Posted on 04/30/2014 8:03:23 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
In what many observers will see as the de facto expression of mainstream U.S. Jewry’s outlook on J Street, members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday voted 22-17 (with three abstentions) to reject the membership application of the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby. J Street secured the votes of only about a third of the Conference’s 50 members.
The 42 Conference members in attendance in New York exceeded the 75-percent quorum needed to hold the vote, but J Street fell significantly short of the required threshold of a two-thirds affirmative vote from the Conference’s full membership. The result that 25 organizations either voted against J Street or abstained meant that half of the Conference’s members declined to support J Street’s application.
“The Conference meticulously followed its long-established Process and Procedures Guidelines in considering J Street’s application. ... The present membership of the Conference includes organizations which represent and articulate the views of broad segments of the American Jewish community and we are confident that the Conference will continue to present the consensus of the community on important national and international issues as it has for the last 50 years,” said Conference of Presidents Chairman Robert G. Sugarman and Executive Vice Chairman/CEO Malcolm Hoenlein.
J Street said in a statement, “This is a sad day for us, but also for the American Jewish community and for a venerable institution that has chosen to bar the door to the communal tent to an organization that represents a substantial segment of Jewish opinion on Israel.”
Jewish leaders have used a “big tent” metaphor to describe which views on Israel and U.S. foreign policy are encompassed within the community’s consensus. Since its formation in 2008, J Street has been a frequent subject of debates on how far that tent stretches, and the group’s bid to join the Conference of Presidents proved no different.
The Forward reported that at an April 11 meeting during which J Street had failed to win the endorsement of a crucial committee for membership in the Conference, J Street was questioned over donations it has received from liberal billionaire George Soros—whose foundations have come under scrutiny for allegedly funding anti-Israel groups—and over the lobby’s support of the United Nations-sponsored Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of war crimes against the Palestinians. Furthermore, J Street was accused of collaborating with anti-Israel groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine.
Some Conference members were also troubled that J Street, if voted in, would have been the only organization in the Conference of Presidents that endorses or raises money for political candidates through a political action committee.
Andrea Levin—executive director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, a Conference of Presidents member—told JNS.org that J Street is taking positions “totally out of sync with the Jewish mainstream,” noting its opposition to a 2011 congressional letter criticizing Palestinian incitement in the wake of the Itamar massacre that killed five members of an Israeli family, and more recently, its refusal to condemn the Fatah-Hamas unity deal.
In an op-ed for JNS.org last year, however, J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami called his group’s position on Israel “the same as that of the Israeli government, the Obama administration and the vast bulk of the American Jewish community.”
“At the end of the day, J Street exists to help Israel reach the deal it needs and wants so much and which is so central to its future as a Jewish state and as a democracy,” wrote Ben-Ami, referring to a two-state solution, whose achievement is central to J Street’s stated mission.
Yet Sarah Stern—president of the Washington, DC-based Endowment for Middle East Truth think tank and policy group—believes members of Congress are often confused about where J Street stands on Israel. She noted that J Street “has consistently taken the same positions as the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).” CAIR has been accused of being a front group for the Hamas terrorist group, and NIAC routinely takes anti-Israel positions.
“It’s hard enough for members of Congress to listen to a growing Muslim and Arab demographic, but when they have a Jewish constituency that is basically siding with the enemies of Israel, I think it’s extraordinarily deleterious for the Jewish community here in the U.S,” Stern told JNS.org.
Georgetown University professor and Middle East analyst Moran Stern, meanwhile, does not believe it is particularly relevant to be asking whether or not J Street is a “mainstream” American Jewish organization.
“The surge of J Street is a fact,” he said. “What the Conference of Presidents and other Jewish organizations in the U.S. that might have conflicting views on J Street are doing, and I think are doing very wisely, is they are identifying the surge of J Street. They recognize it and they adapt accordingly.”
Before Wednesday’s vote, a number of Conference of Presidents member groups publicly expressed their intent to support J Street’s application. Ameinu—which says its “connects liberal American Jews with a progressive Israel”—posted on Twitter, “Ameinu will vote for J Street’s inclusion in the Conf. of Presidents. They meet all of the requirements. Simple.” In a blog post for the Times of Israel, Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs wrote that there should not be an “ideological litmus test” for joining the umbrella organization.
“If the Conference begins to limit its membership based on organizations’ views on specific policy issues, it ceases to represent the entire American Jewish community,” Jacobs wrote.
The leadership of Conservative Judaism’s congregational umbrella group echoed the call for accepting a diversity of views.
