This has been a crazy week, with traveling for Business and such (not too mention my Gigantes taking a lead on the Phillies. BUT... on Monday night, I got the chance to go to the Berkeley, CA JCC and meet and hear Jeremy Ben-Ami of the Progressive, Pro-Israel Lobby J Street. I found the talk incredibly informative as well as affirming.
Anyhow, I thought I would diary and discuss this.
For those of you unfamiliar with J Street, it is (in it's words) the "Pro-Peace, Pro-Israel Lobby" or the "Political Home for Pro-Peace, Pro-Israel Americans":
The organization gives political voice to mainstream American Jews and other supporters of Israel who, informed by their progressive and Jewish values, believe that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel’s survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy. J Street’s mission is two-fold: first, to advocate for urgent American diplomatic leadership to achieve a two-state solution and a broader regional, comprehensive peace and, second, to ensure a broad debate on Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.
Prior to the talk, I ran into Mr. Ben-Ami in the rest room. Apparently he has read some of our discussions on this blog and was incredibly gracious as well engaging. Actually, I have to say everyone from J Street at the talk was pleasant.
The talk was about 20 minutes long with a much longer question and answer period. As far as I could tell there was no missing of questions and everyone who turned in a 3x5 card got their questions answered. I had a question based on This diary that I wrote a few days ago, but he answered it in his talk with some very heartening words.
As for the discussion it was mostly standard J Street fare (Pro Two State Solution, Pro Peace Negotiations, How to support progressive values AND Israel). Their web page has their position statements. During the talk I was really heartened when they talked about supporting progressive candidates here in the U.S., candidates like Joe Sestak, and Jan Schawkowsky and electing people that were "pro-peace". I was really looking forward to the Q&A session and to see what was going to turn up. The Q&A did not disappoint.
Ben-Ami answered questions from the involvement of George Soros, to the Peace Talks, to his feelings on negotiations with Iran, to suggestions to U.S. policy on Israel and how to make sure that U.S. wishes get fulfilled for the region and for policy of Peace talks.
As I previously mentioned I found myself agreeing with about 95% with what he had to say. The only place I found any disagreement was with regards to the U.S. - Israel aid packages. Ben-Ami thought that the U.S. should pressure Israel in the peace talks politically but he felt that any cut in aid would cause the Israelis to "circle the wagons" and become more rejectionist. I have been thinking long and hard about this and I really don't know where to go with this. Frankly, I favor a cut in aid relative to the amount of money sent to the settlements. However, I do understand that Ben-Ami is right. That would cause a shift to the hard right. On the other hand.. What else can the U.S. do to get Israel to go along with our policies.
Honestly, I don't have an answer. It is easy on a blog to propose solutions but what I find interesting is that many will not talk about how to reach those solutions realistically. Ben-Ami's talk made me think about solutions and left me more baffled than when I went in. I think that is the sign of a good discussion. It makes people think and reason out their positions. I think it is important that we do that.
One other note, J Street has been active in the S.F. Bay Area this month. On Wednesday my favorite Haaretz columnist (and Senior Editor) Bradley Burston will be in S.F. at:
Wednesday, October 27th at 7:30 PM
835 Market St
SFSU Downtown Campus, Lecture Hall 675
San Francisco, CA 94103
I will be there for this event at well. It should be great.
Thanks all, and enjoy!