I’ve been agitating about J Street, the alternative lobby to AIPAC. Dan Fleshler has posted a response to me at Realistic Dove. Here it is, then I respond to him:
The Israeli-Arab problem is America’s problem. Solving it can
and should be a high priority for all Americans. It is critically important for
a wider, more broad-based coalition of Americans –Jewish and non-Jewish—to
counter the right wing Jewish and Christian Zionist furies. I completely agree
with you. Church groups, Arab American organizations, unions, everyone who
wants evenhanded American diplomacy should weigh in. Some of them already do,
often working side by side with my camp: e.g., Churches for Middle East Peace,
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, centrist and left wing evangelicals
trying to show that John Hagee doesn’t speak for them, the Arab American
Institute and the American Task Force on Palestine.
There is nothing stopping you, and all of your fans from
organizing all Americans. Go ahead, if you want to.
But you will notice that all of those other groups are
organizations based on specific religious or ethnic identities. We all
understand that it is in America’s
interests to end the nightmare of the occupation, but we all bring other
aspects of our identities to the table.
Some of your fans resent the whole idea of American Jews
having ANYTHING to say about this issue. Do they also think those who are organized as Catholics, or Arab
Americans, should have no say? Or should self-identified Jews just step back
and shut up and let “real Americans” fix the mess the Zionists have made? Guess what? Even if that proposition weren’t
offensive and racist, it would a disastrous political move.
Right now, the political reality is that the conventional Israel lobby in
the Jewish community has persuaded politicians that it speaks on behalf of the
only Jews who matter, and that retribution awaits those who cross it. (The Christian Zionists have had similar
successes with some in Congress, so that evangelicals like the Sojourners also
don’t get taken seriously enough).
One way to help change this political reality is to
demonstrate that another, large, vocal, politically engaged part of the
American Jewish community exists, and that it will support American leaders who
don’t always do what the conventional lobby wants. That is not the only thing
that needs to be done. But it is one of
the things that needs to be done.
I can’t possibly convince the people who comment on your
posts why there is a big difference between AIPAC and J Street or Brit Tzedek ‘v Shalom or APN.
I, and others, have been trying to counter AIPAC and the right wing of the
Jewish community for many years. We’ve lost. We’ve blown it. But we’ve tried. I was among those who called
for the U.S, and Israel to
talk to the PLO long before the Oslo
years. APN, on whose board I serve, was one of the few Jewish groups that
supported GH Bush on penalizing Israel
financially because of its stance on the settlements. As far as I’m concerned,
targeted financial penalties should be on the table now. Did I and others make
mistakes? Zillions of them. But if people see no distinction between those
positions and AIPAC’s, there is no sense in discussing it further.
Right now, though I have a very specific goal that J Street and others
share. The specific goal is to help create a political environment in which the
next president feels like he has the leeway to exert necessary pressure on both
sides, rather than just one side, of the Israeli-Arab conflict. It is to give the president the sense that he
will have broad based support from a vocal, strong constituency if, for
example, he tells the Israelis to stop the madness of continuing settlement
expansion and, if they don’t, to impose real costs.
And yes, of course, just stopping expansion is not the end
goal; getting the settlers out of there is the goal, but the freeze has to be
the first step. The next step will be more difficult but that has to be taken,
too.
The mission in life of some American Jews is to prevent
American pressure of any kind on any Israeli government. All the other policy matters you are talking
about –e.g, whether they want Jerusalem to be united or not—are important, but
they are much less important than whether the U.S. has the diplomatic flexibility
it needs to take a balanced approach instead of a one-sided approach.
As you know, I have been hard at work writing a book about
all of this. And I can tell you that
based on my own, rather painful experience in the American Jewish trenches and
a good many interviews with members of Congress, their aides, and American
officials from several administration, I KNOW the following to be true:
politicians need to hear from many more American Jews, including political
contributors, who will say that AIPAC and the rest of the conventional lobby do
not speak for them. That is the political reality. That is the battle J Street and its
allies are trying to wage. But it is only part of the battle. I hope there is a
broader coalition of Americans, speaking together as Americans, who press our
government to press Israel.
Be my guest. Go out and organize!
Weiss again: Dan, first the stuff we agree on. You’ve been in the trenches and opposing horrifying policies for a long time. Great. Also, I’m for J Street. But I’m for them in the same way that I’m for people taking aspirin to stop a heart attack. Very nice; I don’t think it’s going to make much difference. Not with the tepid statements they’ve made so far on conditions I think are as bad as South Africa was. I’m glad that J Street is speaking out against striking Iran, I’m glad it’s against the settlements. But not fiercely. Yesterday Israel showed Obama who’s boss by announcing new settlements right after he left. I want an outraged statement on that. J Street is silent, trying to rally its crowd by attacking Joe Lieberman and Christian Zionists.
Also, J Street wants continued aid to Israel, apparently without conditions. I’m sick of paying for the stuff they do in the occupied territories, I want to send a clear message. The Council for the National Interest, Paul Findley’s group, which is nonsectarian, says that we should put conditions on the $3 billion in U.S. aid to Israel: no more illegal settlements, dismantle checkpoints. That’s where I am. I don’t trust the Jewish community on these issues. You say that every group that’s engaged on these issues comes with a special ethnic identity, Arabs, Christians, et al. That’s the grand weakness in your position. You are seeking to rationalize identity politics and with it, Zionism, the identity politics nonpareil. What with the Iraq war horror and the threat of more Arab terrorism against my country, I want to work for an American interest here. And that interest, undoubtedly, is to have a shared Jerusalem and an end to colonization. Given Jewish attitudes on these issues, progressive Jews have to work both inside and outside the Jewish community if they want to see action.