“The Conference of Presidents is designed as a forum in which the Jewish community, in all its diversity, can come together to discuss the major issues of the day and speak with world leaders and organizations as representatives of the Jewish people,” said United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism CEO Rabbi Steven Wernick and International President Richard Skolnik.
On the flip side, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) campaigned aggressively against J Street’s bid. Ahead of the vote, ZOA distributed 18 bullet points for why it believed J Street should not be admitted to the Conference of Presidents, and issued press releases slamming J Street’s statements on the Palestinian unity deal and Secretary of State John Kerry’s remark warning that Israel could become an “apartheid state.”
Reacting to criticism of Kerry’s comments, J Street had said, “Instead of putting energy into attacking Secretary Kerry, those who are upset with the Secretary’s use of the term should put their energy into opposing and changing the policies that are leading Israel down this road.”
ZOA then said, “J Street has again demonstrated that it is an extremist group, hostile to Israel, by supporting Secretary of State John Kerry’s ‘apartheid’ accusation against Israel.”
Moran Stern, however, told JNS.org that from his observations of the culture of U.S. Jewish organizations, he has witnessed a “reservoir” of talented and educated young American Jews among the J Street ranks, and questioned the premise of abandoning that cadre of Israel advocates.
“The question is what do you do with that reservoir,” he said, explaining that leaving out J Street might “play into the hands of those who are anti-Israel because they will say, ‘Look at the Conference of Presidents that claims to be pro-Israel and pro-Jewish, and here there is a group like J Street that supports the two-state solution and all that, and when they try to be part of that club they are being denied.’”
The professor added that given J Street’s popularity on college campuses, it is important not to neglect those young American Jews who care about Israel but may have a different approach than traditional pro-Israel advocates.
“I think that while you may not accept certain ideas, J Street certainly doesn’t fall under this category,” he said. “They do not call for the one-state solution, for the destruction of Israel, for boycotting Israel. Quite on the contrary.”
But Dr. Charles Jacobs—president of Boston-based Americans for Peace and Tolerance, the group behind the new documentary “The J Street Challenge”—explained that J Street breaks a long-honored tradition between American Jews and Israel.
“[American Jews] can freely criticize Jewish leaders in Israel—we can do it publicly, but we who do not live there or have our children on the front lines do not have the right to use our American power to circumvent Israeli democracy, and to try to lobby to get an American administration to impose our views and policies on the Israelis. … J Street’s entire program is designed to break this longstanding agreement,” Jacobs told JNS.org.
It's apparent that J Street - a knee-jerk Obamaton ultraleft organization - is trying to stick its nose into the "Big Tent" of American Jewish organizations (represented by the Conference of Presidents) and eventually use its clout with the administration and in Washington to silence the pro-Israel voices of the majority of American Jewry.
This first attempt by J Street was fortunately rejected, but don't be surprised if they come back using less polite means to achieve their not-so-secret pro-communist pro-Arabist goals. This can all get very ugly and the mainstream pro-Israel Jewish leaders must stay on guard.
it is amazing that the Jewish leadership people actually saw through the (Obvious to anybody outside the Jewish community) anti-Semitic nature of the Soros-funded JStr
truly, the enemy within
Ping!!!
Truly, the enemy within.
Yes. But the vote was too close for comfort. This was an example of attempted communist infiltration. And it probably won't be the last such attempt.
The 42 Conference members in attendance in New York exceeded the 75-percent quorum needed to hold the vote, but J Street fell significantly short of the required threshold of a two-thirds affirmative vote from the Conference’s full membership. The result that 25 organizations either voted against J Street or abstained meant that half of the Conference’s members declined to support J Street’s application.
Good!
It is amazing. It’s good but amazing.
Big tents can be nice. But gotta be careful. If make tent too big, rabid islamoNazi camels move in ( with their usual agenda to take over).
Thank You for the Ping Justiceseeker!
For the time being at least. The key for the immediate future is the strength of many of these organizations to resist political pressures from the wacko left at a time when the regime in Washington, of which J Street is a "Jewish" appendage, is markedly more anti-Israel than any of its predecessors.
Not a precise comparison, but the Conference of the Presidents of the Major Jewish Organizations needs to show the fortitude of Israel herself in resisting in the face of an existential threat.
In the past, some of these Jewish organizations have succumbed to leftist power plays on other issues, such as gay marriage.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Jews supporting this Regime will be judged by God as Capos.
J Street is like an infectious disease and should never ben allowed to join the Conference of Major Jewish Organizations, or any other legitimate Jewish national organization.
However, the Reform Movement is so far left that J Street is perfect for them (thank Red Rabbi David Saperstein for this).
