At the risk of riding a serotonin spike, which I believe is the duty of a writer, I felt a thrill this a.m. reading Anshel Pfeffer’s piece in Haaretz attacking Israeli Amb. Michael Oren for not signing up for the J Street conference. Pfeffer addresses the idea of Jewish indifference to Jewishness. It made me feel love for my Jewishness; made me think that this horrible nightmare of occupation, which is actually an occupation of identity by the militants, may be coming to an end; and that the J Street conference, while disappointing in prospect in some ways to people on the left including me, represents a great awakening of the spirit. Sort of like what it felt like to throw off Shabbateinism in the 1600s. I’m thinking the conference might be a gathering of the spirit. The neocons hate J Street. And that makes me love J Street. It makes me think this is why I headed for the door back in the ’70s, when the mantra, Is it good for the Jews? was always whispered, not very ironically. I didn’t want any part of that kind of community, not when I was meeting non-Jews as peers.
Pfeffer (not the Zionist part, but the identity part):
And during a period when interest among young American Jews in their Jewish identity, let alone in Middle East politics, is at an all-time low, this is one group which is bucking the trend and motivating thousands to get engaged with the fundamental questions concerning Israel’s future.
Many of Israel’s supporters would rather J Street not exist, preferring apathy to being challenged. J Street has rocked the Jewish machers’ cozy boat ride.
Whatever one thinks of J Street’s policies, at least they give a damn. The old guard of the Jewish "leadership" is now trying to delegitimize the lobby, but it is not their business to tell others how they should support Israel. And it certainly isn’t for the Israeli ambassador to bestow or withhold his approval from Jewish organizations.
