#J street

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Daniel Marans at HuffPost:

Last Friday, a senior political aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) convened a group of progressive pro-Palestinian groups on a Zoom call to discuss strategy. The list of participants included representatives of the political arm of Jewish Voice for Peace, the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, IfNotNow and Americans for Justice in Palestine Action. The call took place less than two days after President Joe Biden confirmed on CNN that his administration had paused an offensive weapons shipment to Israel and would withhold additional transfers if Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where 1 million Palestinians are taking refuge. The Ocasio-Cortez aide appealed to the activists on the call to give Biden appropriate credit, given the historic nature of the step, and noted that Biden was already receiving fierce pushback from Israel supporters furious about the news. “It’s important we make clear to the White House that when the president moves in our direction, we’re willing to say so,” said Mike Casca, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, who was not the aide present on the call.

On the whole, advocates for Palestinian rights and a cease-fire in Gaza — inside Congress and out — were already marching in step with Ocasio-Cortez. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) joined her in praising Biden’s announcement. So, too, did the “uncommitted” movement, which had sought to pressure Biden through the Democratic primaries; Arab American Institute founder James Zogby; the Muslim group Emgage; the Center for International Policy; the liberal pro-Israel group J Street; the Jewish Democratic Council of America; the Center for American Progress; and Indivisible. Even IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace offered Biden qualified credit, though JVP did not post its statement on social media.

But the praise was not unanimous, with plenty of pro-Palestinian groups unwilling to give the president credit while the war’s horrific toll on Palestinian civilians grows and U.S. weapons and aid continue to flow.

The pro-Palestinian faction of the Democratic Party is mostly applauding President Biden's moves toward their position, even it if feels too little, too late.

[vyorei]

Calling for a ceasefire would really put a dent in the whole Terror thing

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Phyllis Chesler

On Monday, a J Street and Democrat party operative posted a piece at her Substack. I am choosing not to name her or to link to the piece because I don’t want even more people to read it. The piece is titled in this way: “Elie Wiesel on indifference. A child killed in Gaza every 15 minutes. Two mothers every hour. Seven women every two hours. Are you OK with that?”

READ MORE: History Isn’t All Black and White. Just Look at Israel.

The piece then proceeds to trot out a series of mainly fake news talking points about the deaths of women and children in Gaza, hour by hour, day by day. How many J Streeters have expressed similar moral outrage about the much larger body counts in Ukraine (an estimated 30,457 civilians and 31,000 combatants, or 61,500 all together) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (an estimated 5 to 6 million civilian deaths thus far)? We cannot trust the estimates of civilian and/or combatant deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, China, North Korea, Sudan, Somalia, and so on.

To the best of my knowledge, few J Street–style journalists have presented the much larger body count in Ukraine and warned us against being indifferent to it — at least, not again and again, day after day.

The above-mentioned Substack piece is in gruesome lockstep with the New York Times, which, on the very same day, had five full pages of photos of murdered Gazans, all identified by age, name, and profession. In the paper’s pages, murdered Israelis rarely appear, nor do the many hundreds of thousands of displaced Israelis. They remain nameless and faceless, as do the Israeli hostages who’ve been hidden in Gaza for five months while they’ve been beaten, raped, tortured, starved, and murdered.

I sometimes wonder whether both the New York Times and J Street are on the Hamas/Iran payroll, whether they are simply funded by Soros — or whether they are true-believing Jew haters. One damning piece of evidence that they are Jew haters is their refusal to acknowledge Hamas’ complicity in civilian deaths. Hamas doesn’t just hide behind civilians when they are available; Hamas operates and maneuvers mostly in civilian areas, a clear violation of international law. Given this, and despite Israel’s almost suicidal efforts to prevent civilian deaths, J Street argues that Israel has no right to fight back against those trying to destroy them. (READ MORE from Phyllis Chesler: Silence of the Feminist Lambs: Not a Word on Hamas Horrors)

The piece up at Substack essentially dares to turn Elie Wiesel’s moral authority into a sock puppet in order to use his Holocaust-era perspective to condemn Israel and to warn us against our own “indifference” to Gazan civilian suffering. What Wiesel said, however, was far more relevant than the phrase quoted at Substack. Please allow me to quote from an interview given by him to Merle Hoffman in 1991, as reported in On the Issues magazine (full disclosure: I was the magazine’s editor at large at the time):

HOFFMAN: You have been severely criticized for not condemning Israel about the intifada. What is your current position on the Palestinian situation? WIESEL: I have been criticized for many things… Yes, I refuse to systematically condemn Israel. H: For anything? W: There are certain red lines that I will not cross. If I had known at the time that Israel was involved in torturing I would have spoken out, but it was too late. When I found out, a commission had already been formed and justice prevailed, but I don’t feel I have the right to apply public pressure on Israel. H: But you have the moral authority. W: But what if I’m wrong? H: Can’t you afford to be wrong? W: Yes, but only if I pay the price. What if I am wrong and they pay the price? What if I apply such pressure on a decision and that decision may bring disaster or at least tragedy to Israel? Do I have the right to do this? It is their children who will pay the price, not mine. I do go to Israel and speak to the leaders there[.] I can say what I feel. But here, especially here, I have no right to speak out publicly…. I am offended when I see Jewish intellectuals who all of a sudden remember their Jewishness only to use that Jewishness to attack Israel. These are men and women who have never done anything for Israel [and] all of a sudden they remember they are Jews.

