J Street - No Detours

Here are the thoughts and reflections of Antony Loewenstein, a journalist and author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution, post J Street Conference. Anthony



is a very non/anti/post-Zionist (in his book My Israel Question, he asks "whether the whole idea of Zionism - the movement for Jewish national liberation - needs a serious overhaul. Not surprisingly, his views have attracted strong criticism from some Australian Jewish and non-Jewish leaders":

What I found today:-

The question remains: what are the boundaries of America debate over Israel and Palestine and who sets the limits? For many at J Street, nothing should be off the table. Ever.

...J Street officials expressed fear that Obama was the last, great hope to resolve the Israel/Palestine conflict and provided a platform for those who argued about the “demographic threat” (more Arabs than Jews in the land of Israel and Palestine, something happening as we speak). There is something fundamentally racist about calmly analysing the higher Arab birth-rate threatening to swamp Jewish lives. Imagine if white Australian parents worried about Aboriginal children “threatening” the purity of their children.

The ability of some Zionists to want a majority Jewish state is an inherent contradiction in the modern world; enjoy multiculturalism and its benefits in the West but desire racial purity in the state of Israel.

...Occupation isn’t something to be ignored or defended. It has placed modern Judaism morally on its knees.

This week left me invigorated, enraged and disillusioned. J Street itself is pushing, in my view, a policy that will only lead to disappointment and continued occupation of Palestinian land. But the range of voices, arguments, disagreements and passions at the conference proves a vibrant Judaism is essential if Jews and Palestinians are to live peacefully together.

I hope, jovially, of course, but justly, that this J Streeter would agree that nothing will be off the tabel, ever, when Iran is discussed.

As for the throwaway "racist" lines, heck, that's just playing up to the only people that will countenance his presence among them.

After all, I would presume that that is the same reason for which he wears a thing-a-ma-jig in his ear.