Posted on 03/15/2011 8:05:09 AM PDT by JOHN ADAMS
"Maybe, if this collective Jewish presence" -- that is, the Jewish State in the Middle East -- "can only survive by the sword, then Israel really ain't a good idea." So said Daniel Levy, one of J Street's founders, at the 2011 J Street Conference. You can hear him, and the lack of any objection from even one of the 2000-strong audience, here, at 1:26:15 on the J Street Conference video, on J Street's own website.
Are we there yet? Is this clear statement by one of J Street's founders -- that if the Arabs will force Israel to defend herself, then the Jews should abandon the Middle East -- enough to prove that J Street is not "pro-Israel" at all? Is this confession enough to enable (or force) people to see that it is this belief: that the Jews are simply wrong to defend themselves ever, including against Gazan terrorism or a nuclear Iran, that constitutes the foundation of J Street?
Last fall a blogger found another utterance of Daniel Levy's in which it looked as though he said Israel was a mistake, but one he at least forgave, given the horrors of the Holocaust. Confronted with this, J Street rushed to argue in the alternative: first, J Street said, Levy didn't really make the statement; his words were misrepresented and taken out of context. That explanation became non-operative (as the Nixon White House would say), when it turned out that a video of the event was available, so then J Street moved to answer number 2: Levy isn't an official part of J Street, so he wasn't speaking for J Street when he kinda, sorta did make a statement that sounded as though he thought Israel was a mistake.
In this case, there is no question Levy made the statement. There is no question he made it at an official J Street event, and it is a direct quote. The context, of course, matters, and the context is even more damning.
Levy was discussing the US policy implications of the Middle East uprisings at a J Street conference prime time plenary session in the huge double ballroom of the Washington Convention Center. The other members of this panel included Bernard Avishai, who suggested, at 50:40, there should be an Obama Blueprint in which Obama organizes world opinion to pressure Israel into making real concessions to the Palestinians, and Roger Cohen, a New York Times columnist who seemed to suggest that it was the financial muscle of the nefarious Israel Lobby that forced the US to veto the recent United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning Israel. Cohen hoped Obama would extract a pound of Israeli flesh, or at least thousands of dunums, in exchange for that "favor." At 1:17:30.
And since J Street cannot deny Daniel Levy's "Israel ain't such a good idea" statement or the context, perhaps they will retreat to a position they've used before, that Levy isn't really a J Street official. But that won't work either. Levy is often sent to be the voice of J Street at public events, including one very recently at the Westchester, New York Jewish Community Relations Council.
But let's look beyond the masthead officials, and beyond the speakers on panels to whom J Street hands its bullhorn. By all means let's go beyond these things, to see what J Street is really made of. For the rot goes so much deeper -- from the people on the pulpit that J Street has created, all the way down to the anonymous members and fellow travelers who make up its audience and cheering section.
While waiting on line at the Starbucks at the J Street convention, I overheard a conversation among several Colorado J Street members. These were nicely dressed thirty-something women who were discussing why they weren't wearing the J Street buttons in their packets, which bear the phrase "pro-Israel pro-peace." The entire Boulder delegation, they said, was very uncomfortable with the emphasis, because "pro-Israel" was first, and "pro-Palestinian" wasn't a part of it. These women agreed that J Street had a messaging problem. If the buttons read "pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian, or just "pro-peace" and NOT "pro-Israel," then they'd be willing to wear them.
I agree with the women from Colorado. J Street's messaging is problematic. And these women are right that the problem is with the "pro-Israel" claim. Can you be pro-Israel but deny that country the right to self-defense? Really, if J Street has to keep defending itself from documented proof against its claim to be "pro-Israel," maybe that claim "really ain't a good idea."
Lori Lowenthal Marcus is president of Z STREET, www.zstreet.org
So what we’ve know for years these self hating Jews are on a quest for personal power. They could care less about the Jewish homeland...we just can’t let that happen without a fight. A good fight.
But before it comes to that I recommend a daily Rosary asking the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession in the hearts of the Arabs.
