Today’s Good News: J Street Challenges AIPAC
This news has been a long, long time coming. A group of prominent US Jews has launched a new organization, J Street, to provide a political voice for American Jews. Said founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, “For too long, the loudest [actually the only audible - Ed.] American voices on Israel have come from the far right.” J Street “supports a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region.” They plan to support Congressional candidates who also advocate a new direction. So far so good. What do they actually advocate? Well, that part is vague. Here’s their policy statement on settlements:
“Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories have, for over forty years, been an obstacle to peace. They have drained Israel’s economy, military, and democracy and eroded the country’s ability to uphold the rule of law. Consistent US opposition to settlements should continue [What opposition? Ed.] , and diplomatic tools such as monitoring and public declarations should continue to be applied.”
Some key supporters include Eric Alterman; Lincoln Chafee; Mark Green; Eli Pariser; Robert Greenwald; and numerous rabbis, leaders of Jewish organizations, academics, and former government officials.
Mild-mannered as it may appear, the formation of this group is still good news, since as the man said, there’s been NO public voice on this except the far right’s. Here’s hoping they develop a lot more backbone and more specific proposals for a just settlement and the “two state solution” they support. Check out their website here to learn more.
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