J
Street’s rejection is a milestone in the growing polarization of American Jews
On
many issues, the liberal advocacy group is closer to American Jewish views than
most of the organizations that voted to keep it out of the Conference of
Presidents.
By Chemi Shalev | May
1, 2014
The
liberal advocacy group J Street has made a lot of mistakes since its inception
six years ago. It took positions that were perceived as anti-Israeli. It was
not always upfront or completely forthcoming about its backers and funding.
According to some sources, its leader Jeremy Ben Ami succeeded in losing
friends and alienating supporters even when he recently appeared before the
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations that J Street was asking
to join.
Critics
of J Street will claim that these factors played a major role in the
conference’s decision on Wednesday night to reject J Street’s bid for
membership by a vote of 22-17, far short of the two-thirds majority needed.
Whether that’s true or not makes very little difference, because the emphatic
repudiation of J Street will be widely perceived nonetheless as a milestone in
the growing polarization and fragmentation of the organized American Jewish
community, as a vivid manifestation of its escalating right-wing intolerance
and possibly as a harbinger of a fateful schism to come.
For
J Street itself, the establishment’s brush-off is actually a godsend. Rather
than getting sucked into the consensual machinery of the Conference of
Presidents or being colored by its right wing-tinge, the organization is now
the aggrieved party deserving of sympathy as well as the leading alternative to
what many younger Jews see as the fossilized infrastructure of the so-called
“Jewish establishment.” In the expected absence of a peace process, J Street
could be viewed as the last American Jewish bulwark against blind adherence to
occupation and annexation.
And
though executives led by Malcolm Hoenlein gave J Street more than a fair
hearing and played its membership procedures strictly by the book, the
Conference of Presidents will likely be slammed not only for its
small-mindedness but for its warped voting apparatus that gives tiny Jewish
fringe groups with two functionaries and a telephone number the same voting
rights as powerhouses such as the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents
over a million members, and the Anti-Defamation League, possibly the most
prominent Jewish organization in America outside of AIPAC, both of which
supported J Street’s acceptance. By keeping J Street out, the conference shot
itself in the foot, eroding its claim to represent the entire Jewish community.
Moreover,
by turning away J Street, the Conference of Presidents appears to be spurning
the majority opinion of the American Jewish community itself. Whatever its
alleged misdeeds and misdemeanors, on most issues of the day J Street is far
closer to prevailing American Jewish views that most of the organizations that
voted on Wednesday to keep it outside the gates. Like J Street, the
clear majority of American Jews oppose settlements, support a two-state
solution and endorse the administration’s efforts to reach a diplomatic
solution with Iran. And most American Jews – 69 percent to be exact – voted in
favor of Barack Obama, who is fully supported by J Street but loathed by a
significant portion of the so-called “Major Jewish Organizations.”
In
rejecting J Street, the conference chose exclusion over inclusion, intolerance
over understanding, division over agreement, a bunker mentality over open
mindedness. J Street’s unequivocal rejection will be interpreted as a victory
for the ascendant forces of right-wing fanaticism who are now engaged in a
perpetual purge of the Jewish establishment, communal organizations, college
campuses and even the Salute to Israel Parade of disloyal dissenters and
deviants, in their own prejudiced eyes. They walk hand in hand with similar
agents of arrogant chauvinism who are on the rise in Israel as well, as shown
in the letter of support sent by none other than the chairman of Israel’s
ruling coalition MK Yariv Levin to the fringe advocates for the eviction of
left-wing groups from the annual New York parade.
They
want to be the gatekeepers of the proverbial Jewish tent and the sole arbiters
of its entry requirements. They wish to keep the pro-Israel camp holy and pure
and molded in their own image. They don’t mind the fact that soon they may find
themselves alone in the tent or that it is Israel real enemies – and not J
Street – who are deriving the most satisfaction from a Jewish community that is
starting to tear itself apart.
