The old Israel lobby continues to delaminate. Yesterday Jeffrey Goldberg attacked Eric Cantor, the possible veep choice of McCain, for distorting a statement that Obama made. The attack is of a piece with Goldberg’s important article attacking the Israel lobby in May, in which Goldberg, echoing Olmert, said that it was now or never for the two-state solution, and then came out against the Sheldon Adelsons of the world, the one-Jerusalem and Eretz Israel crowd–Eric Cantor’s crowd. As I’ve said before, Goldberg’s apostasy here is of the moment, politically. It echoes the creation of J Street as a center-left lobby of AIPAC, and it was echoed in turn by AIPAC’s surprisingly dovish stances at its June policy conference.
I’m waiting for the next shoe to drop. If Sheldon Adelson and Joe Lieberman and Eric Cantor are the devil incarnate, and I guess they are, J Street and Goldberg ought to turn to their new bedfellows: Jimmy Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer. I’m not making a joke. Jimmy Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer have a tremendous following among Arabists, anti-Iraq-war-types, and progressive Jews. J Street and Goldberg also have a large following. It would be political dynamite if these two camps embraced. If they all want the two-state solution, they ought to embrace each other.
I know there is great animosity between these camps. Goldberg said vicious things about Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer. But Goldberg is somewhat interchangeable: It could be Tom Friedman or even Ken Pollack. But the center Zionist camp really should reach out to the Realists/Arabist camp. It would help to heal an incredibly deep divide in our country’s political and intellectual life. It would pull us past the divisions of the Iraq war. It would challenge Nakba-types like myself to get over their criticism and opposition toward Israel and try to end the bloodshed, challenge us to get over our righteousness at being right on the Iraq war. Of course it would challenge the delusionists of the Iraq-war-camp to become the realists they are now always claiming to be. Maybe most important, it would show leadership to the Israelis and Palestinians, offering a model of coalition-making across ethnic lines that the Middle East requires to go forward. It would offer hope to the Palestinians whose dreams have been suffocated.
I am merely echoing Goldberg’s desperation in his piece of May, and saying, If things are that desperate, and I believe they are for the thousands of Palestinians in prison and the young Israelis corrupted by the occupation, then American intellectuals should get over their ego issues and pride and ethnic/religious mistrust and unite on something they say they believe in: the two-state solution.
Think of the dynamite in intellectual circles if Goldberg and Mearsheimer shared a byline in the New York Times about the two-state solution. Pure dynamite. Or if Jimmy Carter and Tzipi Livni shared a byline, addressing the American elite. Or Carter and Dennis Ross.
I think J Street is the bridge. Even Arab intellectuals are excited by J Street. I don’t think it will happen before the election. Everyone is too busy pandering to rich fearful and conservative Jews to take any chances. But as soon as the election is over, this becomes a great moral challenge. I assume J Street is working on this now. Reach out to Jimmy Carter.
