By all accounts the first national conference of J Street in Washington this past week was a great success,
The birth of a new organization said to be pro-Israel and pro-peace should be cause for celebration involving as it does hundreds - if not thousands - of new activists who are sorely needed to propound and defend Israel in the arena of public opinion.
J Street has run into trouble because its policies are said to be inimical to Israel's national interest.For example its demand that Israel cease all settlement activity in the West Bank runs counter to Israel's current policy of offering to curtail - but not completely cease - all such settlement activity for an agreed period in order to allow negotiations to be resumed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
This policy objective of J Street may resonate very well with the Obama administration which itself had originally called for such a freeze. However America has now resiled from that demand so J Street's call for the continuation of that policy seems to not serve the interests of Israel at all but only those of the Arab world that are still demanding such a settlement freeze.
13 July 2009 - 12 Jewish organizations (including J Street) meet President ObamaWhat is clearly evident from the formation of J Street is that Jews are not some kind of monolithic unthinking group of people who are prepared to mindlessly follow what is regarded as conventional wisdom where Israel is concerned. They are prepared to criticise Israel or to depart from established Israeli policy and guidelines and speak out on a whole range of issues - be they political, social or humanitarian - where they do not agree with any current Israeli Government.
There are a multitude of Jewish groups doing exactly what J Street does - both in Israel and everywhere else around the world where Jewish communities thrive and exist.
Whilst many Jews perceive this to be traitorous and against Israel's interest, I think such divergence of opinion is healthy and is one of the real strengths of the Jewish people. It keeps Israel honest and open to correcting any criticisms by introducing policies it considers to be valid or worthwhile . In the end Israel itself will make those decisions but it will have done so with the benefit of knowing how other Jews publicly see it as acting in the best interests of preserving the country as the national homeland of the Jewish people forever.
Which brings me to the real point of this article - where do we see anywhere in the Arab world a multiplicity of opinions from Arab interest groups and pro-peace Arab organizations that are opposed to the actions and decisions of the Palestinian Authority in its negotiations with Israel?
For the last 16 years the Palestinian Authority has unsuccessfully negotiated with Israel to create a new Arab State between Jordan and Israel for the first time ever in history without ever ameliorating its negotiating position demanding:
- sovereignty in all of the West Bank and Gaza,
- the return of millions of Arabs to Israel and
- refusal to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Now more than ever we need to see the emergence of an A Street ["Arab Street"] equivalent to J Street ["Jewish Street"] which will have the courage of its convictions to come out and voice its disagreement with the policies of the Palestinian Authority and argue for:
- accepting 95% of the West Bank and Gaza instead of 100%
- calling for all Palestinian Arabs to settle in their newly created state rather than in Israel
- recognizing Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Unless these Arab voices are publicly heard the Palestinian Authority will be entitled to assume there is universal agreement in the Arab streets of London, Paris, Sydney and Washington with the Authority's negotiating position - so nothing will change to induce Israel to seriously consider any further proposals to those it had made - and seen rejected - in 2000 and 2008.
In such circumstances the Jewish critics of Israel's policies are merely knocking their heads against an impenetrable wall of Arab hate, ignorance and non acceptance of the Jewish people as being entitled to a state of their own in their ancient and biblical homeland. They are merely weakening Israel by getting it to offer more concessions without inducing any change at all in the Palestinian Authority's position.
Jeremy Ben-Ami Executive Director J Street
Needs A Street as a partner for peace.It would of course be too optimistic to think that A Street could emerge in Ramallah or Gaza - the price that would be extracted on those who attempted to do so would be horrendous.
This makes it more imperative that Arab criticism of the Palestinian Authority's position emanate from the democratic countries to which tens of millions of Arabs ( many Palestinian) have migrated.
Until the Palestinian Authority reviews its negotiating stance there is no chance of the "two state solution" ever occuring.
The formation of A Street could be an important - and critical - ingredient in making that happen.
It takes two to tango. If ever this 22nd Arab state is to be created between Israel and Jordan then the Palestinian Authority will have to make some substantial changes to its current negotiating position.
J Street needs an A Street more than ever before in helping bring this about in the hope that it may finally lead to a resolution of the long running conflict between Jews and Arabs.
