always great Glenn Greenwald who is there day in, day out doing the good work.

  7. DICKERSON3870 says:
    March 20, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    RE: “J Street and Peace Now organize opposition to BDS” ~ Weiss

    MY COMMENT: Nonetheless, I will continue to buy computers with AMD processors rather than Intel processors!

    SEE: Intel chip plant located on disputed Israeli land, by Henry Norr, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/08/02

    (excerpts) Just how diligent was Intel’s due diligence when it chose to build a multibillion-dollar chip plant in Qiryat Gat, Israel? . . .
    …Intel calls the plant Fab 18 (“fab” being chip-industry jargon for a facility where the silicon wafers that are eventually turned into working chips are fabricated). The fab, which went into production in 1999, was the fruit of a $1 billion investment by the Santa Clara company, supplemented by a $600 million grant from the Israeli government. . .
    …But from a legal and historical point of view, Qiryat Gat happens to be an unusual location: It was not taken over by the Israeli military in 1948. Instead, it was part of a small enclave, known as the Faluja pocket, that the Egyptian army and local Palestinian forces had managed to hold through the end of the war.
    The area was surrounded by Israeli forces, however. When Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement in February 1949, the latter agreed to withdraw its soldiers, but it insisted that the agreement explicitly guarantee the safety and property of the 3,100 or so Arab civilians in the area.
    Israel accepted that demand.     In an exchange of letters that were filed with the United Nations and became an annex to the main armistice agreement, the two countries agreed that “those of the civilian population who may wish to remain in Al-Faluja and Iraq al Manshiya (the two villages within the enclave covered by the letters) are to be permitted to do so. . . . All of these civilians shall be fully secure in their persons, abodes, property and personal effects.” …
    . . . Within days, the security the agreement had promised residents of the Al- Faluja pocket proved an illusion. Within weeks, the entire local population had fled to refugee camps outside of Israel.
    Morris presents ample evidence that the people of the Al-Faluja area left in response to a campaign of intimidation conducted by the Israeli military. He quotes, among other sources, reports filed by Ralph Bunche, the distinguished black American educator and diplomat who was serving as chief U. N. mediator in the region.
    Bunche’s reports include complaints from U.N. observers on the scene that “Arab civilians . . . at Al-Faluja have been beaten and robbed by Israeli soldiers,” that there were attempted rapes and that the Israelis were “firing promiscuously” on the Arab population. . .

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to sfgate.com

  8. W.Jones says:
    March 20, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    From the “Progressive Voices Against BDS” event website
    (link to voicesagainstbds.com):

    Jo-Ann Mort
    National Vice Chair, Americans for Peace Now

    “APN continues to oppose boycotts and other forms of BDS against Israel and the Israeli people as a whole, and urges people to continue buying Israeli products. However, we join Peace Now in urging all those who care about Israel’s character as a democracy to boycott settlements and products made in settlements. Settlements are not Israel. Such a boycott is the best way to show our support for Israel and to register our commitment to Israeli democracy.”

    So in other words, one of the sponsors actually supports one version of BDS.

  9. jewishgoyim says:
    March 20, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    Are there any redeeming quality to what J-Street is doing? Am I missing something?

    Isn’t it time we categorize them once and for all in the “controlled opposition” category? And a very weak attempt at that for that matter?

    This is a fascinating topic. If I were the CIA, I clearly would attempt to create things like wikileaks. Imagine that! Every wannabe leaker in the world giving her files first to… the CIA. Not passing judgment on wikileaks here, rhetorical hypothesis. Just trying to draw attention to organizations whose real purpose is exactly contrary to their stated/apparent goal. Organizations whose goal is only to tame and channel the opposition. This happens quite often and is probably “power 101″. It’s been seen in unions for instance. The only thing that pleads for J-Street not being one of those is that it looks so much like one. If you want to the build some street creds for an opposition group, you have to make it look like it’s opposing at least once or twice. I don’t even see that in J-Street…