The Conservative Movement has been seriously infiltrated by turncoat conservative rabbies, oops, sorry, rabbis, who now sound more like George Soros KAPO collaborators with the enemy than as voices of a Jewish religious movement.
Thank God that ZOA has held firm against the “ Jewish liberal, progressive” Left (i.e. mini-marxists with yarmulkes).
And don’t think that the J Street radicals aren’t without powerful rabbinical friends in DC and the Democrat Party. They are.
Also, the DC-JCC and the leftist Theater J are functioning as propaganda arms of not only the J Street leftists, but for other anti-Israel arab/moslem and self-hating Jewish organizations.
In the past, anti-Israel, neo-marxist groups such as Jews for Urban Justice, New Jewish Agenda, Peace Now, and Breira, were in the front lines against Israel and her American supporters of all faiths.
Today, J Street, universities such as Brandeis, Nazi Collaborator KAPO George Soros and his very monied front organizations, (CAP, OIS, etc), and Jews for A Palestinian State, are the new frontline leftist organizations fighting to destroy Israel despite “the lies they tell their fathers”.
The are doing what CAIR cannot do, and are doing it well. Deception, infiltration, subversion and disinformation are their tools, and they bank on the massive guilt and gullibility of many American Jews to ensure their success in attacking Israel and weaking America in the Middle East.
J doesn’t necessarily stand for “Jewish”. It can and most certainly does stand for “JERK”, “JUDAS”, and “JUDENFREI”.
Agree 100%. The question is: How do we, the pro-Israel American Jewish majority, with help from Christian Zionists, fend them off? We were successful just now, but rest assured they will try again. Their goal in to join the Conference first and then control it by subversion, suppressing the political influence of the large pro-Israel majority in the American Jewish population (and the American population as a whole). We need a definitive program to defeat them!
And don’t think that the J Street radicals aren’t without powerful rabbinical friends in DC and the Democrat Party. They are.
Of course. It's not an exaggeration to say that J Street is an appendage of the Obama national political apparatus, as I've pointed out before. We should be well aware that it was spawned by Soros money. As for the rabbinical influence, we know that there were groups of nutty leftist rabbis who were an active part of the two Obama presidential campaigns.
Also, the DC-JCC and the leftist Theater J are functioning as propaganda arms of not only the J Street leftists, but for other anti-Israel arab/moslem and self-hating Jewish organizations.
By "DC-JCC", do you mean the Jewish Community Center in Washington? Never heard of "Theater J." Does it put on theatrical productions with propaganda messages?
Ubama and The Anti-Semitic Bitch Mrs. Cass Sunstine are Mini-Reinhard Heydrich's in the making.
They could be the end of many Jews.
Unfortunately, I don't think too many folks here are aware of who Reinhard Heydrich was, but it's interesting that you brought up his name. There was one Nazi POS that came to a fitting end, killed by Czech resistance fighters. I read somewhere that his Nazi brethren possibly could have saved his life, but they didn't allow the "inferior" Czech doctors to operate on him.
DC-JCC is the Jewish Community Center of DC, and has been a leftist propaganda stronghold site for decades. Saw communist coverup artist Victor Navasky there years ago. Sounded like he was made in Moscow.
They also had a pro-Paul Robeson display without any information on him being a covert Soviet asset and Communist Party USA leader.
Theater J is so far left at times that is functions as an unofficial Palestinian mouthpiece. Google it and see what people say about its plays and distortions of the truth.
They just put on a play about an alleged massacre of Palestinians in the Arab War against Israel in 1948. Based on propaganda by an anti-Israel Jew I’ve forgotten the name of the play but it should be in the Theater J “google” information.
CAMERA helped to expose the play’s anti-Israel propaganda and to shorten its run, but they got around it by staging other related programs.
Kerry and Jay Carney aren’t much better. And never believe that Hillary supports anyone except herself.
She puts the capital “B” in ‘Bitch’.
Wow . . . the "right wing, pro-Israel" group is called "Americans for Peace and Tolerance?" Some people seem incapable of thinking for any other justification for a Jewish state in 'Eretz Yisra'el.
I'm glad that J-Street lost the vote, but most member organizations of the Conference of Presidents dissent from leftist orthodoxy on Israel and on no other issue. Similarly, I don't think anyone would be saying "no ideological litmus test" if a socially conservative Jewish organization petitioned to join (of course I could be wrong; it may be that 'Agudat Yisra'el and Chabad are members).
The problem with the Conference is that it was organized to be the "official" voice of the American Jewish community when that position belongs to the Sages and not to secular individuals or organizations.
Might be interesting to get a copy of that documentary "The J Street Challenge" and watch it. Could contain some stuff on J Street that we're not entirely aware of.
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