I hope and pray that J Streeters and Democratic Party operatives pay attention to these words of Weisel as well as to those they manipulate in order to condemn Israel.

[hero-israel]

Is JStreet as bad as JVP?

No. J Street does not platform and embrace terrorists, encourage the murder of Israelis, stalk and harass LGBT people, or preach that cops were nicer to black people before 1948.

J Street has at times been excessively, performatively apologetic about mainstream Jewish life and culture. After reading their press for years, I still can't say I'm sure why they exist or who their constituency is, or if they ever had any purpose other than to posture as Jewish support for the reckless and short-sighted Iran deal. But they support a 2SS and blame Hamas for its attacks, so, there are worse things to be than a bit puzzling.

[eretzyisrael]

by Gregg Roman

The shocking and horrific Hamas attack on Israelis on October 7 – the mass murder, rape, abductions, torture, and mutilation – was a paradigm-shifting event. Israel's war in response is a starkly black-and-white conflict.

Yet J Street, the lobbying group that advertises itself as "pro-Israel" and "pro-peace," has not seen it that way. It recently opposed two pro-Israel House bills, arguing that they unduly ruffle Iran's feathers (J Street's view is that Iran must be appeased).

It also pressed House Democrats to oppose another resolution, this one condemning support for Hamas on college campuses.

As for Jewish fears about raging increases in antisemitism, J Street scoffs.

J Street has been consistent in its approach since its founding in 2007: put zero onus on the Palestinian Arab leadership and fire all criticism toward the Jewish state.

As for Jewish fears about raging increases in antisemitism, J Street scoffs.

Per J Street's president Jeremy Ben-Ami, "We're debating whether or not a particular tweet or expression is anti-Semitic. The issues I'd like to see a focus on are the occupation, the settlements, and the question of whether we can end this conflict."

In J Street's view, Israel's government must be treated by the United States as a wayward child and the proper role for Americans living safely in the U.S. is to undercut support for Israel by relentlessly criticizing it while cloaked in a false flag of being "pro-Israel."

[philosopherking1887]

Congressional Democrats, and the Biden Administration, are far more likely to heed this call if it's coming from a group that unequivocally supports Israel's right to exist and condemns Hamas's atrocities.

[plitnick]

Nakba denial is at the heart of pro-Israel lobbying

The denial of the Nakba has become a virtual sine qua non for pro-Israel advocacy and propaganda. It is not necessary for Zionism; acknowledging the genocide of native people in the Western hemisphere has not led to the destruction of the US, Canada, or Australia. But because of the anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian hate that has, from the start, been such an integral part of the ideology of…

[casaotopame]

Walked in moss and viewed the sunset

[classichorrorblog]

Street Trash (1987)

[userarmyhope]

HOPE ON THE STREET : EPISODE 1 (2024)

+ bonus handsome boi

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Aaron Gell at The Guardian:

Rarely has a head of state received a more hostile welcome than that which met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, when he arrived in Washington DC to speak before a joint session of Congress last month. While no senior US officials turned up to greet him on the tarmac, thousands of demonstrators marched in protest of his speech, including 200 from the group Jewish Voice for Peace who were arrested during an occupation on Capitol Hill, and others who burned him in effigy and replaced the American flag flying in front of Union Station with a Palestinian flag.

Perhaps more telling was the decision of roughly half of congressional Democrats to boycott the address altogether. “A dozen years ago, that would have been unthinkable,” noted Peter Frey, board chair of J Street, a Jewish lobbying group that supports Israeli security as well as a Palestinian state. One lawmaker who did attend, the representative Rashida Tlaib, wore a keffiyeh and held a sign calling Netanyahu a “war criminal” who was “guilty of genocide”. Meanwhile, a number of labor unions, including the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union and United Auto Workers sent a letter to Joe Biden calling for an end to US support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Polling shows that some 70% of Democrats and 35% of Republicans favor conditions on military aid to Israel, but with each day, the disconnect between what voters want and what the Biden administration does seems to widen. One consequence is that citizens’ already flagging trust in their government is steadily eroded. “It’s a battle for the soul of the political system on this issue,” Frey said. “And it’s playing out in real time in front of us. It is not healthy. It’s not good for Israel.” And to the extent that Americans care about foreign policy, he added, “I think it does in the long run maybe undermine confidence in the political system.”

