JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

J Street v. Knesset: You’ve read the review, now see the movie

By Ron Kampeas · March 28, 2011

Lots of blog-o-buzz today about Jeffrey Goldberg's elegant defense of J Street over at the Atlantic.

(Elegant because he pulls off making a succinct case for the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby while explaining his problems with it):

The Knesset is debating whether or not J Street is Zionist. This is a farce. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to meet with J Street. This, too, is a farce. The Prime Minister, in fact, will meet with Sarah Palin (whose politics are favored by a tiny minority of American Jews) but he will not meet with J Street. He should argue with J Street, yell at J Street, grapple with J Street, but most of all meet with J Street. Those Israelis, and those American Jews, who believe that J Street, and the spirit it represents, are fleeting phenemona have absolutely no idea what is happening in the Jewish world.

He's referring to last week's Knesset hearings on J Street, and as we've noted, American Jewish groups are less than happy with same. (Not all of the Knesset, of course, is "against" -- many lawmakers spoke "for" -- so my hed is fun, but a little misleading.)

Here, in any case, for your viewing pleasure -- the whole raucous hearing, subtitled:

Knesset Merged from Isaac Luria on Vimeo.

UPDATE: Bat Ami, a reader, below notes that this is not the entire hearing, but the first 40 minutes of a two-hour hearing (and she provides a link to testimony by Lenny Ben-David.)

My bad: J Street is working on getting the whole thing subtitled, and as soon as it does, I will post the entire video here.

The first 40 minutes is a good snapshot, though, with statements from the Knesset members who convened the hearings, and then from J Street director Jeremy Ben Ami.