God will not forgive the United States for standing idle while Israels enemies death march them into the sea.
Where does he suggest they move to-—or does he sanction doing away with a Jewish Homeland altogether?
Isreal would be fine if it were not for the intransigence of the Muslim tribes surrounding it.
A cult that contemplates the slavery or death of anyone not belonging to the cult is a hard nut to crack.
Even harder when your own allies and brothers in faith appear to be reneging on you.
The Israelis took a bare piece of land and transformed it into what it is today and now the so called Palestinians want to take that piece of land back and transform it back into the POS it was before. They would loot the land and be as poor in a year as they are now.They already proved that in Gaza.
just...WOW! Was he struck by lightning after saying that?
good thing that these folks weren’t providing their advice in the times of the Philistines, Moabites, Assyrians, Amalekites, etc...
Maybe Israel was founded too soon-—part of mans plan and not Gods Plan. If it must be held like a castle maybe it will suffer the same fate as the crusader Christian Kingdoms and fall to Islam, in time. Israel might be inspiring Islam and making it radical—just a thought that should be explored. Maybe the time to return wasn’t 1948?
Could you imagine what the Islamic countries would be doing today if even a hint of creating an Israeli state were proposed?
“I will never understand those Jews who align with the Left. “
Apparently there is a meme in the Jewish community that goes something like, “the Left saved us from a potential pogrom during the McCarthy period and now we owe them.”
Whether it was or it wasn’t... its not relevant to them.
If you remove the little satan from the mideast, then they will be after the BIG SATAN and the headline will read...
J Street: Maybeee America Isn’t Such a Good Idea”
Europe would needless to say, just follow.
I am sure they said it. It is a psychosis.
Well we saw how the majority of American Jews voted in 2008. They still love the muslim.
We saw how when Netanyahu was doing his wilderness speaking tour, after the Clinton gang got him pushed out of office. Bibi was speaking at American churches and Clinton was raking in millions speaking at temples.
Bill would go in put on a yamakule and speak about his favorite subject - himself. They loved it. You almost have to give Clinton credit for being such a good con man.
Their insanity is starting to almost make sense.
Europe would needless to say, just follow.
Not so clear on that anymore. Sarkozy and Merkel seem to be trying really hard to knock some sense back into their countries. Wouldn’t it be odd if France and Germany were the ones to bring some sanity back to the world?
Maybe it’s a little late to explore that thinking. It is there and it isn’t going anywhere.
If Israel goes down to Muslim nutcases, who is next?
So maybe it’s a good idea to put Daniel Levy and those who think like him, into concentration camps?
They *do* so love their DCVE...(Death Camp Victim Envy)
How else can they prove to us all what *good* people they are, until they goad others into turning them into slaves and get mass slaughtered?
/Sarc
George Soros funded J Street with a 2 million dollar gift several years ago. The group has only raised another 200K from all other sources. So, J Streets merely another Soros NGO
SO maybe the USA “ain’t a good idea” because for much of the 20th century most of the world’s communists and dictators have required us to defend ourselves with the sword. Ehh?
Moron. There is a price for freedom. I am so tired of immature non-grown ups being quoted as experts on anything.
J Street is following the century-old "tradition" of socialist and communist groups in the United States: since their true agenda is so repulsive to the vast majority of Americans, they have to masquerade as something more palatable. Nonetheless, as in this case, they sometimes trip up and reveal the bare and ugly truth.
J Street is a Soros/Obama puppet group, created for the purpose of undermining Israel's security and viability in synergy with the Obama Administration's pro-Islamist bent. They are a small bunch of anti-Zionist Jewish leftists set up as front to convey the fiction that the bulk of the American Jewish community supports Obama's pro-Islamist Middle East policy. That became clearer and clearer every time J Street's statements and actions were exposed.
That was no slip of the tongue. These people are quite brazen in their views. After many many years, the Jewish people are still dealing with the the Hellenists.
These people are Jews in Name Only if even that. They are beyond self-hatred. I have a title for a talk: “Perhaps SJ Street is not Such a Good Idea” - ever!
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