Booing Eric Yoffie http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/booing-eric-yoffie/ The leader of the Reform movement gets booed at the J Street conference for criticizing Richard Goldstone, and cheered for saying too many Jewish communal leaders “have their heads in the sand” when it comes to speaking out on Israel’s settlement policy. en-us rkampeas@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-10-27T;02:39:00-05:00 Comment by Ed Weissman edweiss@optonline.net Conceptually, J Street is a good thing.  I grew up in the Zionist movement and was a member of the national leadership of Masada (ZOA), but have seen nothing but a drift further and further to the right amount what was once a centrist group.  There needs to be a place where Jews who believe without reservation or hesitation in the continued existence of Israel, but not in trying to hold only land without enfranchising the people who live there.  Whether, as many right wingers say, the Palestinians came into existence as a people in the 1960’s or have always been is irrelevant; no one can deny the legitimate aspirations of the population of Gaza and the West Bank to a country of their own.  It is glib to say “don’t they have Jordan”?  The population of Jordan may be 80% Palestinian but it is the dynastic rulership of the family of the original King Abdullah which has all the power.  The people of Gaza don’t want to be under the rule of Egypt, and the Egyptians don’t want them, either. A single-state “solution” is no solution at all, inasmuch as Israel will never surrender its identity as the Jewish State. Faced with a not-dissimilar situation, the British mandate authorities partitioned the Indian subcontinent into Pakistan and India.  Gandhi wanted the country to remain one, but the Muslims recognized that they could not accept being a minority in a Hindu country.  So it is with Israel and the Palestinians. This is not to say that a two-state solution an be easily worked out.  Water rights, Jerusalem, compensation for those who will have to leave the settlements… these are just the major issues. But the alternative is eternal warfare. Conceptually, J Street is a good thing.  I grew up in the Zionist movement and was a member of the national leadership of Masada (ZOA), but have seen nothing but a drift further and further to the right amount what was once a centrist group.  There needs to be a place where Jews who believe without reservation or hesitation in the continued existence of Israel, but not in trying to hold only land without enfranchising the people who live there.  Whether, as many right wingers say, the Palestinians came into existence as a people in the 1960’s or have always been is irrelevant; no one can deny the legitimate aspirations of the population of Gaza and the West Bank to a country of their own.  It is glib to say “don’t they have Jordan”?  The population of Jordan may be 80% Palestinian but it is the dynastic rulership of the family of the original King Abdullah which has all the power.  The people of Gaza don’t want to be under the rule of Egypt, and the Egyptians don’t want them, either.
A single-state “solution” is no solution at all, inasmuch as Israel will never surrender its identity as the Jewish State. Faced with a not-dissimilar situation, the British mandate authorities partitioned the Indian subcontinent into Pakistan and India.  Gandhi wanted the country to remain one, but the Muslims recognized that they could not accept being a minority in a Hindu country.  So it is with Israel and the Palestinians.
This is not to say that a two-state solution an be easily worked out.  Water rights, Jerusalem, compensation for those who will have to leave the settlements… these are just the major issues.
But the alternative is eternal warfare.

]]> 2012-02-10T;12:44:00-05:00 Comment by Yosef Hartuv yosefandmelody@gmail.com Maybe it’s something in the air. Elie Wiesel Mocked at J Street Conference: The “independent” blogger panel at J Street’s conference can only be described as clownish. The panel consisted mostly of crackpots and self-described anti-Zionists and “one-staters” (J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami calls the one-state solution a “nightmare,” but it seems to be the dream of many of the organization’s supporters). Though J Street tried to distance itself from the panel by describing it as an “unofficial” and “independent” event, the bloggers used one of the rooms otherwise reserved for conference events, a podium in the front had a J Street placard on it, and a J Street banner hung on the back wall of the room. Ben-Ami came in to “check up” on the panel, and a J Street flack ejected someone from the room at the behest of one of the panelists. If this wasn’t an official event, I don’t know what official means. (Full article) http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com/2009/10/elie-wiesel-mocked-at-j-street.html#links Maybe it’s something in the air.

Elie Wiesel Mocked at J Street Conference: The “independent” blogger panel at J Street’s conference can only be described as clownish. The panel consisted mostly of crackpots and self-described anti-Zionists and “one-staters” (J Street director Jeremy Ben-Ami calls the one-state solution a “nightmare,” but it seems to be the dream of many of the organization’s supporters). Though J Street tried to distance itself from the panel by describing it as an “unofficial” and “independent” event, the bloggers used one of the rooms otherwise reserved for conference events, a podium in the front had a J Street placard on it, and a J Street banner hung on the back wall of the room. Ben-Ami came in to “check up” on the panel, and a J Street flack ejected someone from the room at the behest of one of the panelists. If this wasn’t an official event, I don’t know what official means. (Full article)
http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com/2009/10/elie-wiesel-mocked-at-j-street.html#links

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