That disconnect will be on display next week at the Democratic national convention, where supporters of Palestinian human rights plan to pressure the party to include the call for an immediate ceasefire and a weapons embargo of Israel as planks of its platform. “This is not just a policy stance, it’s a moral imperative,” said Layla Elabed, an activist with the Uncommitted National Movement (who happens to be Tlaib’s sister), on a recent organizing call.

It is a tall order, but for many in the movement, it seems within reach. Months before Biden’s disastrous debate performance; before the drumbeat of marquee defections; before the flash of Nancy Pelosi’s shank on Morning Joe, the candidacy suffered its first major blow courtesy of these same activists. By persuading more than 100,000 Michigan Democrats to cast their primary ballots for “uncommitted”, rather than back the man who they believed was enabling a genocide, they had sent the Democratic establishment a forceful message: one of the most critical swing states in the 2024 election was at risk. Eventually, more than 700,000 primary voters in 23 states would vote the same way – a signal that support for Israel’s actions in Gaza could become a political liability for centrist Democrats, as it recently did for their counterparts in France and the UK. Due to its strong showing, the group won 30 delegates to the DNC. The protest vote provided another piece of evidence that, at least among liberals, a longstanding affinity for Israel was quickly eroding, one more casualty of a brutal 10-month conflict that shows no sign of ending and may well escalate into a full-on regional war. In addition to killing more than 40,000 Palestinians (and probably many more indirectly), displacing millions and destroying more than half the area’s buildings, the Gaza war appears to have damaged, perhaps irreparably, Israel’s “special relationship” with its most important champion. Meanwhile, Biden’s stubborn support for the onslaught, despite its apparent failure to meet its stated goals of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages, has done more than threaten the Democratic coalition. It has stoked a sharp generational divide, with younger Americans nearly twice as likely to express support for the Palestinian cause as their parents – fomenting wrenching generational disagreements, especially within Jewish families. It has riven campuses, leading venerable institutions supposedly dedicated to free inquiry and critical thinking to respond with police violence to the mostly peaceful activism of their own students. And perhaps most alarmingly, it has given many Americans cause to doubt our nation’s commitment to free speech, human rights and the rule of law – to wonder, in short, just what America stands for.

‘Thehypocrisyisripe’

Among those most unsettled by the new dynamic are left-leaning Jewish students, many of whom maintain a broad devotion to Israel even as they decry its current policies. Now, many of them find themselves increasingly isolated from longtime political allies. While troubled by the strident rhetoric heard at some protests they otherwise support, they are nonetheless distressed by the efforts of pro-Israel advocacy groups, establishment politicians and college administrators to paint all anti-war demonstrations as antisemitic. [...] As Israel continues its assault, decimating Gaza and killing civilians and militants alike with US supplied weapons, such equivocations strike many Americans as deeply hollow. With thousands of anti-war protesters descending on Chicago to protest against the DNC, and dozens of uncommitted delegates making their case inside the hall, the question of America’s role in what many experts have called a genocide will figure prominently at the convention. Harris’s answer will have far-reaching implications – not only for her candidacy, the prospect of peace in the Middle East, and the beleaguered civilians rushing from one “safe zone” to the next as bombs explode around them, but for the US’s global standing and its citizens’ faith in its reputation as a force for good in the world.

The Guardian does a deep dive on the Gaza Genocide and the US/Israel relationship and how opinions of it split America.

[bts-trans]

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[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

According to Israel Hayom, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has recently begun to meet with “Jewish leaders in her election district.”

OK, so Ariel Kahanah, who reported the story, doesn’t know that AOC represents NY 14, which includes the eastern part of The Bronx and part of north-central Queens. The Queens portion includes Astoria, College Point, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside. The Bronx portion of the district includes City Island, Country Club, Van Nest, Morris Park, Parkchester, Pelham Bay, Schuylerville, and Throggs Neck.

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I checked the UJA databank on the Jewish community of NY 14. It has 26,300 individuals who define themselves as Jews, out of roughly 700,000 residents, who are 50% Hispanic, 17% Asian, and 9% Black.

Out of the Jewish population, 8,400 are 65 and older––1,500 of whom live alone, and 12,400 are ages 40 to 64. 7,600 are poor or near-poor. 3,000 are of Russian origin. 5,600 are biracial. Fewer than 7,000 attend any synagogue, be it Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform.

In other words, AOC very likely did not meet with Jewish leaders in her election district. According to Israel Hayom, she held several closed meetings with a group of rabbis and Jewish leaders, men and women, who belong to the progressive wing of the Jewish community and some of whom are close to J Street.

And this is the bag where the AOC cat has been hiding all along. AOC met with progressive Jews from J Street and similar anti-Zionist, anti-Israel circles. And the reason she had to keep those meetings secret is that even those lefty Jews are kind of pariahs to the squad caucus.

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꧁★꧂

[eretzyisrael]

[olipeaksforever]

they would find eachother in every universe