Tuesday, October 27, 2009

“Pro-Israel” No More


Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
27 October 09

There has been a debate as to whether J Street is “pro-Israel.” Well, one branch of J Street now says it isn’t or at least doesn’t want to say it is anymore. Because that’s a bad thing, and people might take offense. This report explains:

J Street’s university arm has dropped the “pro-Israel” part of the left-wing US lobby’s “pro-Israel, pro-peace” slogan to avoid alienating students. That decision was part of the message conveyed to young activists who attended a special weekend program for students ahead of J Street’s first annual conference, which began on Sunday. … We don’t want to isolate people because they don’t feel quite so comfortable with ‘pro-Israel,’ so we say ‘pro-peace,’” said American University junior Lauren Barr of the “J Street U” slogan, “but behind that is ‘pro-Israel.’”

Way behind. It seems that a basic component of supporting Israel is not being ashamed or embarrassed to support Israel. And J Street’s head, Jeremy Ben-Ami, in perfect live-and-let-live-who-are-we-to-tell-kids-what-to-think mode offers this mind-numbing explanation:

Ben-Ami described himself as “concerned but realistic” about the students’ choice to leave out the pro-Israel piece of J Street’s slogan. He added, “Some in the community might not want to hear that this is where a lot of young people have come to, but we have to deal with people where they’re at and address their concerns.” …

It is our goal to change traditional conversations when it comes to Israel and to broaden the notion that there is only one way to express love and concern for it,” Ben-Ami said to applause. “We are here to redefine and expand the very concept of being pro-Israel. No longer should this ‘pro-’ require an ‘anti-.’”

Pro-Israel, anti-Israel. Whatever. It’s enough to give moral equivalency a bad name.

But clarity is good and it’s nice to know J Street doesn’t mind dropping “pro-Israel” from its self-designation. If only it had told all those congressmen and senators it had lured into hosting an event for a “pro-Israel” group.

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2 comments:

  1. Isn't it the usual leftie tactic, to talk about peace while actually promoting only their own career? Or they're really so naive they think they will succeed where 3 generations failed?
    I personally think there's peace now and that's better than anything we'll have in the future. There are no successful bus bombings, rockets fall almost as seldom as rain.
    What more can we ask for? For a billion Muslims to start loving us despite them being brainwashed for generations?

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  2. Point well taken. It's a Western concept, particularly Obamaesque, that problems can be resolved between reasonable parties. The naivety is profound in their defining who's reasonable.

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